Would anyone please suggest more colleges for me to look into? I could use a wider variety.

College Search & Selection
1

Hello, I am an incoming senior.

State of Residence: Michigan
GPA: 3.85/4.00
SAT: 1060 (540 M + 520 CR/W) I kept having panic attacks throughout the test. :(( :((
Course load 9-11: 11 Honors and 2 AP’s
12: 4 AP’s including BC Calc and Physics C. Exhausted all the Honors.
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank.
Prospective Majors: Deciding between Microbiology, Molecular Genetics, Mechanical Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering.

First Generation College Student (I am going through this process alone. My high school has been absolutely horrible in assisting me.)
Had Thyroid problems through my freshman and sophomore years. I’m in remission now.
I have Anxiety problems, but I have not been allowed to get treatment because “its all in my head.”
Half of my family are alcoholics.
I have not been allowed to work or participate in EC’s. I’ve been expected to hold the apartment down.
I cannot go to CC. It isn’t about pride with me, it is just about getting out of dodge and keeping a more healthy distance between my family and I. With this in mind, I won’t apply to any university near me either.

My mom on tuition: “Don’t worry about it.”

I have applied to: Ferris State, Grand Valley, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northland College, Northern Michigan, and Lake Superior State.
Will Apply to: Michigan State, Kalmazoo College (test optional), Saginaw Valley State, and Western Michigan.
If I can get a higher ACT, I will apply to University of Michigan.

Almost all of the schools I mentioned are in Michigan. I’m not against leaving my state, but I just want to go somewhere that won’t slam me with costs. I’m open to privates, but I will not go to a religious school.

2

Oakland

Please retake. Sat or act

3

Oakland is very very close to me. Sorry, but I need to be far away.

4

Raising your SAT scores or doing well on the ACT would improve your chances. Most public universities admit/reject almost entirely based on GPA, class rank, and test scores.

There are many great colleges available through the [Midwest Student Exchange Program](http://msep.mhec.org). As a Michigan resident, you’d pay 150% of in-state tuition at participating universities.

Some MSEP universities may be about as cheap as in-state options. Tuition/fees at U Kansas is $15,778 compared to $14,114 at in-state Michigan State, for example. Places like U Nebraska and Truman State in Missouri are even cheaper – $12,540 and $11,682 for MSEP tuition/fees, respectively.

5

Thank you for your help. If I may ask, @warblersrule and @artloversplus, do you have any tips for the test anxiety? Deep breathing/breathing exercises are not enough and treating practice tests as if they were real don’t trick my mind enough.

6

If you want to get out of state and can get a medium/high ACT score you might want to look at some southern SEC schools like Alabama, Ole Miss, etc. Depending on what you want to major in, they have decent programs and they offer large amounts of scholarships and are very far away from Michigan. They are also very large and relatively easy to get into with a scholarship. A lot of them also have good honors programs too.

7

I don’t know which they are, but maybe work on finding test-optional schools. I imagine a quick google search would be a good start.

Oh, and another thing, if you had an IEP or 504 in high school maybe you could get more time to take the test? I don’t know if it’s done. Just throwing it out there.

8

I don’t have any qualifications that would get me an IEP or 504. If I did, then my family wouldn’t be willing to work with the school to get me one. They want nothing to do with my education.

9

Northeastern comes to mind.

10

It seems like Michigan Tech might be worth a look based on your potential majors. Is Wayne State too close to home for you?

11

If you can get your sat/act up you could try for university Illinois (UIUC). It would be a reach and their engineering is competitive but worth a shot

12

@Ashley19992018 The combination of a family that “want nothing to do with my education” and on tuition “don’t worry about it” makes me concerned. Do you know what your parents will be able to contribute to your education? Often those statements go along with families that balk at paying anything when they see the sticker price in the spring. Do you know if you will qualify for any need based aid? Do you know about the NPCs on college websites? These will be things that need to be sorted out to make college attendance possible especially away from home.
UIUC is very expensive for OOS students.

13

I am concerned about your mom’s “don’t worry about it” attitude toward costs. Each school has a net price calculator on their website. You would need your mom’s help, but you should run them so she can see the costs. No point in applying places that are unaffordable.

I don’t have any specific tips on testing, except do a lot of prep ahead of time. Higher test scores could give you a lot more choices. Since you don’t have ECs, you could focus time there.

Also, I would talk to your school guidance counselor. I know you said they have been “hortible”, but here is the bottom line – your GC (guidance counselor) fills out recommendation paperwork on you. A good relationship with them can help you a lot in the process. If you’ve clashed in the past, you need to make amends right away this fall. Honestly – it isn’t their fault that you have no ECs and test anxiety, which is what makes it hardest to help you with your college search. But your GC can be your ally – they can communicate to colleges about your health problems and restrictions your parents have put in your activities. But you need them to know (and ideally) like you.

Are you a URM (minority)? That might make a difference, too.

Are there any clubs that meet at lunch, or can you volunteer someplace nearby this summer?

14

Absolutely, the larger issue is your mental health. Speak to your GC…

15

@cellomom2 I will keep MI Tech in mind. Wayne State is too close to home. Every time I bring it up, mom says, “We’ll figure it out, don’t worry about it. My dad [grandpa] will help.” Grandpa in his conversations with me don’t seem to hint this, but it’s her dad. Maybe she knows her way around him. I don’t really speak to him much. We aren’t really that close for good reason.

