Very affordable OOS safeties in warm climate with accepting student body

College Search & Selection
1

Hello all,

I’m having some trouble getting a solid list of safeties down for my D18. She’s a US citizen living abroad, so OOS everywhere. Our budget is around 25,000 COA. GPA is currently 3.1, all IB courses save two regular science classes (chem & physics). Senior year all IB courses but not doing full diploma. Bilingual + a third language at B2 level. Has attended school in 8 different countries and several different systems (French, American, European School, British, etc.)

SAT 650 RW + 560 M. She was ridiculously sleepy on day of test and thought she had bombed. PSAT was 670/540. I think she can boost those scores up a bit in October if she gets up earlier, eats a lot and feels more awake by the time she starts.

Extremely curious kid. Has a sort of pilot’s pre-licence from our home country. Always wanted to fly but we can’t afford the training (may train for military pilot in one of her citizenship countries, but we won’t know if she gets through screening until 2018)). Also loves all things medical, especially neuroscience. Has a card at the local medical library and reads everything she can get her hands on. Is considering medical corpsman in the US Navy. She’s looking for a school that’s urban and warm. For neuroscience she leans heavily towards the bio/research/medical side rather than behaviourial. Other career considerations have ranged from fine arts,woodworking, and watchmaking to naval architecture and forestry – just to illustrate her range of interests.

She’s quirky, non-traditional in terms of looks/dress (gets mistaken for a boy and, therefore, for LGBQT), centrist with some conservative and some liberal stances.

Anyone have any ideas? Open to a 2-year solution, though I would prefer a school with housing. The reason for the warm climate is that she suffers from seasonal affective disorder and wants to be outdoors. I have plenty of ideas for schools that are up north but almost none in warm climates. Thanks!

2

Well down here in Florida there’s really many schools like that.

I would recommend personally UCF (University of Central Florida which is one of the largest colleges around), if she’d like an even cheaper option Valencia Community College has 100 dollars per credit. So only 300 dollars per class! Anyone can get accepted to this college, and it’s ranked a top community college in the nation. It has articulation agreements with almost all the top colleges in Florida, From University of Florida, and guaranteed admission to UCF.
It’s hot here 24/7. If she went to valencia, she could stay for cheap 2 years, gain instate tuition, then transfer to UCF (and they have transfer scholarships to UCF), and she may virtually barely pay anything in my opinion.

We are located in Orlando, its hot here 24/7 home of so many theme parks, and you can to many springs and definitely urban. USF would also be a good option, located in tampa. We also have the beaches!

Valencia also has an honors program articulation with UCF, and the honors program gives the potential for full scholarships, which I currently have lol

I reccomend the Valencia to UCF pathway, because you get the one on one small classroom thing, easier to make friends, VERY CHEAP, amazing professors, theres like 6 campuses, so she could also work, and have proximity to drive to either campus. Also, she can get to know the setting in the U.S and after 2 years decide which university instate or out of state is for her.

I’m an IB diploma student, and I’m recommending it, I just graduated in May.

I was accepted to UCF, and I chose valencia for the cheaper alternative, and the scholarships you get just by transferring there.

I am literally getting paid to go to school.

3

The apartments are much cheaper than living in the dorms in my opinion so that would be a plus ^-^

Did I forget to mention florida schools love IB KIDS?

4

For out of state residents, Valencia is 390 dollars per credit hour my bad, (so that would definitely be under 25k including apartments) and within a year or two she can establish residency, go to ucf and pay max $6,368 USD in state tuition with NO scholarships or financial aid.
Just by transferring however she wil receive

In addition to financial aid.

Alumni Two Plus Two Scholarship - GRADUATING
This scholarship is funded by the Alumni Associations of Valencia College and University of Central Florida. This award is made each year to Valencia College students transferring to UCF. The recipients may receive up to $4,000 in scholarship funds during the pursuit of an Associate’s degree at Valencia followed by a Bachelor’s degree at University of Central Florida. A $2,000 check is given to the student in the spring, plus $1,000 goes into the student’s account at the University of Central Florida each year for two years.

5

@CowsRuleTheEarth Valencia is $390 per credit hour for out of state students (almost 4 times the instate rate).

6

I corrected myself if you look at the previous post, I realized I was talking about instate tuition

7

Any chance you could get her interested in going to school in Southern France?
Run the npc on Sweet Briar, Millsaps, Eckerd, FAU Wilkes, Virginia Wesleyan, UMW, Spelman, Montevallo, St Edwards, Truman State (below what they expected GPA but they’ll appreciate the curriculum rigor), Appalachian State, Unc Asheville, Unc Wilmington.
If she can bring her sat up, look into Ole Miss Honors.

8

I would also recommend UNC Wilmington (10 mins from the beach), App State, and UNC Asheville. All three are excellent universities in the world-class UNC system.

9

^However, all of these NC schools are in the ≥$30,000 range for OOS.

