Where are you applying? What are your plans? General discussion...

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm new here, and I really just want to hear from people and talk about colleges. Maybe where you are applying to, what is your dream college, and if you think you can get there.</p>

<p>Myself, I live in an area that has a pitiful graduation rate, and an even more pitiful college rate. Usually about 50% of graduates from my area go onto college... so needless to say, having a good discussion about undergrad schools here is pretty boring (I have honestly been asked why I want to go to college several times, as if it is just 4+ more years of tests, homework, and essays, not a chance to experience the world and make friends or anything).</p>

<p>So yeah. I am applying for engineering schools - at the moment I am interested in Electrical Engineering but am not set on that. Astronautical/Areonautical engineering and Mechanical Engineering are definitely in my interests as well, but I have not practical experience with either. </p>

<p>I'm applying to a TON of schools. More than I care to do writing supplements for, at least :(
My top school is of course, MIT, being the holy grail of all engineering schools. I definitely have the grades and test scores to go there (and I've worked my butt off to get those), but financing is the killer for MIT. I know I won't qualify for much need-based scholarship money, but my parents don't want to pay for my college education, and I don't blame them. $55,000/year is insane for a college, especially when they give out no merit-based scholarships whatsoever. </p>

<p>University of Idaho is my safety college, as I get in-state tuition rates and my grades qualify me for merit-based scholarships. </p>

<p>So far in my list of colleges that I have a chance of getting in and being able to pay for it would be University of Michigan or Purdue University. Both of those schools have strong engineering programs and manageable tuition rates, and offer merit based scholarships (thank goodness!). </p>

<p>I'd love to hear from all of you about your college plans!!</p>

2

<p>This is a pretty general question… There are literally thousands of students out here applying to colleges this year. You are in a tough spot if your parents won’t cover your college at all, but you don’t qualify for much need based aid. What can you actually afford? One school you might think about is U of MInnesota - Twin Cities (pretty inexpensive OOS tuition).</p>

<p>There isn’t much point in applying to tons of schools if you know you can’t afford them and they don’t provide merit aid. Have you run net price calculators for the choices on your list? They are on the financial aid website pages, and you will need help from your parents to run them. If you are counting on merit aid, do a search for “<school name=”"> Common Data Set", and take a look at the section that shows merit aid information (percent of students and average amounts). That might give you an idea if you have any shot at merit. Say they give merit to 10% of the students, but your stats are only at about the 50% point – you likely won’t get any merit aid.</school></p>

3

<p>There is actually a thread where people post their college lists. It isn’t that old, maybe the last post was a month ago. It generally isn’t a good idea to bring back old threads, but since the last post was around a month ago, you could probably do that, and simply reading it is fine. It’s in High School life, <a href=“Class of 2015: College Lists - High School Life - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1653237-class-of-2015-college-lists.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Yeah, it is but I figured there would at least be people to talk to…
My parents are fine covering a little bit of the expense, perhaps a few thousand dollars maybe, but with 3 other siblings all wanting to go to college they figure I will not be getting a whole lot from them. I’m really hoping for near a full-ride scholarship from a school, which I’ve worked hard for academically (I have a 4.0 GPA even doing AP classes).
I can definitely afford U of I, but I’m not quite sure I want to put a set number on my top-end price if the colleges are so much different. I’m not applying to many schools that are out of my price range, MIT is an application that I would simply regret doing later on in life.</p>

<p>Thanks for pointing me to CDS sheets, I’ll take a look at those and see if I can refine my college list a bit more.</p>

<p>Also, thanks Cosmo! I’ll take a look over there… sorry to make another thread (perhaps this can be merged?). I’ll be more careful in the future.</p>

5

<br>

<br>

<p>What are your test scores? include SAT breakdown. <<< this is important</p>

<p>What award will you get at Idaho? Will you get a full tuition award? more? less?</p>

<p>I doubt that UMich and Purdue will be affordable. You might get a nice award, but the remaining costs would be too much for you to cover.</p>

<p>Do you realize that YOU can only borrow $5,500 for frosh year? How would you cover a $25k+ cost after scholarships???</p>

