noimagination

Depends how you define "good". I would probably agree.

I would recommend UF or FSU for dannygood. Both are fine schools that should be affordable. There's nothing wrong with looking elsewhere if and only if you have the discipline to turn down unreasonable offers.

What is the intended major?

entomom

This is not true for the same reasons that applying to a large number of selective colleges does not give you correspondingly better 'odds' of admission:

1. The calculation of odds is based on the caveat of randomness. Neither college admission nor merit scholarships are random, some candidates are more desirable than others.

2. Between applying for admission and filling out separate merit applications for so many schools, neither will not be of as a high quality as possible due to time constraints.

Why are Rice & WUSTL on your list?

Rice's CDS for 2010-11 has a 75% SAT level of enrolled fr at 2300. My guess is that WUSTL is higher. They only give rank, not gpa, but I don't believe that a 3.74 UW is close to the 95% range for either of these schools.

mom2collegekids

@mom2collegekids: Hi. No I would not have to take any loans, I don't want to go into the details but got some money, and am capable of paying for college. However, I'd like to cap my price at 35k because honestly the price of college is really ridiculous. It's exorbitant and with the amount of student loans that are being taken out the bubble will burst extremely soon.

Then what do you suggest specifically in schools? In the links posted by BobWallace and Erin's Dad I'd rather go to UF than any of those schools. So if that's true are you saying that I should just end my search now and only apply to UF? (loaded question) The reason I'm applying to most of those schools is because its conceivable I can still get a merit aid package (more you apply to the better the odds) like Lehigh and URochester are known for giving large packages of 15-20k a year to many students, and being around the 75 percentile in scores for those schools I don't understand why I wouldn't apply for them looking for merit aid!




I don't think you understand. To get BIG merit from schools then your scores need to be in the top 2-5% for THAT school (not national percentiles.) Your scores aren't high enough to get big merit (or any merit) from many of those schools.

Your biggest problem for merit is your Math +CR score (which is what schools use for merit).. It's a 1430....that's not high enough for the merit that you want from the schools only your list.

As for the USC example, I can almost assure you that your SAT is NOT high enough for merit there. Their merit awards go to NMFs and students with M-CR SAT ranges of 1500+. USC wouldn't give merit for a 1430 Math + CR...no way. They might not even accept you, much less give merit.

You won't likely get much/any merit from URoch, Rice, Wash U and a number of the other schools. That's why you need another list.

And...if you (the student) have $100k of personal funds/income to put towards college, then you definitely won't qualify for any need-based aid.


No one is saying that you should only apply to Florida publics. We're saying that you need a reasonable list if you need big merit to afford college (or to pay what you want to pay).