<p>No size preference? You may want to visit a LAC, a large public university and a mid-sized private university in your area to see how different these kinds of educational environments are. These types of schools offer very different experiences, and while most people would do okay anywhere, most people have an ‘optimal’ learning environment. It would be worth your time to figure out what yours is.</p>
<p>Did u ask parents how much they will spend each year.</p>
<p>Sorry, my mom still hasn’t got around to filling out the FAFSA thing… Would it be at all worth it to apply to Michigan? I know they’re a pretty decent cut above OSU in terms of academics, but I figure that if I made it, I wouldn’t get nearly enough financial aid.</p>
<p>Unless you got one of the very rare top scholarships you would be virtually full pay. NOT worth it IMO.</p>
<p>With your stats as an Ohio resident will get an automatic $6,500 per year merit scholarship from Miami (approximately half tuition). Honors applicants can also apply for the Harrison (full in-state tuition) scholarship - due date to apply this year is Nov 3.</p>
<p>Might look at Holy Cross-nice campus 1 hour from Boston. HC has great science reputation with new $70 million science building. Holy Cross has strong school spirit with one of the best alumni networks.</p>
<p>Not worth throwing out school names without financail info–it’s just pie-in-sky. Have your parents sit down with you and do an EFC estimate calculator right away. It is easy and often reliable, but not entirely. FAFSA site has one. College Confidential has one. </p>
<p>If you won’t qualify for need based aid, you will want/need to target merit aid schools. Start the FAFSA right away. YOU can sign up and get your pin number now and fill out the student portion. Encourage your parents to fill it out asap. Don’t not leave this for the last minute, until they ‘get around to it.’</p>
<p>While I detest the term “lower ivy” and find it ridiculous when used by people who wouldn’t ever get admitted, be aware that school’s like Brown have admit rates almost as low as Harvard. While most of the applicants have superior stats, they have to bring something notable to the table to get in, just because they have to deny 9 out of 10-ish. Ivy’s also do not give merit aid. However, some do have quite compelling financial packages anyway, depending on the FAFSA and the school’s own separate financial application.</p>
<p>@ Erin’s Dad: Thanks for the info as usual 
@ Chicago Bear: I actually just got info book type thing in the mail from Miami today and was looking at the scholarships. I will make sure to apply for Harrison Scholarship on time.
@ par72: Thanks for the suggestion, my AP Language teacher, who is one of my favorite teachers of all time, actually went there.
@ BrownParent: My mom did some of it a long time ago, but Idk if she saved her progress or what, I will try to get her on it though.
And sorry, I did not mean to offend with the term “lower Ivy.” I know schools such as Brown and Cornell are still ridiculously difficult to get into even though they are not held in quite the same esteem as HYP.</p>
<p>Sorry, my mom still hasn’t got around to filling out the FAFSA thing…</p>
<p>The link I gave you is super easy…All you need to plug in is income and savings/assets. Unless your parents have complicated assets, you could do it yourself if your mom just told you how much their income is and roughly how much their assets are. </p>
<p>Another good guideline is about 22% of family income (unless your family has a lot of assets or income is very low). </p>
<p>Ask your parents how much they will pay each year.</p>
<p>35 ACT
top 3% of your HS class</p>
<p>You match as well as anyone really to schools like Northwestern, WashU, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, really any one of the top 15 except for HYPSM, and that only because those students tend to be in the top 1% of their graduating classes, a clear cut above. You are probably a high match for Emory and Vandy.</p>
<p>At around $100,000 family earnings and not huge assets, I think you’ll find that your EFC will be between $25,000 and $30,000 per year, and that Private will not cost much more, if any, than Public. It’s been awhile since I ran different income levels to see how they come out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response, to me you sound a bit optimistic, but I honestly don’t know much about this stuff, so who knows. Does the fact that I have a twin brother who will be going to college at the same time as I will effect EFC at all?</p>
<p>^ well, Yeah… EFC is divided among all children… so for each child, I predict your family’s EFC will be between $12,000 and $15,000 .</p>
<p>This becomes clear when you fill out one of the EFC calculators.</p>
<p>*I actually will likely need a decent amount of financial aid, **but I was interested in getting recommendations without the consideration of financial aid just to see.
**
Thanks for the suggestion Would I have a good chance of getting generous merit aid at Pitt though? I would need some extra money to cover out of state costs. *</p>
<p>If you’re a senior, then it’s really too late to not take aid or merit into consideration. If you were a junior then it would be fine, but the app season is NOW, so it’s not a good idea considering schools that won’t be affordable.</p>
<p>You need to ask your parents how much they can spend on each child’s tuition. You need that number NOW…especially since there are two of you.</p>
<p>*EFC is divided among all children… so for each child, I predict your family’s EFC will be between $12,000 and $15,000 .
