<p>Oh, it didn’t occur to me he might intend to go for same school for grad school. He didn’t even say his major or if he planned for that yet. I just took it that he wanted rich resources so it could help get into a great grad school. OP, where are you?</p>
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<p>USC is half-tuition for NMF, but getting in may be a challenge.</p>
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<p>The SD schools, the NM schools, SUNYs, and other western schools mentioned here are good suggestions.</p>
<p>Mizzou may also be cheap with MHEC and easy-to-get merit money.</p>
<p>Definitely check out <a href=“http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/”>http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/</a> for schools with big merit money for NMF.</p>
<p>I believe both of the big AZ state schools about full-tuition for NMF.</p>
<p>You may have to spend far less than $30K to go to a school as good as or better than UNL.</p>
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<p>@MiamiDAP:</p>
<p>Some schools love to rack up National Merit Scholars. For those schools, becoming NMF/NMSF is enough to get you a massive amount of merit money, regardless of what your other numbers are.</p>
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<p>This is great, did not expect so many fast replies. I will look over every suggestion later, when I get home. One I’ve found that seems among the best I can get for ~30000 is Stony Brook University. It has high average test scores, and the former president of the society of vertebrate paleontology is associated with that school. Thoughts on that?</p>
<p>I should mention I’m not sure if I really want to be a Paleontologist. I have other interests, like physics, math, philosophy, psychology, and literature. I wanted to be one for 14 years, but recently I’ve been questioning. It’s a lot of school for a low chance of actually getting the job you want. I just know I want to be involved with paleontologists a bit before I decide.</p>
<p>“What do you mean by “your peers”? If you put your stats in the mid 50% range of schools, you’ll have quite a few schools that will have a lot of students who were your peers at least in terms of application stats. It’s not as though UNL is way up there in stats, so that’s not going to limit you.”</p>
<p>Well, I’m not peerless in my high school, there’s probably 15ish people I’d consider “on my level” or whatever. For instance, I skipped a year in math, along with 8 other people in my grade, and there are 3 or 4 others who could have skipped but didn’t. Out of a class of 180. I just want a few more peers than that. I probably will have at least a few more peers in college no matter where I go, because colleges tend to have larger classes and, on average, smarter people than high schools.</p>
<p>“First, there’s no need to concentrate on graduate school yet. Get your undergraduate career going first. Secondly, what’s wrong with UNL? I’ve met a few UNL alumni over the years and they were uniformly well-educated and sharp people, including one whom was a writer for a major daily newspaper in the Northeast.”</p>
<p>I have no rational reason not to go to UNL, but like a lot of people my age, I just want a change. I want to go somewhere. That’s how my brother felt, he went out of state, and soon he’s coming back to Nebraska for med school. I may end up wanting to return, dunno. All I know is that right now I want to leave. I know that UNL is an option; this thread is for determining my other options. And I want one with paleontologists in the building(preferably also dinosaur fossils, but that’s really picky), at the advice of a paleontologist I job shadowed. He said that they almost always let interested undergrads help in the lab and such. So I’m not worrying about actually getting a Ph.D. right now.</p>
<p>"You want the merit money that schools typically give to their top 5% or fewer when you aren’t up there. Be aware that if you are, then the school is not necessarily one that is peer level. Make sure you don’t make your restrictions such so that they leave you with nothing. Like Groucho Marx said, “I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER’’”</p>
<p>Good point. I guess I’ve mostly given up on paying the majority via a merit scholarship. I don’t want to end up in a lot of debt.</p>
<p>“I do think he can take suggestions and do his own cross referencing. Sure he has his own state school, but no reason not to look around.”</p>
<p>Exactly.</p>
<p>“Why is your GPA only a 3.0? That will prevent many merit awards…and may also prevent admission. Is that your weighted GPA? If not, what is that?”</p>
<p>I have bad ADD. I’d be failing if I wasn’t taking adderall. I don’t know my weighted gpa, my school has only ever given me one number. I do take many advanced classes though. All but three of my semester slots this year are dual credit. My weighted gpa would probably be a lot higher.</p>
<p>Since you’re right next door in Nebraska, why don’t you visit the SD Mines Museum of Geology. Lots of stuff regarding paleontology and dinosaurs at the museum. Perhaps South Dakota is culturally too close to Nebraska for your purposes, but Rapid City and the Black Hills is an interesting place. Plus, I’ll bet that SDSM&T has a greater proportion of out-of-state students than UNL. Mines draws lots of students from the other regions; Pacific Northwest, California, Mid-Atlantic and the southwest. </p>
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<p>Nice idea, but UNL and SDSM&T might be right next to each other statewise, but are 500 miles apart in reality. That’s further than Boston to Washington.</p>
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<p>But closer than Lincoln to Long Island. :)</p>
<p>Note that many giant publics have honors colleges where you’d be among your peers. For instance, the 2 big AZ state schools.</p>
<p>With your GPA, paying very little to go to an honors college somewhere would be a good option if you can be NMF.</p>
<p>I think honors colleges are a really good option if you plan to go to grad school or med school.</p>
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<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, but I’ll bet it’s cheaper and faster to fly from Lincoln or Omaha to NYC than Rapid City.</p>
<p>??? Why fly when you can drive? 500 miles is certainly doable in a day.</p>
<p>In much of the country 500 miles is “right next door” and not a big deal.</p>
<p>Particularly TX…</p>
<p>If you look closely at it, the drive between Lincoln and Rapid City is probably much smoother and faster than the drive from NYC to Boston, There’s a heck of a lot more traffic on I-95 than I-90 on any given day. And yes, flying to Rapid City from the East Coast can be a royal pain, but I doubt if if Lincoln-Rapid City flights are a problem.</p>
<p>There are exactly zero direct flights. All flights require a connection at DEN, MSP, ORD or DFW.</p>
<p>“All flights require a connection at DEN, MSP, ORD or DFW.”</p>
<p>As the saying goes, ‘tell me something that I don’t know!’ The locals in Rapid City recommend connecting through Minneapolis. Friends have connected through Chicago and Dallas relatively smoothly. For some unknown reason, the Denver connection with United Airlines is hell on Earth.</p>
<p>Check out SUNY Stonybrook</p>
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