I think Vanderbilt and Duke would be great places to visit or at least research if possible. Would you be interested in liberal arts colleges or all women’s colleges? Some are quite diverse.
I’m not sure, but I think you meant your parents are married but file taxes separately? Is that correct? Either way, almost all private colleges (which are the ones that offer the best financial aid (not merit scholarships)) will require financial information from both parents. So, before spending a lot of time on applications and supplemental essays, make sure you understand the finances because it would be really hard to get your heart set on a school that ends up to not be affordable. It would be great to find some schools for your list where you are likely (or have a good chance) to get merit scholarships.
I would take a look at some of the eastern LACs. For a varity of reasons. Firstly, their interest in maintaining a sense of community - some might even call it a “bubble” - would represent a different experience from your high school. Smith College, an all-women’s college in Northampton MA, has a relatively long tradition of recruiting African-American women with a high percentage overall of first-gens and women from low-income backgrounds relative to upper-middle-class whites. Vassar, a formerly single-sex college (maybe, fifty years ago) has a similar vibe and track record to Smith - left-of-center, impeccably high academics across the board, and very cognizant of what it takes to maintain a racially and socio-economically diverse student body.
For something a little more conventional, I would look at the NESCAC colleges. Their decades old tradition of round-robin sports competition coupled with long New England winters have developed - not a rah-rah sort of thing - but a low-key sense of school spirit and attention to academics that seems to propel them into a variety of satisfying careers. Stand-outs would include Amherst, perpetually at number 1 or 2 in the USNews national LAC rankings; it currently has the lowest percentage of whites among recent incoming NESCAC classes. And, check out Wesleyan University in CT with its nationally recognized film department and about 10% of each graduating class headed for careers in media and communications.
Prefer the Sunbelt? Take a look at the Claremont Colleges a consortium of five LACs in close proximity to each other in a suburb just outside of Los Angeles. Occidental College is also in L.A., maybe a tad lower in terms of selectivity but gets good marks on diversity - it was Obama’s alma mater before he transferred to Columbia.
Hope this helps.
@elena13 I’m not open to the idea of a women’s college. I went to an all-female school freshman year and it was not the place for me. You’re right. I was a little confused on the matter of my parent’s taxes. They’re married but don’t file their takes together. Thank you for help!
In other words, they each file taxes as “married filing separately”.
Be sure to include both of their income and assets when using college net price calculators. But be aware that if they own a business, some net price calculators may not match the actual financial aid calculations, in that they sometimes add back business deductions to income. So you can run the net price calculator twice, once with normal income numbers, and a second time with income numbers with business deductions added back to get a more pessimal estimate.
It sounds as if schools where you’ll get enough need-based aid to attend are going to be the exception to the rule. Most (if not all?) will require your dad’s financials, and then you won’t get enough aid.
So, your first filter is to investigate the elite schools you’re interested in, and determine which ones are worth applying to from a financial standpoint. Run NPC’s, and seek clarification as to how your dad’s info will be considered. This will narrow the field more than enough. The combination of your strong credentials, the “URM bump”, and the de-prioritization of standardized tests in the wake of the pandemic should position you well as an applicant, but there’s no point considering schools that aren’t attainable in terms of cost. Outside scholarships that will put a dent in the cost of elite privates are exceedingly rare.
Secondly, consider options that will be affordable for you at sticker-minus-merit. Limiting your out-of-pocket to $12K/year is going to require a near full-ride; room and board at most schools is at least $12K/year so full-tuition scholarships may get close to what you need but will be pushing the envelope.
Look especially at full-tuition or full-ride scholarships that particularly seek POC. These exist at both privates and publics. Some examples:
https://admissions.miami.edu/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/ronald-a-hammond/index.html
https://students.wustl.edu/ervin-scholars-program/
https://odi.osu.edu/msp-about
https://www.uc.edu/campus-life/eps/turner.html
Not a comprehensive list by any means, just proof-of-concept
Also look at cohort Honors programs and their associated scholarships, for example,
https://honors.uga.edu/c_s/scholarships/f_f/foundation_fellows.html
Diversity is an important consideration, for sure, and your in-state publics are somewhat lacking in that respect, as I’m sure you know, despite being terrific schools in many other ways. But if you’re looking to attend a private or OOS public school for 12K/year or under, funding is going to have to be your first consideration. If you just look for schools to fall in love with, based on considerations of diversity, “vibe”, etc. you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment in terms of what’s financially manageable. Go bargain-hunting first and then compare your options based on your desired parameters.
@itsgettingreal17 may have suggestions…?
Rice University is strong in other areas, too. Why did you get the impression it isn’t?
Have a look: https://www.rice.edu/departments
@ucbalumnus After doing the EFC calculator on the Duke website with both parent’s information, it seems like I will receive zero aid from Duke. After discussing the issue with my parents, it seems like they have changed their minds for what they are willing to cooperate with. The number now stands at $18,000. But, paying $70,000 per year for a bachelor’s degree is not justifiable.
^Just curious. Where did they get their degrees?
That would make Duke a super-high-reach, since you would be aiming for a very rare full ride (e.g. Robertson scholarship) rather than just admission (which is hard enough to get in the first place).
