What colleges would be a good fit and affordable?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I’m a rising senior and I’m putting together my college list. I currently want to go to college for journalism and business, so I really want good programs for both of those. I have a potential college list, but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to afford an expensive school and I don’t want to be heavily in debt. I also REALLY want to get out of state if at all possible (I live in Indiana and I know I can easily go to IU—which I am keeping as an option—but I’d like to avoid it).

My weighted GPA is around 4.4 and my unweighted is somewhere around 3.8 (3.83-85 I think though I’m not sure; also my school doesn’t send UW GPA). I got a 33 on my ACT and I don’t think I need to take it again (unless it’d significantly help me).

ECs:

  • Product evangelist associate for a non-profit — so basically I’m working on their social media, writing blog posts, marketing, etc.
  • Intern at my local newspaper — mainly do freelance writing
  • Audience Engagement Editor for my school newspaper (I wanted to go for EIC but junior year was rough and I really like my position since it tailors to my interests)
  • president of the mental health awareness club
  • on the mental health steering committee — one of 3 students to work with administration of a new culture of care initiative
  • president/ founder of a club to help start a library in an impoverished community abroad
  • DECA — won first at state last year and third sophomore year, also help teach younger students how to do well in competition
  • also applying for an internship at another non-profit (it really matches my interests and I LOVE their mission)
  • I’ve also done other clubs for a year or two but ended up dropping them bc they didn’t match my interests

My current top choice schools are Boston University, UNC, USC, Northwestern, and Michigan. I’m also looking into UT Austin, Fordham, and Mizzou and a couple others.

However, while I would love to go to any of those schools, many of the reaches are very expensive and I don’t know if I’ll get in nevertheless get a scholarship. I also highly doubt that I’ll get any financial aid money but also don’t want to pay $200k+. Additionally, I’d kill to live in a big city (my career interests also bank upon internship opportunities/ connections that I can find easier in a city), and I also want to have good connections from the school.

Are there schools at which I would be competitive for a decent scholarship or schools that would be more affordable? I would like to go to a prestigious school, but I don’t know if I can justify the price tag.

2

Congratulations on your hard work and success! You are doing great!

Great schools on your list. Mizzou is great for journalism, and you might get money with your strong record (don’t know much about the school’s policies on this). Fordham sounds great for you. It does give merit money, and I’d think you’d get some. Whether or not it takes it close enough to IU, I’m not sure. Run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for these schools (available on their websites).

Among the others, certainly apply if you love them, and I don’t know for sure, but I think OOS students will have difficulty getting significant aid for UT-Austin, Michigan, and UNC. Michigan in particular is a very expensive OOS public. I also don’t believe BU gives that much aid, but run the NPC to see what you get. Don’t trust me on that. It’s a good choice. Again, not knocking any of your choices, all great schools, and you’d be a very reasonable applicant at all of them (UNC and UTA take a very low % of OOS though), but just check the costs. You don’t want to be accepted to some great schools and then not be unable to afford them.

Some others you might also explore: Syracuse University, top journalism school.

What about Emerson College in downtown Boston, very urban, terrific for communications.

https://www.emerson.edu

If you are going to shoot for a big state flagship, how about the University of Washington in Seattle. You can see downtown from the beautiful campus, and there’s a light rail train that takes you from campus to downtown in a handful of stops. Would very probably be expensive but more urban than UNC.

What about the University of San Francisco? Only a journalism minor but does have communications and media studies majors. Very urban. Great school, but you’d be a very strong candidate, maybe check the NPC.

https://www.usfca.edu/academics/undergraduate/majors-minors

Another very urban option might be Temple University. It’s a very dynamic school. Seems like it might suit your interests. I know a recent grad who totally loved the Philly experience.

Again, you seem like a very strong student. You’re looking at some very competitive schools, which is fine, they’re reasonable for you. Mostly responding to your very helpful comment that you’d “kill to live in a big city.” Just trying to suggest some ones that would be accessible AND affordable. For example, you could reasonably apply to NYU, it would be a great choice, and maybe you could run the NPC. Just from my personal experience, and general knowledge, it offers very little aid.

