<p>I'm having trouble finding colleges that are right for me. I'm looking for a college that isn't too large, but isn't too small either (perhaps between 2000 and 10,000?), and I would like for its location to be in a somewhat-urban area, though that's not necessarily a huge deciding factor. Furthermore, I'd like the college to be in the northeast (this one is big for me; the college would have to be really impressive in order for me to bend on this one). </p>
<p>My problem is that I can't find colleges with both of my included interests. I'm a fan of math, so I was considering accounting or some other related field (economics or international business?), and I was either going to double major (eh) or minor in Japanese, as I am very much interested in the language (I'm a bit shaky on the double majoring because that's a lot of work, and I've heard word that majors in Japanese aren't exactly practical). As of now, I'm definitely undecided on my major (as you can tell), so I need a college with a good variety of options. As stated before, I am interested in the Japanese language and mathematics. I'm kind of leaning toward a liberal arts college, as I would like to try out several different things. </p>
<p>My family isn't so great financially, but I assume that government grants and scholarships will help with this (I'm applying to every one I can find). In the event that it doesn't, I'm looking for colleges that are pretty good about financial assistance as well. In addition, I'm interested in schools with a variety of extra-curricular activities, as I love volunteering and being a part of something. </p>
<p>Please shout out any of the colleges that fall into these categories and explain why they would be good for me. I'll go ahead and include some facts about me so that you may be able to limit it down based on grades/gender/etc. Thank you so much for all of your help. </p>
<p>Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Caucasian
SAT: 2080 (670 math; 670 reading; 740 writing)
ACT: 30
GPA: Approx. 4.6 as of right now (I'm taking 4 APs, so hopefully it will go up)</p>
<p>I think that's about it. If you have any questions that might help you recommend some colleges, please feel free to ask them. Thank you so much!</p>
<p>I’m looking at Tufts, and I think I’m missing something here. Under their Japanese program, they have the following listed: </p>
<p>"Any four of the following language courses:
021/022 Reading and Conversation (Third-year)
121/122 Advanced Japanese (Fourth-year)
123/124 Advanced Readings in Japanese Culture (Fifth-year)
095/096 Japanese Teaching Internship</p>
<p>Two of the following culture courses (taught in English except 191J and 192J)
061 (161) Introduction to Japanese Culture
062 (162) Modern Japanese Literature
063 (163) Postwar Japanese Literature
080 Japanese Film
081 The World of Japanese Animation: Culture, Cult, and Commerce
084 East-West Perspectives of Fascism: Germany and Japan
91/92 Special Topics
110 Major Japanese Writers
111 Japanese Poetry
112 Major Japanese Film Directors
113 Japanese Visual Culture
114 Gender in Japanese Culture
115 Haruki Murakami
116 The Writings of Natsume Soseki
170 The “Orient” in the Mind of the West
191/192 Seminar on Special Topics
Please keep in mind that:"</p>
<p>They wouldn’t count Japanese 1, 2, 3, and 4 (elementary and intermediate) toward my minor. Do all colleges do things like this? I mean, most of those language classes can’t be taken in the same year, correct? That would require me to spend more than four years working toward the minor, as there are four distinct language classes required (all of which must be above the elementary and intermediate levels, which I must take) and two culture classes. Do all colleges require courses applicable for minors to be above these levels, or is it just Tufts? Furthermore, can some of these classes be taken in the same year? From my understanding, they can’t, but perhaps I’m wrong…</p>
<p>“My family isn’t so great financially, but I assume that government grants and scholarships will help with this”</p>
<p>You need to spend some time in the financial aid forum and learn about how financial aid works. Even if you have an EFC of 0 which would qualify you for a full Pell Grant, and you also took out a maximum federal loan that would only come to a grand total of $11,050 for your first year. This will probably cover the tuition and fees at a public university in your home state, but how will you pay for housing and meals?</p>
<p>College is a great time to broaden your outlook. Consider Rice, Boston College & the College of William & Mary. Also, the University of Richmond may work for you.</p>
<p>1) I have an EFC of 0, as my only source of income is the money that my mother receives from government assistance (which is not included on the FAFSFA form as of a few years ago; therefore, our gross annual income is 0). </p>
<p>2) Colleges give scholarships upon application. I plan to get several of those, as my GPA is pretty high and I have above-average test scores. Several of these cover up to 3/4ths of the tuition/room and board (hence why I mentioned that I wanted schools with good financial assistance), and combined with the Pell Grant, that should be enough to cover my fees. Even if it doesn’t… (see 3)</p>
