Help an awkward student find matches!

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I feel like I am in an awkward situation in regards to the college admissions process. This is because my ACT scores are good, but my GPA is rather average (see below). Adding to the awkwardness is the fact that I am a triplet, and thus can’t afford a lot of the schools that I may be able to get into. I realize that my EFC is divided by three, but even then my family’s income is just high enough with both of my parents working full-time that any need-based aid will be minimal at best. I also live in Louisville, Kentucky, where the available state schools aren’t exactly top notch (UK and WKU will probably be safeties if I decide to stay instate). I am looking for matches and realistic reaches, so here are some of my credentials:</p>

<p>GPA: 3.58, 4.48 UW</p>

<p>ACT: 32 (32 Eng, 34 Math, 34 Reading, 29 Science, 8 Essay)</p>

<p>Course difficulty: relatively high (6 AP’s overall, the rest honors)</p>

<p>Class rank: Not sure, but if I had to guess, I’d say it would be just outside of the top 10%.</p>

<p>EC’s: Varsity tennis (Does it matter if I am ranked top 10 in my state?), National Honors Society, Intramurals, decent work experience, and I will probably land an internship at a software company so I will be working during the school year. I could potentially play college tennis at a D2 school if it got me some aid.</p>

<p>And here are my personal criteria:
Size: At least 2,000 undergraduates and preferably not a commuter school.</p>

<p>Location: Within driving distance of Louisville (basically on the eastern side of the country without being super north or super south).</p>

<p>Price limit: 30,000 per year in overall cost or less. This could change depending on where my siblings go, but they have minor learning disabilities (the shrinks call it ADHD, I call it an extreme case of the lazies) so they need smaller class sizes.</p>

<p>Gender balance: Women must be readily available (40% female or more).</p>

<p>Possible majors: Computer Science, Computer Engineering, etc. (something with technology).</p>

<p>Selectivity: As high as possible while still meeting most of the other criteria.</p>

<p>Thank you for your time!</p>

2

<p>Look here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Definitely check out LAC’s like Oberlin, etc. The sticker price may be high, but you’d be surprised at how much they will be willing to give you sometimes. You definitely sound like an academic fit at Oberlin, but visit them first. I have many friends that went to a college, found they did not enjoy their experience there, and transferred. Which is no fun.</p>

<p>If you’re willing to lower your undergraduate # requirement, I’d check out Earlham College. (full disclosure - I go to Earlham and work for admissions, though this is just me on my free time) Our computer science program is great and students basically get to run the day-to-day systems of the college. I have friends that are now working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. We also have an excellent D-3 tennis team that has made it to nationals two years in a row. We are certainly within driving distance of Louisville (I have some friends from there, you may be able to carpool for breaks), and our financial aid can be surprisingly generous. I’d call and ask though.</p>

<p>Having said that, we have around 1200 students. I’ve never had a problem with it, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. If that’s too low, definitely check out the other LAC’s - especially in the Ohio area. Some of them also have good tennis teams and most of them also have great compsci programs. I don’t know them that well though.</p>

4

<p>How far is “driving distance” to you? You will have more options with a bigger geographic range.</p>

5

<p>When I say “driving distance” I mean roughly within a 450 mile radius of Louisville. This basically includes Kentucky, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Tennessee, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio.</p>

6

<p>The three top schools to go for are: Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech (VPI) and NC Chapel Hill.</p>

7

<p>in alabama your current stats would give you 15K merit per year against a total cost of 20-25k at uab (birmingham) leaving you 5-10k per year out of pocket. </p>

<p>[UAB</a> - The University of Alabama at Birmingham](<a href=“http://www.uab.edu%5DUAB”>http://www.uab.edu)</p>

8

<p>Be careful if you plan on considering tennis/“academic scholarships” at smaller schools.</p>

<p>I have friends that played football at D3 schools in Illinois, and their scholarships were reduced the further along in school they went. Basically, since they weren’t superstars on the teams they played for, their scholarship money went away.</p>

<p>As far as Computer Science or Computer Engineering is concerned, the University of Illinois is a very good school. Your GPA is probably on the lower end of what they would like to see, but your test score is solid.</p>

9

<p>Look at U Dayton. You’d qualify for some merit aid. [Guidance</a> Counselors | Afford : University of Dayton, Ohio](<a href=“http://www.udayton.edu/guidance_counselors/afford/index.php#2]Guidance”>http://www.udayton.edu/guidance_counselors/afford/index.php#2)</p>

10

<p>Thank you for the replies!</p>

<p>My brothers as well as a couple of my friends visited Dayton and loved it, and it is pretty close to home, so it is definitely a strong option (I hear the way they provide housing is very cool). If they offer me a 60 grand scholarship, it might be hard to say no. However, it is also hard to say no to going to a decent instate school like UK or WKU for basically nothing. Is Dayton worth the extra money?</p>

<p>I also have an additional unrelated question. When I apply to a college, will my school send what they say is my GPA, or will they send a transcript for the college to recalculate? I ask this because if they just send my transcripts for the college to recalculate and the college uses the standard scale where a 90 is an A, I will have a 3.8 UW GPA instead of a 3.58, which will obviously qualify me for better colleges/scholarships. (My transcripts don’t have letter grades, only a percentage out of 100, at least from what I can see).</p>

11

<p>The school will send a transcript with your grades and GPA. Some colleges recalculate GPA but most do not. They use the HS GPA and the strength of schedule from the HS.</p>

12

<p>Dayton costs $30,000 per year. And it doesn’t have that great of a rep for Computer Science or Comp. Engineering.</p>

<p>If you aren’t going to attend a respected CS school like Michigan, Illinois, or Carnegie Mellon, I would just stay local and save your money by attending UK. </p>

<p>At the end of the day, if you want to work in Louisville, a Kentucky degree will be fine. On the other hand, if you want to work at Microsoft, Google, Facebook, or somewhere like that, go to one of the three schools mentioned above.</p>

13

<p>@Bill73 - Dayton is FANTASTIC with aid. They are one of the top 10 private universities in the country for helping students graduate without student loan debt. Personally, my family was offered $35k a year to attend, and we would probably qualify as upper-middle class in income. A lot of companies in the Dayton area like UD grads. I have several friends in UD’s CS program that really enjoy it, and the ones that have graduated are all employed.</p>

<p>@Fostered Ultimately, the most important thing about CS is what you can personally do. Going to a school which doesn’t have as high caliber reputation/studies is a handicap, but you can easily make up for it by working hard and practicing on your own. Having said that, having “MIT” on your diploma is nice. :slight_smile: It’s just not the most important thing.</p>