When I spoke about colleges with this same grandpa, he insisted that I not go to Wayne State, Detroit Mercy, or anything in Flint because he grew up in those parts and “has seen things he will never forget.” My mom agreed with him. Fortunately for me, this knocks out most of the schools in this area. My mom knows this as well and has no problem with me leaving the metro area. This was our only discussion about universities we all had and it was probably 7-9 months ago.

She also didn’t seem too willing to have me go to the community college. She had an apprenticeship through it and wasn’t impressed with their college courses she did have to take.

I know about the NPC, but I don’t have all the required things to enter everything accurately. So I end up guessing, which is better than nothing. I made my mom aware of FASFA and she just said okay and that we’d take care of it.

I would have applied to Lawrence Tech because they had all my majors despite being close to my home, but according to the NPC it seems like a waste of time.

My mom makes around $65,000-$68,000 before taxes. After they are all taken out, she ends up with around $50,000. I know this because I threw a number out and she said she made a little more, so I threw another out and she said that was about what she made. FASFA’s estimate didn’t seem like it would be too kind.

I’m fine with staying in Michigan. East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Mt Pleasant, etc all are 1.5+ hours away. I just don’t want to rule out leaving Michigan so quickly.

@intparent It isn’t about the test anxiety or about the lack of relationship I have with any of my family members. I have had two counselors throughout high school, one retired and the other came 2nd semester of my Jr. year. Neither of them have helped me at all in this college process. If I asked them the same question I asked you all and they both said, “You’ll figure it out. You’re a smart girl.” When I asked them about the test anxiety and what I should do to aid it, the old one said, “You did fine. Your scores will get you into plenty of schools.” while the new one said “I don’t know.” The old counselor was constantly trying to drive me away from taking STEM, Honors, and AP classes despite teacher recommendations. When I had a hole in my senior year schedule, the new one had absolutely no suggestions for me and couldn’t answer my questions about other classes. When I asked them both about tips to pay for college and suggested I join an ROTC program, the old one laughed at me and said that I wouldn’t be able to do that. The new one told me to fill out FASFA. Then, the old one proceeded to hand me a list of scholarships that were for college freshman and up.

The new one has known me since 6th grade as she was my counselor 6th-8th. She is aware of the fact that I have anxiety issues, but didn’t know what to tell me for testing strategies. I have no doubts that I could get her to write me a good letter, but I am all alone in this application/FASFA/ACT mess.

One of my teachers, who was in a similar situation with an unsupportive family and anxiety issues told me that when I get into a uni, I should go seek medication there. That is the only option I have right now.

16

My apologies. I did not see the question referring to me being URM or not. I am as white as they come. No clubs meet during lunch. Volunteering isn’t really an option due to where I am. It isn’t rural here, but things are just really spaced out. Ex: the nearest library is like 6 miles away.

17

Try the act.
Take the August sat test and treat it as a practice test.
Read “make it stick” (how neuroscience discoveries can help you learn).
If you’re stuck at home taking care of the house/apartment every day, it counts as an EC for the common app. And how about you learn some cooking and indicate that as an EC? What about doing things from home, such as origami (you can borrow a book from the library and then all you need is paper and cisors.) That’d be an original EC. You can also grow flowers, or vegetables, if you don’t have a garden perhaps in balcony pots?
BTW, if the closest library is 6miles away, you live in a rural county. Make sure that’s clear in your essay (you can ask experienced readers on this website to review your essay).
In terms of test optional colleges : what about Albion? Knox? Beloit? Drake?
Truman state is an excellent suggestion but would require higher scores.
Definitely apply to Grand Valley State honors :slight_smile: and all honors programs.
And don’t discount UMichigan. They’re trying to get more rural applicants. And they’d be nearly tuition free for you.

18

I am in Metro Detroit (Oakland county). I mean I would call it more suburban since it is so heavily populated, but it has rural qualities. City people probably don’t have to drive 4-5 miles to go to the grocery store or 6 miles to go see a movie. Metro Detroit is just known for being really hard to travel through if you don’t have a car. Road rage gets insane. UofM gets a lot of people from my area. If they were going to be nice to me, it would be for the tuition.

Somebody on a different thread suggested that I try practice tests in strange spots. I don’t think that I will be able to fool myself with the August SAT testing room, but the strange spots seems promising.

I take care of my mom’s plants already. I’ve done some cooking, but she’s a little weird about letting me cook full blown things. So no chicken, but I can make ground beef. I’ll substitute my YouTube videos in for the origami. They are just lyric videos, but I have done it for a long time and built an amazing fanbase. Getting somebody to teach me to drive will be challenging as well. I understand that it is far cheaper to just not have your teen drive, but the least someone could do is agree to teach me. -_-

I will check out Knox, Beloit, and Drake a little bit more. Albion is a Catholic school and I really want to stay out of any religious schools. Thank you for the suggestion and for the information on the other schools! :slight_smile:

19

I recommend looking into test-optional colleges. Despite the anecdotes you’ll read on this site, astronomical score increases are statistically improbable, and so your list should comprise colleges you can get into with the scores you have. Earlham in Indiana is Quaker-affiliated, but don’t worry about the religious component. It is very tolerant. It might be an option for you.

20

Albion isn’t Catholic, though with your troubles a little religion might help. Take the ACT & SAT as many times as you can. They will get less stressful the more familiar u are with them. Getting a good test score will vastly increase your chances of getting in more colleges & getting money from those colleges.