10

@kidzncatz OP can get grants and scholarships from each school…

11

Check out Kiplinger’s public “best value” list:
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/index.php?table=public&state_code=ALL&id=none&sortby=out_state_cost&sortorder=ASC#colleges

If you bump the budget to $30K (with work-study and loans), then you have several possibilities in the Florida, North Carolina, or California state university systems. For yet more money (low $30Ks) you get more options in the same state systems.

Then there are community colleges. Pick a location you like, then look up the local CCs.

12

@CowsRuleTheEarth Thanks! Taking a look.

@LBad96 Thanks! Question about Asheville: Housing seems to be a problem, which isn’t great for a kid far from home. Are you aware of that at all? Will check the others.

@MYOS1634 Thanks! Yes, hoping to visit Aix in July. Sweet Briar is not a fit for her, but I will check all the others. Truman State works but seems a bit remote for her. Eckerd is not affordable, but would be a good one otherwise.

@tk21769 Thanks!

13

Does anyone think that admissions might take into account the idea that GPA is lower due to switching between 3 school systems/countries in middle school? 9th grade was a rough transition. One of the bad grades, C-, was in algebra as she hadn’t been adequately prepared by combined maths in UK and European systems. The other was Java Programming, which turned out to be something she just couldn’t grasp. 10th grade was on honour roll with 3.6. And 1st semester 11th down to 3.29, missing honour by .01, but good rigor.

14

Humboldt State is cold and rainy though, and very very remote.
True about cold at App State and UNCA, but UNC-W should still work. UNC-C can be good for business and does have merit.
Seconding NCF and Hendrix if she can raise her scores.
Redlands’ Johnson is great but I don’t think they have much aid and their starting price is quite high.
Usc Aiken? Not sure about merit.

In Southern France I wouldn’t recommend Aix, especially someone moderately liberal. It’s mostly very stuffy despite the students. I suppose that it could be okay for the IEP and IUT. Also look at Skema/kedge school - rich and conservative students, but very international.
Probably the best city for university students is Montpelier and you’d get plenty of non-university choices. In France you want to avoid universities for the undergraduate part, plus the APB algorithm favors ‘locals’ when assigning places, so ‘ecoles postbac’, IEP/‘sciences po college universitaire region’ or IUT choices would be preferable.

They may take into account the change in systems, the possible different ways of grading, and the different curricula, but if there guidance counselor doesn’t do it, you ought to make sure she addresses it briefly in the ‘additional information’ section on commonapp.

15

Agree with @MYOS1634 that Humboldt is way outta town and is cold and rainy. Its far from big towns.
The CSU’s are $36K per year. I thought there was a budget?

The southern CSU’s are impacted.

16
  • note that the IUT, IEP 's, ecoles postbacc are NOT constrained by the APB algorithm.
17

OP:

Well, I attend UNCW, so no I’m not aware of any housing difficulties at Asheville. Anyways, I second @MYOS1634’s suggestion of UNC Charlotte for a Business major; not the greatest academic school overall, but has a good B-school and definitely is growing and getting better.

@warblersrule

Couldn’t that be said for virtually every state university system in the country, though? I don’t think that the UNC schools are any more “infamously stingy” with merit aid than the CSUs you suggested, especially considering this student is OOS everywhere due to living abroad.

18

UNC Asheville only awarded 54 merit scholarships to freshmen in 2016-17. The average award was only ~$2200. UNC Charlotte awarded even fewer merit scholarships, although the average amount was a bit higher. (~$2700). Charlotte’s average test scores are higher than Asheville’s, too. “SAT 650 RW + 560 M” is roughly average (or a little above) for some of the UNC schools. Even an average award would leave the OP over budget.

19

If she is open to a womens college -check out Salem College in Winston Salem (very diverse) and also Agnes Scott in Atlanta. I am not sure that Agnes Scott would give her enough merit to get down to 25K -but would be worth looking into

Totally the oposite of urban -but would appeal to some of her other interests -Warren Wilson College in NC. A very interesting school. Everyone works , and they have things like woodworking, bee keeping, blacksmithing etc…

20

@MYOS1634 The reason for Aix was that it’s the only undergrad neuroscience besides Caen, I believe. She’s well-aware of the, ahem, “stuffiness” and that’s precisely why France is at the very, very bottom of her wishlist, despite the fact that for us it would cost only hundreds.

She would shrivel up and die a slow death in a business major.

@tk21769 Thanks, that’s what I thought.

@veruca Yes, Agnes Scott is a favourite of mine; seems like a great solution all-around (neuro, STEM support program, cross-registration with Emory/GTech, cool area, etc.), and I could maybe come up with extra money if she got in. I’m not sure, at all, that I can convince her of the merits of a women’s college (I went to one). The app is free if I remember correctly, so I will be nudging her to apply. Will check Salem. I agree Warren Wilson would be an interesting school for her (coincidentally, blacksmithing was a unit she did when she homeschooled in 4th grade, and it comes back now and then as an interest) but they don’t really offer a major that interests her.

I was reading through these replies and she suddenly said, “Russian demographics are incredibly interesting.” That’s the kind of quirky she is! :slight_smile: