Chance and match a very nervous sophomore [MI resident, 3.95 UW GPA, 1350 PSAT, <$40k but prefer <$25k, Political Science/Music]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: MI Resident
  • Type of high school: Large-ish, public high school
  • Other special factors: Hard of hearing in right ear, undiagnosed chronic pain.

Cost Constraints / Budget
Around but hopefully less than $25k per year (including with financial aid). My family can deal with anything up to $40k with financial aid, but I’d prefer to make things easier for everyone.

Intended Major(s)
Political Science with a (possible) Pre-Law track, Music minor. I would be open to a double major program if it’s available (I’ve read the Dual Degree Dilemma about a million times)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.95
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.13 (AP/IB HL +1)
  • Class Rank: 39 out of 1500
  • ACT/SAT Scores: N/A, PSAT 10 score 1350

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

*classes possibly taking senior year

  • English: English 9 and 10 (no honors available), and I’m taking AP Lang in the fall, *AP Lit
  • Math: Adv. Algebra I (8th), Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra II w/ Trig, and Honors Precalculus in the fall, *AP Calculus BC
  • Science: Honors Bio, regular Physics, Honors Chemistry in the fall
  • History and Social Studies: AP World (4), APUSH (5?), with AP US Gov, regular Economics, and Honors International Relations in the fall, *Military History, *Modern European History
  • Language other than English: Spanish I, II, and III
  • Visual or performing arts: Intermediate choir in 9th, top choir in 10th, and taking it in the fall and senior year
  • Other academic courses: *AP Psychology

Awards
Nothing I can think of

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

I’ve been in my high school’s Mock Trial Team for two years and plan on doing it both junior and senior year. I’ve been secretary for one year, though I plan on being VP next year. I was in a public speaking club in 9th grade, but I dropped out because it wasn’t really helpful for me. I’m also part of a creative writing club, but I’m just a member.

I’m a choir student and I’ve been a part of the school’s top choir (state and nationally recognized) for a year and will be a part of it for the next two years. I have participated in both cast and crew for my school’s theatre productions, and I’m currently in a local community production (I plan to do more community theatre over the next couple years).

I plan on some volunteer work (food banks) over the summer, probably under 30 hours due to other summer commitments (driver’s training, etc.). I also applied for my school’s Link Crew program, results come out tomorrow or early next week. I think I got in, but I can’t be 100% sure.

Essays/LORs/Other
I’m a strong writer, that’s about it though. I’m an incoming junior so I have no idea how to pick LORs

Schools

  • Extremely Likely: University of Vermont
  • Likely: UIUC, UConn, University of New Hampshire
  • Toss-up: American, University of Rochester, UWM, UMass Amherst
  • Lower Probability: University of Pittsburgh, Georgetown, UGA, GWU
  • Low Probability: Tufts, Boston College, Boston University

I’m open to any and all suggestions, except for schools in California (parents said no for some reason), Ivy Leagues, and schools in Michigan (my family is moving out of state after high school). I’m mainly asking for schools now because I plan on doing a lot of college tours this summer.

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Are you planning to take the SAT or ACT?

I’m not sure you can make your price point at some of these colleges.

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Yes! I’m going to be studying for it throughout the year to bump my score up (aiming for a 1480, might be impossible, but I can try). I probably should have specified that in the original post, sorry!

Also, with the price points, yeah I’m trying to figure it out. My parents won’t actually tell me how much they’re willing to pay so I’m estimating based on the financial information I know.

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What year are you in HS?

The PSAT you take your junior year could be important as that is the one that will be the initial determination for national merit status.

Bump your score up from…what? Have you already taken an SAT or ACT?

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I do not understand this restriction. Aren’t you going to be out of state for any university outside of Michigan?

Admissions seems to indeed be very likely. Merit based financial aid seems likely (and at least for us the NPC was spot on in terms of predicting merit aid, applying out of state but from a nearby state – you might need SAT score results before the NPC becomes accurate). Even with merit based financial aid it was not very far from $40,000/year, and this was a while ago.