Good luck! (PS One of my favorite people in the world grew up in Indiana and wanted to get out for college, which was good for me because that’s how I met them. IU is a great school though, and Indiana is actually very nice. But I get it.)

3

First, congrats for all your hard work – you’re in a really great position and you will do well anywhere you attend college. I can’t speak to all the colleges on your list but UNC and Mizzou are both great for journalism, as you know, and UNC also has a great business school. UNC does offer some OOS merit but it’s very difficult to get – but you never know so I would def. give it a shot. UT and Michigan give almost no OOS aid from what I’ve read on CC. Not sure about Mizzou.

I suggest you run some net price calculators and see what your EFC is – you might be surprised and qualify for some aid. UNC meets 100% of need aid even for OOS so esp. run it for them.

Are you wedded to a big school? I think you’d be a top candidate at some highly ranked LACs, all of which have newspapers where you’d have less competition to write and could really play a leadership role. Since you want to attend a prestigious school places like Amherst, Kenyon or Bowdoin would have strong alumni networks and a lot of faculty / career development support to help you with your journalism goals – even if they don’t have journalism majors. LACs can be great launching pads for business too. Just something to think about, and you could be a good geographic diversity pick for Northeastern LACs, especially.

4

Sorry, just want to add two urban LACs in case that appeals. Will have expensive sticker prices, run the NPC to see if you’d get some money.

Rhodes College in Memphis, beautiful, small LAC, great education, no business though

https://www.rhodes.edu/content/about-rhodes

https://www.rhodes.edu/content/our-campus

Macalester College in Twin Cities, international focus, urban LAC

https://www.macalester.edu/about/whymacalester/

5

Affordable means different things to different peoole. How much are your parents willing to pay?

6

How much can your parents pay? Have you used the NPC?

7

At Emerson, you are likely to get a scholarship with those scores too. Expensive, but i would apply EA and see what they give you.

Not a big city, but Ithaca College. Also will give $. Syracuse is expensive, but may give you some.

A thought: Seton Hall. Very near NYC, good internship connections, lots of scholarship $. Not prestigious, but…

I’d go to IU. It’s a bargain and a pretty prestigious school. Most kids don’t have that option, so try to look at it that way!

8

Sit down with your parents and run the Net Price Calculator at each institution’s website. That will give you a notion of whether or not the place can be made affordable.

Do apply early to IU so that you get yourself in line early for any merit-based aid or other goodies such as early dorm selection, early class registration, etc. IU is most likely your real safety and you want to be sure that it can also be a really good situation for yourself if you find that you have to study there because of money.

In recent years some of the Missouri universities made it very easy for students to establish in-state residence for tuition and fees after the first year paying OOS rates. So if Mizzou is on your list, do investigate that. It might make the cost affordable.

9

As others have suggested, you and your parents need to run the online Net Price Calculators for the schools that interest you and discuss what you mean by “affordable”.

Just to give you an idea of how widely net prices can vary …
First let’s suppose your family income is $120K/year, you have $120K in home equity, $60K in cash savings (parents’), no student assets, and 1 sibling (12 years old).
Here are some net price estimates I get:
$70,302 Boston U.
$50,299 Michigan
$36,721 UNC-CH
$30,121 Northwestern
$24,778 IU Bloomington (in-state)

Now suppose your family income is $60K/year, you have $60K in home equity, $30K in cash savings (parents’), no student assets, and 1 sibling (12 years old).
Here are the new net price estimates I get:
$68,732 Boston U.
$15,234 UNC-CH
$13,923 IU Bloomington (in-state)
$12,987 Michigan
$8,634 Northwestern
$2,700 Cornell

Your Mileage May Vary; “information deemed reliable but not guaranteed”.
Not only will the net prices usually vary based on different assumptions, but the order of most-to-least expensive schools might change. These numbers are based only on need-based aid. Some schools also offer merit scholarships, but typically those awards don’t “stack” with n-b aid. Instead, they typically offset (reduce) your need … so, you may get a correspondingly lower amount of n-b aid.

