So I’m a senior in high school with a 3.05 uw gpa and a 3.7 w gpa. I took PIB, AP, and honors classes my freshman and sophomore year and I took IB classes my junior year and I will be continuing with IB this year as well. My gpa has been stable throughout high school. I don’t have a legitimate excuse for my low gpa other than the fact that I tried to do the hardest classes with the IB program such as HL math. I got a 1400 on the sat and a 29 on the act. I’m involved in a lot of clubs and I volunteer a lot. I’m vice president of 2 clubs and I founded another club. I’ve also been a dancer my whole life. I want to major in neuroscience or cognitive science. I possibly want to major in molecular biology or psychology.
I want to apply to a mixture of public and private schools but I don’t know which ones I’ll qualify for. I live in Colorado. I know most of the public schools I’m applying to but I need some help choosing some private ones since most of them are very selective. I’m looking for small private colleges that will give me research opportunities and financial aid. If you know any public schools with good financial aid as well I’d greatly appreciate the help! 
Two questions for you: 1) do you have an idea if your parents will qualify for need-based financial aid, or if you will need merit aid? 2) Do you have any geographic preferences? Want to stay in the west, go east, don’t care, etc.
There’s a batch of schools called the Colleges that Change Lives (CTCL) schools… your stats put you in line for some of them so you might want to poke around on their websites and see if any sound interesting.
I don’t qualify for need based aid so I’d need merit based aid. I don’t have a big preference on location but I’d rather be near a city or in a college town close to a city.
Your GPA is going to be a problem for merit at many schools. Do you realize that?
How much will your family spend each year on college?
Is your weighted GPA on your transcript?
You might want to look into University of South Florida. You would have a good chance of getting in , it’s located in Tampa, they have a really strong science program, lots of opportunities for research, and the tuition isn’t crazy.
Yes I realize my gpa will be a problem for merit based. I’m applying for small scholarships with essays and community service.
And I know that university of Colorado boulder has a good neuroscience program so my family is only willing to spend more money only if the school is better than cu boulder in neuroscience.
And yes my weighted gpa is on my transcript
If you don’t object to Catholic schools, have a look at Carroll in Helena, Montana.
It looks like a good school! But it doesn’t have neuroscience and it doesn’t offer undergraduate research 
St. Lawrence, Allegheny, Susquehanna, Washington & Jefferson all have a neuroscience major. Gettysburg has a minor. My daughter with similar stats applied and received excellent merit at all these schools and was invited into the Honors program at two of them. You could also look at University of Scranton (Catholic) and Ursinus.