Tennessee senior throwing blanks and need help on list/advice

College Search & Selection
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As title implies, im in strong need of help for a college list. I’m a current HS senior in middle Tennessee and am wondering what my best choices would be. My planned major is Political Science/ Pre-Law, and have heard that you can get good careers working in the state capitol. I live in a low-income household, under $20,000 a year, with an EFC of $0, and am of latino/ hispanic decent. My stats are fairly mediocre, with a 3.2 UW/3.8 W GPA, scored a 27 on the ACT, and have taken 4 APs(Human Geography, European History, Biology, and US History) with 3s on all of them. My extra curriculars are also severely lacking, with youth in government/model UN being the main one, as well as volunteering at a library. I guess helping my dad(who does landscaping work), frequently would be the main thing i spent my time doing, since he would has chronic back and knee injuries(not to sound preachy, or if schools would even care). I

At this point im questioning if college, other than community college, is even an option, since my merit aid would be almost non existent, and i have no way of affording it other than through need-based aid, which would require a school with better stats to apply to, not to mention the fact that the deadlines are coming up, and ive done almost nothing for this process. I’m not sure whether or not to look at private schools, since tuition is typically higher, but i’ve heard that they sometimes have good need-based aid. What I have ended up focusing on, at least for public schools(maybe private too?), is to stay in-state, since tuition would be much lower, as well as other state benefits. So i’ve mainly been looking at public schools in Tennessee, as well as a few in the region, such as University of Alabama, or University of Missippi, but the benefits of staying in-state, through state grants, are noticeable. I’ve also looked at a few small Liberal Arts Colleges, such as Rhodes College, and Sewanee, but im not sure if there’s even a point in applying. At this point im feeling rushed and out of time, and need guidance to see if there’s a reason to even try going through this stress. I had also planned to retake the ACT in October to aim for at least a 30, as well as possibly taking the SAT, but I’m not sure if I could even get the scores in time to send them in for scholarships. Should I just apply for as many of these as I can, put them on my FAFSA, and hope that I get accepted, and then some good aid packages? I believe I would get the full Pell Grant and possibly some FSEOG, and then some other state grants and scholarships, but I’m honestly lost right now.

So I guess here’s my list:
Public

  • University of Tennessee (flagship and THE state school, would really enjoy going here)
  • Middle Tennessee State University(nearby and known for being affordable, around $23,000 t+r&b, and nearby)
  • University of Memphis(other flagship)
  • University of Tennessee: Chattanooga(close to UTK, but cheaper periphery school, would also enjoy going here)
  • University of Alabama (what can I say, roll tide, have family nearby in AL, and would honestly see myself enjoying it from what i’ve seen in the campus)
  • University of Alabama Birmingham (see UTC, but for Alabama)
         Private
  • Lipscomb University (top pick, decent acceptance rate of 61%, in the heart of Nashville)
  • Belmont University (high acceptance rate of 83 percent, considered on par with above, and nearby in Nashville as well)
  • Vanderbilt University (definitely a reach, I know, but its always been a dream school, also in Nashville)
  • Rhodes College (beautiful, national renowned private in rural TN)
  • The University of the South, Sewanee (see above)
  • Union University
  • Maryville College (LAC)
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I wanted to say good luck. I’m not sure how TN colleges look at weighted vs unweighted GPAs but your weighted is quite good, your ACT is college ready and working with your dad is an excellent EC on its own. Take some time on a well crafted essay that you can use for applications and scholarships and get some editing advice from one of your AP teachers on it so that it had a second set of eyes on it. Concentrate on the scholarship opportunities at the schools you are targeting as a first priority over outside scholarships. Meet with university reps that come to your school to talk. Make a list and work through it. Breathe! Better to tackle things bit by bit.

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As an URM, you do have a hook, especially at some of those private schools who are no doubt trying to increase their diversity rating. Are you a first generation college student? That’s also a hook.

You should see which ones have no application fee b/c what have you got to lose? My child looked at Rhodes and they have no fee to apply. Go for it.

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Why don’t you add Dickinson? They have an EA round, too. They claim to meet 96% of need. Your stats are lowish, but you are a URM. Run their net price calculator and see how they look.

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look at Centre (KY), Tusculum College (TN), and Berea (KY) as well. Have you done your application for the TN Promise scholarship for CCs? As a grad of a TN school you can get free tuition at any of the CCs in the state (Motlow, Columbia and Nashville State are the likely ones in your area.) TSU, Austin Peay, and UMemphis would also offer you some merit money. And check out the Community foundation of Middle Tennessee for scholarships… application for these isn’t due until spring but bookmark it now. You’ll qualify for Hope as well if you stay instate.