<p>are you a NMSF?</p>

<p>You need to apply to MORE schools where you FOR SURE will get HUGE awards. You don’t just need a good-sized award…you need a HUGE award. </p>

<p>Just a full tuition award won’t be enough. You need a full tuition PLUS award so that all costs (tuition, room, board, etc) will be covered.</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>Ask them HOW MUCH…$2k? 4k? what?</p>

<p>P.S. I don’t think moving this to the HS forum is a good idea since you need huge merit. The HS kids often ignore that and just suggest top schools that won’t be affordable.</p>

6

<br>

<br>

<p>What award will you get at Idaho? Will you get a full tuition award? more? less?</p>

<p>I doubt that UMich and Purdue will be affordable. You might get a nice award, but the remaining costs would be too much for you to cover.</p>

<p>Do you realize that YOU can only borrow $5,500 for frosh year? How would you cover a $25k+ cost after scholarships???</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>SAT - Reading 750, Math 700, and Writing 670</p>

<p>PSAT score was too low to get NMSF, and as you can see above, I am better at the ACT than the SAT… </p>

<p>So my scores are good, my GPA is good, but getting funding is a major challenge. It’s either U of I, bunches of merit based scholarships, or working a couple jobs with student loans.</p>

7

<p>Class rank?</p>

8

<br>

<br>

<p>Clearly I have more to think about on funding…</p>

9

<p>Have you checked the pinned thread in the financial aid forum on scholarships?
I think you qualify for full tuition at Utah State University which is not that far from Idaho, right?
See if it appeals to you. There are other ones you qualify for further away.</p>

10

<p>With your stats, there should be a lot of schools that you’ll qualify for substantial merit aid. Have you given much thought to where you want to be, geographically? How inclined are you to stay in the Northwest/West? University of Alabama has some good merit aid for out of state students. There are a couple threads around here with good information about schools with lots of merit aid.</p>

11

<br>

<br>

<p>@scholarme‌
I’ll go check it out :slight_smile:
Utah State isn’t too far away, but I’m a bit hesitant to be so close to home. I have friends that attend that drive back home for the weekends. I think I’d rather be a bit further away than that.</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>@VSGPeanut101‌
I feel like I would be fine pretty much anywhere geographically. As above I’d rather be further away from home that really close to it. I should state here though that above all scholarship and merit based aid, I’m looking for a college with a great engineering program. </p>

12

<br>

<br>

<p>YOU can only borrow 5500 for frosh year. keep that in mind</p>

13

<br>

<br>

<p>SAT - Reading 750, Math 700, and Writing 670</p>

<p>PSAT score was too low to get NMSF, and as you can see above, I am better at the ACT than the SAT…</p>

<p>So my scores are good, my GPA is good, but getting funding is a major challenge. It’s either U of I, bunches of merit based scholarships, or working a couple jobs with student loans.</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>Keep in mind that most private scholarships are only for frosh year, so that won’t help you pay for four years. I don’t think a 34 will get much/any merit from UMich. </p>

<p>Yes, Alabama will FOR SURE give you:
Free tuition for four years
2500 per year for engineering
so, a total award of about $110,000</p>

<p>if your parents will give you $5k and you borrow $5500, you should have costs covered. You should still work over summers to have a cushion and some spending money.</p>

<p>Alabama has a new and state of the art Science and Engineering Complex…over 900,000 sq ft of new academic STEM space. The campus is beautiful and the dorms are very nice! You would qualify for honors.</p>

<p>You should apply to Bama AND you should apply to its elite Computer-Based Honors program…more scholarship money that way.</p>

14

<p>How far are you willing to go? There could be an advantage to applying to a school that almost never gets someone from Idaho, but transportation costs could become a factor.</p>

15

<p>^^
Sounds like he is willing to go anywhere. Doesn’t sound like he has admissions issues at most schools; he has funding issues since his family won’t pay much and he won’t qualify for much/any aid. </p>