*</p>
<p>That may be true for FAFSA. It won’t be true for CSS Profile schools. CSS schools may expect $18-20k or more for each child. Family contribution doesn’t get split 50/50 for CSS schools. There is an assumption at CSS schools that parents should expect to pay out more money when 2 or more are in school.</p>
<p>If your parents can pay their EFC for each kid (or more), then great. If they can’t, then that will be an issue.</p>
<p>Also, if your twin’s scores are not high, then that may also be an issue for your parents because they may have to pay more of his college costs. That may not seem “fair,” but that’s an issue many families face when they have 2 or more in college at the same time. Families often need the “higher stats” child to go to a school where they have to pay out the least amount of money because they know that they’ll have to pay more for the child(ren) that won’t get into schools with great aid or merit. </p>
<p>My friend has twins and they don’t qualify for much/any aid. They needed to high stats twin to take a full-tuition scholarship because the other twin’s stats were good, but not high enough for any merit. They have to pay full-freight for the other twin’s college costs. </p>
<p>If money is an issue…To protect yourself, you need apply to some schools that will give you big merit for your stats. You don’t want to have a situation in the spring where you have a handful of acceptances, but your parents don’t have enough to pay for whatever their costs will be for the two of you in college.</p>
<p>Ok, my mom said she was confused on some of the assets parts, but it came out that the ECF would be $9000 for each of us (as in $9000 for me and then another $9000 for my twin brother). </p>
<p>As for my brother’s stats, his are arguably better than mine. His GPA is slightly higher, his rank is one higher than mine, he’s a National Merit Semi-Finalist (hopefully will end up being a finalist), he has a 33 ACT and 2080 SAT (he’s taking it again this weekend though), and he has slightly better EC’s than I do. So he will definitely get some decent merit aid as well.</p>
<p>I figure that at most, my parents would probably be willing to pay $15000-$20000 a year (combined $30000-$40000) but I haven’t really had that kind of discussion with them. That’s why in-state schools like OSU are above other choices in my eyes right now. Cost may be especially important since I’d say there is a very good chance that at least one of us will go on to graduate school.</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful response as usual, mom2collegekids.</p>
<p>*ECF would be $9000 for each of us (as in $9000 for me and then another $9000 for my twin brother).</p>
<p>As for my brother’s stats, his are arguably better than mine. **His GPA is slightly higher, his rank is one higher than mine, he’s a National Merit Semi-Finalist<a href=“hopefully%20will%20end%20up%20being%20a%20finalist”>/B</a>, he has a 33 ACT and 2080 SAT (he’s taking it again this weekend though), and he has slightly better EC’s than I do. So he will definitely get some decent merit aid as well.*</p>
<p>How awesome…two very smart twins!!! :)</p>
<p>Your brother will get merit aid if he goes to a school that gives merit aid. If he goes to school that doesn’t (like ivies), then he won’t. Where is he applying?</p>
<p>I figure that at most, my parents would probably be willing to pay $15000-$20000 a year (combined $30000-$40000) but I haven’t really had that kind of discussion with them.</p>
<p>You need to ask your parents. If their EFC is only $18,000 (combined for two kids), then their income and assets may not be high enough to pay out $30k - 40k per year. With an EFC of $18k, their income may only be around $100k. It would be very difficult for such a family to pay out $40k per year.</p>
<p>Ask them how much they can pay each year and then come back.</p>
<p>Tulane is known for science and for giving good financial aid.</p>
<p>@ mom2collegekids: Okay, I will ask them tomorrow.
@ ricegal: thanks for the suggestion, I have actually been getting a lot of emails from Tulane lately.</p>
<p>So I have another question. Lately I’ve been thinking that marine biology would be an extremely interesting field to get into. The thing is, I’m not sure if I will still feel the same way by the time I start college next year. I tend to fall in love with the idea of certain majors and then ending up deciding that the major probably isn’t for me after a few months. With that being said, should I still maybe apply to some schools that are known for either having good undergrad marine biology or maybe a lot of marine biology research? Cuz you can’t exactly find marine biology at schools in Ohio… Although I know that Ohio State has a summer program that students can apply to go to Stone Laboratory on Gibraltar island in Lake Erie and conduct research. That could be similar to marine biology except for the fact that it would be in Lake Erie rather than the ocean obviously.</p>
<p>What kind of career do you see yourself having?</p>
<p>I’m not sure… Right now I’m interested in marine biology, wildlife biology, microbiology, and neuroscience. But as I said my preferences tend to change every so often. And yes, I realize that all four of these careers would require more than an undergrad degree to really get anywhere.</p>
<p>Given all that, schools with broad offerings that still are coastal would be good choices. There are a lot of those. Tulane still qualifies, being in the gulf area. Their major is actually Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, with a Marine Biology minor. You would be totally prepared for grad school if you decided to stick with that. If you change your mind, Tulane offers a broad array of majors and switching is extremely easy. You can also look at Miami, UCSD, and a number of others.</p>
<p>I should also point out that with your stats, you would have an excellent chance at the Deans Honors Scholorship (DHS), which is full tuition for 4 years. Look into it.</p>