There are lots of helpful suggestions, but in my honest opinion, I think this student can do better than some of the schools listed here. It’s a big deal to be a QB finalist. It seems her senior year performance is the issue. If she filled a gap year with purposeful stuff, was able to address what went wrong in senior year with the help of the guidance counselor, and came up with a whole new list, she could be looking at colleges that are much better for her than many suggested now.
Op, don’t sell yourself short. Definitely look at the NACAC list. Call the FA offices, see if you can get the aid you need. But if you can’t, I do think a gap year might be worth it.
@girlrejected Here’s a thought - If you like NYC, you might consider applying to the Spring term at CUNY - Hunter. Hunter’s BSW and MSW programs are well-reputed and relatively affordable and it seems like you would have a strong chance. In the Fall, you could take a community college or online class to transfer in (and save time/money?) or work to save up for living expenses (and maybe get some experience?).
I know that Portland State has moderately priced BSW and MSW programs, and they offer an an online BSW which may allow you to earn some credits wherever you’re living. I am also intrigued by for-credit courses offered through Outlier.
It might make sense to consider moving to schools with good MSW programs in places you want to live long-term, because even if you can’t get in-state tuition for your undergrad, it may help you get in-state tuition for your Masters program, should you choose to go that route, which many social workers students find is necessary to get the jobs they want. You could also research schools that offer an ‘accelerated’ masters, which allows you to earn the MSW in 1 year if you have a BSW. That can be a big money saver and might be easier to do if you’re coming from the BSW program at the same school. Hope that helps!
I noticed that the College of Wooster is accepting applications only for transfer students, so that’s not a possibility. However, there are some other very good colleges on the list, such as Knox College in Illinois and Elizabethtown, Juniata, and Susquehanna in Pennsylvania. If you are open to women’s and southern (but not Alabama) colleges, Agnes Scott (Georgia) and Hollins (Virginia) are possibilities. Hendrix is southern (Arkansas) but a very liberal college. More colleges will be added to the list daily and I’ll try to recommend some others as they are listed. If you are willing to deal with Alabama one more year, taking a gap year makes a lot of sense and might be the best option if you want to target more selective schools. However, if your senior grades aren’t very good, a gap year might not help.
Questbridge finalists generally have a less than 50% chance of matching to or getting admitted ED or RD to partner schools. I agree she overshot, but I don’t think her chances will improve next year, especially given the falling grades from an already lower GPA. That said, a gap year still might be the best option, but not because of Questbridge finalist status.
A safer plan would be to go to one of the U Alabama schools, do well, and perhaps try to transfer. I think there is a substantial risk that college deferred may never happen for applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This is what I was implying when I provided my suggestion. It is clear that the OP is overqualified for places like ASU, HBCUs, and most other places that would still be accepting applicants. They at least have a litmus test from this year to show that they are probably not quite at the level of an Ivy or most other T20 national universities (perhaps in a lucky year they could squeeze by in ED somewhere at that level), and the LACs she applied to have notoriously low acceptance rates in RD. OP would be selling themselves short by rushing to college from their current options, and I think they would have very good chances in ED for one of the selective LACs in NE. I really don’t know how Questbridge works–could they perhaps match with one of those LACs through it?
OP, call LIU and tell them everything you just said in this post: that you want to come to NY and start a new life with new peers and all the opportunities that LIU promises, but that you can’t afford to attend based on what they have offered. See what they say. It can’t hurt to to ask.
Unfortunately I agree with this, as OP is unhooked…as such I don’t think they will be competitive for meet full need schools. I encourage OP to talk with their GC, and try to find an affordable school for the fall, or maybe spring. I don’t know if that’s possible, and a gap year could be forced in that case…so OP would start applying again this August, in 4 months or so. If OP’s GPA does fall below 3.6, I don’t see QB being an option again (not even sure they allow that anyway).
The tuition at LIU is 3x that of Alabama, and it is ranked more than 100 places lower. It is not rational for OP to go there. The quickest way out of Alabama is to be a star at U of A and graduate with a job or a grad school admission elsewhere. Transferring might shave 2 years off that timing.
I do not know of any unhooked applicant admitted to a top LAC with a 3.4 GPA from a public school, much less one which needs financial aid.
Do any of you know enough about the Academic Common Market that AL participates in for state tuition reciprocity? TN is on that list. Could OP get instate tuition at U of Memphis to lower the cost? Is this something schools do automatically or would OP have to ask?
Here is the link to the University of Memphis academic common market. One would need to call to verify this…but the first criteria seems to be that the major isn’t offered in the home state. Clearly, social work is offered in AL. But worth a call to check.
I’ve seen some relatively “average” students get into Colby and Hamilton ED, and I think OP likely has enough academic history on their transcript to demonstrate this year was a bit of an anomaly (this year has been challenging for everyone). I have no clue what OP was going through with the mental health, but I had a situation with mental health issues in high school that adversely impacted my schoolwork/grades for a bit, and by being extremely open about it in my application and my college counselor corroborating this information, it seemed as though we were able to mitigate the damage it would have caused based on the results.
When I was mentioning LACs, it wouldn’t just have to be the ones considered to be at the top. There are plenty of less-selective–yet with phenomenal academics– LACs in the NE and the country, a few examples would be Babson, Kenyon, Holy Cross, Conn College, and Denison. Based on the OP’s apparent political disagreements with their current region, places like this would be good matches. Plus, the price with/without aid will be about the same for any of the less selective OOS public schools that many are suggesting, and I would argue that the experience OP would have at those places are better than the other alternatives people are throwing out. But, many LACs have low transfer acceptance rates and would be much harder to get into if they started at CC or one of the public schools some are suggesting.
Contact QB immediately and ask if you’d be able to apply again.
Next, ask your teachers what you need to do to get your grades back to typical performance ie., A/A-/B+. Then, sit down and do it. Sacrifice whatever needs to be in order to get that done. Your grades need to go back up asap. Your motivation should be that it’ll help you escape.
Next, no: LIU and UMemphis are not correct substitutes for what you’re looking for. The Nacac list may be useful, I’ll review it tomorrow and post.
All in all get to your CommonApp (or start it) and send me your general essay through a PM.
Has your school sent many students to OOS private colleges at the level QB is used to? I’m concerned your teachers simply didn’t know how to write good letters of recommendation.
Berea should be on your list if you take a gap year, but I’m hopeful you won’t need to.
The best argument for a gap year may be that she has missed all the deadlines for scholarships at UA, which would have brought her tuition down to $4-6k year, and possibly even free if she kept her GPA above 3.5. It will be hard to match that.
Thanks for the insight. It’s a real shame the number is so high.
Maybe 50% of students don’t get matched, but it’s still an impressive achievement to be a QB finalist. I suspect that a chunk of that percentage is due to kids not getting adequate advising at their schools.
I am confused, you can’t submit ED, EA, or SCEA applications if you are in the Questbridge program.
Early Application Policy
Applicants who rank colleges cannot apply to other colleges through Early Decision, Early Action, or Single-Choice Early Action (also known as Restrictive Early Action). Read the full Early Application Policy.
The due date for Columbia is November 1 but the Questbridge match day was December 1. Could the OP have ruined their match chances by not following the rules?
Edit to add: Maybe the OP didn’t submit a rank list. Then they could apply ED/EA. But I don’t know why you would pass on the QB list and then apply ED to a QB school.