I am a senior, and applied to 5 colleges: Belmont Univeristy, UMass Amherst, Tufts University, Northeastern University and Vanderbilt University.
I don’t have stellar grades, but they were rather middle of the road (2.9 of 4 GPA), 1960 on the SAT, I took a few AP’s, many honors and had good rec letters and essays. And yet…
I was rejected at Northeastern and UMass (one of my safeties). I completely expected to, at the very least, get into UMass, but I didn’t. I am awaiting decisions from Vanderbilt and Tufts, but those are very likely rejections.
I only got accepted to Belmont, with my only FA being Stafford loans - I have to cover the other 29,000 a year by myself and I can’t afford that.
So… WHAT NOW???
Look for rolling admissions schools that may still have good Merit money to offer. Could you go to community college for a year, and then transfer? That might give you time to do well, and increase your chances of acceptance at schools. Very few schools completely “meet need” with financial aid. Do you have a high EFC? Are your parents willing to help you? Could they apply for loans? If they are denied, it allows you to get more in loans, but you might not want to get out of school with huge debt hanging over your head. Did you try appealing your financial aid offer from Belmont? Do they use FAFSA, or CSS Profile as well? Good luck!
My stepmom has suggested community college, and I suppose that could work, but I kind of had my heart set on going to an actual 4-year school.
We aren’t exactly “needy” but we certainly aren’t well-off enough to afford the kind of money Belmont’s asking for. They accept FAFSA, which I used, and I’m welcome to apply for loans, but my parents don’t want to sign on them because they’re still paying off their own school loans and don’t have the best credit anyway - they really want me to avoid being in debt till I’m 60. I haven’t tried appealling the FA at Belmont, but I suppose I could try.
Thank you for the advice, by the way.
Rolling admission school with merit scholarships are the answer. Try Endicott and Susquehanna. You may need to wait a year for $. Though.
If you go the community college route, you could transfer after a year (or really even a semester). Our state flagship has a January entry program. You might inquire at UMass about starting in January if you are successful in several community college classes in the fall.
UMass Lowell has rolling admissions. I would suggest applying there then peacing out to UMass Amherst in the spring semester. Cost is about same as UMass Amherst and credits wouldn’t be any problem in terms of transfer. You are a shoo-in for UML since your SATs are more than adequate and GPA is about a match. I applied to both Lowell and Amherst and got into both with a 1940 SAT and 3.13 GPA.
My stats aren’t exactly stellar either, and honestly I never considered UMass Amherst a safety because of how they’ve improved and become significantly more competitive in recent years. If you do decide to go to Lowell, I would suggest doing well for the first semester (3.6+ GPA) then applying to the Commonwealth College when at UMass Amherst, which is comparable to higher tier schools such as Tufts, but more inexpensive.