<p>Well, I started the search recently and have a few questions...</p>
<p>My first set of SAT's came in at 2160, which im sure I can bring up to a 2300 or so by the time my apps or going out. </p>
<p>Grades are OK, 98th out of 550 at a competitive public school about a 3.6 unweighted all honors, 1AP sophmore, 3 this year, 4 next year. 3 years of japanese with a low B average...</p>
<p>EC's are pretty weak, NHS, Mu Alpha Theta, Advanced guitar program, 11 years on the same summer swim team, helping with coaching now and again, 2 hours a week at the library and 15-20 working at the family business (im a "lot manager" at a used car lot + I manage all the ads online and in autoweek) </p>
<p>Im considering everything now, but money is a big issue, so a scholarship or instate is a must. </p>
<p>The only picky thing I have it that I would really, really prefer to live off campus my first year.</p>
<p>One college I have considered, despite being white, it Howard because of its huge aid package to people with my statistics, and it does not require you to live on campus. </p>
<p>Any thoughts, also- any suggestions? Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Your ECs are NOT weak. In fact, your job could be the basis for a very interesting essay. </p>
<p>Why would you prefer to live off campus as a freshman? It's an unusual choice.</p>
<p>Have you considered George Mason? It has a lot of commuters, so if you do live off campus, you would not be alone. And it's close to DC, which I assume you like since you are considering Howard.</p>
<p>George Mason is a good choice if you want to commute to school. Your stats are high enough that you might be able to get a nice scholarship from VCU.</p>
<p>I'd recommend UVA and W&M... but even if you got in (your class rank is a bit low) you wouldn't get scholarships... you would probably get generous financial aid packages though so I suggest you look into it...</p>
<p>Oh, the off campus thing- I live very close to the VCU campus (about a 15 minute drive) and many of my friends are attending there. From what I have seen of them, the ones that decided not to live in the dorms have a much more relaxed year and seem to lose very little in the way of social interaction. In the end it is really just a personal thing.</p>
<p>To give an idea of my financial ideas, I can probably handle (between working my ass off and what my family can give) about ten thousand a year tuition and fees.</p>
<p>You are almost a shoo-in for at least a $4,000 per year plus in-state tuition benefit at U of South Carolina. I am not sure if they require you to live in a dorm freshman year.</p>
<p>My son got this deal from USC, and now is in a quandary because he also got accepted at W&M (about 40 miles away), with no financial aid. He is having a hard time deciding which school to go to.</p>
<p>Wow, thats really tough. I would be stuck too...</p>
<p>Im deffintly not against working while im in school and my has said he can probably help up to about $30,000 over the 4 years (any grad school is on me though :)), so I think I can cover a state school, but if I were to go out of state I would need a good bit.</p>
<p>I think you could get the same kind of deal at Clemson with your scores.</p>
<p>A lot of the mid tier colleges are recruiting higher achieving kids for their honors programs. I would look into some of those, but remember, we have great state schools here in Virginia too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advise, I had always kind of considered my overall stats rather average, but once my SAT's came in (from the first try) I started considering some higher level schools. </p>
<p>Would getting those SAT's up another hundred or so points bring any top 100 schools into the scholarship picture, or is my class rank going to get me on that one? (its crazy at our school, my weighted 4.05 is just inside the top 100)</p>
<p>Not living on campus would be a major mistake as you journey through life. The freshman hall can be one of the best experiences of your life. If you can get into a school like W&M, one of the benefits is being surrounded by some of the brightest kids in country. VCU is more of a commuter school and you should not draw conclusions that all schools are that way</p>
<p>Actually, now that I think about it you would probably get a full scholarship to Old Dominion. You would probably get at least a full tuition scholarship at VCU. George Mason is not as likely to give you a scholarship but they may give you nice financial aid (never know)... and their tuition is quite a bit (a lot, I think) cheaper than Howard. Also, personally I would pick Mason over Howard because of Mason's diversity compared to Howard's homogeneous student body. </p>
<p>If you want a full scholarship, take a good look at ODU... I'd bet 95+% chance you'd get full scholarship. Good chance of you getting a very large scholarship from VCU as well. Mason seems to be very picky with scholarships though because I don't think they give out as many... I know one kid who got a President's Scholarship from VCU (full tuition + room and board) but got flat out rejected from Mason. I also know a girl who got accepted to UVA, waitlisted at VA Tech, and REJECTED at Mason. They are having a really erratic admissions season this year. My friend at another school told me that so many kids at his school who are taking 1-2 AP courses a year, getting a 3.00-3.30 GPA, 1600 SAT score who are getting waitlisted or just rejected this year... This seems to be the case at my school as well because A LOT of kids who are getting accepted to VCU are getting rejected from Mason.</p>
<p>Anyways, enough of my rant about how weird Mason admissions are this year. You should look at other in-state schools where your stats are really high for as well like Radford University, Longwood University, and Christopher Newport University. I don't know if they give out a lot of scholarships but if they give out any it'd seem likely that you'd get something nice.</p>