HI there. I’m a high school junior looking at schools (of course). My family is upper middle class and I have solid scores and ECs (see below). While searching, all the schools I’m falling in love with are selective private schools such as Rice or George Washington, who generally don’t give much in aid to someone in my situation. What are some schools where I can get the academic rigor and intellectual, quirky atmosphere without drowning in debt?
White female, Jewish
GPA 4.0, weighted 4.7ish
ACT: total 34, Math 29 or 31 (can I superscore?), English 35, Reading 35, Science 36, Writing 29
APs: Human Geography (5), World History (5)
Current (academic) Courses: AP US History, AP Computer Science A, AP Physics 1, AP Calculus AB, AP English Language and Composition
Senior Course Plan: AP Macroeconomics, AP Computer Science Principles, College English, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, Internship
All academic classes either AP or Honors
National Honors Society Member
Mu Alpha Theta Member
Captain of Fencing Team
Teacher at Sunday School
Camp Counselor at GS camp
Robotics Club member
Robotics Club animation/graphics expert
Robotics Camp Counselor
3rd chair cellist in top orchestra at school
Bronze Award & Silver Award
(If all goes well this summer, Gold Award)
Freshman mentor
If you’re full pay (family income over, say, $150K/yr, though a few schools give aid above this level), then you’ll be after merit aid if you want to go to a selective private school and not pay $60k+/year. If that’s the case, the question is how much your family is willing to pay and how much aid you really need. There are some very selective and all-around excellent schools out there that offer some merit aid. Among liberal arts colleges, a few of the most selective schools that would qualify as quirky and intellectual that DO offer some merit money would be Grinnell, Macalester, Oberlin, Kenyon, and Whitman (not a comprehensive list). The kind of money you’d be likely to see from those schools is probably in the $12 - 15K/year range. If you want more money than that, then you’ll need to go another increment down the selectivity ladder (where there are still a whole lot of terrific schools).
One other school to put on your radar – I don’t know how serious you are about the robotics thing and engineering in general, but Olin College gives a half tuition scholarship to every incoming student, making it one of the very best deals around among ultra-selective schools for full-pay families. They have a particularly fondness for First Robotics kids. But you would be committing to majoring in some flavor engineering if you went there. One other plus – they’re one of the only (maybe THE only) tech-focused schools to have a 50-50 male/female ratio.
Imagine you’re going out to buy a car right now. You want a BMW but can only afford a Honda. Based on what you want it to accomplish which meets your goal? The only thing the BMW can achieve on the average road is the fact that people will say there goes a BMW. You will arrive to your destination just as well in a Honda. The same is true of your education. The thing that matters the most in getting an education is the person who is getting the education. Good luck.
Apply to USC, they give merit aid rather than traditional FA. You have a great academic and EC record. And I second Olin - both of these are good academic choices with decent merit aid especially for someone with stats like you
Run Net Price Calculators on colleges’ websites, unless your family has some of the characteristics that make NPC inaccurate (divorce, own a business, etc.–the websites may mention the situations where the NPC won’t be accurate).
Talk to your parents about what their budget for college is. You can’t borrow the whole amount of private college tuition ($60,000 a year).
Then start searching! Check out Whitman and Willamette, also New College of Florida where the out of state cost of attendance is about $20,000 less than your average LAC. Ditto for Saint Mary’s College of Maryland. Those last two are both state honors colleges (free-standing honors colleges, not honors colleges within huge universities).
I will definitely give these school, and the car analogy, some serious consideration. As far as how much tuition we’re willing to pay out of pocket, we do know yet due to a very recent job change.
Are they ready, willing, and able to cover all of the costs up to $XX,XXX.XX? Then sit down with them and run the Net Price Calculator at the websites of the places that are currently on your list, and find out if those places fall within your budget. Don’t forget to include your own best estimates for travel, books, and personal expenses. Some of the NPCS don’t take those into account.
Are you expected to borrow the standard student loans? You and your parents will need to file the FAFSA every year, and you will be limited to the standard loan amounts of $5,500 freshman year, $6,500 sophomore year, $7,500 junior year, and $7,500 senior year.