If your parents can pay $18k per year, but net price calculators are saying list price, your college application list needs to be built around seeking merit scholarships, or in-state public universities that you can commute to. You may be able to add federal direct loans ($5.5k the first year) and a few thousand dollars of work earnings to your parents’ contribution to get a maximum stretch budget per year.
Basically, safeties would have large enough automatic merit scholarships that your stats qualify for, while you could add reaches based on large enough competitive merit scholarships. It is unfortunate that you lost your 11th grade PSAT to snow, because a high enough score could have gotten you National Merit status that would have opened up more scholarship opportunities.
@hewanyoseph23 Get your post count up and PM. I’ll help you find big merit.
@circuitrider My parents are immigrants. My dad has a business degree from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. My mom has her associates in nursing.
I so disagree with this. I was discriminated against at college because of religion and when I started dating my husband who came here from Asia and is not American. We dealt with people saying and doing some pretty stupid things. It was not fun. Times have changed and things are really great there. I don’t think we would have those same issues. However, that type of thing is something to consider. I thought of it when we looked at schools for our son. I wanted him to feel part of the campus community, not a token minority. There was a school where i felt uncomfortable about things described as it sounded as though minority students are segregated from the rest of the campus. I asked our tour guide who was black about her experience and she confirmed my feelings saying most minority students are friends together and the white students are friends. They are friendly to one another but not in the same friendship groups. That’s really a big concern to me. Schools vary on this type of thing and I would not write off the concerns of a high school student on this topic. I don’t know your racial or ethnic background and am assuming you are of majority culture when that may not be the case.
You can check out the % of various racial groups for the colleges in which you are interested. That said, I do like the way NESCACs fund students so well and think you should consider looking at them as well. Some have higher % of black, Asian, Latino, etc students than others but most all are at least trying to increase those percentages. That could help you be accepted. Most meet full need and some do that without expecting you to take any loans.
Good luck!
Check Bard. They have a scholarship specifically for people who have two parents who were born in another country. It’s a pretty substantial scholarship.
So…let’s recap here. The OP was raised in Colorado in a mixed-race family. It sounds like she went to a majority white high school with some African-American repesentation, but not with a lot of socializing between the races. She’d like a greater integration (no pun intended) between her social and academic life and I tried to make a few suggestions that were on the reach-ey end selectivity-wise but worth taking a shot given her stats and URM status. Unfortunately, none of those suggestions are realistic financial safeties given her parents stance that they will only spend $18,000 a year on her education.
That basically leaves her in the hunt for about $20,000 in merit aid.
At this point, i would have to ask whether either of her state flagship universities would be any worse in terms of race relations than her high school? No place will be perfect, but, at least at the college level there will be more academic peers from all races and a level of maturity that she may have found lacking in high school.
Hope this helps.
Seems like the OP ran some net price calculators and got list price results (reply #26), so it may be more accurate to say that she needs a net price of:
- <= $18k (parent contribution only)
- <= $23k (parent contribution plus direct loan *or* her own part-time/summer work earnings)
- <= $28k (parent contribution plus direct loan *and* her own part-time/summer work earnings)
At private colleges, the amount of merit scholarship needed to meet such a net price could be a lot more than $20k.
List price of CU Boulder is $28k-$34k, depending on division (arts & sciences is the lowest, business is the highest). About $15k of that is room and board, with $13k estimated for off-campus and $5k for living with parents and commuting. This suggests that the OP would be at the edge of her budget at an in-state Colorado public university, unless she got some merit or commuted from home.
CU Boulder, CSM, and CSU Fort Collins are all about 70-73% white and 1-2% black, if that matters. The stats do not say anything about the level of interaction.
@ucbalumnus wrote:
Well, in that case, the OP would have to ask her parents when they said $18,000 was their budget limit whether they really meant they were looking for a degree that only cost $3,000 in tuition. I’m guessing they didn’t mean that. But, you’re right. It’s worth double checking.
I guess the bottom line here is that the financial limitations are going to cast her search much farther afield than I think she initially thought it would and she really needs to ask herself whether Alabama is any closer to her ideal than Colorado even at full-in-state costs, including room and board (and presumably, books, too.)
^^ I ran the EFC calculator again. It gave me an EFC of about $33,000. I don’t understand why it gave me the full price the last time I ran it. Maybe my dad entered some values incorrectly? I ran the EFC calculator at other schools( BU and Dartmouth.) All there were within the range of $25,000 to $35,000. Any number in this range is much friendlier than the list price. I also expect my EFC to change as my younger brother enters college, he is two years younger than me.
On another note, I would like to thank all of you that replied to this thread. You were all so eager to help me!
Ok, it looks like you are a lot closer to being in range of affordability ($18k-$28k depending on how much federal direct student loan and work earnings you want to depend on).
Be aware that when you get a mix of merit scholarships and need-based financial aid, many colleges do not let you fully “stack” them. A common policy is to apply them first to whatever student loan and student work they assume (usually $5k to $10k) and unmet need (if any), but then reduce need-based grants. However, colleges do vary on these policies (and different scholarships at different colleges may be subject to different policies).
Here is a list of college policies on outside scholarships; while these may not be the colleges you apply to, you can look at their policies for examples. But be aware that many colleges do not display their policies on their web sites; some may have worse-for-the-student policies than those that do.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2184881-list-of-outside-scholarship-financial-aid-policies-stacking-scholarship-displacement.html