<p>So I am close to finishing my sophomore year in high school and starting to look for my best course of action for college. For starters, I'm not sure if I should take my SAT/ACT's beginning of my junior year or my senior year (because I will get higher scores as a senior). I am a really good student, though I had a rocky start my first two trimesters my freshman year because I lacked motivation, but at my 3rd term I achieved a 4.0 for the term and since have received 3.5 and 3.8 for my sophomore terms (the grades were slightly effected because of the difficulty of switching schools mid term and the school I was at 1st term had me enrolled in 8 classes) and is looking like I'll get around 4.3 for this term. My current commutative (not including this tri) is around 3.5 and I'm sure I'll get to at least 3.7 or 3.8 by the time I graduate. I also will have a full schedule throughout my high school career and have been in honors and AP's since this year. I am involved in sports year round and will volunteer and work all summer both summers. So I'm confident I will be accepted in a number of schools. That isn't the problem.</p>
<p>The problem is I come from a lower-middle class family and would have to support my education all on my own financially. I want to double major in Physics and Computer science because I either want to eventually work for NASA or go do physics related research someday. Since my freshman year I've dreamed of going to Stanford because I feel like the prestige would help get the job that I desire. However, financially I'm not sure if I could handle it. I am already applying for scholarships and upon graduation I will start trying to apply for federal grants and loans, but I don't want so much debt that I won't be able to go to grad school and support a family. That is pretty much the condensed story of my dilemma. I came looking for advice and opinions on my speculated plans of actions and maybe some ideas from others.</p>
<p>Pretty much, without the which school dilemma, the path I hope to take is to double major in Physics and Computer Science, get a job in a computer science or physics related field that pays well, go to grad school for physics and after reaching a masters try to PhD in Physics and do research for NASA or CERN. Now below I have the two most likely paths I am planning on:</p>
<ol>
<li>a) Going to my state university for Bachelors for lower expenses.
b) Going to more prestigious school (the ones I am looking at are Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley) for my masters
c) Try to get my PhD from Stanford</li>
</ol>
<p>or</p>
<ol>
<li>Start out with one of the prestigious schools if I am accepted and take the risk of debt.</li>
</ol>
<p>I guess the point would be would it be worth the debt to start out at Stanford before grad school or would the state school (mine would be Iowa) be fine for Bachelors? Also my concern is if I don't start out at a big name school, I wouldn't be able to end up going to one of those big schools for grad schools. Are these fears real or will I still have an equal shot with all the other grad students? I know this is awful far away but I'd like to have a plan in place as soon as possible so I can make more educated decisions with things that come up with my life.</p>
<p>Have you run the net price calculator on Stanford and the other schools? Stanford has very generous need-based financial aid, so its net price for you may be quite low if your parents have middle to low income.</p>
<p>However, Stanford is also extremely difficult to get into, so it should not be counted on for admissions. You need to find a safety school for your application list which has all of the following characteristics:</p>
<ul>
<li>You will be admitted for sure. (Do you meet the Iowa Regents Admission Index threshold for automatic admission to Iowa public universities?)</li>
<li>You will be able to afford to attend for sure. (Are the Iowa public universities affordable according to their net price calculators?)</li>
<li>It has worthwhile degree programs in your majors. (Iowa and Iowa State appear to be decently respectable in your majors.)</li>
<li>You would like to go there.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you want school suggestions from others, you may want to indicate:</p>
<ul>
<li>The price limit that your parents are willing to contribute (their AFC).</li>
<li>Financial aid situation, or the EFCs from net price calculators.</li>
</ul>
<p>In general, it is not a good idea to take more debt than the Stafford loan limit.</p>
<p>Take the SAT for the first time spring of junior year (my kids did it in March). They took one more time near the end of the school year (May? June? can’t remember when the dates are…). Most kids take it more than once. You also need to take SAT Subject Tests for schools like Stanford, so you need to consider the schedule for those as well. I agree with you that early Junior year can be too soon… but senior year is late, as you will often want a retake after your first attempt.</p>
<p>I will be honest… your shot is probably not “equal” from a typical state university vs. a top college for a Stanford PhD slot. It is certainly not impossible, but generally top schools are more likely to feed top PhD programs. I think this is particularly true in physics. The American Institute of Physics has a link to a lot of interesting stats about grad students and some of them are about schools (sorry, can’t post link, for some reason it seems to be down tonight, but try Googling it in a day or two).</p>
<p>There are a TON of schools in between Stanford/MIT/Berkley and your state university. Maybe get a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges to look for some other choices to consider. Also consider states that have reciprocity with Iowa (I think maybe Minnesota does, maybe some other neighboring states) – in that case, you pay in-state tuition at those schools, so it gives you additional inexpensive choices.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice guys, I just did my Net Income Calculation with Stanford and I’d only have to pay around 6000 tuition which I can pay off with scholarships if I get accepted. Also Iowa is my back up collage because my school offers all kinds of scholarships for the it based off of GPA and major choice alone and there are other students at my school who were accepted with much less rigorous schedules so I’m positive I could make it. I will still be open to looking for other back ups though. Now I have one more question, when should I start sending in my collage applications?</p>
<p>That’s senior year, they aren’t even open to people our age (sophomores). Of course, you have to choose early decision, early action, or regular decision depending on what you want and if the schools you’re applying to have that option.</p>
<p>It’s not a good idea to fixate on one school either for undergrad or grad school. Stanford is a great school and if you could get in with little debt/a lot of need-based aid, that might be the way to go. If by lower-middle class you mean $80,000 or lower income, you could get a substantial no-loan package from Stanford and equivalent schools. I ran an NPC on an income of $65,000 the other day, no significant assets and family of 5, and the EFC at most schools was in the $5,000-7,000 range and that was before Direct loans and PLUS loans. That’s very affordable for a family with that income.</p>
<p>But your research interests may change between now and senior year of college, and maybe Stanford won’t be the best place for you - it might be MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, etc. Don’t look at your masters yet; you are a sophomore in high school. It’s good to start thinking about career areas in which you are interested, but focus on getting into a good college for now.</p>
<p>To answer your question more directly, what you do in undergrad is more important than where you go. You can get into a top PhD program from Stanford or Berkeley, or from a mid-range LAC or good public state school. Both Iowa State and University of Iowa would be absolutely fine for your BS. I went to a top 100 LAC (second half - 50-100) and am at Columbia for my PhD, which is top 5 in my field. If you get involved in research and do a couple summer REUs, as well as maintain good grades and have clear research goals, you can get admitted. You seem driven and ambitious - that’s wha tyou need.</p>
<p>Iowa offers great scholarships - I remember when I was in high school Iowa State offered ME a full scholarship because I was a National Achievement Scholar. I was a GA resident at the time! I didn’t solicit that information - they sent me a prefilled application form.</p>