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Rhodes is in Memphis so it’s not rural. They may be seeking diverse students so I would add that to your state schools. Sewanee is very rural ais probably seeking diversity as well

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Thank you for the replies guys, I’ll definitely look into Tusculum and Dickinson. What does URM mean? And I’m also planning to apply for the TN Promise since its definitely a good backup/choice. I’ll try to finish my Common App essay, but i asked for a teacher for a recommendation, and he said he needed to know more about me, what should I tell him?
I think I’ve applied to UofMemphis, but they haven’t responded, should I be worried? Again, I’m all for applying to as many in state as I can since it’s better to have more choices than less, but I feel like I’m running out of time, and have so much to do, with little I have done.Again thanks for your replies guys.

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URM= underrepresented minority. Just call UMemphis and ask for an update on your application. You are not running out of time. You’ve got several more months. Stay calm.

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How do i go about getting letters of recommendation though? I asked a teacher and he said he needed a paragraph from me with more info about myself, what would be best to put on there? Or should I try finishing my Comnmon App personal essay first and then just like summarizing it?

FAFSA is next week, but I’ve seen that the dates for some school scholarships are earlier and later than it. Even for schools with rolling admissions, I’ve yet to get admitted to any because they don’t seem to get my ACT score, transcript, app fee/fee waiver, or need an extra “citizenship review,” which is apparently a scan of my birth certificate. I can’t even apply for scholarships for most of these until they receive all materials.

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Yes, definitely mention working at your dad’s landscaping business on your applications. Colleges love to see students who hold jobs, and in some cases the less glamorous the better!

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Look up “college application brag sheet”. It’ll show you what you’re supposed to write about yourself to help your teacher write a usable recommendation. In addition to the personal and academic information, don’t forget to list your favorite chapter and reading/problem/experiment in the class the teacher taught, as well as a favorite memory from that class (that will be different for each teacher you ask).
List your dad’s landscaping business and your role there as your #1 essay.
DO apply to Berea. It’s a private 4-year college that will be FREE tuition for you, and heavily subsidized room&board (basically you’ll work on campus for your expenses and will get Pell+Stafford+FSEOG to cover the rest).
Seconding Rhodes, Centre, Sewanee, Dickinson.
Perhaps Denison, Trinity College, Connecticut College, Muhlenberg? They “meet need” for low income students and you’d bring diversity (being URM and first gen). Muhlenberg and Denison are very supportive for lower income students.
TN Promise is your safety. If that’s the route you must take, “bank” your first and second year loans (take them out, put them in the bank, don’t spend them) to help you pay for your last two years at a 4-year public university. The best financial aid typically goes to freshmen so as a transfer you’d likely get federal aid only (Pell grant + loans).
UA, UAB, and Lipscomb won’t be affordable - have you run the NPC?

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UTK and UTC do a good job of drawing students from across the state. MTSU and especially Memphis have large commuter populations and can feel dead after 4 PM. I recommend visiting the campuses before you make a final decision in the spring.

You’ve gotten some good liberal arts college suggestions. Closer to home, Millsaps and Hendrix are excellent options. If you’re female, there’s Agnes Scott near Atlanta.

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Alright I’ll look into that, thanks. It says Berea requires an interview though, how would that go about? I had mainly been looking at UA and UAB because of the merit aid, but I don’t think my scores would be high enough now that I’m looking at it, since they require at least a 32 ACT for the one’s that would cover OOS tuition. Lipscomb and Belmont(they’re pretty comparable as far a s tuition+ aid) I had heard gave good aid, and they’d be near Nashville, as well as their relatively high admission rates.

So from what I see, I should basically be aiming for selective LACs that use holistic, rather than need-blind admissions, since in my case it would be best for schools to consider my situation, is that correct? I wouldn’t mind looking around, but staying in-state would be somewhat preferable, considering state grants I could receive, but from what it sounds like, a lot of those LACs would meet most need.

Also I’m keeping the TN Promise as a safety, because of the several downsides I’ve heard about CC. My parents feel like it would be the best option, to stay at home and commute, then transfer, but looking at the stats most aid I could get would be fresh out of HS. I would also prefer to live on campus if possible, but I think a lot of state schools could maybe cover full tuition with a few scholarships + state and federal grants.

I guess I have a lot to do though, finish my Common App personal essay, do a recommendation resume, and start narrowing down schools. Also is there any benefits to using Common App for schools that don’t require an essay vs. their own application?

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You can interview with a local rep or skype. Email Admissions.

Lipscomb is a college dedicated to helping students grow in their faith, look at their creed and mission to see whether you’d be okay signing it (including social/behavior prohibitions and requirements). Its aid isn’t very good.
You don’t need "very good merit’ as a family making 100k would, but really, really good need-based aid. And, yes, UAB and UA, the issue is the same, they have good merit, but not sufficient for an EFC0 student and you wouldn’t get enough with your stats.

