Chance me (1350, 4.2W, IN resident) [3.8 unweighted GPA, <$5k from one divorced parent, -1500 SAI]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic
  • State: Indiana
  • Type of high school: large public (25 APs offered, 1220 avg SAT)

Cost Constraints / Budget
Mainly paying on my own. Divorced parents, parent 1 can contribute $5k/yr and the other is not paying. About $3k in an account from my grandparents for in-state schools only. Parent 1 qualifies me as low-income. I have no idea how much parent 2 makes as they refuse to share. My SAI was -1500 based on parent 1, but I am a bit worried about CSS because both parents are taken into consideration.

Intended Major(s)
Neuroscience

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.8
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.2 (not sure of possible max)
  • Class Rank: 54/516 at the end of senior year
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1350 second try, test optional at most schools

List your HS coursework
AP World (4), APUSH (5), AP Bio (4), AP Chem (3), AP Lang (3), AP Psych (5), AP Calc AB, AP Gov, AP Physics 1
Orchestra since 5th grade.

Awards

  • Statewide leadership/good citizen award (4 chosen out of 516)
  • National Community Service Merit Award
  • Reserve Grand Champion at County Fair (4-H)
  • State music competition gold medal
  • AP Scholar with Distinction

Extracurriculars

  • 4-H Club leadership: President (11,12), Vice President (10), Historian (9)
  • research assistant at local university
  • gold medalist (regional & state) for music competition mentioned above
  • first chair violist in school orchestra
  • first chair violist in musical pit orchestra
  • shift leader at fast food chain (2.5 years there)
  • member of school clubs (National Honor Society, UNICEF club, writing club, speech & debate)
  • officer for online literary magazine
  • attended summer leadership program at in-state university

Essays/LORs/Other
Essay about my experience as a viola player and how it has taught me to advocate for others and be a leader. LOR from employer and orchestra teacher. Counselor LOR is probably the strongest one.

Schools
I know this seems overkill - I am applying to as many schools as possible because I have a fee waiver. I am also part of a statewide program that provides free tuition at any public school in Indiana.
EA:

  • Butler University (accepted + $27k scholarship)
  • Carthage College (accepted)
  • Colorado College (rejected)
  • Gonzaga University (accepted + $26k scholarship)
  • Loyola University Chicago (accepted + $31k scholarship)
  • Purdue University (waiting)
  • Tulane University (deferred)
  • University of Notre Dame (rejected)
  • University of Southern California (waiting)

RD:

  • Amherst College
  • Boston College
  • Lehigh University
  • Quinnipiac University
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • Vassar College
  • Villanova University
  • Wake Forest University

Thank you in advance to anyone reading and giving advice! I expect to get rejected from most of these schools, and will probably just end up attending my state school with the rest of my graduating class lol. I just want to know what to expect moving forward.

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That’s great! did you apply to any of these Indiana public schools? I only see Purdue on your list. Hard to beat free tuition!

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No – I wasn’t a fan of IU, Ball State, Indiana State, etc. Just Purdue for me.

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This is true for some CSS Profile using schools but not others. Check on their financial aid websites.

Will your non-custodial parent be willing to do CSS Non-custodial Profile if needed?

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You might want to rethink that. What if you are not accepted at Purdue and your other options are unaffordable? It sounds like there are some unknowns regarding your financial aid picture.

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You need somewhere affordable. Is Butler or another acceptance affordable ?

You have to ask. I’m assuming at $27k merit it is not.

So where will you end up ?

Are in state schools even affordable ?

Not only is there tuition but 12-15k room and board and it sounds like you don’t have that.

And let’s say you get into a reach - how do you know it will be affordable.

You have only one parent and a FAFSA # is not what they’re looking at.

And I don’t understand schools like Gonzaga, Quinnipiac. Who’s paying ?

What I’m asking is - do you have a plan ?

I’m not seeing one.

Can you live home and go local or to a CC ?

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I think you should apply to more in-state schools given you have free tuition. The money from parent 1 and your grandparents, combined with a small student loan and possibly part time or summer work can hopefully pay for R/B.

I am not convinced that the other schools will be affordable. The good news is that if they are affordable and you are accepted, you can attend.

I think you will be accepted to Quinnipiac and Pitt, but the issue will be affordability.

