<p>My junior year is coming to an end and I have no idea where to start in the college search process. Neither of my parents went to college and none of my siblings did. My high school is not the best and most graduates go to a local community college, the guidance counselors here are friendly, but not very helpful. I need a college with generous financial aid, but one that is academically challenging. For a variety of reasons my parents are not able/willing to contribute very much towards my education. I plan to major in economics or finance and I am a resident of Ohio. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Here are my stats...
Junior, African American, Female, Top 10%, 5/122, Family income around $65,000
4.0 UW GPA
32 ACT Composite
4 on English Language and Composition (Only AP class offered at school)
National Honors Society -
French national honor society
Key Club President
Quiz Bowl
Science Bowl
Marching Band
Jazz Band
Show Band
Pep Band
Physics Club
Various church and volunteering activities</p>
<p>Highly recommend you look at liberal arts colleges in general, if you’re into that. There are usually no finance programs at good LACs but the economics programs are superb. Many offer wonderful financial aid (need-based aid). Williams, Wesleyan, Vassar, Reed, Grinnell, Swarthmore, Kenyon, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, Franklin & Marshall, Pomona are all worth a look. You need to research about different schools and determine if you would be a good fit for them. </p>
<p>How far from home are you willing to go? You have some excellent public colleges in OH, where you stand a strong chance of earning a generous scholarship. You also have some small, private, liberal arts colleges, with varying levels of selectivity, like College of Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, et al. I think that Ohio has reciprocal agreements about tuition with some other midwestern states, but I’m not sure which ones. That might bring Michigan into play for you, also. Earlham, in Indiana, offers generous merit scholarships to highly-qualified students. You would almost certainly get in. Ivy League schools might be too great a reach, but it’s worth applying to one or two, provided you have a lot of low-match and safe schools which will provide good scholarship awards. It’s hard to beat University of Chicago for Economics and Business. It’s a reach for you, but not out of the question. Maybe add Butler, Pitt, Syracuse, University of Rochester, Davidson, and Rhodes, for a nice variety, and some historically-black colleges.</p>
<p>Ivy League schools are not out of the question and will meet full need without loans. Look at Penn (Wharton) for finance. You just need to apply to safeties you love too. </p>
<p>Your family might be a little above their income limit but look into Questbridge: <a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/index.php”>http://www.questbridge.org/index.php</a></p>
<p>In Ohio, look at: <a href=“Home | Five Colleges of Ohio”>http://www.ohio5.org/web/</a></p>
<p>I know Denison is particularly generous with merit aid.</p>
<p>I agree with @quakerstake </p>
<p>You have a great GPA, consider taking the ACT one more time in the fall. Write solid essays & make sure you ask your LOR writers now if they are willing to write STRONG letters of recommendation. Don’t wait until the fall. </p>
<p>Being a URM is not a guarantee, you will have to be a strong candidate for any school. Apply! You never know unless you try. Make sure you have a few safeties just in case, not sure if you are interested in HBCUs but your GPA/ACT numbers put you in a good range for their(Howard U) scholarships. Also, I believe OSU has some great scholarships as well. They are competitive from what I understand. @ucbalumnus is a great go to person here on CC as well. As are many others! @mom2collegekids @Hunt are all great resources. </p>
<p>Many schools have fly in weekends. They will fly in in for free…Williams has WOW, Amherst has DIVOH, Dartmouth has Dimensions etc, @entomom started a fly in weekend thread. A great resource. The apps are available now for many of the fly in programs. DD did several and enjoyed them all. You will need LORs for those so keep that in mind.</p>
<p>Check net price calculators on college web sites to see what their need-based financial aid will be like.</p>
<p>Many schools do not have good need-based financial aid; if they are not affordable, you need to find merit scholarships. Some large ones can be found in these lists:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16451378/#Comment_16451378”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; (potential safeties)
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; (potential reach/match schools)</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus what about Williams, and the Ivies? Don’t they all meet need with no loans? </p>
<p>Many of the most selective schools say that they “meet need”, but “need” is defined by the school. So using the net price calculator for each college will give a better estimate on what the OP can expect. Note: a few schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, are super-generous with financial aid (although they still expect a student contribution of $4,000 to $5,000 or so even for maximum financial aid situations with no family contribution), so their net price calculator estimates should not be seen as reflective to the more general case.</p>
<p>Also, the most selective schools are reaches for everyone, and everyone needs to have a safety or backup plan.</p>
<p>At $65,000 annual income, the OP should be close to the cutoff where no (or minimal) family contribution would be required by almost all of the Ivy League or peer schools. She likely would have to do a work-study job. The Ivies are a reach for everyone but the OP’s GPA, ranking and ACT are in the ballpark and her success from the high school she attends makes her very desirable to the top schools. Safeties are still a must. She probably could get full rides from many great schools based on merit and need.</p>
