I am ranked around 12% in my class, have a upward curve (went from being ranked near 80% to now 12%). I’m not a party type at all. No drugs or sex for me. I’m a white male. Indiana is in-state for me. Parents want to pay as little as possible, they’d choose Podunk State over Harvard to save a nickel. My mother has an associate’s degree and my father has no college. They make around $90,000 a year before taxes. I’m interested mostly in Economics and Mathematics and Pre-med. So far I’ve been thinking of Indiana State and Ball State.
Purdue?
Those are all fine choices. Run the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site and see what you’ll be expected to pay.
Try BYU for a no party/no sex/no alcohol atmosphere. They can be pretty generous financially.
Run the Net Price Calculator on Indiana U, obviously, as well as BYU. Also try Earlham, Lawrence, Gustavus Adolphus, Beloit, Allegheny, Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Muhlenberg, Illinois Wesleyan, Hendrix, Centre, Marist, Ithaca.
Cross out the most expensive ones and look into the cheaper ones.
If you’re tired of the snow and are interested in a very solid choice in the South for about $13,000 a year all included, apply to UAlabama’s Honors College: if you apply for engineering OR CS, your 30 ACT guarantees you Honors college, (niiice) Honors Dorm, FULL tuition scholarship, opportunity to compete for other “honors within honors” programs, priority registration and other perks, and even a $2,500 stipend!
(Recently, some Indiana residents found out that UAlabama Honors & Engineering was cheaper than Purdue for them… so this may be worth looking into - and on this website, the UAlabama forum is very active, so check it out.)
Remember that NET price is not the same as STICKER price, so that expensive private colleges may turn out to be cheaper than your in-state public options.
If your parents make 90k, it’d be worth it for you to apply to 100% meet need colleges - run the NPCs on Dickinson, Clark, St Olaf.
30 ACT gets you basically tuition free at Lindenwood University - Room and Board is about 7500 a year beyond that - Great business school…okay math school…not so great for pre-med in general. but thought I’d pass it along: http://www.lindenwood.edu
I am an Indiana resident and used this website:
http://www.indianacollegecosts.org/
to help compare the costs of Indiana colleges for my daughter. It allows you to enter your info once and compare multiple colleges NPC’s.
What do I do with a stipend?
You buy books, a laptop, you pay your meal plan, save it to take a cool but unpaid internship freshman summer… or spend it all on fireworks and a watch… whatever you want! although the expectation is that you’ll use it for educational expenses or related.
@MYOS1634 Would you consider the schools you mentioned equal in academics?
No, there’s a good variety. Dickinson and St Olaf would likely be the strongest overall. UAlabama Honors has a VERY strong Honors College and lots of opportunities, so even if the university itself isn’t as strong overall, the Honors experience is, and applying would be worth it. Then Muhlenberg, Clark, Earlham, Ohio Wesleyan, Wooster, Illinois Wesleyan, Centre, Hendrix, etc. which are solid academically, often called “hidden gems”, and well-known on this website.
For Clark, you’d have to go for the LEAP scholarship, which is great but also very competitive (and deadline is dec1).
Do I even have a chance for LEAP?
Your stats would place you in the ballpark, but your ECs would be crucial. Go to the website and look at the LEEP page.
http://www.clarku.edu/undergraduate-admissions/why-clark/leep-scholarships.cfm