A little about me:
First gen college student. Texas. Female.
Stats:
GPA: 3.56 weighted, school doesn’t do unweighted. Probably around 3.4.
ACT: 26, hoping to get up to a 28. (Got the 26 without studying).
Haven’t taken the SAT yet, but got a 1160 on the PSAT (again, without studying).
Will have 6 APs by graduation.
ECs:
Editor of my school’s newspaper (staff for 2 years, co-editor 1 year, and will be editor this year).
Secretary of the Political Activism Club.
Part time job for almost a year.
Internship at a local newspaper paper, been published.
Active member of the environmental science club.
Member of Key Club and one other school-specific club.
Awards/Honors:
UIL Regional Champion in News Writing (UIL is an group of academic comps, for any non-Texans reading).
UIL District Champion, placed in 5 categories over the years.
Interests:
I’m still unsure about what I want to study, obviously from my info I’m leaning towards journalism, but am thinking of getting a more ‘useful’ degree in business and law. I’m also interested in pursing a science-related degree, like biology or biomedical science/engineering. I know they’re pretty different but I’m indecisive.
College list:
UT at Austin ( super reach)
University of Central Florida (reach since I’m OOS)
Texas A&M (low-reach)
Syracuse University, namely Newhouse (super reach)
I also have a few safeties like Texas State which I should be auto-accepted too.
The problem is I have no college fund and would like a school where I could get decent financial aid. But I’m looking for really any colleges that would take me and are halfway decent. I feel like my list is just super-reaches and safeties. As stated, I’m first gen so I don’t have much experience with this. I do have a great support network of teachers who will help though, so letters of recommendations should be good, as well as my essay.
Congrats on your hard work and success! I agree that public universities in TX will be your best bet. You can also research schools that claim to meet full financial need. Essentially if a private school costs $65k per year, and a student can afford $5k, the school will cover the balance. If a student can afford $25k, the school would cover $40k.
You can google schools that meet full financial need. Most of the schools on the lists that you will find will be the most competitive–Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst, etc. However, you will also find many excellent schools that might be more accessible, like the College of Wooster, Clark University (MA), Gettysburg College, Mount Holyoke (all women’s), Sewanee, Wabash College, Wheaton College (the one in MA, not IL). Mount Holyoke is part of a five-school consortium with Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, and U Mass-Amherst. Students can take classes, etc. at the other schools. So that’s an advantage there.
You can’t count on these schools absolutely meeting full need. They might calculate you can pay more than you calculate. They might come up short of 100%. But it’s a good approach to OOS schools if you need a lot of aid. Good luck!
I like TTG’s suggestion. I admit my bias. I’m a graduate of a liberal arts college, a CTCL school, so I’ll try not to preach to you! But TTG is correct. Private colleges are often not a student’s radar, either because she doesn’t know about the world of LACs (liberal arts colleges) or because she thinks that the sticker price means that the school is out of reach. However, there are tons of terrific schools (TTG listed several) that would love a student like you.
You’re clearly bright, and your “stats” (GPA, test scores, other stuff) are actually quite in line with what many find private liberal arts colleges are looking for. Actually, I was sort of similar to you (mind you, this was twenty years ago): first gen college student, a B±ish GPA, a 26 on the ACT (I am not good on standardized tests), and I had a lot of wonderful colleges to choose from and received very generous financial aid. I targeted liberal arts colleges, which were definitely not on my radar at first, because I learned that’s where the money was.
Texas has two terrific private liberal arts colleges you might look at: Austin College and Southwestern University. If you’re willing to head out of state, then the list explodes, though if financial aid is important, staying away from the northeast is preferable. The midwest and south are filled with colleges that are generous with financial aid.
If you’re not interested in private liberal arts colleges, then, yes, you should target your in-state publics that you would be happy to attend. UT-Austin, as I’m sure you know, is very prestigious, and I believe (if memory serves) that they have an auto-admit process, where a certain chunk of the incoming class is admitted simply because they meet the college’s basic (but very high!) requirements. I’m not an expert on UT, but don’t your current numbers (3.5 GPA, 26 ACT) put you a bit short of the typical accepted student? Again, I’m sure you’re already aware that UT is not at all easy to get into, so have your back-ups. Which TSU campus are you considering? I had a friend who went to TSU-San Marcos (back then it was Southwest Texas State University), and we visited him and had a blast!
Congratulations! First, I would go for a few need based scholarships. The Baumberger scholarship would be a really good one. Also, if you’re Hiapanic, there are tons of Hispanic scholarships as well.
My advice is to go all in at Texas State. You have the grades to get into UT and A&M, but their majors are super competitive and if you’re like most people who intend to change your major a couple of times, unless you have “pre-med” super grades, you’re going to end-up getting screwed big time. Most of the UT and A&M throwbacks end up transferring to Texas State.