<p>Questbridge would be interesting because they indicate that the match school would cover the full cost of attendance with no parent contribution and no loans. <a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-why-apply”>http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-why-apply</a></p>
<p>The cutoff is $60,000 but it is not a strict cutoff so maybe it’s still worth exploring. <a href=“QuestBridge | National College Match: Who Should Apply”>http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-who-should-apply</a> </p>
<p>Just to clarify - the full ride option through Questbridge is their early decision match. You pick 8 schools and commit to the match school that would provide a full scholarship. Applying Early Decision without Questbridge may be a better option if you have a first choice you would want to go to (inadequate financial aid might be grounds to void your ED commitment but most top schools should work at your family income level).</p>
<h2>As a fairly low-income student, I made sure to research every full-need school bc I knew I would need aid AND a great academic environment. All the schools on this list are fairly solid; some are clearly easier to get into than others! It also depends on location and feel. Some schools, like Vanderbilt, are trying to recruit low-income and first gen students, but many of said students are often shocked by such blatantly wealthy ppl (don’t mean for that to sound negative). Colgate University, on the other hand, has a great support system for low-income students, and they give AMAZING aid. My sister went there and graduated with very little debt. ALSO: some schools even have free apps. I know Kenyon has a free app, and that’s in Ohio (: I didn’t get great aid from them bc they aren’t full-need, but I know a current student there who got amazing aid. It may be worth a shot, considering your ACT scores and GPA! Only complaint is that Kenyon is not super ethnically diverse (something I was looking for!), but they’re actively trying to recruit more people of color (myself included. They flew me in from the East Coast for free). I ended up committing to Amherst College and am v excited for next fall! It’s super diverse and has great aid. I don’t know where your sentiments lie, but I hope this helped!</h2>
<h2>Btw here’s a link to all full-need schools: <a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014</a></h2>
<p>Also: Reed College gave me amazing aid (some presidential scholarship thing). Only $8k a year with no debt or work study. If you’re into the Portland scene and can afford the flight, it could be very worth your while.</p>
<p>@ocflav </p>
<p>Many schools will waive the app fee, especially if you have done an overnight stay. DD was accepted to Amherst as well and they have LOTS of diversity. They just didn’t give her as much as the other schools. I am friends with a woman whose dd will also be attending in the fall. She fell in love with Amherst, but what’s not to love??? Good luck to you!!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why would regular ED be any better than QB NCM ranked ED with full ride if admitted, if the OP’s first choice college happens to be in the QB NCM list?</p>
<p>One thing is the deadline is incredibly early. I know that DD wasn’t ready that early in the fall to commit. The deadline is late Sept. </p>
<p>Also, what if the school doesn’t pick you during the QB round? Could that be an issue? Not sure.</p>
<p>Unless OP applies to the QB schools that have EA. Stanford, P’ton and Yale I think.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-college-match-process”>http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-college-match-process</a> says that QB NCM is binding except for MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale, which all have EA but not ED in their regular application options (though the latter three have SCEA/REA that limits where else the applicant may apply early).</p>
<p>I was thinking that ED might be preferable if she is certain about a particular first choice. For example, if the OP really wants to study business and definitely would want to go to Wharton if accepted, she might be better off applying to Penn ED rather than through Questbridge where she might be matched with a different school. </p>
<p>I advise you to take the ACT one more time to see if you can raise it. It can’t hurt and if you can get it up into the 34-35 range it will increase your chances for merit scholarship and admissions odds at the more highly competitive colleges that offer more generous FA.
Do pay particular attention to required EARLY APPLICATION deadlines for scholarship consideration. And study these threads- there are many great U’s that will pay Hi Stat students such as yourself to go to there. Look for the last entry from Bob Wallace on the bottom of page 20 on the Automatic scholarships thread for the latest information:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p20.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p20.html</a></p>
<p>and here is more information about other scholarships which are not automatic :
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>
</p>
<p>If the OP applies with QB NCM and ranks UPenn first, would that be any disadvantage compared to applying UPenn regular ED? If not admitted to UPenn, then the OP could still get an early QB NCM admission at a second, third, etc. choice school listed in the QB NCM application, right?</p>
<p>Regarding retaking the ACT – it may also be worth trying the SAT, or at least a full length released SAT on a saturday morning for practice, since some students do better on the SAT than the ACT (or vice-versa).</p>
<p>If she has the “misfortune” of being matched with her second choice through Questbridge, wouldn’t she be committed to going? I don’t know if she would get into Penn ED that Questbridge would similarly match her there if it’s her first choice. Maybe someone with more familiarity with Questbridge than I have can advise.</p>