Hi everyone. I’m a junior who thought that good grades would get you into good colleges. Obviously I was wrong. I have accepted the fact that I will most likely not get into a top 20 or even top 50 school. My family is also really struggling financially and I can’t really justify putting more burden on them just for me to go to a “bad” school. So I’m looking for some colleges you guys consider “safeties” that offer near full rides to acedemically sucesssful students.
Stats:
GPA 4.0 UW Rank 1 out of 800ish
SAT 1510/ 1530 superscore
Will have taken 10 APs buy the end of senior year
Subject tests 800 Math 2, 800 Chinese, 780 Chem
ECs
Nonexistent lol
TLDR Good stats, no ECs, looking for good safeties with scholarships.
Really no ECs at all? Nothing outside of school? No working in a family business or part time job? No hobbies? You can try to do something this summer, too. Volunteer someplace, for example. And maybe get a summer job.
If you have had to help your family or had s good reason for no ECs, you can explain that.
Well…not exactly…I have some basic stuff like sports, volunteer hours and summer programs. I also plan to work this summer. But compared to other students who have started businesses, built websites, cured cancer… it’s basically nothing.
It isn’t nothing. There are schools that meet need for financial aid that you could get into. Google schools that meet need, and look at some of the lower ranked schools on that list. You can go on the merit hunt as well (places like UAlabama).
You need a story (theme) for your application. What classes are your favorite? What do you live to do,? What are you passionate about?
Please list any ECs… even if they are not “cure cancer”. The trick is to weave that EC or ECs into the theme. Which can be anything… Love of family (how you worked to help support them and what you learned from it and how it you will use that in your college/major). Could be volunteer work or a sport or something you learned about life or society in one of these experiences.
Also, what state are u from and how far are u willing to go from home?
Here’s a straightforward chart from Miami of Ohio that shows the merit aid range you could expect to receive from the school, and it looks like it would be quite high given your stats. It’s a very good school with a beautiful campus.
Be positive about your ECs. Working this summer is great. Don’t plan to do it; get started now on finding something (It’s mid-April). You will be requiring financial aid, and so it seems reasonable that a school would like to see that you working when not in school. Besides, working is important to one’s development. Hopefully you will feel that you are contributing.
Include sports you’ve done on your application. Schools don’t expect you to have cured cancer but, at some level, would just like to see what you do when you are not in school. Get involved in other things this summer and next school year. Just think about what you would like to do and find it somewhere. Good luck!
If your family can’t pay anything or can only pay very little (how much can they pay??), then even a free tuition scholarship won’t be enough since room,board, books, etc will be $15k+
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My family is also really struggling financially and I can’t really justify putting more burden on them just for me to go to a “bad” school. So I’m looking for some colleges you guys consider “safeties” that offer near full rid
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For a school to be a safety we need to know how much your family can pay each year. ASK THEM.
A school is NOT a safety if you don’t have the money to attend.
Alabama is your safety. Pittsburgh and UT Dallas also provide near full rides sometimes.
However, if your family qualifies for good financial aid, I would focus an admission strategy on schools that meet full need.
Consider applying to a full need school ED. ED is the very best way to show interest. For example, Lehigh has close to a 60% admit rate for ED. It’s much lower RD. You can’t compare aid packages, but you can use the NPC to see if their aid package is likely to be affordable to you. If after you are admitted, the package isn’t affordable (as determined by your family, you can ask for a release). Do your homework carefully before you choose such a school.
Some top schools will generally admit the top students at schools nearby as they view it as part of their role to educate the next generation of local leaders. I’ve seen this with Harvard and Penn.
If you are Asian (guessing by the 800 in Chinese) consider applying to schools trying to attract more Asians. I recall Oberlin offering to pay for a free visit. Look for those that are less than 10% Asian. You can look on College Board’s profiles of a college under “Campus Life” to see a pie chart by ethnicity.
