What colleges would you recommend for me?

College Search & Selection
1

So I’m a high school junior that’s looking at colleges and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for schools I should look at.

Below are the schedules for the past three years, along with the courses I intend to take.

So freshman year began high school for me, just as it did for everyone else. Our school didn’t have A pluses or things like that. You either got an A, B, C, D, F, or an I (for incomplete). So if you don’t see any A pluses, that’s why.

Orchestra - A
Algebra I - A
World History - A/B
English I - A/B
Earth Environmental Science - B/C
Career Pathways - A
Team Sports - A
Spanish I - A

Sophomore year, I stuck to all normal core classes again because of how unprepared I was. However, I did do Spanish II Honors and successfully auditioned for Chamber Orchestra.

English II - B
US History - B
Chamber Orchestra - A
Biology - A
Algebra II/Trig - A
Geometry - A
Spanish II Honors - A/B

Junior year, I moved cross country and went to a different school. I was planning on doing all honors courses, but this school wouldn’t let me as AP students who moved to this school have struggled even with normal courses, so my counselor put me in all normal courses.

Chamber Orchestra (counts for honors here) - A+
Health - A
Adventure - A
Fitness and Conditioning - A-
Chemistry - B+
Multimedia - A+
Pre-Calc - A
English 11 - A-
US History - A-

Next year will be filled with honors courses, all of which I am looking forward to.

Chamber Orchestra (counts for honors)
Team
Lifetime
Intro to Computer Programming
Music Theory I
AP Calculus AB (tried going for BC, but I couldn’t go from honors to BC)
Physics Honors
English 12 Honors
Pop Culture Honors
Family History Honors

This new school also weights all courses, even normal ones. An A+ in a normal course is a 4.7, while an A+ in an AP course is a 5.7. Therefore, my GPA will be around a 4.0 when I graduate.

Extracurriculars:
Orchestra - 6,7,8,9,10,11,12
Track and field - 9
Wolverine Symphony - 9,10
Pit Orchestra - 10
Rock Club - 11 (got cancelled after both co-presidents got tired of it)
Math Honor Society - 11,12

Maybe I’ll do one or two more ECs to fill in my room here.

I have several things I am interested in majoring in. I am interested in computer science, math, and music. I just don’t know which one I want to major in yet. If I had to choose what to do, I would like to major in computer science and minor in music.

Any colleges you’d recommend? (If it makes a difference, I live in Massachusetts)

2

A big question? What’s your approximate budget? Will you need to stay in-state? Will you need financial aid? The answers will be very different depending on that. I think your desire to challenge yourself is terrific. You’ll want to emphasize that in a very positive, forward-looking way when you apply to colleges. (I mean this as helpful advice. I feel some great determination and also some negativity in your above description. Admissions officers, quite naturally, respond more favorably when hard work, positivity, and a forward-looking attitude is emphasized, and less so toward blaming or negativity. We all can only control and influence what we can control and influence, and focusing on that best helps us move forward.)

So about what sort of annual cost is doable for you?

3

@TTG So my parents will be paying $10,000 a year, but they recommend I go to a school that won’t be so expensive after colleges give me financial aid and scholarships. My parents make 170k, so I’m probably not getting financial aid, so I’m mainly focusing on scholarships. I can apply to schools that are higher than 30k a year, but I most likely won’t go there unless the cost is 30k after things like scholarships and aid.

4

If your parents are giving you 10K, why is your budget 30K? You can only borrow 5500mas a freshman unless your parents cosign a private student loan.

Most scholarships come from the schools themselves, and you need a full tuition scholarship to save that 10K towards room and board.

There is a list here (latest summary at post 57)

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2006094-2017-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p4.html

You also need to get a job if you don’t already have one and save money.

5

@AroundHere If you take 10k away from 30k, you end up with 20k that I have to pay each year. In total, that’d be 80k in loans, which isn’t bad. This is why I want to go somewhere that ultimately gives me that type of money is because I don’t want to wander around with over 100k in debt.

6

You as a student cannot take out more than $27K for 4 years in loans so you are looking for merit aid for the balance?