<p>3) I am applying to several organization-based scholarships. I have already applied to Sallie Southall and PEO Star and gotten to the second round on both, and I recently sent in my form for Horatio Alger. In addition, Elks Lodge and Dell are due soon, and I have several others on my list for this month alone, not even to mention those that are coming in March and April. Furthermore, my school offers several scholarships, and as I am the Valedictorian, I feel that I will nab those as well. </p>
<p>4) I have very rich grandparents. I wanted to burden them as little as possible, which is why I mentioned that cheaper schools would be more beneficial. However, I don’t want to limit myself to North Carolina based on that. If required, I could always ask them for assistance (which is what my brother did).</p>
<p>Have you tried the College Search feature available here on College Confidential (<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search)?%5B/url%5D”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search)?</a> It’s a very useful tool for narrowing down a college list based on certain criteria. I just plugged in some of your criteria - northeast, 2000-7000 students, Japanese major, urban area - and came up with a list of half a dozen close matches. I’d recommend starting there.</p>
<p>The CC College Search feature can be very helpful.<br>
I tried inputting the following criteria:</p>
<p>Location: NE (must have)
Major: Japanese in a 4 year program (must have)
Scores: 2080
GPA: 4.0
Type: traditional 4 year (must have)
Setting: large urban/small urban/suburb or town (very important)
Public/Private: private (must have - for better aid than OOS public schools)
Getting in: selective or very selective (must have - for better aid)</p>
<p>An inconvenience of the CC search tool is its failure to directly expose financial aid information. I tried to compensate by specifying private, selective schools (at the risk of missing some otherwise good alternatives). Still, the results are rather hit-or-miss after the 100% matches. For example, it assigns a 91% match score to both Gettysburg and Elizabethtown College. Gettysburg on average meets 100% of need. Elizabethtown (with about 1/5 of Gettysburg’s endowment) on average meets less than 80% of need (and fully meets the need of less than 19% of students with need). In addition to 4 years of Japanese language instruction, Gettysburg offers a fairly rich array of courses in Japanese studies. Elizabethtown does offer 4 years of Japanese language, but only one topical course in Japanese studies. </p>
<p>A high-need student with good stats, like the OP, should be aware that there are about 50 need-blind, full-need institutions. Almost all of them are selective, private, well-endowed schools. Most of them (including even some of the smallest) offer at least 2 years of Japanese language. Many offer a full 4 years of Japanese language plus many area studies courses.
([Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia))</p>
<p>On the other hand, for an unusually well qualified student, a less selective school may come through with an unusually good aid offer. If that results in a lower net cost than a school with better course selection, you could use the savings for summer language classes or study abroad.</p>
<p>I think since your EFC is 0 you may want to apply to schools like Rice and Boston College who are need blind and meet 100% of need (Rice is almost a full ride to anyone whose parents’ combined income is under 80,000)</p>
<p>Accounting does not use very advanced math, if that is what you are interested in doing. If you major in math, statistics, economics (with heavy math), or finance (with heavy math), you will take more advanced math. Physics, engineering, and computer science are also more mathematical.</p>
<p>Note that a major or minor in Japanese may require several literature and culture courses beyond the Japanese language courses. It is not necessary to major or minor in Japanese to take the language courses, though you may want to take some of the literature and culture courses anyway even if you do not major or minor in it.</p>
<p>For finances, go to each school’s web site and try the net price calculator to see what kind of financial aid it may offer. If the net price is greater than the Stafford loan amount plus realistic work earnings, then the school is likely unaffordable unless it offers a very large (full or near-full ride) merit scholarship that you have a realistic chance for.</p>
<p>@annasdad: Thank you very much for the link. I’ve used it numerous times, and I think I have a list of the colleges I will be applying to because of it : )</p>
<p>@tk21769: I went ahead and checked out all of the schools with 100%. Because of the fact that Vassar has Japanese and is listed as a school with a need-blind admission policy on the provided wikipedia page (thank you very much for that; it has been incredibly helpful), I went ahead and added it to my list of schools that I’m going to apply to. I don’t like Wellesley (the all-girls thing gets me; I’d prefer a relatively-equal gender distribution), and Brandeis didn’t shout out at me, but I am applying to Gettysburg (it has both Japanese and business, and I like the population, despite the area; I’m very excited). I also took your advice in the last paragraph. There is a school in my home state that is relatively low academically; in fact, I don’t even list in its top 75th percentile (I think I’m about 200 points over that). I plan on applying to it as a backup school, just in case I don’t get enough money to go up north. I should get lots of scholarships there. Thank you very much! </p>