Yes, you’re correct - most aid is given to freshmen. The TN promise at CC-> 4 year route would have to be measured against any merit scholarship you may receive for 4 years. Look for a thread called “did I just cost myself tens of thousands of dollars?” It was by a student with good stats who went to CC and realized he’d forfeited all kinds of scholarships - and while you’d save on the first two years, most transfers don’t get scholarships so they pay more for their last 2 years (not sure what it’s like in Tennessee).
And yes selective LACs with excellent need-based aid should be what you’re looking for.
Run the NPC for each college listed on this thread. (To find it, type the name of the college and “Net Price Calculator” in your search engine, do it for each college.)
Always look at net price before loans. Loans aren’t financial aid, they have to be repaid.
(Grants and scholarships are money given to you due to your circumstances and your academic profile. They don’t have to be repaid.)

If a college uses CommonApp, then you don’t have to fill out the general part of the application again, your guidance counselor doesn’t have to send an extra transcript, the recommenders don’t have to send an extra copy of their recommendation… And since you’re EFC0, your GC should check that you qualify for a fee waiver due to income guidelines and therefore all colleges you apply to through commonapp are “free to apply” for you.

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I’m male, by the way.

But I would prefer a school without a commuter vibe, since I would be on campus. I’d heard MTSU was like that but not Memphis, that’s interesting. I guess that would lean me a bit more towards UTC and UTK, as far as in-state schools go.

Yeah I guess that’s definitely something to consider, I’ve run the NPC for most state schools and it comes out to under $10k, usually $7-8k. I had heard Lipscomb would give decent aid, but the NPC says that I would still pay around $26K, so I I guess that’s something to consider.

Also, what are general thoughts on Community College? My mom sees it as a clear and definite best choice, and views me looking to go out somewhere as signs of me disliking living at home, rather than wanting a new experience and opportunity offered to graduating seniors. I see it as an ok option to just stay at home and focus on schooling, but from what I’ve seen transferring usually isn’t that great, and I would have to continue living at home after transferring. Would transferring to live on campus even be an option, and would I be eligible for scholarships? I feel that it would be throwing away what little I accomplished in HS, opportunities given out to graduating seniors(HOPE scholarship/other freshman scholarships), as well as the college experience as well. Is there anything else that people should know about CC that’s not generally talked about, and how can I convince my mom that there’s other options(I think)?

Would I have to open a CSS profile for private schools, and could I use my SAT fee waiver for that, even though I’ve only signed up for, not taken the SAT? Also should I bother trying for the SAT, I had originally thought of taken it as an alternative to my poor ACT score, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find time to study for it, considering how busy I’ll be with everything else. Should I just focus on prepping for the ACT then?

I’ve also tried looking online for what the general deadlines I should be meeting are, but since I both started very late and FAFSA opens October 1st, they don’t seem that helpful. Could anyone give me something to generally aim for, such as application deadlines, scholarship, etc?

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Residential colleges allow you to build relations and network, and those are ESSENTIAL to your future. Some colleges don’t have a finance majors (Hamilton, Middlebury) yet their graduates do very well in the finance sector. How is that possible, when you have universities with these majors that don’t do anywhere near as well in that sector? That’s due to their prestige (“prestigiosity” if you will) in certain circles - that is to say, the circles they influence, the alumni they have, how much money they spend on students to ensure internships and career support, organizing activities to create bonds with classmates, etc. They also have resources to support you if you’re in trouble and get you to success and graduation, whether the trouble is psychological, emotional, or academic. Your odds of graduating in 4 years are north of 75%.
It’s not the be-all/end-all, but it is a major reason why people choose residential colleges.
In fact, research has shown that attending an elite residential college has major effects over attending a state flagship for UnderRepresented Students (rural, minority), First Generationstudents (neither parent has a 4-year degree), and lower income students (defined by colleges as ‘up to 75K/year’ which isn’t lower income but above average in the real world since US average is 60K). That’s compared to attending the State Flagship, ie., UTK. There’s another margin between attending UTK and community college.
Community college is better than nothing. If you don’t have a choice, free community college is a way to get a degree. You make it work. It’s not ideal, because the commuter situation makes the bonds described above very hard to forge, there’s no sense of identity linked to the CC, and everyone goes home after class v. living together in dorms + community colleges are shortchanged financially so they’re short on resources and support. In Tennessee, only 13% CC students complete their 2-year requirements in THREE years (you don’t even want to know how many make it to the 4-year university and graduate in six years…). So, if you have no choice, it’s a way to get to a degree and a better job than if you tried to work with just a HS diploma. But if you have a choice, you’re better off attending a 4-year university, preferably the one with the best value (best net cost for best quality, including the couple most selective ones that admitted you - this is specific for first gen/lower income students who often self censor but are better served at more selective universities where they can show their mettle and have more support to adjust).