7

80K in loans is worse than you think. You would be wise to stay under federal direct student loan limits
5500 freshman
6500 sophomore
7500 subsequent years

Private loans after that will be at worse terms than what the department of education offers. Your interest rate will be based on your cosigner’s credit rating since you probably don’t have the income to back the extra loan. Make sure your parents are okay with consigning as it does go in their credit report.

If you want to push your loans to the limit, borrow no more than what you expect to earn your first year after graduation. (Which means don’t major in music.)

Your college list start with your in-stats public universities plus schools discussed on the thread I linked above.

Good luck.

8

The most you can take out in student loans for a 4 year degree is $27k. $10,000 will pretty much cover in-state tuition, leaving you with books and living expenses. There are plenty of good scholarships if you know where to look. Check out the deep south universities like Alabama, Auburn Ole Miss and Miss State. They offer the best nonresident scholarships. You could get most of your tuition covered and use that $10,000 from your parents to cover living expenses. That’s almost a full ride. Here’s what I copied from Univ of Alabama:

UA Scholar
A student with a 30-32 ACT or 1390-1480 SAT score and at least a 3.5 GPA, he or she will be named a UA Scholar and will receive $76,000 over four years ($19,000 per year).

Presidential Scholar
A student with a 33-36 ACT or 1490-1600 SAT score and at least a 3.5 GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive $100,000 over four years ($25,000 per year). Students graduating with remaining scholarship semester(s) may use these monies toward graduate school and/or law school study at UA.

Presidential Elite Scholar
A student with a 4.0 GPA and a 36 ACT or 1600 SAT will be selected as a Presidential Elite Scholar and will receive:

Value of tuition for up to four years for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate or law studies
One year of on-campus housing at regular room rate
$1,000 per year stipend for four years
$2,000 one-time allowance for use in summer research or international study (after completing one year of study at UA)
$2,000 book scholarship ($500 per year for four years)

9

University of Alabama uses weighted GPA as long as it is on your transcript so your GPA should be fine. Next focus on your ACT/SAT scores to get in merit range for UA or other schools with guaranteed merit aid.

10

I agree with others that you should try to limit loans as much as you can.

U.Mass Amherst has very good computer science and very good music programs. U.Mass Lowell is also good, and might possibly be slightly less expensive. Your stats at least to me look solidly in line for either of these schools.

There are a few small universities in eastern Canada which for an American citizen who is a resident of Massachusetts will cost about the same as U.Mass. However, unless you are looking for a smaller school or just want to go abroad I don’t see any significant advantage over U.Massachusetts.

11

Yes, certainly look at the U Mass schools first. Staying in-state is the best way to come up with an option that is affordable.

Your grades are good. Merit aid or acceptance to schools that meet full financial need will often require high test scores and other attractive elements in your application. If your SAT/ACT are very, very high (above about 1400 SAT or 32 ACT), you can google merit aid at Miami of Ohio.

I’m also including a link here for a recent thread on OOS public schools. Some state flagships (and other large public universities) that are not in extremely high demand by OOS students can provide excellent educations with big-time sports and all the other typical aspects of the US college experience, often in nice college towns. I’m thinking of Oklahoma/OSU; Kansas/KSU; Iowa/ISU; Missouri; Nebraska; Michigan State; Arkansas; etc. Nebraska, for example, is an urban school, which one might not really think about if they live outside the Midwest. It’s a major research university with big-time sports.

You’ll see that some comments on that thread report financial aid options for OOS students at these schools. I don’t know much about that, and you’ll want to keep your expectations in check–understand that students can be accepted to schools and then find them unaffordable.

However, if any of these look interesting, you might run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for those schools to see how much it estimates the school will expect you to pay. For example, if you looked at Missouri and thought that looked pretty nice, you could run the NPC, and/or see what type of aid they might offer for OOS students with your stats.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/2078648-big-universities-with-a-gpa-around-3-4-p1.html

Again, these will have higher sticker prices, and they may not end up being affordable, but with high test scores, and some generous aid, you might be able to find one that is affordable.

Good luck!