Typically, very selective schools (and usually private ones) offer the most generous n-b aid across the biggest income range (and sometimes the lowest net prices, especially if your income is below a certain point).

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need

For big merit scholarships, usually you need to consider less selective schools.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
(these sites aren’t always fully up-to-date; check the individual websites of schools that interest you)

10

Of course, you have IU and Purdue. Check out Alabama. You qualify for a very good nonresident scholarship, which should bring your tuition below the cost of in-state. The cost of living is also super cheap down there.

11

You would probably love the business+journalism combined major at Northeastern. You might get merit $ there - my d got a little bit of merit with slightly lower stats than yours, and coming from Indiana you’re outside the highest-demand zone. Odds are it won’t be affordable, but there’s no harm in applying EA and seeing what they give you. (No writing supplement or anything.)

Yes, business and journalism are both strong at Syracuse, and there are possibilities for the Honors Program and for merit money. But you’d have to look at whether you could combine both business and journalism the way you’d like, or if these two relatively-competitive programs would be more of an either-or proposition.

GWU also has merit potential and strength in both areas, and studying journalism right at the scene of the crime I mean Our Nation’s Capital could be quite an experience in these exciting times :slight_smile:

12

It will be tough to meet all your criteria (prestigious, urban, etc) at a bargain price. There are a lot of people in your position: excellent stats, but you probably won’t get merit aid from a prestigious college (you are wise in wanting to avoid serious debt).

It is easy to get swept up in the frenzy of trying to get into the most prestigious school possible–but that doesn’t seem to work for you financially. At some point you will probably get a master’s degree, so it might be best to wait until then to quench your thirst for prestige.

For future journalists, it would seem good to be in a state capital city–they tend to have more news & more opportunities for journalists than other cities of comparable size. Schools in capital cities that would give you significant merit aid and/or tuition waivers include U of South Carolina, Florida State, U of Nebraska, Louisiana State, and maybe Ohio State.

13

Good journalism and business can be found at Mizzou or Ohio University - but also Denison (excellent Non fiction writing major, which you can combine with Commerce.)
U Maryland Honors has access to the nation’s capital, good scholarships for high stats, and good academics in the fields you’re interested in.

State capitals in Louisiana or Nebraska don’t really make news nor have major newspapers. I don’t think those would be primary targets for journalism except for merit aid, in which case UHouston, UNM, UMN-TC…would be equally valid.

14

Look into UCF. They have a VERY competitive journalism program (they accept around 25- 30 kids a year into it) and the professors are very passionate and the advisers there are amazing. Their business school is also really great (my cousin got an accounting degree there and landed a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers right out of college). Since it’s located in Orlando there are tons of opportunities outside the school and the school is considered to be very affordable. They d have an out-of-state tuition waiver kids can apply for.

15

A couple of points…

You’re looking at several very well recruited schools. They do not need to be in a major urban location, for you to earn internships, and build connections. This is especially true at the large state flagship universities. Focus more on how well the school’s program is recruited.

Mizzou has been mentioned a few times. It has an excellent journalism program, is fairly easy to get admitted into the program, and can be very affordable for OOS students. (It’s fairly easy to get classified as an in-state student). Check out the Mizzou forum for details, but it should make an excellent “safety” choice.

Need-based aid vs Merit-based aid. As a rule, the more selective a school, the less merit-based aid is offered, but more need-based aid is given. @tk21769 does an excellent job of showing that in post #8. Run those net price calculators. To get into the most selective schools, you’ll need high GPA, Test scores and often, with holistic admissions, strong ECs. Which leads to the next point.

A 33 ACT is good, but a higher score would help earn better merit-based aid and/or improve your chances at very selective schools. Since you’re chasing OOS aid, I would recommend taking the ACE one more time.

Let’s use two schools to illustrate the above points. The University of Florida and the University of Georgia. Both schools have well known(and recruited) journalism and business program. Both are in "college towns’, yet the students have no programs earning internships and building connections (especially in the respective state of each school).Neither schools is “OOS” friendly, like Mizzou, so high test scores would be required to earn one of the merit based scholarships…

16

^ the students have no programs?