<p>@barrk123: Boston was very selective, and they didn’t have what I was looking for. The same goes for Rice… Regardless, thank you very much for your help! </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: I’ve done that for a few schools, but I would much rather wait and see what scholarships are offered to me. As stated previously, I’m not <em>too</em> worried about financial aid. Most of the colleges on my list now are either really good about financial aid or have a need-blind admissions policy, and combined with the scholarships I’ll earn through various organizations/the pell grant, I think I’ll be okay. In the event that I’m not, I have several backup schools that I am sure I can afford. Regardless, thank you for your concern. </p>
<p>It does not take much time to run the net price calculators to tell you whether a given school is affordable on need-based aid only without merit scholarships, or if you need the merit scholarships to make it affordable.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to be offensive here, but honestly, I didn’t come to these boards looking for financial advice. I just asked if anyone knew of any schools that suited my interests; I wasn’t really looking for a bunch of people to come at me with “make sure you can afford it”, “you can’t afford it!”, etc. I said I had backup plans. Thank you again for your concern, but it isn’t needed. I was just looking for a list of colleges that suited my interests. I said that those with better financial aid would be more advantageous, but that doesn’t mean I’m asking for financial advice. Thanks for your concern.</p>
<p>Okay, Jackie, but your posts don’t show much understanding of the financial realities of attending college. If you think that you can cover your costs with outside scholarships and Pell grants, more power to you. But I will not be surprised to see you posting come April threads like “How can I borrow $30,000 a year to go to my dream school?”</p>
<p>You guys really do not listen! I SAID that I had backups. In fact, I have one right here in my home state. It’s also a public school, so I would be more than capable of going to that college with only the Pell Grant and ONE outside scholarship (perhaps not even that). I just wanted to apply to other schools; I wanted schools that were good with financial aid, ones that I would enjoy attending. I understand that going north is expensive, but I found schools that I can get scholarships from. I feel that I have a pretty good chance of getting those scholarships, which would help eliminate the outrageous cost. Furthermore, my grandparents have my inheritance, and since they gave my brother his (approx. $14,000 per year; he actually could get more, if needed, but that’s all that is required to pay for his education), I’m positive that they’d be willing to give me mine. If I have to spend it on college, then so be it. These are my dream schools, yes, but I UNDERSTAND if it does not work out. I ASKED for help picking schools; I still have my back-ups. You aren’t my parents; please do not preach to me about financial aid. I have back-ups, and believe me, I will NOT come back here asking about $30,000 loans. If it comes to that, I’ll just go to the public school in my home state. I would appreciate it if you would halt your assumptions of my incompetency regarding financial aid from here on out. As you can hopefully now see, I obviously have other ways of obtaining the necessary funds/backup plans. I have tried to be nice, and I have tried to be civil, but you guys just DO NOT UNDERSTAND that I’m not an idiot. I have several backup plans–backup plans for backup plans, even. To all of those that helped me in my search, thank you very much. I now have compiled a list of six schools to which I will apply. To those that offered advice where it was neither requested nor required… well, thank you for your concern, but it was really unnecessary.</p>
<p>Please understand that you are truly a rare case. Many students who post here do not have any kind of back up at all. That’s why we parents are so skeptical when the financial information is not expressed clearly.</p>
<p>OP, your SAT scores are low for many of the schools suggested here, especially those that give good FA. At Rice and Tufts, for example, you fall in the bottom 25%. You stand a better chance at Vassar and BC, but it certainly isn’t a sure thing.</p>
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<p>Certainly, if you apply to schools where your 670s look like great scores, you may have a chance at such scholarships. (I gather you are talking about merit scholarships, not need-based FA.) Saying that you “plan” to get several of them is a bit jaw-dropping, unless they are the type of scholarship that is guaranteed with certain stats.</p>
<p>The reason for doing the cost check up front for every school is twofold:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If the school is not within reach cost-wise, there is no point in wasting time and money applying there at all.</p></li>
<li><p>If you need a merit scholarship to bring the school within reach cost-wise, then the reach/match/safety assessment is based on the merit scholarship, not admission.</p></li>
</ol>