<p>Okay, so i have a list of schools that I am interested in but i need to know which ones i have the best chance of getting into and which ones will give the best financial aid package.</p>
<p>Schools: Penn, Northwestern, Wash U, University of Chicago, Stanford</p>
<p>GPA-4.0976
Class Rank- 1/307
ACT-30
ACT Superscore- 31 (Math-35 English-30 Reading-31 Science-28)
I also may play football at these schools if it helps my chance of admissions. I will be able to play at all except Stanford and Northwestern.</p>
<p>My parents make around 150,000 combined, so i need to know about financial aid. They will NOT be able to pay for a majority of my college. Also i am involved with National honor society, MYC, and big brother big sisters. I volunteer a lot of hours. Please help, i really want to go to a good school.</p>
<p>In my humble opinion, you have the best chance of getting into U of Chicago. They really look at a whole application. But I stand by my response to you on other threads…you need to retake and improve that ACT score to be competitive for schools like Stanford and UPenn.</p>
<p>With a $150,000 income, your FAFSA EFC will probably be somewhere between $35000 and $49,000 so you will not probably qualify for a ton of need based aid at most of the above schools. Stanford has a very favorable need based financial aid incentive, but you have to get accepted there first. I think that is a reach for you (it’s a reach for EVERYONE!!!).</p>
<p>There are MANY good schools that are not as selective as the schools you list. In most cases those schools are reaches for anyone (based purely on % of applicants admitted). You need to find at least one safety you are willing to attend. Check out the sticky above this for good merit aid schools.</p>
<p>Get a financial safety on that list! There are plenty of good schools including the “public ivies” that will offer you very good merit aid. Do yourself a big favor and start looking into a few.</p>
<p>Vault…what about your instate flagship U? Perhaps they have an honors college and scholarships for student such as yourself. The schools on your list are quite costly. Unless your income figures are quite wrong, they will be expected to contribute somewhere in the $30,000 range PER YEAR for your education. If this is not possible, you need to also have schools that ARE financially possible for your family on your list.</p>
<p>You need to have the ‘what can you pay’ conversation with your parents and apply accordingly. The schools you list will be tough to get into with a 30 ACT unless you are a football recruit. Penn only gives need based aid, even to football players and I’m not sure Chicago gives football scholarships either.</p>
<p>Unless your parent’s have unusual expenses and no home equity and savings, most schools will expect you to pay the vast majority of costs. </p>
<p>Run some calculators such as the one on this site. If the EFC you get doesn’t work for your family, start looking at schools that offer merit aid where your stats put you near the top of their applicant pool.</p>
<p>If i do go to a college like this and dont get a lot of financial aid, will coming out with bigger loans hurt me? or does a degree from a college like this help to geta better job?</p>
<p>There are many great colleges and universities out there. There are also lots of “good” schools that can provide you with a top-notch education and wonderful internship or graduate school opportunities. Do you have an idea what you want to study, and if you will be going on to graduate school? As many here have stated previously, it is not financially wise to go into heavy debt for your bachelor’s degree. If you go on to graduate school, then you end up even deeper in debt.</p>
<p>My D had similar stats to yours, and applied to middle ranked liberal arts colleges. She was given merit scholarships of about 50% of tuition. Our income was significantly lower than your parents, and she did not qualify for financial aid. (Probably because we have always been savers, so our assets disqualified us.)</p>
<p>Don’t discount the colleges and universities with lesser name recognition. Many schools have great professors and can claim famous, high achieving alumni. The advantage of a lesser known school is that it may be willing to give you a significant amount of merit money. Then, you go there, and continue to be a high achiever. Do research and internships, and you will be on track for that great job or prestigious graduate school.</p>