I’m a rising senior who’s still in the process of making a solid college list, but I have run into a slight dilemma that I hope you guys can help me with. I come from a low-income family so I really want to avoid applying to schools (or falling in love with any) that my family will not be able to afford. I understand from my online research that it’s best to apply to lots of schools in my situation and to compare FA packages afterwards, but I cannot afford to do that because my school limits me to applying to 7 private colleges maximum. Since I will be applying to some schools that I understand I have a huge chance of getting rejected from, I want to make sure that every private college I apply to is one that I can definitely afford if accepted.
So my problem is that there are some schools I’m interested in that I would not be able to afford based on the NPC outputs, but which offer large merit scholarships. Since these scholarships are only offered to a small number of students, I cannot really deduce my chances of getting them. Most of the webpages say that they are offered to the top applicants to the school. Score-wise, I believe I would be in the top 25th percentile of applicants, but beyond that I do not really know how I would fall.
Do you have any advice on whether it would be worth it for me to apply to these schools with the hope that I will be offered a merit scholarship, or should I just avoid applying to these schools in the first place because of the likely unaffordable price?
@TomSrOfBoston Yes, I do. My family makes <30k/yr so that is considered low-income, right? But the schools in question do not offer the best need-based aid (based on NPC outputs), so I would need to receive merit scholarships along with that to attend.
Do you have any advice for what I should do in this situation?
@shawnspencer For fee waivers, I think so, although I haven’t gotten around to requesting application fee waivers yet. And I will be applying to QuestBridge.
@Madison85 I will definitely apply to Gates but I really cannot depend on any scholarships because there’s always the chance that I won’t get them.
I have a 35 ACT and 790+800 SAT subject tests. My school does not calculate GPA/rank but I would say I have around an A average (definitely higher than school average).
There are schools that give ASSURED BIG merit for your stats…and they don’t limit how many they award. You could apply to some so that you would KNOW for sure that you’d get the money.
Is the limit of 7 colleges because of the application fees or some other reason? Because in addition to fee waivers, there are some schools that automatically waive the application fee. (Ex: Oberlin)
@mommdc Yes, I definitely want to do that, but I’m not sure how to find such schools. Would you be able to help me there? I am only looking at schools in the Northeast region because I want to stay close to home so many of the automatic merit scholarship schools I’ve come across don’t work for me. And I plan to major in biology/biochemistry.
@mom2collegekids Are there any such schools in the Northeast region? I plan to major in biology/biochemistry and would like to become a biomedical researcher (so graduate school is a big possibility, which makes $ even more important for me). I live in NY and got a 223 on my PSAT so hopefully I’ll be a NMSF. I do not have a set college list yet but the schools in question with the not-so-great need based aid but great possible merit scholarships include Bucknell, Northeastern, Trinity College, American University, and University of Rochester.
Have you considered applying to schools HEOP (take a chance and toss an application to columbia, Barnard if you are a woman, Hamilton, Colgate, etc.? DO you live in NYC? if yes, do you think that you will be nominated for Posse?
toss an application to the Macaulay’s Honors program to CUNY.
If you are graduating in the top 10% of the class and are willing to do STEM research, apply to HESC Stem incentive scholarship
Since you will be eligible for TAP with a 30k family income, take advantage of the $5100 in NYS TAP that you would be eligible to receive.
If you are EOP eligible, apply to 4 schools (they will waive the fee through the SUNY portal)
there will be schools such as Oswego, where you can probably get a free ride (possibility scholars)
You can most likely get your fee waived for them through the common app. If you are in NYC, and they limit you to 7 schools, don’t be afraid to have your parents make a 311 call and register a complaint (your principal won’t be happy to receive a call from his/her superintendent. Don’t take no from anyone who is not in a position to say yes)
Temple is in Philadelphia PA, was giving full tuition for 3.8 GPA and 32 ACT last year.
With a 35 ACT you might have a chance for full tuition at Pitt and one of the top merit scholarships at Ohio State.
But start with your own state. If you go into STEM in NYS, can’t you get full tuition at SUNY’s ?
With TAP and Pell grant and a student loan you should be able to cover room and board at SUNY.
Why does you high school limit your college applications to 7? From the school’s standpoint, the only limit should be based on the number of unique recommendations that you will ask for.
Are many people in your school low income? It seems that limit is a bit on the low side for high stats students dependent on an aid hunting mission. So you can apply to unlimited public? SUNY, CUNY and Temple, UVA 3 moderate LAC that meet full need, 4 reaches that meet full need is how I would think to go. I wouldn’t waste the application on a college that just gives a couple big merit.
If you are really doing Questbridge, then are you doing the Match? That is 8 right there, if you choose to list 8 in the match. UVA is a partner.
Even then, on the common app, transcripts are uploaded twice now and mid year
SUNY is uploaded twice through counselor connect (if you have a copy of your most recent transcript, you can submit your information yourself through SOARS) SUNY should count as one application. Again you can only apply to 4 schools on a SUNY fee waiver.
CUNY should count as one choice (but you can submit up to 6 schools) for your $65 application fee (which are very very limited). I would count on saving the $65 to pay for this application (unless you are part of a community based organization that pays for college applications- ex. HCZ)
If you got SAT fee waivers, you should also get application fee waivers. If you got act fee waivers, you should also get application fee waivers from them also. For common app fee waiver, it is just a matter of your GC clicking the box, verifying that you are on your schoos fre/reduced lunch roster (make sure that you fill out and turn in a lunch form this year) and typing their name.
your biggest challenge would be sending scores, even then many schools will take the signed sealed copy of the school copy of your SAT exam scores. One would think that your GC/counseling staff would want to go the extra mile for low income kids who need to cast the widest nets.
Many of the big automatic merit schools like LA Tech, FL A&M, PV A&M, NC Central, and the AL schools are public, so do these escape the 7 school limit?