What are my chances of getting a full-ride?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Even though my test scores aren’t the best, I believe I possess other qualities that might allow me to stand out a little bit. Question is, are these qualities enough to get me accepted into a good school (with financial aid aka full ride)…Here’s some Background information about me:

I’m Haitian-American, first generation to be attending college.

Class rank: 2 out of 318
GPA: 3.9/4.0 (unweighted)
4.9 (weighted)

ACT: 23 (Retaking it this fall – aiming for 28 )
SAT Math: 510
SAT Reading: 570

Community Service: 300+ hours (at local soup kitchen, Key Club, tutoring farm workers English at night, and tutoring children from low income families Science and math)

Family income: $14,000 and less per year. (I qualify for free reduced lunch)

Awards:
AP Scholar Award
High Honor Roll
Academic Excellence Award
DAR Youth Award in JROTC
(Soon): Presidential Award
Completion of a Medical program at Florida State - 1st Place on Research Project

Clubs:
International club (Vice President) (10th-12th)
Key Club (9th-12th)
Teen Trendsetters (10th-12th)
National Honor Society (10th-12th)
Girl Scouts (9th-12th)
JROTC Drill Team (Squad Leader) (10th)

Career Goal(s): Physician, English Teacher, or Nurse Epidemiologist.

(P.S. Emory is at the top of my list because of its close connection with the CDC and it has one of the best Public Health programs in the nation )

Intended major: Biology, Education or Nursing

Extra info: I grew up in a poverty stricken, rural, minority based area with my grandfather who has cancer and grandmother who’s a Pre-diabetic. As a result of me taking care of them (to an extent) for so long, I developed Depression and Anxiety over time.

Anyway, based off of the information I have provided, does my story seem kind of generic, or is my story/scores/Etc enough to get me a full ride to a state college? If not, what am I missing? I live in Florida by the way!! :slight_smile:

Thank you to anyone who reads this and replies! I appreciate it very much

Btdubs: I’m applying to Emory, Columbia, UF, Georgetown, and UCLA (<-- it has a good communications program just in case I change my mind), UCF, FSU, and University of Miami

2

UCLA gives no financial aid to OOS applicants. Take that off your list if you’re looking for a full ride.

3

For Columbia, test scores a bit too low at 23, even a 28 is on the low side despite your situation. If you get in, you’ll pay nothing.
For Emory, probably not any merit-aid as you really need strong test scores for that, but you might get in due to your circumstances and Emory, being a private school, does give financial aid.
UCLA does not give any money.

4

I’m curious that you seem to have done well on APs but not on the ACT or SAT.

Florida has some great scholarship options for in-state students and I doubt that you will be able to do better than those- your scores aren’t high enough for merit aid, or good enough for the highly competitive colleges that give massive financial aid.

Here is a list of colleges that meet full need: http://blog.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/blog/colleges-that-meet-100-of-student-financial-need/#sthash.OuTeblCB.dpbs

5

@basedchem @rdeng2614 Just to clarify for other applicants, UCLA does give financial aid to out of states applicants (I got a 45k scholarship as an OOS), but it’s true that a full-ride is very unlikely.

With higher scores, I think you have a good chance at financial aid. But your test scores are very low, especially for a school like Columbia. Your extracurricular sand motivations will help a lot, but I’d say a 30 for Columbia would be minimum (a 28 should be okay for the other schools). But if you raise your scores and manage to get in, you will probably go there for close to nothing, based on anecdotal experience.
Best of luck to you!

6

If you qualify for free lunch, you qualify for free application fees. Make a lot of applications from the list collegemom3717 gave above. In addition to the schools you now love pick some lower prestige schools. Be sure some home state schools are included. Look into applying to Questbridge. Do a search on here for fly in programs and apply to some. Don’t apply ED anywhere. ED acceptance means you have to withdraw all other applications before you even see the aid package they will offer. EA is okay. Good luck!

7

^Have your guidance counselor fill out the fee waiver form for all your colleges, both FLorida Publics and on the CommonApp.
Rather than Columbia, apply to Barnard; if you can get your score to a 28, your story and achievements would definitely interest them.
I second the recommendation of applying through Questbridge, but the deadline is September 28 so you have to hurry. Enter your ACT test date for now.
http://www.questbridge.org/
I would recommend applying to a variety of “Meet need” school as presented in post #3.
I would add Agnes Scott, Meredith, Franklin and Marshall, Rhodes.

8

I would recommend applying to Emorys Oxford college as well as Emory college itself (look up Oxford college if you haven’t heard of it – Ive heard of people getting much better aid there than at Emory, and all Oxford students are guaranteed transfers to Emory).
Your Florida schools are matches; Columbia is definitely possible if you bring up your test scores a LOT. Georgetown is a high match/low reach and again, will depend on how much you improve your scores .