<p>Never done this before and never thought I’d let myself, so I’m not entirely sure of the protocol. I’ll just write things down as they come to mind.</p>
<p>Me: African American male from small public school in West Texas… class of 2010
SATs: 1990 (720/580/690)… taking it again in October
By the end of senior year, I will have taken all of the AP courses available here (which is only like 5), and several dual-enrollment classes from a local CC
Class rank: 1/~200
4.0 GPA
ECs: JV Golf for 1.5 years, Church pianist, Student Council 2 years, NHS, Academic competitions (2nd in state spelling competition two years in a row, have competed in Writing, Computer Science), Future Problem Solving (went to International competition in East Lansing, Michigan during summer '09), school newspaper…
Others: Nat’l Achievement Semifinalist … (and for what it’s worth, I’m proficient in Spanish and Russian, though I doubt that means anything in this case)</p>
<p>If I went to Ohio, I’d hope to be in the Honors program, but from what I’ve read it looks like that will be a stretch until I can get my combined verbal/math SATs up. </p>
<p>Thanks.
By the way, any info on their International Relations program? Or maybe their Russian?</p>
<p>You are in, and you’ll probably get some merit aid due to great class rank and gpa combined with being AA. If you’re a first generation college student, that will also factor into merit aid.</p>
<p>With regards to honors, you probably do need to get your SAT up a little bit. Take the ACT also; you might do better on it. In any event, you do have the opportunity to earn your way into Honors & Scholars with freshman classroom performance, which you seem very capable of doing.</p>
<p>Personally, with your wants in a college, I would highly recommend looking into Penn State and the Schreyer Honors College, which doesn’t even consider test scores in admission. You’d probably be a sure bet, and its honors is much more highly regarded than that of OSU (some even consider it on par with the Ivies).</p>
<p>So, good luck, and PLEASE swing by the Penn State thread. You are truly an exceptional student for the program (just to inflate your head a little bit…)</p>
<p>Thanks. The problem really winds down to affordability… I was almost dead set on UT Austin until we realized how little merit aid they offered. For example, as of THIS year, they’re no longer offering even 1 cent to National Merit/Achievement/Hispanic Scholars. My parents are both teachers at my high school and they don’t make THAT much… and pretty much all of the “top” colleges seem out of our financial reach. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much Ohio, University of Arizona, or University of New Mexico (and as you can imagine, I’m not too excited about the last two. Ack!). I know I could aim higher, but I don’t know if it’s worth it. =/
(Sorry for the mini-rant, just frustrated a bit)</p>
<p>^Seems like Penn. St. ought to give you SOMETHING for being in Schreyers. I think they might do like half-tuition or maybe even full tuition.</p>
<p>Also, Indiana will give you $9k/yr, bringing down the total to roughly that of being in-state. Indiana is also an awesome, beautiful school, as well. If you go, though, I’d suggest tacking Journalism or Business on, since IU’s schools for each are stellar.</p>