I am a junior in a highschool and I have a 2.7 GPA.I haven’t taken the SAT or the ACT yet.I think I will do well on them.My ECs are FBLa and Newspaper.I went to a summer institute at Drexel last summer.If I do better in my senior year,will it be too late?
How did you do on the PSAT?
What is your home state?
How much will your parents PAY? <<== THAT ANSWER will likely determine where you should apply.
My home state is PA.I don’t know my exact score on the PSAT but my reading and writing were very good.My math was horrible .
I am not sure how much my parents are willing to pay.I am probably going to get financial aid,but I don’t want to be in a lot of debt when I graduate.
You need to ask your parents how much they’ll pay. The schools that give good FA usually require higher GPA for admittance.
Many schools will just give you a $5500 student loan and expect your family to pay the rest.
Run the Net Price Calculator on a few schools’ website and see what the results are.
There are a number of affordable and better than people realize schools in the PA public system beyond the State-related schools like Pitt, Penn State and Temple. Go to the PASSHE website and take a look, lots of options, programs and placement possibilities.
Many of the PASSHE (PA state) schools accept students with such a GPA. For example, Edinboro accepted 99% and IUP 95% of the students that applied last year. However, PA state schools don’t offer the best financial aid. If your family is low income, you may receive both Pell (federal) and PHEAA (state) grants, so your tuition and fees may be covered. These universities also give SEOG grants and small scholarships to some students, but certainly do not meet 100% of need for most students. However, with a Direct loan, some summer and school-year work earnings, and perhaps some contribution from parents, room and board may be covered. Or you might find it less expernsive to commute to a PASSHE school or community college.
^If your parents make more money and you don’t qualify for much if any need-based aid, you will have to find schools for which your family can pay full price. With a 2.7 GPA, there are a number of colleges that will accept you, but they probably won’t offer merit aid.
And as for being too late, no, it never is. I was an absolutely horrible HS student prior to my Senior year, but ended up with pretty good test scores, showed a lot of improvement in my senior year and had a great guidance counselor who could write the ‘underachieving kid finally gets it’ letter to the schools I was interested in. Financial aid was a lot less of a concern back then since tuition was barely more than room and board even at some private schools (and the entire price was about what most schools list for R&B alone now). Get together with your guidance counselor, plan out your senior year and college search/application strategy in sync with one another.
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Financial aid was a lot less of a concern back then since tuition was barely more than room and board even at some private schools (and the entire price was about what most schools list for R&B alone now).
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It’s different now since COAs are soooo high now. Most schools gap.
This student FIRST needs to ask his parents how much they’ll pay.
Merit is unlikely with a 2.7 GPA…plus the PSAT results don’t bode well, since merit is based on Math + CR…the W score is not considered.
@good101 What public univs are near your home that you could commute to?
It’s impossible to help you out without some test scores. My son had a similar GPA, and got into Rutgers from in-state, with decent (but not spectacular) test scores. I don’t know what you consider “terrible.” His Math was just 600, but his CR was 780. He was not eligible for any sort of financial aid there. He’s at Temple, now. They’re probably worth a try from in-state, depending on your test scores. If you don’t get in as a freshman, bear in mind that they have an 85% transfer acceptance rate, and have very good transfer agreements with PA CCs. He did time at UArts, and then a semester at CC in Philly before getting into Temple. I think that Penn State’s main campus probably won’t like your GPA, but your chances are pretty good at branch campuses, provided you’ve fulfilled your standard H.S. requirements. You should sign up for the SAT/ACT on the first available date(s) in September. Senior year is a little late to establish baseline scores, but you will have results in time for priority applications in the fall.
Since the PA schools are LOUSY with FA (pretty much only giving low fed aid), this student needs to find out how much his family will pay.
If he’s in a situation where his EFC is more than 5700 and his family won’t pay much, then how would he pay for any PA school that would require him to live away from home?
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I am not sure how much my parents are willing to pay.I am probably going to get financial aid,but I don't want to be in a lot of debt when I graduate.
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Please ask your parents. You’re not likely going to get anywhere near enough FA at a PA public or Drexel.
I agree that PA state schools generally give poor aid. However, for low income students, it’s not necessarily terrible. For example, my S15 was offered Pell, SEOG, and PHEAA grants totalling $10768 plus a $3000 scholarship, work study, and student loan, in total covering COA at IUP. No, it’s not HYP-level aid, but few schools have that kind of money. It is true that need-based aid for middle class families is practically non-existent, and most merit aid is for relatively small amounts.
What’s your gender? A lot of LACs have extreme gender imbalances meaning that they are much more inviting to boys with 2.7s than females with the same scores. Run the NPC on Urisnus College, Elizabethtown, and Allegheny. These are solid to great PA LACs with decent FA and high acceptance rates.
When the OP tells us more, s/he can get better advice. We don’t know if this student is low income. If s/he were, I would think she/he’d have mentioned that when answering the question about how much the family would pay. Usually, when low income, the student will answer that question with something like, "family income is low, so they won’t be able to pay much or anything. But, we’ll have to wait for some clarification.
Whenhen has a good suggestion. If this student is male, there are some LACs that really need/want more boys and will try to make attractive pkgs to get more boys.
Also good idea to run the NPCs on Urisnus, Elizabethtown and Allegheny.