I am an African American student, and I try my best in school. Although I am not the brightest, I have high expections. I also want to please my parents. I have a 3.76 GPA ( my school hasn’t updated it yet) and have taken a lot of AP classes, I recently took my SAT. What are my changes of getting full ride scholarships, and what colleges would offer them? I live in Texas, would it be possible to maybe even get into Stanford. I am going into my senior year and I am scared about the future because my parents do not have money for a university and I have siblings.
How should I go about this dilemma
Does your HS have a good track record of getting kids to colleges? Is your HS guidance staff well equipped and knowledgeable? If so, go to them. See what schools like to recruit the best graduating seniors – likely, there are similar kids in your situation (strong academics, similar affordability situation).
Some other fora on this site that might be useful to you:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-for-good-merit-aid.html#latest
Finally, don’t fixate on a particular school. Stanford with the lowest admit rate in the country, is frankly, out of your reach based on your GPA. That’s 100% fine, however. You clearly seem to have solid academic potential (good luck w/your SAT score notice, BTW).
The kids in my school have an amazing track of going into college. Although most of them are not in the same financial situation because they have wealthy parents. My counsulers do know a lot about this topic, and I have been somewhat contacting with them.
I know it is quite impossible for me to get in to Stanford, but if I have an essay that truly depicts me, are there any chances I’ll get in. Is it possible to get full ride scholarships from an out of state college? I live in Texas!
With my current academic situation what are some good colleges to look for?
Btw thank you
@cluelessmajor hi! I was in your exact position last/this year 
since you also live in Texas, this will be much easier. What I did was have one safety, one match, and several reaches. My safety was UT because I had automatic acceptance and would not mind attending. My match was Rice because it> UT and the financial aid at rice is great for low income students. My reaches were all the schools that provide excellent aid for low income students. For example, stanford’s <125k= free tuition or harvard’s <65k = full ride. I applied to about 9 of these schools and was able to afford it by requesting fee waivers through the common app (or sometimes schools just automatically waived the fees for me). So, if you get into one of the top schools, I can assure you a full ride is imminent if you meet their low income requirements and get all your financial aid requirements in on time.
Since you don’t have a complete application yet, I can’t see if you’re competitive for these schools yet or not. (If you’re not too competitive I would advise not applying too top heavy and balance it with mid tier top private schools that also provide good financial aid) Is your 3.7 weighted or unweighted? Does that 3.7 translate to the 100 point scale or college board’s letter scale? Also, if you’d like help throughout the application process, do not hesitate to message me I just finished going through this process and would be happy to help