<p>My safeties are UCF, FGCU, ASU, and Ithaca College. I think Syracuse, UF, and when I take my SAT again and ACT, I am pretty sure UT will become a match. I’m talking purely about admissions, not paying.</p>
<p>OP - I think ASU might be a great choice for you. They have a very good journalism program (Walter Cronkite) in the heart of Phoenix (it’s downtown). They will likely give you about a half tuition scholarship if you can get you ACT up into the low 30’s. </p>
<p>Be careful-- UT Austin’s admissions are much harder for out of state students because they tend to fill up most of the freshman class with the top 7% of Texas high schools students. The actual acceptance rate for out-of-state students is at about 20%. </p>
<p>Just coming in to post about ASU’s program. The building is amazing. </p>
<p>@JCCsMom My only problem with ASU is that it’s a little too big.</p>
<p>Btw, I don’t use the college board GPA. On collegeboard, my GPA is a 3.7, but I use the Princeton review scale.</p>
<p><<<<
My safeties are UCF, FGCU, ASU, and Ithaca College. I think Syracuse, UF, and when I take my SAT again and ACT, I am pretty sure UT will become a match. I’m talking purely about admissions, not paying.
<<<<</p>
<p>None of those schools are safeties, and that’s the problem. How can a school be a safety (back up) if you dont have the funds to go.</p>
<p>YOU NEED TO identify 3 financial safeties.</p>
<p>also…what is your career goal with your J major.</p>
<p>The school of J at ASU is in a satelliate campus downtown. </p>
<p>ASU is too big? Then you won’t like UCF or UF at all. They are huge.</p>
<p>You have a lot of resources. Ask people at your internship where they went to school, what they studied. My friend worked for 20 years at a major newspaper (has a Pulitzer price), 5 years in public radio, and now at a university. She helps students find jobs, and the thing most employers need is someone who can do coding. Most journalism is electronic now or must be converted to digital.</p>
<p>Seeking Clarification</p>
<p>What does your SAT scores break out to (CR/M/ W)</p>
<p>You attend a NYC HS, what doe your regents scores look like? Are you considered college ready?</p>
<p>Will you be graduating with an advanced regents diploma? An advanced regents diploma with mastery An advanced regents diploma with mastery?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that there is not a selective school that does not know what it takes to graduate from a NYC/NYS high school?</p>
<p>What is the avg SAT score for your school?</p>
<p>Does your school use naviance? What colleges are students from your school admitted to?</p>
<p>Having siblingS in college could have an impact on your financial aid eligibility, but only while they are in college while you are. How many will you have in college? Comm College often gets reduced consideration. You say your parents paid $23K a year for your brother while in school? Was that a SUNY? Was that half? Do you sense that there might be some give in their stance if you, say got accepted to Northwestern, because you realize that they have ZERO, absolutely ZERO merit aid, and the cost is over $60K a year for them. </p>
<p>Actually, Ithaca is not a bad choice. Especially if the OP can get close to what she showed in trial for ACTs. It does have merit money–should check if there are even any big awards there, will be holistic in admissions, and non standard things like the publishing and other honorariums would count heavily, PLUS they are a school that seeks diversity, and finds it hard to get it. </p>
<p>As for HBCs, yes, they are majority AA, but there are schools out there that are majority white and asians or just plain white, for that matter. Look at the ethnic breakdowns at such schools There is definitely a prestige factor with schools like Howard that is difficult to define and quantitize. </p>
<p>Also, I can tell your right out, that my son put his nose up to some options as an 18 year old that now as a 20 something, he realizes were stupid, immature reasons. And he always had a good head on his shoulders and was mature for his age. </p>
<p>Good luck with your list, and as long as you have so sure things on there, schools you KNOW will accept you and that you KNOW you can afford so you are not left stranded, go right on ahead and pick lottery tickets for the rest. I guess what we are trying to do here is to mitigate the risks somewhat so you have a variety of choices right down the specturm with pluses and minuses that you can check off and evaluate at the end of the process. College choice should not be an all or nothing type of process, but kids often make it so by picking only low probability schools for themselves and just sticking a safety that they didn’t give any thought to onto their list. Many wail later on this forum how they got rejected or can’t afford any of their schools and don’t even include that safety–it’ has to be kind of pulled out of them that they do have that choice, so little do they think of it. Better if there are some schools that are true considerations on your list. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A school cannot be a safety unless you know for certain that you can afford it.</p>
<p>Avoiding the cost question at the application stage only kicks the can down the road to make your problem worse next April when none of your acceptances is to a college that you can afford to attend.</p>
<p>Texas admits 3/4 of its frosh through automatic admission of the top 7% of Texas high school seniors. It should be considered a reach for all others who must compete for the other 1/4 of the spots. That is not even including the cost questions (and your stats make it unlikely that you will get the big scholarships like Forty Acres there).</p>
