First post; probably in the wrong section. My apologies. I have no idea what this would go under. And yeah, it’s this post again.
Mini background: I’m a junior in HS right now and have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t know what I want to do career-wise. My grades are fairly decent. Freshman and sophomore year cumulated an unweighted GPA of 3.929. This past trimester, I think I finished with a 3.7/3.8 (grades aren’t finalized). Weighted GPA is about 4.2. Took the ACT in November without studying and got 23 on composite and 7 on writing. Very bad, but hey, I feel like my score reflected my studying (0).
I’ve only ever toured one college (weaaaak), and it was UCSD. I don’t know what to think of it since I don’t have any other schools to compare it to.
I live in Minnesota. My options are very limited since my mother is very unwilling to let me go wherever. I can either go to the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, or the University of Madison - Wisconsin. She won’t let me go anywhere else even if I get a full ride which is ridiculous. I hate Minnesota weather and would like to leave, and I love California. Never been to NorCal, but I feel like I wouldn’t like it. I like the feel of San Diego, and Encinitas is a super cool small place and the drive isn’t too bad between the two cities.
So I got a bit off topic; my bad. Anyways…I’m leaning a bit towards some sort of science research which i know UCSD has a very good science research program, plus the Scripps Institute of Oceanography is right there for marine biology which seems quite interesting. The only problem is, I unfortunately just discovered that all UC’s stopped giving out financial aid for OOS…My mother’s income is fairly low and I live with her, while my father’s is high, but he always lies to me and my brothers about it, so that’s no help. I was looking at SDSU and I think they offer financial aid (cuz it’s CSU not UC)? Please correct me on that. The only problem is I consider myself a pretty academic person, and I don’t want to go to SDSU if it’s ranked in the 100s, but I don’t want to stay in-state.
Is there any sort of financial aid from UC’s or are they seriously not giving any out to OOS students? Is SDSU really bad compared to UCSD? I know UCSD is one of the top research universities, but what about SDSU; do they have decent research programs?
As an Out of State applicant/student, you will receive no financial aid from either UCSD or SDSU. For UCSD, expect to pay $55K+/year to attend and around $36K+/year for SDSU. Both schools offer little if any merit scholarships either, so you need to find out if these will be affordable. Run the Net price calculators for both schools and see for yourself. If you are looking for FA, look to your in-state schools first or look for schools that give good merit based on your stats.
Yikes! This is probably a super student question, but are financial aid and scholarships a part of the same “branch?” Like a loan would be financial aid, right? So would scholarships be or would they not be since it’s free money?
Scholarships are free money but the UC’s and CSU’s give little in merit scholarships. Usually the top 1% of students will get merit scholarships (Regents) for the UC’s and these range from $2500-$10K/year depending upon campus. Still a drop in the bucket when you are looking at $55K+/year to pay. CSU’s have even less merit scholarships available. Financial aid for the UC’s and CSU’s is need based and given to California students since these are public schools subsidized by California taxpayers.
You as a student can only get student loans up to $27K for 4 years. Over that amount will have to paid by Mom or other sources such as need based aid or merit aid. If you live with your Mom, you only need to include her income if the colleges accept the FASFA only. Calculate out your EFC and then plug in your info to the Net price calculators of all schools of interest. You should get an estimate of your costs.
Since you have plenty of time as a Junior with your college search, start by finding out how much your Mom can and is willing to pay. Once you have a budget, then you can start looking at schools that give need-based aid and merit-aid (scholarships). I gave you a link for many schools that give good aid based on your stats. Unfortunately for many students, money is an issue and sometimes you have to settle for what is affordable. You have 2 good choices on your post but starting doing some research. University of Alabama is an excellent school and offers good FA/Merit aid. Suggest you check it out if you want out of Minnesota.
At this point, please concentrate on getting terrific grades AND on improving that ACT score. To be honest, with a 23, I’m not sure you would even get accepted at UCSD.
You aren’t limited to UM-TC or UW Madison. You can go to any of the Minnesota state schools or the Wisconsin public universities. They come in all sizes and specialties. Your scores are very important, so work on getting them up.
