What are my chances? Please!!

<p>I am a senior, I have: </p>

<p>3.7 UW, 4.05 weighted GPA
28 ACT
1590 SAT (won't be submitting)
Have taken 7 AP Classes
-AP Euro - 3
-AP Lang - 3
- APUSH - 5
- AP Chem
- AP Lit
- AP Macro economics
- AP US Gov
And 4 honors classes
Involved in:
Chem Club - member
Key club - member
Deca - member
Played lacrosse for 1 year and football for 2.
Have volunteered through church - little hours like 10.
Have part time job working at financial management office
Planning on majoring in finance or economics </p>

<p>What are my chances for TCU and/or Baylor? </p>

<p>Did do EA on both. </p>

<p>And I am out of state </p>

<p>Also never had a C</p>

<p>Have you run the Net Price Calculators on both?
What are your safeties (and have you run the net price calculators on those, too)?
Academically, you should get in, but neither of these two schools meets need. It means that they don’t feel they should offer you the money you need to attend, even if they admit you.</p>

<p>Yeah I have, the calculator said for tcu said I would get a 17,000 and Baylor said I’d get a 14,000 dollar scholarship, or at least qualify for them. But odds are I won’t get anything near that. Yes I do have safeties but living in Arizona I have U of A and ASU which are basically graduate high school to get in. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t qualify for anything need based though, my parents are willing to pay for half of the total cost out of their own pocket.</p>

<p>What matters isn’t how much you’d get in scholarship, but how much you’d be left to pay once the grants and scholarships have been subtracted (BEFORE any loan).
Note that ASU’s Honors program (Barrett), is considered one of the best in the US. </p>

<p>You need a better college list than two colleges you may not be able to afford and two universities which you don’t seem to especially like.
A good college list would have:
2 schools you like, can afford, and know you’ll get into because you’re in the top 10-25% applicants (and will likely get into the honors College for)
2-5 schools you like, can afford, and think you can get into because you’re above median and closer top the top 25% threshold.
As many schools as you wish that are harder to get into or where you’re not sure about costs.</p>

<p>My complete list is:</p>

<p>Huge Safety:
Northern Arizona University</p>

<p>Safeties:
ASU and U of A</p>

<p>Match/Low Reach:
TCU and Baylor</p>

<p>Higher Reach:
Cal Poly SLO, but everyone tells me I won’t get any money at SLO.</p>

<p>Do you also feel like I could get more money, or at least have it be cheaper if I got into Texas A&M, than TCU or Baylor</p>

<p>TCU is the #1 School I want to go to, I have been completing many outside scholarships to help fund it.</p>

<p>The great majority of funding will come from the colleges themselves. The second source of funding for college is the federal government. Next is funding by your state. Outside scholarships may actually diminish your FA package and in any case are typically only valid for your first year. While they can help you furnish your dorm room or buy books they can"t help you fund your education (unless you’re talking CocaCola or Gates Foundation).
What does the Net Price Calculator tell you about TCU? Is it within budget for your family?
No, you won’t get any money from SLO since you’re an AZ resident and thus OOS at California publics - the whole point of OOS students is that they bring in extra money as opposed to in state students, so they’re not going to cut that down by giving you money. Same thing at Texas A&M.
If you like TCU and Baylor, look into Wake Forest and Furman. </p>

<p>I looked at Wake Forest and I didn’t feel like I had chances to be accepted, do they give out more money than TCU or Baylor? And at the moment no it is not possible for us to fund TCU, parents make over 200k a year so no funding.</p>

<p>Are you saying you won’t qualify for financial aid at TCU or that your parents won’t fund your studies?
TCU has merit aid.*
Look at Wake Forest’s scholarships (type that in your search engine). You’re the right profile for Wake and it’s test-optional, meaning you don’t have to submit your ACT score. Furman, with test scores would be better for merit.
If you want a TX college, check out Trinity College, St Edward’s, or Southwestern - you’d likely get good merit aid there.
If you want a conservative Christian college, check out Wheaton (IL), Calvin, Hope, Gordon, Berry, Wofford. If you want conservative but not necessarily Christian, check out Florida Southern or BSC. All of those would have merit aid for you.</p>

<p>*Students can receive two types of financial awards: some are based on financial need (ie. parents’ income, etc), and some are based on merit (ie., your test scores, curriculum rigor, GPA, extracurriculars - each college decides on their criteria). The fact your family makes 200K has zero bearing on merit aid, since it solely depends on your stats.</p>

<p>I am saying that I will not qualify for any financial need aid, the net calculator said we won’t and my dad had someone look over it and they said that we would not either. Yeah, I will probably get some merit aid, not enough though. At most I can qualify for at TCU is 17k a year, and then they say their scholarships are competitive to get. My parents are only willing to pay around 25k a year.</p>

<p>okay then. You have a budget of 25k, so you need to look for colleges that will cost:
25 + 5.5k (federal loan) + 2.5 k(summer job) + 2k (school year job) = about 35k.
In other words, you’re going to need 20-30k in merit at most schools or you’ll have to attend ASU/AU.
Considering that basic COA at TCU is 50k, the ONLY way you can afford TCU is if you qualify
for their highest scholarship. Since that’s not a given at all, it automatically makes the school
a reach, ie., your odds of ever being able to go there are lower (much lower) than your odds of going.
You may want to start a new thread on the “college selection” forum, describing your key criteria for
a school, then your financial constraints, and ask for schools like TCU that would be more likely to afford.</p>

<p>Ok thank you, It would also have to be 30k budget my parents won’t let me or themselves anywhere loans for some reason. I really have no idea why.</p>

<p>It may be related to their faith, or it may be that they know how debt can cripple a young professional’s life (although the federal limit exists for a reason: it’s what can be reasonably expected from a college graduate to be able to repay. Doesn’t make life easy but it’s doable. When private loans come in, there comes the trouble. MAJOR trouble.)
why did the budget go suddenly from 25 to 30k, did you discuss this with your parents?</p>

<p>Oh, no I was adding in the summer job and during school year job amounts. </p>

<p>OH… ok, I thought it was the basic family contribution being increased.
Then it means TCU is not doable: 30+17 = 47 not 50 something…
You could try working now and save it all in order to have the 3,000 gap covered,
otherwise even if you get TCU’s biggest scholarship you still can’t afford it.</p>

<p>Yeah we’ll see thank you for the help</p>