<p>I’m a senior and as of today I’ve only applied to 2 schools. One of them is a mid/reach school and another is a major safety. If i don’t get into my mid/reach i feel like all my work in HS will have gone to waste going to the safety school. I only had these to apply to b/c i had to apply in-state (virginia) and these were the only 2 schools i could see myself going to. I can’t really pay more than $25,000 a year but i desperately need to apply to another college. i’d like to either apply to a cheap school (i know they’re rare) or a school that i could possibly get a scholarship at. I’d like to stay away from the deep south or states that are to rural…
my highschool stats are</p>
<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.40 (9th-11th, 12th grade GPA is more like 3.7)</p>
<p>SAT:1880</p>
<p>I’ve been on the debate team 3 years, crew 9th grade and have held 3 jobs, so good work experience. also a little volunteer work.
I want to go to a school where i can have fun, meaning parties are prevalent. it doesn’t necessarily have to be a “party school” but a place where things aren’t too uptight.</p>
<p>honors level classes i’ve been taking in highschool:</p>
<p>IB Economics HL (2 year course)
IB Chemistry HL (2 year course)
AP English Lang & comp
IB Biology (only the first year)
IB Math studies (2 year course)
AP English literature
AP Comparative Government
Spanish 1 Ab initio </p>
<p>i’d rather not go to a school where the average GPA is lower than 3, ideally around 3.2…
does anyone have any ideas?</p>
<p>You may be too late for this cycle and might need to consider transfer after freshman year if you really dislike where you end up going. </p>
<p>Virginia has a long list of good, reasonably-priced schools at in-state tuition, so you may be able to find what you want in-state. From what I recall, “cheap” means either lots of financial aid (BTW, you may qualify for VCU’s merit programs - they have several based on GPA & SAT) or you head south & west (even taking the OOS hit, many schools in the SouthEast and Southern US have reasonable tuitions and housing/food are a bit cheaper). Good luck.</p>
<p>*If i don’t get into my mid/reach i feel like all my work in HS will have gone to waste going to the safety school. I only had these to apply to b/c i had to apply in-state (virginia) and these were the only 2 schools i could see myself going to. I can’t really pay more than $25,000 a year but i desperately need to apply to another college. i’d like to either apply to a cheap school (i know they’re rare) or a school that i could possibly get a scholarship at. I’d like to stay away from the deep south or states that are to rural…
my highschool stats are</p>
<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.40 (9th-11th, 12th grade GPA is more like 3.7)</p>
<p>SAT:1880
*</p>
<p>You’re late looking for scholarships since many had much earlier deadlines.</p>
<p>Have your parents said that they will pay up to $25k per year? or are you guessing that this is the amount that they will pay? If you’re not sure, you need to ask them.</p>
<p>What is your safety? Unless it’s some subpar school, I don’t see how attending would mean a waste of your high school work of a 3.4 GPA. </p>
<p>To get meaningful scholarships for your stats, you’d likely be looking at schools that aren’t ranked very high. Your GPA is below many schools’ minimum for scholarships. Scholarships are often given to those whose test scores are within the top quartile and the GPA is above the 3.5/3.7 range. </p>
<p>*I want to go to a school where i can have fun, meaning parties are prevalent. it doesn’t necessarily have to be a “party school” but a place where things aren’t too uptight.
*</p>
<p>For affordable schools that would have a more fun, spirited atmosphere and might give you merit, then you probably shouldn’t be excluding southern schools. Schools like Miss State and LSU might give you some scholarship money.</p>
<p>*You may be too late for this cycle and might need to consider transfer after freshman year if you really dislike where you end up going.
*</p>
<p>Not a good idea. Transfers rarely get the needed scholarships. Scholarships are mostly for incoming frosh.</p>
<p>Some kids have taken gap years WITH specific plans in mind to pursue their educational & EC interests & reapplied the next cycle. If you want merit awards only available to freshmen, that is another option you can consider. As was said, transfers VERY RARELY get merit awards. You need a plan if you’re going to have a productive gap year & redo your apps. You also need to have a serious discussion with your folks as to what they can contribute toward your education so you’re all on the same page. Completing a FAFSA calculator can also give you an idea of what help you might qualify for.</p>
<p>Some kids have taken gap years WITH specific plans in mind to pursue their educational & EC interests & reapplied the next cycle. If you want merit awards only available to freshmen, that is another option you can consider.</p>
<p>Good idea. during a gap year don’t take any CC classes otherwise you’ll lose your incoming frosh status.</p>
<p>Or go to community college for two years and then transfer to a state university as a junior to complete your bachelor’s degree, if keeping costs down is a high priority.</p>
<p>Virginia has some very strong schools. What you consider a safety may be a very strong academic school to those of us outside of VA. Just because you can “get into” the school as a safety does not discount the academics of the school.</p>
<p>You have so many great options in Virginia! What are the two schools you applied? You still have time to apply to U of Mary Washington, Christopher Newport, and George Mason, VCU, Virginia Tech (reach). These are all within 25K instate. Some of these don’t even require a supplement! Get them done asap within order of due dates. Don’t forget transcript requests/mid-year requests and to send scores on college board. Really hoping that the two you have applied to already are within this list…or Radford, Longwood, Old Dominion as a safety. </p>