Where should I go?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi, I'm a high school senior (white) living in Colorado, and I need some help finding a college.</p>

<p>Stats:
-Weighted gpa: 4.2
-Unweighted gpa: 3.8
-ACT: 31 :)
-SAT: 1860 :(
-My hs doesn't have rankings; "it favors people"</p>

<p>High School Rigor:
-1 AP class Junior Year ; 3 on US History test.
-3 AP classes Senior year (AB Calc, AP Bio, AP Gov & Politics, will also take Physics test, I forget which one it is though.)</p>

<p>EC:
-4 years basketball, 2 varsity
-2 years soccer
-1 year track, varsity
-Volunteer as youth basketball/soccer ref, other random volunteer work.
-Job as announcer for softball games
-Play the saxophone</p>

<p>Not that much I know.</p>

<p>What I'm Looking for:
-College with a great science program
-I'd like a school where I get attention from teachers, intramurals are popular, and theres a study abroad program
-Enrollment less than 10,000
-Urban or Suburban area, good college town
-Good financial aid - My parents only have around 15k per year for me
-Preferably West coast, but not that big a deal</p>

<p>I wanted to go to Stanford, but that's not gonna happen, so now I'm looking at:
-University of Denver
-Colorado College
-Regis University</p>

<p>These are colleges that my guidance counselor recomended to me:
-Alleghany C
-Biola U
-Columbia C
-Gonzaga
-Harvey Mudd
-Pitzer
-U of Puget Sound
-Reed C
-Santa Clara U
-Pepperdine
-St Johns U</p>

<p>Please, could someone tell me my chances at these schools, or recomend some others?! Thanks so much.</p>

<p>Also 2 Questions:
1. Do you have to be religious to be accepted to Pepperdine, or are they just tied to the Christian faith?</p>

<ol>
<li>If schools, such as DU, send you a priority app, would you use that or a common/different app?</li>
</ol>

2

<p>

</p>

<p>Is that number in line with your Expected Family Contribution (EFC)? If you don’t know, use an online EFC calculator to figure it out. This will be very important to your application strategy. If for example your EFC is $25K or more, you should be looking at in-state public universities where the costs are relatively low, or at less selective (and more reasonably priced) schools where you would qualify for significant merit aid.</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd would be a big reach. If “Columbia College” refers to the Ivy League university in NYC, I’m afraid that one is out of reach. Reed would be a reach.</p>

<p>I think you have a good shot at all the others. Colorado College is the most selective of those but is now SAT-optional. If your EFC is about equal to what your parents say they can afford, you may get adequate need-based aid from them. If your EFC is far more than that, I don’t think you can count on enough merit aid from CC to close the gap. In that case, other LACs to consider include Beloit, Centre College, Knox, and Rhodes. You would be more competitive for merit aid at these 4 than at Colorado College. They all have average out-of-pocket costs under $30K for merit recipients, and award merit aid to more than half of students without need. You’ll still need at least one good financial safety (probably an in-state public) in case the after-aid cost is still too high. I’m not too familiar with aid at the others on your list.</p>

3

<p>Thanks tk21769,</p>

<p>I’ll definitely calculate my EFC. The Columbia College mentioned is in California, there’s no way I’m applying to an Ivy League school. My counselor told me CC is really good at finding students money, one way or another, but I don’t know. I’ll probably apply to CU as a finacial safety, also I checked out Knox at the college fair I went to tonight, and they were really interesting.</p>

4

<p>How do you figure out the unweighted cumulative GPA into a percentage. I have all of my final grades from grades 9 -11 and my credits earned. I received an unweighted cumulative GPA of 97.8205 but I don’t know how that number came about.</p>

5

<p>Might look at Holy Cross-very good science school with new $70 million science building and one of the few small schools to have produced Nobel Prize winner in medicine. Holy Cross(don’t have to be religious) is SAT optional and pretty good for financial aid as the school is need-blind.</p>

6

<p>Take a look at Grinnell. It’s rural, but it has outstanding science facilities and faculty, strong financial and merit aid, the smallest classes of any top LAC (no class bigger than 25 including into bio and chem), and an outstanding basketball team. No distribution requirements. The sports facilities are palatial and they bring tons of free entertainment and activities to campus. S is a science guy and into lots of sports - he raves about both.</p>

7

<p>You realize that Biola stands for the “Bible Institute of Los Angeles”? That doesn’t seem to fit with your other choices; esp. not if you’re concerned about not being religious enough for Pepperdine.</p>

8

<p>*
-Good financial aid - My parents only have around 15k per year for me*</p>

<p>This could prove to be a problem. Most schools on your list don’t meet need and you don’t know how much your EFC is anyway. EFC is NOT the most you’ll have to pay. </p>

<p>Biola is very religious! </p>

<p>*Quick EFC
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | QuickEFC](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Quick EFC - Finaid) *</p>

<p>Since you may have an unaffordable EFC and/or many of your schools will gap you, you need to apply to some financial safety schools. These are schools that you KNOW you can afford to go to because you KNOW that assured scholarships, family contribution, and maybe a small loan will cover all costs.</p>

<p>Since you have an ACT 31, there are some schools that will give you a good sized merit scholarship.</p>

<p>:)</p>