<p>The NE schools might like an Idaho student, but the NE schools with eng’g don’t give many full tuition plus awards. And he needs more than just tuition. NE schools tend to have pricey R&B costs…upwards of $17k, and then he has books, fees, transportation to contend with. </p>

<p>For a NE school, a student almost has to budget $20k beyond tuition for room, board, books, fees, transportation and personal expenses. And, I don’t know a NE school with engineering that will give him free tuition…except maybe a SUNY?</p>

<p>If his parents will pay $5k (he needs to ASK THEM) and he borrows $5500, and he earns about $3-4k, that’s about $15k.</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>Yes. Unaffordable EFCs can play havoc with college lists if you don’t apply wisely. </p>

16

<p>Alabama is worth applying to.</p>

<p>Louisiana Tech has guaranteed full ride for your stats I think.</p>

<p>Ohio State’s engineering program is ranked 26 or so, which is pretty high. You could apply for their competitive full ride scholarship.
You could try Vanderbilt - they have 3 kinds of full tuition competitive schollys.
You could also try Lehigh. Their merit aid is hard to predict but your geographical diversity might appeal to them. The essay will be a big factor though.</p>

17

<p>

</p>

<p>Temple. Full tuition plus two $4K stipends for research or study abroad.</p>

<p><a href=“http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/010-1415_Scholarship-Info_FINAL-ADA_508%20(1).pdf”>http://admissions.temple.edu/sites/admissions/files/uploads/010-1415_Scholarship-Info_FINAL-ADA_508%20(1).pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://engineering.temple.edu/”>http://engineering.temple.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

18

<p>First of all, thanks everyone for your help. I’m just starting to trudge through all this information and get my mind made up. Senior year is starting to ramp up and I’m starting to get busy so I want to have these applications out soon!</p>

<p>Right now my favorite university that I have at least had a moment to look into is University of Michigan - that being said because it is super-high ranked in engineering for all 3 degrees I have interest in and gives at least <em>some</em> merit scholarship away. I know I have a decent shot at getting admitted, merit is a whole other thing, but it’s definitely on my list. Don’t know if it would change anything for admission, but my grandfather attended the university and got the same degree I will hopefully be studying for. </p>

<p>Also, do EC’s count much for merit/scholarships? I feel like I have pretty good EC’s. I’m not the leader of any clubs or anything but I am involved in a few, have had a stable job, am certified in Outdoor Emergency Care and volunteer as a National Ski Patroller, and have started couple (small) businesses. </p>

<p>Hopefully one question you guys can answer though - if my school does not weight GPAs then do I have to calculate my own weighted GPA? I searched a weighted GPA calculator and if they are right than my weighted GPA should be at or above a 5.00 since I have received A’s in all the honors/dual credit classes I have taken (do dual credit classes count as honors? I hope so… I will have some 17 college credits by the time I graduate).</p>

<p>Anyways thanks again for the help… I’ll try to do a lot of college stuff this weekend!</p>

19

<p>Got an acceptance letter into my safety!! Nice to know I’ve at least got that all taken care of…</p>

20

<p>@mom2collegekids‌
First of all, thanks for taking the time to help with my college search. Also - sorry to bring up this topic again as the title is misleading (let me know if there is an option to change it).
I have found out that my parents are willing to put up to 10k/yr into college, but of course are looking for less.
We ran the numbers for MIT and I do qualify for financial aid there leaving us with about 25k/yr if the calculator is right. Financially doable, but it would certainly take a lot of effort with 15k being placed on my shoulders. </p>

<p>I have applied to a few select, higher reach schools, all of which (besides MIT) offer some form of scholarship, so there is an opportunity for me to go there. I am thinking of adding a second safety school to my list, somewhere where merit scholarships are more common/I would be able to qualify for more aid than a top 20 school. </p>

<p>Is the University of Alabama your top choice for high-engineering schools, or would you recommend any other engineering safeties? I am currently most interested in Electrical/Electronics engineering as well as Aerospace and Astronautics. Right now I am considering USC.</p>

<p>Again, thanks for your time. It’s been pretty crazy so far, but I think I am finally starting to get the hang of college apps. </p>