Consider
Bates
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colby
Colgate
College of the Holy Cross
Colorado College
Davidson
Franklin and Marshall
Grinnell
Hamilton
Kenyon
Lafayette
Lehigh
Macalester
Middlebury
Oberlin
Trinity College (Hartford, CT)
Union College
University of Notre Dame
Reed (not need-blind admission, but meets full demonstrated need, and very academic).
Richmond
Wake Forest
Washington and Lee
Wesleyan
You have fine ECs. Just be yourself and yes, be positive. Don’t view yourself has having done anything wrong. You haven’t. You’re an academic star! That is huge.
You weren’t exactly wrong (although it depends on what you mean by “good” colleges, and on whether you’re referring only to getting in.)
Only a relatively small number of colleges expect both excellent stats and also dazzling ECs just for admission. The top 20 or so private universities and top 10-20 LACs are like that. Most of them don’t offer much (or any) merit money, regardless of qualifications. They don’t need to in order to attract more strong applicants than they can accept. They do offer more-or-less generous need-based aid to families that qualify (which can mean incomes up to about $200K/year or even a little more).
At the rest of the top ~50 (either LACs or universities), or the top 50-100, near-perfect stats and a well-prepared application should give you an excellent shot at admission. At some of them, it will land you a nice merit scholarship (see above, Miami of Ohio). If you look just outside the top 100, to the University of Alabama, it will virtually guarantee both admission and a full tuition merit scholarship.
Here is a list of colleges that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2016-09-19/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
The ones that are a bit less selective than the others include:
College of the Holy Cross, Connecticut College, Franklin & Marshall, Kenyon, Occidental, Trinity College, Union, URichmond.
These are all good schools where your stats (and a well-prepared, enthusiastic application) should give you a good shot at admission. Run the online net price calculators for a few of them and discuss the results with your family.
If your parents cannot come close to covering the expected family contributions, then look at less selective schools that guarantee big merit scholarships for high stats. http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
What is your home state and what do you want to study? What do you think are your career goals?
What kind of a campus do you envision yourself at? What size school do you think you will thrive at? If you are uncertain about your major, plan to go to a school where you can change majors into fields of interest for you.
Have you done any college visits? What have you liked and not liked?
You do need to find out if family can at least pay room and board. Then you can see what schools you can gain merit at.
Yes, I do believe that my family qualifies as low income (we only make 5 figures). My PSAT score was pretty good but I don’t think that I will make the cutoff for the scholarship.As for fees outside of tuition, I don’t mind getting loans and working to pay them off.
I live in Cali but do not mind going out of state at all. I am still debating over majoring in engineering or business (hopefully the summer program that I will be attending will help me figure it out). For me, the perfect campus would be something like UCLA, where there is a mix of everything (strong academics, sports culture, parties and just different kinds of people).
Well that’s the thing…my story is just one of a regular high school student. All my ECs are very generic: NHS, Key Club, JV sports, non-selective summer camps/programs. I guess the one thing that sets me apart from others is that I moved between the US and China very often throughout my life.
OP, you have made me smile. Love it. “I don’t have ANY ECs, except sports, Key Club, NHS, volunteering, summer programs and a job. But I haven’t cured cancer, so I have none.” Guess what? You ARE exactly the kind of student that so many colleges love. Your ECs are fine. You do understsnd that 99.9% of students are not like Malala Youfsazai? It’s okay if you haven’t invented a cure for cancer.
You have had excellent suggestions here, and you should listen to them. You will do very well in merit aid or financial aid, I am sure. Good luck, and keep doing your non-existent ECs. :))
Alabama isn’t a safety if he can’t afford room/board, fees, etc above what he can take out as a freshman with student loans ($5500 I believe). If his major was eng or CS he would qualify for $2500/year eng scholarship. The full tuition and the eng merit scholarships at UA are terrific, for in state or OOS. However full tuition for OOS is terrific for many students if they can afford the rest of the costs.
If his parents are low income based on CA standards, he may have opportunities with the CA higher ed.
Student needs to know what parents can contribute, and look at NPC and merit at various schools to cull the list. Also do some college visiting and make sure he/she will be attending a school where he/she can complete if they decide to change majors.