Hi, I’m going to be a senior this year and I’m still trying to find schools that are a good match. I want to go somewhere academically challenging, but most of those schools are very expensive. I wont get any financial aid, and my parents only want to pay about 20k per year. I live in Kansas, so I’m going to apply for KU’s honor college, but I really want to go out of state.
I have a 4.0 unweighted, and 4.32(ish) weighted. I’ve taken a bunch of honors and dual credit classes(my school doesnt offer ap). I have over 100 hours of volunteering, and really good extra curriculars.
I applied for the national Hispanic recognition program, which some schools will give money for, but not much. I’m looking at Fordham, which supposedly gives scholarships if you’re top 1-2% of applicants. I’m thinking of doing publishing (an english/ journalism major) so it would cool to be near new york, but I really would be okay with going anywhere far-ish from home.
I want to go to the best school that I can without drowning in debt forever. So any recommendations would be very much appreciated. please help me. thank you
Given the financial constraints, the place to start looking for out-of-state opportunities is the Midwest Exchange https://msep.mhec.org/ which waives a portion of the OOS differential for participating schools.
One particularly good choice for you could be Truman State, a public LAC in Missouri. In addition to the MSEP discount, they would give you an additional $5K in automatic merit and possibly more, and all of this off of a very reasonable “sticker price.”
Kiplinger does not list merit award numbers for public universities.
You can find more information about automatic/competitive merit scholarships here: http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/ http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Information on these pages isn’t always perfectly up-to-date, so be sure to check individual college websites for any that interest you.
If you’re looking for schools in the NYC area, you might also want to check out Hofstra (in addition to Fordham).
Villanova (Philadelphia suburbs) might be worth a look, too.
Villanova will never be affordable to parents who want to pay around $20K! Cost of attendance is north of $67K and merit is limited. I can’t imagine a 31 ACT being assured admission now and it is even more unlikely that there would be one of the big merit awards. Maybe the hook of being hispanic may help give an edge.
@theshibe: Because you included your ACT score in a second post as an after-thought, I think that you may be underestimating the importance of high standardized test scores when seeking merit based scholarship awards.
Any increase in your ACT composite score of 31 should yield substantial scholarship money.
Washington University in St. Louis offers a competitive (essay required) scholarship geared toward Hispanic/Latino applicants.
Take the act again after studying for it- a 32 unlocks the best scholarships.
Look into Mizzou (lots of scholarships), Denison (non fiction writing).
Look up colleges that offer 1/2 to full tuition for National Hispanic Scholar - depending on the cost it’d be within budget…
The gold standard for writing is Kenyon. Check out if they offer sufficient merit though.
@katliamom is 100% correct. My apologies. I got into the individual posts and was thinking about fit based your thoughts. Forgetting the title and aim!
According to Kiplinger, Villanova awards merit scholarships to about 12% of enrolled students. The average award is about $16K (per Kiplinger and the Villanova 2017 CDS); the maximum goes all the way up to a full ride (per Villanova’s site). So, it may be affordable to some parents who want to pay no more than $20K … even assuming they don’t qualify for need based aid. Scholarships/grants typically are not the only components of an FA package.
Merit money is limited just about everywhere. Would a school like Villanova offer enough to make the cost affordable to someone with the OP’s qualifications (including URM status, 4.0 UW, and maybe an improved ACT score)? Maybe not. But, it might be a realistic reach (especially if scores improve, and if you think you can count on enough “self help” or outside scholarship money to close any gap between Villanova’s net price and your family’s $40K budget).
Thanks for all of the help, and to adress the ACT score, I’ve taken the act 4 times, and the sat twice (sat score was lower than act). I studied really hard for the last two ACT’s and I don’t plan on taking it again. My first three ACT scores were 27’s and a 26, so the 31 is really the best I can do.
Only on cc would you be anyway less than pleased. Congrats the 31 act is an accomplishment reflecting the extra work. Here’s the facts that you might not have seen before and average act nationally is a 22. So focus on test optional schools. There’s plenty now. Or the great schools that are in the top 50 to 150 range. The merit is another matter but look at these in combination.
“Out of the 1.84 million test-takers, 55200 scored the same or higher than you. You can apply to 1402 colleges and have a good shot at getting admitted. You have a very low chance of getting into 40 with this score.”
Yes, you did a great job pulling that ACT score up, and the effort will pay off.
The only reason anyone is saying that higher would be nice is that the bar we’re looking at is not only getting IN at competitive schools, but getting substantial merit money. That’s a really, really high bar. Keeping a college budget under 20K/year without financial aid is challenging, and stat-based merit of that magnitude is only going to go to a tiny percentage of applicants.
So basically… going out of state to a very good school should be a completely attainable goal. You’re just probably not going to a state that touches an ocean. But the public U’s mentioned up-thread through MSEP in Missouri, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Minnesota - all very doable. And look further into the schools with Hispanic Scholar merit. Here’s a post from one of this year’s applicants (thank you @BriTexan ) http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21225977/#Comment_21225977 I believe I’ve read that Florida State is discontinuing their scholarship this year. But Arizona State and the Barrett Honors College… U of New Mexico… UA Birmingham… U of Kentucky… (and Nebraska, where the NHS deal trumps the MSEP deal)… you can definitely get out of state and even out of your region, and go to an excellent school, within your budget. You can go to a small public LAC, a large public U, or a smaller Honors College within a large public U. You have excellent options - it’s just a finite menu of excellent options because of the limited budget. The fact that it would take stratospheric stats to broaden those options doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your stats the way they are.
U Kentucky is revamping its honor college. So is UArizona. Two good universities with excellent honors colleges that are still (not for long probably) slightly under the radar. Add UNM, Morris, Truman… Lots of great choices out of state.
Your stats could get you a tuition waiver at Oklahoma State, but that’s probably not going to be much different than Kansas. You could get a partial scholarship at Alabama.
I think Vassar would be a great fit. I’ve just received a full scholarship from them. Their financial aid will drastically reduce the price despite the fact that Vassar is the second most expensive college in the country (my estimated cost of attending would have been about $73,700 with fees).
You mentioned that your parents didn’t want to pay more than $20,000 a year. Although Vassar’s cost surpasses $73,000, their average financial aid is $54,665 for those who received aid. I think that the number that you get on your FAFSA is a good indicator of what you would have to pay for Vassar.(since they cover 100% of financial need)
And since my FAFSA returned with a big fat 0 for the student contribution, I have to pay, you guessed it, 0!
Vassar will also super-score your ACT. I took the ACT twice, and made a 30 and the first time and a 32 the second, but after super-scoring Vassar considered my ACT a 33.(super-scoring averages your highest sub-scores together)
And as to being close to New York, Vassar is about 70 miles north of New York City, so visiting the city is fairly easy. Internships in New York City, including journalism internships, are not uncommon as well.
(Also, Vassar’s campus is absolutely beautiful)
I hope you’ll look into applying to Vassar, I think they have a lot to offer you.
@Vassar2022 , OP stated right up front that (s)he isn’t eligible for financial aid. Vassar gives excellent need-based aid, as you have experienced (congrats!) but no merit aid. “Scholarship” in this context means merit aid. Different schools are a fit for different situations.
There are a bunch of apps available that offer you small scholarships after you put in your info. Can’t say I’ve personally used them, but they seem very promising. A couple of my friends use one called RaiseMe–I’ll have to check and see how much they got from it, but from what I hear, it’s pretty decent. Can’t hurt to give it a try.