<p>There are "better" universities that are higher ranked, farther away from my home than USF. They are all in state public universities (UF, UCF, FSU, FIU) but my mom allows me to go if I could find a scholarship that saves enough money so that I can afford to live in a dorm. UF's application date is really early too. (Nov 1st) and it is too late to sign up for the October SAT. I haven't even volunteered 100 hours yet (75 so far). Haven't joined much clubs and never ran for office. Never done extracurricular activities. But my GPA is 3.77 unweighted and took honors courses, taking two AP's and 2 dual enrollment right this senior year working very hard this time to get straight A's.</p>
<p>I would like to go to USF as it is not a bad school at all (great medical program and accounting, new pharmacy school) but should I even try volunteering more and paying a late fee to take the October SAT so I can get good scholarships, if I even have a chance into going into any of those schools especially UF (just because it has a lot of the majors I am interested in)? How do I know which give the best financial aid. I know UF doesn't.</p>
<p>Most people aren’t going to have a clue where these universities are and how far they are from your home. Could you be more specific - these schools are X miles away and my parents don’t want to be more than Y miles away? </p>
<p>You’re telling us that your parents won’t allow- but you’re not telling us why. Until you tell us why that is and what they are afraid of (is it money? is it bad influences? is there a sick relative? do you have a medical condition?) you aren’t going to get useful responses.</p>
<p>Sorry, I think I stated the reason why on my post, “but my mom allows me to go if I could find a scholarship that saves enough money so that I can afford to live in a dorm.” They are overprotective also. These universities are far enough from my house that I would have to live in and pay for dorm fees.</p>
<p>Have you run the NPC calculators on the school websites? It can give an idea of the finaid you might get.</p>
<p>Have you sat down to run the Net Price Calculators for each of these institutions? Get your mom’s help with that. The simple truth may be that your family doesn’t have the money to shell out for housing, meals, and transportation to and from school. If that is the case, then speak with your guidance counselor about scholarships you might qualify for at the farther-away universities. You may find that you don’t need more volunteer hours at all.</p>