Pitt would be a great option for grad school, which you may consider given your major.

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If you were my kid (or someone I was advising) I’d be encouraging/cajoling you into finding something to love- ONE THING- about each of these non-Purdue options. You can do this.

If the acceptances and money comes in according to “Best case” than you can laugh about the crazy strangers on the internet who told you that might end up at IU/Ball State because they were the only affordable options. And we’ll laugh with you, and be SO happy for you.

But if the acceptances come in- and the money doesn’t align properly- then what? A gap year won’t help you (much). Yes, if you can live at home and work and save like crazy you can put a small dent into the money you need vs. what you have. But that “small dent” needs to cover FOUR YEARS of a shortfall, and unless you have some crazy and in-demand skill that’s not likely to happen. Live at home, commute to a CC? That’s a fine plan- if it works for you.

But finding one thing to love about an affordable option shouldn’t be too hard to do at this stage of the game. Even if it’s the mesclun on the salad bar, or the midnight run the night before finals or some other kooky tradition- find something to love, get an application in to the most affordable of these options, and then you can go back to your other applications.

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If there is a university close enough for you to live at home, and if you get a scholarship or other financial aid that covers 100% of tuition and fees, then you might be able to pull this off with very little debt. Otherwise finances are likely to be a significant issue.

I do not know all that much about Purdue, other than it is well known and very good for various types of engineering and CS. I expect that it is also likely to be very good for neuroscience if you get accepted and if you can afford it. To me your stats look pretty close to the average for incoming students at Purdue, and you are in-state, and it has roughly a 50% acceptance rate. To me your chances there look pretty good, but I do not think that I would call it a safety.

Which to me raises the issue of what will happen if you do not get accepted to Purdue.

I think that you should submit your SAT score to Purdue. On their web site I see ‘Purdue University is "Test Expected,"’. Also, your SAT score at least according to Prepscholar is slightly higher than the average for incoming students.

Are any of these schools close enough to home that you could live at home and attend? If so, then I think that you should very seriously consider sending in an application. I also agree with others that you should take a very close look at in-state options and see if any more of them (other than Purdue) have an acceptable program in your intended major. You do not want to be in the situation that you have no affordable options.

One daughter had a friend who was in a financial situation similar to yours, with divorced parents and living with a parent who could not afford to pay much if anything (some details were slightly different). She was like you a strong student. She attended community college for two years, did VERY well, and then got accepted to an in-state public university with a full tuition scholarship. She was able to live with her father the entire time (a good guy who I knew quite well from school events). I happened to meet her in a store near my home one month before she graduated university with a marketable major and very little debt. She had a big grin on her face and was doing very well. You might need to take a similarly affordable path to getting a bachelor’s degree.

Some of your out of state options are a reach for admissions (eg, Amherst College, Vassar College). Some are a reach for affordability (maybe all of them). I think that you should make sure that you will have an affordable option, although I suppose that starting at community college is an affordable option and I don’t know if it would need an application this early in the time scale.

Do you have an intended or likely career idea with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience?

Neuroscience is a major where some form of graduate school is likely. A PhD is typically fully funded (with a stipend which is sort of just barely enough to fully live on). However admissions to PhD programs is very, very competitive (a high university GPA, good research experience, and good references are important – you can get this at any of a very wide variety of universities). Other forms of graduate programs (eg, master’s degree, MD) are typically not funded, and can be expensive.

Minimizing debt for your bachelor’s degree is important.

With your being nearly in the top 10% in your high school plus a top 10% SAT score and an intended STEM major a person might hope that this would be straightforward, but it isn’t. Best wishes.

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The issue with Purdue won’t be the tuition if it’s free - or ISU, Ball State, or whoever.

It’s the near $17k for room and board, plus books and other miscellaneous items.

Tuition is the least of the concerns.

So OP, what’s the plan ? - because you’ve yet to present one.

Just want to ensure you realize that tuition is just one piece of the pie.

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Parent 1 is contributing $5000, grandparents are contributing $3000, and the small student loan is $5500. Maybe
the student can earn the rest by working summers and part time during the school year.

It will be tight but might be doable. I don’t see the other schools as being affordable.

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I get it. Or maybe someone will contribute more. In this scenario the student will always be behind. My daughter’s roommate is working 3 jobs, like 30 hrs and has little school life.