I think that U.Conn and UNH are probably just as likely as UVM, and least in terms of admissions.

Is your family moving to the northeast?

You might want to run the NPC’s for these schools. There is a real chance of getting admitted but finding the school to be unaffordable.

The various Universities of California are likely to be way over your stated budget given that you are out of state. They are great universities, but I do not think that I would want to pay for them as an out of state student.

As a potential law student you are wise to keep your budget in mind. You do not for example want to take the full cost of law school as debt.

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I’m going into my junior year this fall.

This might not make much sense, but I plan on bumping it up from my PSAT score since SAT scores usually don’t become too much higher from PSAT 10 scores. That’s how it worked for my friends who already took the SAT this spring at least.

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I don’t either. They just said they would prefer it if I went to school in a different state so that they can move somewhere between me and my sister while we’re in college. It’s confusing, but that’s what they told me.

I don’t believe so, they’ve been looking more in the Mid-Atlantic region (Virginia and Maryland). I’ve been to the Northeast a few times for vacation and other things and I love the area.

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I think until you have mid year junior year grades, and your SAT score, it’s sort of hard to do reasonable chances on your colleges. Plus…it’s a while before you will even be applying and lots could change.

If your family moves, you could be out of state for all public universities, and meeting a $40,000 price point could be challenging.

You have a lot of more competitive large universities in your list. University of New Hampshire sounds like a realistic option. I would suggest that you also look at University of Delaware.

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Note that your instate university is going to be Michigan - moving somewhere for college purpose doesn’t make you eligible for instate tuition. Some states will consider the new state where your parents moved your (potentially second) state for tuition purpose.

Run the NPC (or let your parents run the NPC) on some universities.
OOS public universities do not offer financial aid to OOS applicants although some offer merit aid.
UIUC wouldn’t be within price range, not sure about W&M (great choice academically but not sure it’s even possible get to 25k from OOS!)

St Olaf could be of interest

Has need-based and merit aid

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It sounds like what you really want is in-state tuition. Right now you have great choices in Ann Arbor and Mich State in Lansing, and you should research what it takes to keep in-state tuition. Might be a rare enough situation that you may have to ask them for the rules. Might also be beneficial to ask your parents to hold off on moving.

Then you would have to research in-state tuition rules for the states they may be going to. You would need in-state prices for the top VA and MD schools. Delaware, as others mentioned, has decent OOS pricing, as does UGA, Florida State (FL capital), and The College of New Jersey (NJ capital). A lot of OOS admits on here reported getting money from UMass Amherst and Univ South Carolina (SC state capital).

If you want money from private schools, target those where you would be a top recruit.

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I am similarly concerned that the focus of your list is mostly on public schools that will only rarely, sometimes never, hit the price points you are talking about for OOS students, or privates with little or no merit so will only be affordable if you qualify for enough need aid.

As others also suggested, with your sort of budget, the usual best bets are either your in-state options, or privates where you might get very generous merit offers. Unless you find out you qualify for enough need aid at a lot of privates.

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Forgot that you mentioned pre-law. Law schools don’t really care where you went to undergrad. It’s about LSAT scores and having good grades. If money is limited, better to spend it on law school rather than undergrad. So look for some schools that may give you large scholarships or steep discounts. Maybe the non-flagship state schools, like North/West/East/Central Michigan, or Wayne State.

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Have you visited any college campuses yet? If you’re planning on doing some college visits this summer, I would start close to home. For instance, Kalamazoo (about 1200 undergrads) and Western Michigan (about 13k undergrads) are in the same city. Or you could do Grand Valley State (about 19k undergrads) and either Hope (about 3400 undergrads) or Calvin (about 3100 undergrads). Visiting U. of Michigan (about 34k undergrads) or Michigan State (about 40k undergrads) would get you to see a big school, and Wayne State (16k undergrads) gets you a very urban option to look at. (If you’re in the northern part of the state, we can offer different suggestions.)

