<p>I honestly don't want to attend U of I. The size, the culture, absolutely none of it appeals to me. The majority of my colleges I am applying to are the exact opposites. I cannot even begin to write the essays, and it was a drag filling out the application.</p>
<p>However, it <em>is</em> my state school. And while I don't want to go, I feel a little silly not applying there. Is it worth is to apply to my state school when the second I get a financial aid package that goes even close to making the school cheaper I'm going to bolt on U of I?</p>
<p>Any input from people who did/didn't apply to their state schools and whether or not they regretted their decisions would be nice.</p>
<p>Also I would like to emphasize that this is NOT a chance question. I'm more than confident in my ability to get into U of I since my school basically has a blue and orange carpet all the way downstate AND my ACT scores are well above the average for the major I am applying into.</p>
<p>If you cannot find another place to serve as your safety, then yes, you apply to your state school.</p>
<p>If you dislike it so intensely that you would not be willing to attend even if it proved to be your only affordable option next spring, then start working on a solid Plan B such as a gap year.</p>
<p>Illinois is crazy expensive for in-state, $30-34K/year depending on major. If you don’t like it and you are looking for a safety, you can probably find options as affordable or even more affordable out of state.</p>
<p>Public LACs like Minnesota-Morris ($23K/year) or UNC-Asheville ($32K/year), for instance, might appeal. What kind of school/safety are you looking for?</p>
<p>I have a couple of safeties, such as Clark in Massachusetts and Marquette, however it just seems… odd not to apply to my state school. Although I do have a friend who got in to U of I and Pratt and even though Pratt only gave her 4000 dollars of financial aid it was STILL cheaper than U of I. So, like @PackMom said, I suppose there is no reason for me to waste the application fee! Thanks!</p>
<p>@BobWallace I suppose my safeties would be something along the lines of a LAC, maybe a little bigger (the largest school I am applying to is Marquette), in a relatively urban area (as in, not Grinnell, IA), with either a Geography or Anthropology program. </p>
<p>It is, oddly enough, kind of hard for me to judge safeties for myself because my ACT scores and GPA vary so much, and even my GPA is quite a bit different weighted vs. unweighted because of my grades in math. I suppose I should trek over to the safeties forum and finish up there. Thank you for your help.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Assured for admission. Note that any which consider “level of applicant’s interest” should not be considered safeties.</p></li>
<li><p>Assured for affordability. See the net price calculator at each school for need-based financial aid. If not sufficient, then the school can only be a safety if your are assured a sufficiently large merit scholarship.</p></li>
<li><p>Places that you like.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you, I will keep those ideas in mind in that case I know Clark applies. I just have to go find some more! And here I thought I was done with my list…</p>
<p>Truman State would be about $18,600 for tuition, room/board, and fees, a pretty good bargain and a considerably smaller college (~5600 students).</p>
<p>How are sure that Clark is a financial safety? </p>
<p>What other schools do you know for sure are financial safeties.</p>
<p>For a school to be a safety, you have to know that you’d be accepted, you like it, it has your major…AND…you know FOR SURE that you have all costs covered with ASSURED grants/scholarships, small fed loans, and/or family funds.</p>
<p>@Warblersrule thank you! I have never seen this before and will be sure to check it out</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids According to College Board’s net price calculator Clark is most definitely a financial safety. I qualify for a decent amount of merit aid from there. I like Clark, they have my major(s), and I am sure that I will get in (my school uses naviance and I’m not even on the chart for where the average is)</p>
<p>The unfortunate thing is that I qualify as “smart but lazy” and my 7th and 8th grade grades for high school courses kind of solidified my GPA which hasn’t moved from a 3.5-3.6 unweighted however I have a 4.6 weighted and good AP scores so… I have to go look a bit harder than most people whose ACT and GPAs match up since I have to see who weights what how</p>
<p>Clark’s merit aid is assured for your stats? If the merit aid is a non-assured competitive scholarship, then it cannot be counted on for making the school a safety in the cost dimension.</p>
<p>Also, it is better to use the college’s own net price calculator for an estimate, rather than the College Board’s net price calculator.</p>
<p>Clark ends up linking me to the college board’s so I assumed it was the college’s.</p>
<p>Upon looking at their merit aid (wow that sounded way fancier than I intended), I don’t see a reason why I wouldn’t qualify. The majority of it (minus the LEEP scholarship which I am applying for) seems to be handed out at the university’s discretion. However it is always a possibility, but in the case that it doesn’t I suppose it wouldn’t qualify as a financial safety, thank you for pointing that out.</p>
<p>However the majority of the schools that would be that i’m finding don’t seem to be quite as… rigorous as I would be expecting, or don’t have my major of choice. How did you/your son(s) or daughter(s) find a safety school?</p>
<p>If you are **assuming **merit aid will make any of your desired schools cheaper than your state school, then that is a gamble. I think you should play it safe and have the state U in your back pocket. Also does the state U have other campuses that you might like a little better?