If you want warmer schools, look at schools in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. All have good merit awards in their public schools. You’ve got a couple of years to have your mother get used to the idea. It may be that she doesn’t know that those schools might be cheaper than MN or WI schools if you get lots of merit aid.
It is unlikely you’ll be able to afford California schools, and if you concentrate on those, you may miss out on some other really good deals.
Thanks for all the replies! Rip my dreams of surfing in Cali in college =(( I’ll definitely keep searching and it’ll be easier to choose a college once I know what I want to do career-wise
Surfer- college is four years. You have your entire life ahead of you to live in CA, surf anywhere you want, etc. I have a relative who went to his last choice college, worked hard in a career he hated (but was very good at) and retired at 55 in good health. He doesn’t surf- he’s a diver. He has traveled all over the world, seen coral reefs and marine wildlife which he describes as spectacular, and probably takes 5 vacations a year.
He graduated from college with no debt. He also had no idea what he wanted to study so ended up in sales where due to his personality (incredibly extroverted and lovable) plus his ability to focus and work really, really hard, he moved quickly up the ranks.
Four years of cold weather in exchange for a debt free education? If your mom can comfortably afford a public U in Minnesota, I’d be working on making that plan a reality!
Understand that if your mother’s lower income, she probably can’t afford to pay much, if anything, for college; so, if you want to do something else than community college then UMN Twin Cities, it’s on you.
Because your GPA is great, the key will be to bring that ACT score way up (32+).
Try to bring that ACT score up by “prepping” (not jus studying content, but also format and shortcuts) really hard.
You live in MN (one of the few states currently who are actually investing in education): ask to start PSEO next semester to increase curriculum rigor. Make sure to take 4 years of English and Social Science, plus bio/chem/physics + 1 AP science, foreign language up to level 4 or AP, Math up to precalculus or calculus. This curriculum will serve you well regardless of college you’re applying to. In addition, it means you’ll be able to take subject tests for OOS competitive colleges.
Beside UMN Twin Cities and UWisconsin Madison, you have several excellent colleges nearby: Carleton, St Olaf (both in Northfield), Macalester (in St Paul), Beloit, Lawrence (in WI). For high-caliber schools in the Midwest, add Grinnell, Northwestern, and UChicago. U Chicago will NOT count your father’s income but it’s very difficult to get into, very intellectual, and requires high test scores; it’s very very prestigious, so it’s a reach for everyone. I don’t know how the others look at non custodial info.
In the South, Vanderbilt also loves high test scores and doesn’t look at non custodial parent financial info.
Your GPA is really high so you might get a small scholarship at SDSU if you also get a 32+ on your ACT. But even with a small scholarship, it’s unlikely to be affordable for your mother.
There are SoCal colleges that may be more favorable for lower income students, especially the Claremonts - run the NPC on Pomona, Scripps (if girl), McKenna, Pitzer. There’s also Occidental if you’re interested in social activism.
Have a talk with your mother: how much can she contribute? Then have the same talk with your father.
Look for a part time job - even 5 hours a week means about $100 a month you can save toward college, and if you move to full time over the summer you’d have about $4,000 saved - enough for plane fare and books if you go OOS.
@MYOS1634 I’m on my phone right now so it’s hard to quote, but yeah like U of Chicago might be something. I certainly don’t want to go to a school that is super academically easy, and I didn’t know U of Chicago was ranked 3…they send me mail and emails, but they’re not like offers or anything; they just say why I should go there. If they somehow offered financial aid, I would definitely consider it, but it is super expensive.
Sticker price means nothing. Run the Net Price calculator on every college on your list (type “Net price calculator” + “name of college” in your search engine).
UChicago, if your mother is lower income, may be the cheapest of all schools for you.
They DO flood students to make them apply, even if they have zero chance of getting in (and with anything below a 30, you’re not getting in).
Vanderbilt is the same (won’t consider your father’s income, want very high test scores, very prestigious, very generous with financial aid) but not intellectual in atmosphere, more “Southern”, smart/slightly more conservative/preppy. If you have good scores by June, apply to both, you never know…
Don’t forget to ask your Guidance Counselor for your fee waivers (ACT, SAT, SAT Subject).