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Once you get a sense of your preferences (size of school, urban/suburban/college town/rural), then that can help you to figure out what type of school you should be looking for in other parts of the country.

Additionally, most public colleges that I’m aware of will keep your tuition at the residency status that you had coming in to the college (unless you appeal for it to be different, i.e. going from out-of-state to in-state). So even if your family moves from Michigan, I suspect that you would still qualify for in-state pricing so long as they don’t leave prior to you starting college.

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I have toured a couple colleges (EMU, U. Of Michigan, and Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA). I liked both Michigan and Mercyhurst, but found EMU really confusing. The school felt too sprawled out to me (which is weird because I loved UofM’s campus). My cousin went to Grand Valley so I’m slightly familiar with the campus, but I haven’t toured it properly.

I definitely want to tour more colleges here. To be honest, I am interested in going to a college in Michigan, but my parents really don’t want me to. It’s strange, but that’s the situation.

Thanks for telling me about usual out-of-state tuition rules, I wasn’t aware of that. This thread has definitely made me reconsider some of my choices (which is very very helpful for tours and eventually applications).

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Seems like this should be a primary concern.

There are commercial tours of colleges for high school students during the summer. Seems like you should consider tours that cover either New England or the Middle Atlantic states region.

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Graduation from high school in Michigan after sufficient attendance in school in Michigan may qualify you for in-state tuition in Michigan public universities: https://ro.umich.edu/tuition-residency/residency

Gaining residency for tuition in the new state may take a year of you and your parents living there, so it is likely that you will be out-of-state for other states’ public universities, at least for the first year. This will make it difficult to meet the price restriction, unless you get a large merit scholarship at a (usually) less selective university.

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Since you’re looking at state university campuses, consider putting SUNY campuses on your list. They should all come in under $40,000 even for an out of state student. You can get into top law schools from anywhere if your grades and scores are good enough. As an example, Jack Smith, the Trump prosecutor, got into Harvard Law from SUNY Oneonta.

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SUNYs are about $50-55k per year for non-NY residents living on campus or otherwise not with parents.

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Where is your sister? Florida? If your parents move to the mid atlantic that would explain why you’re looking in the northeast.

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You really need to get a sense of what you’re eligible for in terms of need-based aid.

For example, when you said Mid-Atlantic, my first thought was U of Richmond. It’s very good for poli sci and pre-law (check out the PPEL major, and note that Richmond is the seat of state government, so there are opportunities there in addition to DC connections), and it’s also excellent for performing arts, and very supportive of music minors or double-majors. There are merit scholarships specifically for music; these are available to music minors as well as majors. URichmond meets documented need, but as with other private U’s on your list, your parents would have to run the Net Price Calculator to see whether the aid you qualify for would get you to your budget.

Agreed that you can’t really consider UVM a safety unless it’s guaranteed-affordable which I don’t think it is. In terms of a financial safety, U of Utah would be an admissions safety where you should qualify for the honors college (where many of the Praxis Labs would be potentially interesting to a poli sci major), and also a financial safety because you could take the path to residency after the first year (so the first year would be over budget, but not by a lot, and years 2-4 would be under budget, so the overall four-year cost would be in range). It’s excellent for music and supports performing arts minors and double-majors well; and like Richmond it has the opportunities associated with being in a state capital. It doesn’t sound like it’s in one of your more-desired regions, but it’s not in one of your “no fly zone” states either so, fwiw. UMaine would also be guaranteed-affordable because of their Flagship Match program, but I’m not sure it’s as good a fit in terms of academic/arts strengths and honors programming as Utah is.

Gettysburg could be worth a look as well - good for your academic interests and also has conservatory-level music, and gives both need-based aid and merit scholarships, including some specifically for music.

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