<p>SUNY New Paltz is a nice little college town (or was when I was there). Pretty easy to get back to the city, iirc.</p>
<p>I meant to say that I just found out that he qualified for aid when he was still in school. Sorry the phrasing. </p>
<p>As much as I appreciate the advice, I think I am going to keep Northwestern, Yale, and Brown on my list. I really like those schools, and my parents said that while they are expensive, it doesn’t hurt to try. Plus I think I would hate myself for not even applying.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure SUNY Purchase and SUNY Geneseo are going on my list. I re-examined Purchase and really liked their Theatre BA. I keep forgetting Fredonia! I have a friend going there so I’ll ask her.</p>
<p>Also, I want to double major in Theater and Journalism. I would like to minor in music, or at least have a ton of music opportunities. I will check out ASU. </p>
<p>Um…I am not too concerned with bragging, to be honest. I just like those schools. UChicago’s environment seems like a very nice fit for me, but I probably won’t apply due to my other needs. </p>
<p>I have been checking out UMinnesota and University of Illinois-Urbana. I like Fordham and they have a full tuition scholarship for National Achievement, but I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch. </p>
<p>To be honest, I didn’t know schools like Vanderbilt needed URMs like that. Plus it is pretty difficult to get in, and I already have a good number of reaches that I love. I guess I wanted to lay off the very selective schools, but if I can get merit, it’s definitely worth looking in to.</p>
<p>Luckily, my mother and I came to an agreement last night that she would give me her information. She said she is reluctant, but she is willing to at least try. Our hopes are not high, but at least we can try. </p>
<p>I want to thank everyone for responding to this post. My conflict with my mom is over! I am still looking into all of the suggestions I have received. </p>
<p>My parents said at least 30k in debt is in the manageable/expected category. So I am really going to work through these numbers. I am just going to talk to my parents about this and in the fall, I will probably schedule a fanily meeting with my counselor. Thanks again everyone.</p>
<p>@TempeMom New Paltz still is. I visited there this past summer. </p>
<p>OP, you may already know, but Brown and Yale don’t have journalism majors. </p>
<p>If your brother did get financial aid in an amount that could make a difference for you, and the financial info for your family is still about the same, it’s certainly worth while for you to apply for aid. To get access to the Direct Loans and for your parents to have the option to borrow through PLUS, you must fill out the FAFSA anyways, and you might as well fill out the PROFILE forms once you have the financial info for FAFSA, by getting the other numbers you need. </p>
<p>Do check that the schools you apply to, have the programs that interest you. I agree that if the there are some schools that you really want, you might as well give them a go. My kids had no qualms just taking the schools over the price points we set off the table when it came to decision time. Be aware that some of these school may be unaffordable even if you get acceptance to them. </p>
<p>UMN-TC has a decent scholarship for NMF. I don’t know if they offer it to NAF or not. They don’t mention it on their website.They give one scholarship that waives OOS tuition, and the other is for $11,000/yr. So if NMFs don’t get any other of their scholarships, they pay rm/bd + $2,000. They only have 125 of these and get many more than that enrolling, so it is good to apply early. There are other merit scholarships for good OOS students who aren’t NMF.</p>
<p>The honors dorm, Middlebrook, is on the West Bank where all the fine arts are and fine arts kids are also housed there.</p>
<p>They do have theater and music minors.</p>
<p>Now that the light rail is finished through campus, you can get everywhere easily. Airport, downtown Minneapolis, Mall of America, some neat parks. Minneapolis is a great city.</p>
<p>It was not meant unkindly about applying for bragging rights. That is just a figure of speech. Lots of kids apply to places that they know are not financially feasible, just to see if they can get in. Nothing wrong with that. I wonder if you call schools and say you are AA if they might offer you a fee waiver. </p>
<p>The number of AA students who are great students, interesting people, and have decent test scores is in limited supply. All the top schools, and other schools as well, are competing to get them. But some are free to offer merit money, while others that have a no-merit policy, are not. If you need merit money, apply at schools that offer at least some, and see if you win any. Vandy, Duke, Emory, WUSTL, Rice, etc. </p>
<p>The average SAT sore of AA enrolling at Harvard is 2107.
<a href=“The Harvard Crimson | Class of 2017”>http://features.thecrimson.com/2013/frosh-survey/admissions.html</a></p>
<p>this is verbatim my exact same situation</p>
<p>Is that $30,000/year for 4 years? If so, you are talking about $120,000 after 4 years – that is a LOT of debt to handle. I’m sure the “name” brand schools are very nice but there is no reason to graduate with that much debt.</p>
<p>We are in the same boat. </p>
<p>@prefect, I did know that! 
Yale has a great journalism initiative program embedded in the English/Creative Writing majors, and I love the modern media concentration at Brown. </p>
<p>@celesteroberts, sorry for the miscommunication about the big name school thing. It is hard to know the tone of someone’s response. Thank you for the Minnesota info (it sounds like a great fit for me) and the schools.</p>
<p>My parents said they expect a minimum of $30,000 after I graduate. Not per year, haha! </p>
<p>This weekend I’ll be doing the npc to see what should be expected from my list. Some schools will be a dream, but no harm in trying. </p>
<p>Well one harm in trying and reaching to schools that won’t be affordable is it will cost SOMEONE a lot of money just to apply. Application fees run 40-80 dollars. Each ACT and Sat needs to be sent, and the CSS profile has a cost with it which your top choices will require. </p>
<p>A family that can afford to pay $35K a year for college isn’t going to be hurt that badly with the application fees senior year. not likely any ways. I agree that for those families on very strict budgets, it 's a huge issue. In such cases, fee waivers should be requested. Some schools will give them when asked. Particularly if the student is applying for fin aid.</p>