<p>Hi everyone! I am a junior in high school and I was wondering which ones of these schools are matches, reaches, and safeties. Also, let me know if you have any recommendations or advice based on this list. Thanks!</p>
<p>THE LIST: </p>
<p>Abilene Christian U
Belmont U
Hardin-Simmons U
John Brown U
Oklahoma Christian U
St Edward’s U
Texas Christian U
Texas State University
U of Mary Hardin-Baylor
U of North Texas
U of Texas at Arlington
Washington U in St. Louis</p>
<p>ABOUT ME:</p>
<p>I am salutatorian of my class of 234, I have a 4.0 GPA, and I am a full IB diploma candidate. I got a 234 on my PSAT so I expect to get a National Merit Scholarship. On the SAT I got a 2210 (690 CR; 740 M; 780 W; 8 E). As for extracurriculars, I am in Student Council (reporter), NHS, Art Honor Society, and Leo Club (reporter). I also have done community service projects independently and as a part of these organizations. As part of my school’s academic UIL teams for journalism and number sense, I have received district, regional, and state awards. One more thing, I work part time in childcare at a nearby church.</p>
<p>WHAT I WANT IN MY COLLEGE:</p>
<p>Well, I plan on studying communication design (sometimes called visual communications, graphic design, etc.) with possible minors in journalism and/or philosophy. I want to be no more than about 600 miles from Dallas, and preferably in an urban area. I would also like to go to a medium-sized school, about 2,000-10,000 students. In all honesty I am a total nerd, and I would really like to go somewhere with people like me (NOT a sports or sorority-focused environment).</p>
<p>Thank you so much!! Let me know if you’d like any more information.</p>
<p>The rank rule at Texas public universities (top 10% at all but Austin, top 8% for fall 2013 freshman appliants at Austin as described at [Automatic</a> Admission | Be a Longhorn](<a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/after-you-apply/automatic-admission]Automatic”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/after-you-apply/automatic-admission) ) means that a #2 out of 234 can consider any Texas public university as an admissions safety, assuming you otherwise meet the criteria for admission.</p>
<p>However, this does not necessarily guarantee admission to the division or major at the university (e.g. you may be admitted to Austin, but if you choose a very popular major or division, you may be admitted to a different division at Austin).</p>
<p>Of course, you then need to determine whether your admission safeties are financial safeties. You can get estimates from the net price calculators at each school’s web site.</p>
<p>UT Dallas is not on your list? It is within 600 miles of Dallas and offers an “Emerging Media and Communication” major as well as art majors, and has 11,400 undergraduates (not much more than your 10,000 limit).</p>
<p>Note that the Christian affiliated schools on your list are not all of the same denomination.</p>
<p>Consider University of Alabama. If you make NMF (I’m pretty sure you will), you’ll get a full ride + $1,000/year + a free laptop.</p>
<p>I feel you can also add more reaches, Ivies, HYPS.</p>
<p>If you want to stay near Texas, maybe Rice and Baylor?</p>
<p>Are you aware of all the rules that there are at some Christian colleges? For example, Abilene Christian requires daily chapel, requires bible classes and is a dry campus. Even having glassware that can be used for alcohol can get you in trouble. Pre marital sex can get you expelled. Would you be happy living with those rules? It’s a very different atmosphere from UT.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: Thanks for that advice. I had looked into UTD (my cousin went there) but the media program you refer to seemed heavier on the computer science aspects, so it’s not one of my top considerations right now.</p>
<p>@alwaysleah: I will definitely look into that; I didn’t realize that Alabama was only ~600 miles from Dallas! And although Rice and Baylor are really appealing - as are some other Texas schools, like Austin College - they do not offer my interests, so I’ve had to rule them out.</p>
<p>@YuhikoJay: Thanks, but I really do not want to live that far from home. Although they would be good reaches I’m going to try to find other fits.</p>
<p>@prefect: That is something I’ve considered. I am Christian - though not that particular denomination - and don’t mind the university being religious. Some of that may be too much and I definitely will take that into consideration along with all the other academic stuff. The dry campus part I actually like, though.</p>
<p>Oh I have no idea if Alabama is 600 miles from Dallas. It’s just a good option. It’s a great school, you’d be in the honors program, and it’d be free. I think you should at least apply in case financial aid doesn’t work out elsewhere. The application has no essays or recommendations and takes about five minutes.</p>
<p>I just looked it up- its about 660 miles away (not too far I hope!)</p>
<p>That would be great, I will definitely research their art/design options! Any other good NMF scholarship places?</p>
<p>I’m not sure, most of the ones I’ve been looking at are in the Northeast and West, but hop over to the financial aid forum and do a little looking around. I’m sure there are more!</p>
<p>So, do you think that most of these schools are safeties/matches? I think that Wash U is a reach but the rest are probably solid.</p>
<p>I think they’re all low-match/high-safety. In all honesty maybe you should narrow down the list a little bit because you should be getting into most of them. WUSTL is a high match/low reach. Have you considered applying early there?</p>
<p>There is a whole subforum on NMF scholarships inside the Financial Aid Forum. That would be a good place to start looking: [National</a> Merit Scholarships - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/]National”>National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>Other useful threads on the issue of merit aid include these:
<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</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html</a></p>
<p>Do sit down with your parents, and find out how much they are going to be able to help you with paying for college, then run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) at the websites of each of the places on your list. Often families find that they can’t pay what the colleges expect them to, so you need to know now whether or not the colleges that interest you will be affordable without merit-based aid.</p>
<p>@alwaysleah: I plan to narrow it down after visits. WUSTL and Belmont are probably my top two right now, but I have yet to visit Belmont. I may apply early to WUSTL, but I have two major concerns - cost, and lack of credit for IB.</p>
<p>Maybe University of Tulsa? If you go by your size preferences, you pretty much rule out all of the public Texas schools, including those on your list. University of the Incarnate Word probably has what you’re looking for and maybe Tulane.</p>
<p>Thank you sadilly, I will look into those. Yeah, I don’t think a large public will suit me well, but I’m still considering a couple.</p>
<p>Your concerns about WUSTL make sense. I would just be a little worried about the huge wait list. I think for some more reaches you should be considering “southern ivies.” Duke (though it is a large sports school, so idk), Emory, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest. Though these aren’t all that close to dallas, they’re still in the general southern region. Is there a particular reason you want to be in Dallas?</p>
<p>I want to be able to drive home for breaks, etc. I’m just not comfortable being that far from home. I will definitely look into those schools. A main problem I’ve run into is that these “southern ivies” don’t have graphic design or any comparable programs, but I haven’t checked all of them yet. Thank you so much for all this help!</p>
<p>That makes sense! Keep in mind that with U of Alabama it would be free so you’d (probably) have left over money to fly home a lot! </p>
<p>I get you with the program thing, yeah I don’t think graphic design is a common one. I think LSU might? I’m not sure. And I don’t know how far that is from Dallas (I suck at southern geography. I’ve never even been there aha).</p>