Other schools will have less room and board costs and when the student moves off campus or maybe does year one, depending on the school they can potentially save. But often that requires transport - like a bus as you move far.

Just not a good position to find yourself in.

Better to go to a near home school or cc. And save assuming the free tuition will be there in two years.

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I think it could be hard financially due to R/B, but it could work out. CC and then transferring is also an option, of course.

Given free tuition at in-state schools, I think it is a good idea to apply to a few and compare R/B and travel costs.

My daughter worked 15-20 hours a week (her choice) for her last 2 years and still had time to get her school work done (did some at work) and have a very active life on campus. She also had paid summer research positions that included free R/B.

I think there are options that this student could investigate.

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This can also make it tough to both keep your grades up and to also look for research opportunities.

Neuroscience is an area where some form of graduate school is possible. We just went through the process of one daughter applying for PhD programs (not in neuroscience, but in a different biomedical field). The fact that she had found the time to do quite a bit of research while she was an undergraduate student helped a lot.

This makes sense to me. One issue is to live very, very frugally for four years of university – a lot of us do that and get through it just fine. Another issue is to need to work enough hours that it starts to take time away from school work. Doing well in university is the point, and “doing well” includes both getting the homework and studying done and also looking for other opportunities that are available.

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Working 30 hours a week is extremely difficult. I think this student should apply, compare costs, and then decide - while keeping in mind the workload, etc.

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I think @blossom’s wisdom above about opening up to other schools in Indiana is very wise, and I hope OP will consider it. On a different topic:

As someone who has advised students dealing with similar situations, this can go all sorts of directions and you should be prepared to navigate it. If Parent 2 is “not paying” because they don’t wish to do so, but they do file a CSS, their finances will be considered, unless you have very specific documentation (and maybe not even then). If Parent 2 is out of touch and won’t file a CSS, you can submit to each school a request for a non-custodial parent waiver (here’s an example from Lehigh), and each school will consider this on their own. If Parent 2 doesn’t submit a CSS and you don’t submit anything, the school may not provide any financial aid information. Etc. Maybe you’re on top of this already! I just want to make sure. You have some schools that meet full need on your list, so if you are admitted, I want to make sure that their understanding of your need (largely) matches yours.

Also - I’ve never heard of an account “for in-state schools only.” I might be missing something - but if your grandparents created a 529 in Indiana, for example, you can apply it to any university, not just one in Indiana. This can be confusing.

That’s good to hear, but the scholarship amount doesn’t really matter - what matters is your net price after their calculation of financial aid, whether academic or need-based. None of those three commit to meeting 100% of financial need.

Good luck!

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Thank you for all the replies! One thing I forgot to mention in my original post is that parent 1 works for a small local university. I applied there and could go for very cheap (as is a main concern in this thread), but they don’t offer neuroscience as a major, only a minor. Because of that, this is pretty much my last-resort option.

I am also eligible for the Tuition Exchange program, and many of my schools have been picked from the Tuition Exchange list. I am aware this is a very competitive program and there is 0 guarantee of getting it anywhere. Schools like Butler, Gonzaga, Quinnipiac, etc. would only be affordable for me with Tuition Exchange. I also have about $10k in savings right now, plus $10k in outside scholarships + still applying. I work 20-25 hrs/wk during the school year and more over the summer, so I’m hoping to have around $15k in savings before I start college. I also plan to work through college because I don’t really see any way around not doing so.

I got my non-custodial parent to file the CSS, but I have no idea what was put down, which is troubling. I also plan to earn at least a Master’s after college, so I am trying to avoid student loans as much as possible.

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They have a minor and you don’t need a neuro major. You can major in something else (psych, bio, etc) with the minor and likely exactly replicate the major (as designed at other schools).

So that should be of no concern.

Loans are the concern, especially with grad school a strong possibility.

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Consider yourself lucky that you can attend the school where parent 1 works
.at an affordable cost. You may not have to go, but it is there just in case. The fact that neuroscience is only a minor and not a major should not make a difference.

I don’t know what your masters will be in, and you do not have to know right now. As you go through college, gain new interests, and opportunities etc
.you will decide and take the necessary prerequisites (if any).

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I am trying to figure out what you can do with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, that you couldn’t do with a bachelor’s degree in psychology (or biology) with a minor in neuroscience.

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