Worst case: you spend a year at the State U getting great grades and then transfer to a school you like better.
Cast a wide net when trying to land merit aid. Have you looked at Kiplinger’s to verify your schools give out merit aid in good amounts to a good percentage of students?</p>
<p>*However the majority of the schools that would be that i’m finding don’t seem to be quite as… rigorous as I would be expecting, or don’t have my major of choice. </p>
<p>How did you/your son(s) or daughter(s) find a safety school?
*</p>
<p>How do you know that these schools’ programs in your major lack rigor???</p>
<p>As for finding safeties…Much needs to be considered:</p>
<p>1) How much will your parents pay each year? (if you haven’t asked them, please do…don’t ASSUME that they’ll pay whatever a school expects them to pay).</p>
<p>2) What are your stats? Test scores and GPA (include SAT breakdown).</p>
<p>If you want a small LAC that is relatively inexpensive, you may want to consider some of the public LACs with relatively low OOS costs (which may be cheaper than Illinois in-state) like Truman State, Minnesota - Morris, SUNY Geneseo, UNC Asheville, etc… Some more at [COPLAC</a> | Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges](<a href=“http://www.coplac.org/students/admissions.php]COPLAC”>http://www.coplac.org/students/admissions.php) . However, with any small schools, make sure that the majors and course offerings are suitable for what you would like to study.</p>
<p>@BeanTownGirl The institutional grant I would qualify for would make it about as cheap as U of I, so yeah, I guess I could apply (to U of I) and then transfer. I just have my friend’s and classmates telling me there’s no point since Illinois is so broke haha.</p>
<p>And as far as Clark’s neighborhood, it can’t be any worse than U of C’s. Although Hyde Park is beautiful the second you walk past 59th st or go any further west than Drexel where their hospital is, you better be walking reallly fast.</p>
<p>I never knew there were public LACs. I know some people (myself included) who would def like this website. The combination of you guys are WAY more helpful in the span of two hours than my counselors have been over the past three years.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.5/4.6
SAT I: 750 reading, 650 Math, 590 Writing (never taking it again have NO idea what happened…)
SAT II: Lit: 700, Math II: 660
ACT: 34 composite: Science 36, English 35, Math 32, Reading 34, Writing 08
APs
-Human Geography 5
-World History 5
-Spanish Language 4
-US History 4
-Composition and Language 5 (See! I’m a good writer!)
-Physics 3
-Calc 2 (I prefer not to talk about it…)
Taking 3 more but I suppose those don’t matter. Only honors classes, with the exception of the APs. </p>
<p>Academic Decathlon National Champion (with a state and city medals that I wont list)
Varsity Volleyball 4 years (incl. club)
Model UN 3 years</p>
<p>Awards
Besides Acadec medals, Principal’s Scholar (like honor roll), AP Scholar w/ Distinction, and I’m pretty sure I’m commended, not a semi-finalist. I have no idea about National Achievement.
I’m fairly average so matches and reaches are easy. But for safeties I keep getting state schools that either lack diversity (something important to me, as an URM), or are in the middle of nowhere (something that doesn’t really work when I want to potentially study cities)</p>
<p>Majors would be
Urban Studies
Geography (if Urban Studies isn’t there)
Anthropology (major of last resort since EVERYONE has it)</p>
in that case I know Clark applies. I just have to go find some more! And here I thought I was done with my list…</p>