<p>I don’t know if FL has a stipulation about how many OOS students they can accept or not, but UCF’s OOS population is only 5% and UF’s is 3%. If they do limit the number of OOS they accept like many other states, there will be competition for those OOS spots. FInancially, OOS COA for UF is $40,000 and UCF is around $31,000. So, if you can get accepted at UCF, if fits your budget. You meet their avg SAT profile, but not even close to their top 10%. Here is how they gauge admissions:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Many public universities put more emphasis on test scores and GPA than their private counterparts. They aren’t overly holistic in their approach and are far more #s driven. Many private schools, otoh, are more holistic, but they can also be far more competitive for admission. A good safety means that you really don’t have to even wonder if you will be accepted or if you can afford it. I would call UCF and UF and speak to an admission’s officer and ask how competitive OOS admissions is before you consider them safety schools. It may be as simple as their stats are so low b/c they don’t have many OOS students applying. But then again, it may not be.</p>
<p>Actually, the OP has a decent list, just missing the sure things which every applicant to colleges should have but those looking at high stakes admissions loathe adding. The very idea of community college, commuting to ANY school, the home state schools, especially not the Big State U gives them the heebie jeebies. So she is not being unusual about that. Maybe mom and dad will break if OP gets into NW, since it’s their first choice. I agree that UT Austin is a bad pick, very bad pick, the way it is set up as someone already has discussed. But the rest…give it ago.</p>
<p>FGCU is close to $40K a year for you, bear in mind; their fin aid is not good even for in staters and they avg not even $4K a year in merit money for about 100 kids. So the chances of getting $15-20K from them is not good though it is a possibility in terms of admissions. The big state schools, by the way, are unlikely to look at some of the things that do make you a stand out candidate, bear in mind. My friend’s DD was rejected from OSU–her granddad, well connected, went to ask about it was told she needed to send in the optional essay–she had, they just pitched it but would read it if resubmitted on special request. Said that right out. Some of those schools just look at 3 numbers, test scores, grades(class rank), and date of application. Nothing else matters. You will likely do better at schools that give a holistic review of apps and remember, you want a school that has merit money to give. If they don’t have big awards to give out, you aren’t going to get any. If they have them, you have a chance. The more large awards they have, the better your chances. You need to do research in this area for a realistic chance of getting substantial money.</p>
<p>@twoinanddone ASU is much bigger than UF. UCF is really large so I am hesitant about that too.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I have a few CUNYs I have looked at. I also have legacy in them, Idk if it means much at CUNYs though. I didnt put them on my list because 1. My high school forces is to apply and 2. Aside from the money aspect, I don’t see myself there. I really hate being in NYC lol.</p>
<p>@sybbie719 CR 600 and M 530 My school does not do advanced regents diplomas. I took all the required regents and passed all of them. I got 90+ on the English and US History.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus a safety school is a school where you exceed the average grades their admits have. These are all safeties for me and my counselor agrees. She has also been made aware of my situation and she knows my grades and high school profile better than I do, so I trust her.</p>
<p>As for UF, I have already spoken to their NYC alum organization and they have been willing to pick up some of the tuition. </p>
<p>@Mom2aphysicsgeek
For UT- Austin, I have spoken extensively to admissions reps and they said that they are looking to increase the diversity of the campus so they will be accepting more OOS students than in years past. Same with UF. </p>
<p>I would go to a big state school, just not a big state school in New York. The closest I would go in NY is Ithaca or Syracuse. And if worst comes to worst, I would go to a CUNY. Weirdly enough, every time I talk to my mom about the NW thing, she says don’t worry about it and ends the conversation quickly. I wonder what that means.</p>
<p>I do not know why OP does not have SUNY Plattsburgh on her list as they have a really good communications program. if she raised her scors a little more, she could get some merit $$. She should also incude Potsdam as a safety (since they are SAT Optional). Again if she raises her scores she could get some serious merit $$. She should also add Purchase to her list. </p>
<p>I know you won’t want to hear this, but I doubt you will be accepted to UT-Austin. It’s the STATE LAW that they have to accept the top-ranked kids from every high school in Texas. They don’t have any leeway in that regard. Your GPA and SAT score are just not high enough. </p>
<p>@sybbie719, she said she got a 30 on a mock ACT, didn’t she? It seems like that’s where she should concentrate her prepping. That puts her past the middle 50 percent in all the SUNYs except Binghamton, Stony Brook and Geneseo, and past the midline for those three.</p>
<p>@sybbie719 I HATE Purchase. I visited it, and I hated it there. My tour guide was absolutely disgusting. She has hickies on her neck and when she saw the guy who gave them to her, she pointed it out! And plus, all the kids have like tattoos and blue hair and piercings and I just really didn’t like it there. It was nothing like me. I’m not really interested in going to SUNYs. If I had to choose one though, it would be StonyBrook. But that’s really it. Most of my schools come from lists that show the best journalism programs in the country.</p>
<p>I am amazed at the number of high school students (my daughter included) who rule out schools because they don’t like the tour guide.</p>