I am a current junior in high school and alas I need to start narrowing my college search. I am an Illinois resident who is primarily looking at colleges in the Midwest (not against going farther, it is just expensive). I am a Hispanic female with intentions to study biology on a pre-health track (either medical or veterinary).
3.25 GPA unweighted (trying to bring up to a 3.3) 4.15-4.25 (estimated) GPA weighted
27 ACT
4 years of all core classes (including 4 years of Japanese), most of them honors/AP
By the time I graduate:
4 years DECA
3 years Key Club
3 years Class Council
2 years HOSA (At the state conference this year, I placed top ten for three of the four events I competed in. I will be attending the National Conference in Anaheim, California this June. I will be applying to be an officer next year, but it is not guaranteed)
100+ volunteer hours (mainly cleaning cat cages in PetSmart, but I have also volunteered at the library and a couple random Key Club events. I plan on starting to volunteer at the hospital and walking dogs for rescues)
My business teacher will be (hopefully) getting me a job at a place related to healthcare over the summer that I will continue working at throughout my senior year.
I am a good writer who has had my fair share of challenges, so I should have a good personal essay. I have teachers who would write me great letters of recommendation.
So my GPA is so low because I am a first generation college student, and no one knew how competitive my grades were supposed to be. B was awesome! Plus, as a freshman, no one in my school told me that most colleges do not care about my weighted GPA. I never knew what my actual GPA was until recently because I always thought I had a good one since it is weighted (in an honors/AP class, 5.0 for an A, 4.0 for a B, but a C is still a 2.0). My parents are separated (soon to be divorced) and they financially cannot provide much money towards my education. So I need a college that has relatively low tuition, and ok financial aid. I have been applying to private scholarships, and I will continue to do so, but I know that will not cover everything. School wise, I really want to avoid schools under 5,000 people, and I prefer over 10,000.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DePaul University
Illinois State University
Obviously these are just three, but I would suggest some college search websites such as college board big future, or the one on this website is also pretty good.
Look into Earlham. They are private, but Quaker, and committed to diversity, so they might be generous with financial aid.
Most colleges actually care pretty heavily about weighted GPA. My school only gives colleges the weighted GPA.
That being said…
UIUC (As said above)
DePaul
Marquette
University of Wisconsin @ Madison
Purdue University
Indiana University
What about the other schools in the University of Wisconsin system? I fell in love with Madison but it’s pretty selective and expensive. My business teacher said they give virtually no financial aid to OOS students (especially since my application is sub-par)
So was hoping for some more replies, and I would just like to give a brief update. I am now an officer for both DECA and HOSA, and I will be working throughout the school year at an animal hospital. I’m pretty much paying for college myself, my parents have absolutely no money saved. Therefore, any aid not given to me by the school will be private loans I take out myself.
@jdschooled5, that is just wrong. Those colleges are taking the transcript and unweighting the grades so they can compare apples to apples on GPAs.
Also, you said you were applying for outside scholarships. Note that many colleges just reduce your need-based aid by those amounts. Sometimes they reduce loans or student contribution, but sometimes they reduce grants. You usually have to ask at each school.
Have you run net price calculators at each college on your list? Add together your parent’s income and assets as your best bet. Also, for any school requiring the CSS profile, know that if your parents remarry, the income and assets of s new spouse may be considered in the FA calculation as well.
Wait, so could outside scholarships end up hurting me in regards to need based aid?
Yes, but different schools handle if differently. You need to contact the FA office at each school to determine how they handle it.
Cheapest College for your A.A. with a high transfer rate to a major University. Save money on your first two years.
Secondly, don’t worry too much about the school, as long as it isn’t rated poor and has decent hiring rate out of college. You will learn that a particular college is utterly useless unless you’re referring to a handful of degrees: J.D. (Lawyer) M.D. (Doctors and Surgeons) and Engineering related degrees (assuming you want to fetch above 60k a year).
You should put more effort into networking than you should into the actual picking of schools. Look at the recent rates of employment even with law schools…
As someone in my situation, this probably sounds a little petty, but I really want to avoid community college. I’m really trying to get the traditional college experience (plus I’d like to study abroad junior year and it would not work so well considering that would be my first year in the college if I went the community college route). I get if it’s not doable, but for now I’m (probably naively) keeping my hopes up.
Unfortunately, your GPA and ACT are not high enough to gain merit aid.
To avoid OOS fees you need to look at your instate options.
You may want to apply to some privates that will consider your ECs.
Would you happen to know of any? I also don’t have time to visit any colleges before applying due to my parents’ work schedule.
So update? I’ve received merit scholarships of $13,000, $7000, and $14,000 so far (from different schools). They’re not huge, but obviously my GPA and ACT were not that high, but it is possible to gain merit aid without perfect grades.