What's the right college for me?

College Search & Selection
21

You need to understand how much your parents are willing to pay AFTER financial aid.

Most top schools only offer need-based aid. And the school’s idea of what your family can pay might be quite different from what your parents can actually afford. You need to sit down with your parents and run some net price calculators on the school’s sites. Net price calculators often won’t tell you if you’re eligible for merit aid but they will be helpful when it comes to need based aid.

Schools like Penn or Brown will not offer merit aid. They may be quite generous with need based aid, but it depends on your family situation.

NYU is notorious for being stingy with aid.

UCLA may be off the table for more reasons than the major - UC schools do not offer aid to out of state students.

It is good advice to be aware of requirements to be certified as a teacher in different states, as well as what the outlook is for teachers in those states. For example, Elon is a great school for teachers - but NC is not a great state for teachers, so many students find jobs in other states. MA has higher requirements for teachers to gain long-term certification.

Being picky is not a problem - you just need to be sure you’re also being realistic. Make sure your list includes some schools where you feel pretty sure you’ll be admitted AND where the costs will be affordable.

Good luck!

22

UCSB.

23

Thanks! Are you saying that’s most of the colleges on my list are unrealistic?
There’s just so much to consider when trying to make these decisions. I’m really trying to consider everything but it’s a little overwhelming to look at price, required certifications, admission requirements, available majors, etc for every school.

24

At Vanderbilt, the Regular Decision acceptance rate this year was 7.3%. The Early Decision acceptance rate was 20.5%. Most of the accepted students, in both RD and ED, had ACTs of 33 or above.

https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2018/03/class-of-2022-regular-decision-summary-statistics/
https://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2018/02/class-of-2022-early-decision-by-the-numbers/

If your ACT score is lower than 33, then you should assume that your chances of acceptance will be lower than the rates posted above. The situations at Penn and Brown will be comparable.

25

Would it be worth it to retake the ACT or are there good enough options that will accept a 30?

26

What do you mean by “good enough”?

There are lots of good schools that will accept a 30 ACT.
However, (as stated previously in post #11) there may not be very many schools that :

  • will likely accept a 30
  • AND are located in major cities
  • AND are "well-known"
  • AND have undergraduate teacher training programs.

If you don’t want to compromise on any of these points, then your list of “match” schools may be short.

27

@katemw12 Back to what you can spend. Your parents said they need financial aid. Financial aid just doesn’t happen. If you are middle class, you might get nothing at all from financial aid. You need to run the NPC for each college. Do your parents make between 100k and 200k?

28

Sorry, that’s pretty much what I meant by “good enough,” schools that fit all of those criteria. I don’t think I’d be willing to compromise on the last two bullet points, but like I said, I would be willing to try for a higher ACT score, and I’d be willing to go to a college in a smaller city.

29

We are middle class. I don’t know the exact amount that my parents make though. If it helps I did a google search of their jobs and based on that they make maybe a combined 100kish/year, but that could be completely inaccurate.

30

You need to understand the financial situation before you proceed. Things are quite different than when your parents went to school. You need to talk with them
Figure out your EFC, expected family contribution. Many schools don’t help you reach your EFC. You need to understand what they are willing to contribute each year. You probably need at least 15k-20k a,year for regular state schools. To that you add the Stafford loan that you can take ($5500 Freshman year, $6500 Sophomore, $7500 Junior, $7500 Senior year) and 2k a year that you would earn in the summer. Do they have any college savings for you? Pulling 15-20k from salary is difficult.

31

OK, here are the schools that I see as fitting all of these criteria;

  • a 30 ACT has a reasonable chance i*
  • AND are located in major cities i*
  • AND are "well-known" i*
  • AND have undergraduate teacher certification programs i*

NYU i*
Boston U i*
Tulane U i*
U Miami
Villanova U i*
Southern Methodist U i*
American U i*
U Minnesota i*

Anyone else is certainly free to correct me or suggest other possibilities. But this should be a decent starting point.

If you want more options, you could expand the list by getting higher test scores; by accepting smaller cities; by going further down the US News ranking; or by accepting post-bac/master’s teacher certification programs.

32

^I think she is going to get tripped up financially.

33

I honestly don’t know anything about my family’s financial situation, my parents won’t tell me. I understand everything that everyone is saying about how many colleges will likely be too expensive and that I’ll need to see what is affordable for me, but I just don’t know.

34

You’re getting a lot of great advice here. Take a breath, don’t feel overwhelmed, you have a lot of time, you’ve worked hard and done well, your family is supportive and has fortunately has means. And most important, there really are many, many schools where you can get a great education together with other excellent students.

–Taking the ACT again: you are waiting for your SAT results. Sometimes students do better on one, sometimes the other. Could you sign up for one more round with whichever one you did best the first time around? You might go up. I know with the ACT you can only submit your best one. Alome schools super-score–take the highest score from each section and recalculate the overall score.

–Supply and demand is important. For schools in the top 50-100 ranked schools, admissions is crazy today. I can’t find the stat, but Vanderbilt’s middle 50% ACT range has gone from 28-32, I believe, about ten years ago and is now 33-35. So many high-achieving students apply now. You would have been in range then, but demand has changed. In general, urban colleges have gained in popularity. However, this significant demand shift has only taken place to that smaller group of “elite” schools. Many excellent schools are no more difficult, or not much more, than 20 years ago.

–The financial side is extremely important. It’s true NYU and BU don’t give much aid. We have some experience with that. Talk to your parents about what would be reasonable for them per year. Run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for schools that interest you. See if they align with what is reasonable for your family. If your family is comfortable at $30,000 per year, then it will be tough if, at a school like NYU, it calculates $62,000. But that’s good to know upfront.

–You want to go to a big college in a big city. On the big college part, is that for sports, etc.? That helps to know. On the big city part, how big and and what aspects of a big city most appeal? I ask because that can make a big difference here. Is Richmond or Cincinnati a big enough city for you? Or are you thinking more NYC, SF, LA, etc.? Do you want the big cultural institutions (museums, theaters, etc.) in a big city? Would a great college town like Madison, WI or Athens, GA or Burlington, VT fit your interests or be too small? I ask because a lot of state flagships and similar schools are in college towns. You will find great resources and really excellent students–some of the best in the state–at these schools.

35

Thank you! I’ll wait for my SAT scores and then decide if I’m going to retake that or the ACT, and at some point I’m going to talk to my parents and figure out the financial part. As far as the city part, I like the really big cities like NYC, SF, LA, etc, but mostly I just don’t want to be in a rural area so I think any of the places you listed or similar cities are fine.

36

If you can’t get your parents to be candid about finances, send them links to the net price calculators for the colleges on your list (Google “net price calculator (school name).” Tell them to run the calculators themselves and let you know if they look affordable of not. Good luck!