Hello all, I am looking for schools that fit these requirements while also being affordable. I am from Arizona, but looking to go out of state. I was a captain of my football team (will not play in college), was on debate team, and was involved in community service groups.
First my stats
3.82 UW GPA. 4.33 W
28 ACT. 30 Superscore.
About 15th percentile in my class.
As far as college goes, a medium size school (4,000 - 15,000). Location does not matter. Want to go to a prestigious school that I can afford. My family EFC is an amount that we won’t realistically be able to pay, so a school that offers a lot of merit aid would be preferred. I want to graduate debt-free hopefully.
Looking for a college with a great study abroad program. Small class size is important. Want to have a good social life, while I would like to join greek life, it is just another expense. Would like to go to a residential college with a community feel. I enjoy when a lot of things to do are on campus. I like the outdoors and exploring. Beach would be amazing, but not essential. Will join intramurals and possibly ROTC. I am also Jewish, so at least some representation would be nice as well.
I am undecided with what I want to do or major in. I know that I want to be my own boss eventually and obtain a leadership role. I want to study something that combines geograpahy and statistics/data. I love looking at graphs, maps, charts, etc. I am a good public speaker also and want to inspire others.
Please let me know of any colleges and/or potential majors that would fit these descriptions. And if there are scholarships out there that pertain to me. Also let me know if these are other forums where I can get this post seen by many people. Anything helps!! Thank you all for your help.
major if you like charts/graphs/data: economics. You’ll probably work as a “business analyst” making decent but not amazing money after that unless you go to an ivy tier school. Being business-related, it could fit the desire for “being your own boss” and becoming a leader, but leadership can realistically be obtained with any degree. For the maps interest, maybe get a generic lib arts degree then go on to get an MA in urban planning? Maybe major in civil eng?
You can major in statistics (or applied math if statistics is under that major) and use out of major schedule space to take geography and other courses of interest (perhaps also economics and finance, because many of the jobs that statistics majors go to on graduation are in finance and actuarial areas).
What is your price limit?
For merit scholarships, you have to aim for colleges where you would be at the high end of admitted students as the college views them. The most selective “prestigious” colleges offer need-based financial aid but not merit scholarships.
Do you mean 85th percentile? An unweighted GPA of 3.82 should put you well above average at any high school that I have ever heard of.
I agree with others that knowing what your actual university budget is would be helpful. There are people with an EFC of $80,000 who can only afford $40,000, and people with an EFC of $30,000 who can only afford $20,000. This makes a big difference in terms of which schools would make sense.
University of Richmond would be a good one to look at. There’s some decent merit to be had and also scholarships specific to ROTC. The Geography department has a Spatial Analysis Lab. https://geography.richmond.edu/major-minor/index.html
Within the WUE network, U of Utah would be very affordable, and your stats are right about average for the Honors College https://honors.utah.edu/admissions/admission-process/ which offers a smaller cohort and year-long Praxis Lab projects in addition to honors academics. Utah has a very robust Geography program with multiple emphases https://geog.utah.edu/emphases.html as well as a combined BS/MSGIS https://geog.utah.edu/undergraduate/bs-msgis.html (Of course, you have Barrett Honors in your own state as well, but if you’re wanting a change of scene with unparalleled outdoor recreation, Utah has that in spades and while its 24K undergrad population is a little larger than you stipulated, it’s small compared to ASU, and only about 2300 are in the Honors College.
As others have said, a lot depends on your budget, but you should have good options
You will prob have to sacrifice prestige a bit to get the scholarship you want. Sometimes Tulane is generous and would be a nice match for you.
I think you should def check out Univ of Vermont. Small for a state school, tons of outdoor stuff, and can be generous with merit $. You might have a chance at the honors college there. Nice social justice-minded Hillel for Jewish students.
Are you interested in a smaller college? I was thinking that perhaps a place like Lawrence or Beloit in Wisconsin, Denison in Ohio, and another few like these. Most have solid merit funding.
It’s a bit larger than the size you are looking for, but the University of Delaware is worth looking at. It is highly ranked and situated in a college town that has an incredible sense of community. There’s a very high number of Jewish students there, so you would surely meet individuals whose religious beliefs align with your own.
As for schools that are a bit closer to you, you should look into Texas Christian University. TCU is within the size that you are looking for and they give a generous amount of aid for highly qualified students like yourself. https://admissions.tcu.edu/afford/scholarship-aid/index.php
Don’t let the name fool you — it is not religious affiliated anymore, and even have Jewish organizations on campus such as Hillel! You would, without a doubt, meet other Jewish students.
The NPC for UVM (ie the University of Vermont) asks about information that would be relevant for merit aid, and then does predict merit aid along with the total cost of attendance. For us it was spot on accurate. UVM does have merit scholarships for OOS students. However, I would be surprised if you can get the cost down to $30,000 per year. We liked the school a lot when we visited (it is a lot closer for us, and this was before COVID).
The schools that we found that fit a budget of $30,000 per year were in-state public schools, and some universities in Canada. The better known universities in Canada are likely to cost more than this for an international student, but there are some very good less famous schools that are under or close to US$30,000 for international students.
We are not familiar with the WUE since we live in the northeast. However, this would seem like another thing to look at closely.
Please clarify for folks…you have already applied to and been accepted to ASU, U of Denver, Elon and one other I can’t remember. Right? You are not looking for new places to apply to.
ASU is in your price point…with a cost of $20,000 a year. Go there.
@thumper1 this post was mainly intended for my brother, who is similar to me in many aspects. But yes, My current options right now are ASU-Barrett, USD, UDenver, and Elon