Anxious High School student about college admissions.

mamabear232
Wed, 21 Feb 2018 03:54:36 +0000

@Ingriiid

What is your current GPA and have you taken the PSAT? That information will help us to help you.

Do you know what your parents will be able to afford? The first step in targeting colleges should be the financial one. Have them put their financial information into the Net Price Calculator (NPC) of some schools that interest you and you will get information about their expected family contribution (EFC). If your family has a lot of financial need, you will want to seek out schools that will meet that need in the form of grants, as opposed to loans, which would require repayment by you or them. Federal student loans amount to about 27K total over four years (5.5K freshman year, with small increases up to year 4). Anything beyond that would have to be cosigned by your parents. If they are struggling financially, it would be unwise to take on educational loans for you, assuming they qualify.

Here’s an example of how this might work: Penn State is relatively expensive, even at in state rates. It may be that a small private college like Dickinson, in Carlisle, PA, might cost less than your in-state flagship, depending on the calculation of your financial need. I mention Dickinson because for a school of its size, it offers a lot of variety in foreign languages. Or you might look at Colleges that Change Lives schools (ctcl.org) These are schools that are less competitive for admission but still very fine colleges. They often offer substantial merit scholarships for A-/B+ students. Ursinus, Susquehanna, and Allegheny are three examples.

Another possibility to save money would be to attend community college or a branch campus of the Penn State system for the first two years and then transfer to the flagship.

However, as @TomSrOfBoston says NYU is not particularly generous for financial aid and most public universities don’t provide aid for out of state students. So NYU and UCLA are not going to be affordable.

The good news is that there are 3,000 colleges and universities in the US and there are many options both financially and academically. It’s good you are beginning to think about this now so you can come up with a realistic plan.

As to your questions about curriculum and standardized tests - if you are disciplined, the free resources at Khan Academy plus a book of official SAT practice tests (available for about 20 bucks on line) may be sufficient for your needs. The number of APs should be based on your interest and ability level. You don’t want to overload yourself to the point of having your GPA suffer.

Good luck!