No, you wouldn’t be eligible for merit scholarships as a transfer, and no you wouldn’t be eligible for living in the dorms as a transfer to a public university. And the bonds I described above wouldn’t apply to you, so looking for a job would be harder -not impossible certainly much easier than with a HS diploma, but still tougher than if you’d been on campus all 4 years, using the career center, getting to know professors who can write recommendations, and creating a network.

So, go for all the possible scholarships (HOPE, etc) as well as the best colleges you can (listed in one of my posts above).
Cross out Lipscomb, UA, UAB.

Yes if you’ve got a SAT fee waiver, the CSS profile cost is automatically waived as well as application fees on CommonApp.
BTW use that SAT fee waiver. Plan to take the ACT and SAT in October if you can, use Khan Academy every day to see if you improve over the ACT(some do better on one or the other - they cover the same basic topics so studying for one helps for the other as long as you’re 100% sure of the format for each); schedule another ACT for November and add subject tests for December if you have two subjects you’re really good at. That SAT fee waiver waives fees for two SAT Reasoning tests and two sitting of SAT Subjects. Prepare carefully, schedule practices every day focusing on where you make mistakes.

CALENDAR
You can already apply for this scholarships at UTC:
https://www.utc.edu/scholarships/renewable-scholarships/provosts-scholarship.php
Email them to ask, if you get a 30+ after Oct or Nov tests, they may consider you for the Chancellor’s scholarship. Because the scholarship is on a first come first served basis, with Dec 1st the last possible deadline, you should apply NOW (it means applying to the university + completing the scholarship application).

After you get your new test scores, apply to UTK (by Nov 1st if possible, by Dec 15 absolutely). In the meanwhile, email Honors and express interest in Leadership Honors and 1794 Scholars. In your message of interest, explain: first generation going to college, helping daily with dad’s landscaping business (including taking over operations due to his physical problems), books you love and academic subjects you’re interested in, 3.8WGPA, (rural area???), Hispanic and very low income, would be an honor to attend UTK and be in Honors.
http://honors.utk.edu/students/program-comparison/
See if you’re eligible for this high-school related scholarship:
http://onestop.utk.edu/scholarships/pledge-promise/

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As an aside, thank you so MYOS1634, and to other’s that have given me advice so far! I really appreciate it.

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Yeah, i guess looking at it that way, it’s not very beneficial to be worrying about those. Honestly, I have a friend going there, which probably influenced my ideas of going there, but I neither have the money, nor necessarily, the faith requirements which seem to give people good scholarships there as well.

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Yeah, that’s definitely something to consider with CC, i suppose. I’ll just have to relay that to my parents. For the most part what I’d thought of transferring is true then, it’s not as easy/glamorous as is set up. It’s still something to keep in mind, but I’m willing to work hard in any school I’d go into, and I think my current achievements would be able to show that, I’m just struggling to put it into words, since I’m not really a good writer.

Yeah I just finished sending all required materials to UTC, so I hope I'll get admitted soon. I need recommendations and an essay for UTK, but I think I could get admitted with my current scores, which I've already sent when I took the ACT before, should I go ahead and apply, or wait for all the materials to come together? I could do it through Com App or their website, they also superscore, but I did worse when I took it the 2nd time over the summer, since I didn't prepare as I had planned and got a 26 on the ACT. I did better in some sections, though. I'll email them about honors college and inquire/ show interest.

I already applied for the SAT using the fee waiver, for the one in Oct, did I mess up? Should I have done the subject tests instead? I’ll try to look over it though, but I got the Kaplan Prep Live for the ACT through a fee waiver.

Yeah I’ll do that, I guess I’ll try to brainstorm some ideas for my essay, should I try to tell my story chronologically, or would that be too cliche/ a bore? I’ve pretty much moved in and out of the country a few times, had some somewhat severe medical issues when I was younger, had to deal with moving around from place to place, bought our first house, and working with my dad. I feel like it would be an interesting insight into how I developed into the person I am today, and I could pretty easily write about it but I’m not sure if that would be enough? Could I add some personal anecdotes about work ethic, to make it my complete essay or are schools looking for something else? Should I make a brief outline about that then try putting it down on paper(computer)?

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Well you can send it to me once you’ve written a draft. I’ll try to help.

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Alright I think I have a subject down, and it would be a bit more focused and could at the same time allow me to show some of my best qualities. I’ll let you know when I’ve written a good draft.

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