I have a 2000 SAT score (680 CR, 650 Math, 670 Writing). I have a 3.6 unweighted GPA, but I go to a school well known for its academic prestige.
I would like a school in a suburban or urban area- NOT rural. Class size can also range from 5,000 to 25,000. I just do not want a tiny school because I am undecided on a major. And I am set on going to a school on the East Coast.
The issue is that I am the oldest of four and we are not extremely wealthy. Therefore, I cannot afford $40,000 worth of tuition each year. But at the same time I want to go to a decent, well known school. I was hoping you guys could help me determine schools that I would get a really good financial aid package, lots of merit aid, or simply have low tuition.
I have been researching about financial aid for awhile now and it’s simply overwhelming so if you all could help me out that would be great!
There’s a sticky thread in the financial aid and scholarships section with links to the sorts of things you’re looking for.
My gut feel is that you’ll get to discover which of the listed attributes are more important, although our definitions of “lots of merit aid” might be pretty different.
Part of the problem is cost of living. We’re using estimates of 12-15K in addition to tuition for DD’s cost estimates and I feel these would be low for schools in Boston, NYC, Chicago, or other major metro areas.
So using that, if you had a total budget of around 25k a year (including loans), you’ll need to cover all but 5 or 6k of tuition with aid. From what I’ve gathered so far, that’s not impossible but it isn’t trivial with a 3.6/1330 (reading and math) if the scope is nationwide. I kept coming up with net costs in the 22-30k range in the northeast and 12-15k in the midwest/south/mountain areas[1]. Sixty thousand here, sixth thousand there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.
But do spend some time in the “automatic merit aid” thread, or the site it spawned:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
It’s kind of an eye opener.
[1] edit: DD is around 3.8 / 1440 for reading and math
Retake your SAT for sure and think about taking the ACT.
The website in Post 1 is very helpful and gives you a great idea of where to go. Don’t worry about academic prestige when picking schools (Big names); think of academic quality, which is at a lot of places in the United States.
Your terms for picking schools are kinda broad at the moment. That’s good because it shows flexibility but at the same time, you need to be narrower and KNOW what you want. What state are you from? I could recommend places from SUNY Binghamton to University of Florida. Or James Madison University, Penn State, University of Delaware, University of Maryland, NC State, Stony Brook etc.
Do you know how much your parents will be able to contribute each year? I know that it can be awkward, but you need to know a number, or a range. You or your parents need to run a bunch of Net Price Calculators, and for a variety of schools, some purely need-based and some with need and merit, and also look into the automatic merit schools mentioned above.
American University in DC is worth looking into, possibly George Washington as well although I don’t know how generous they are with aid