Thank you for your respectful, informative answer. I love it. I’m 100% okay with going to a private school, and if they’re on the smaller side, I probably have a better shot at scholarships. My parents aren’t willing to contribute. I think they’ll sign for the loans, but I will probably be in crippling debt since they will most likely not pay a dime. That’s why scholarships are a huge factor for me. They don’t need to be full rides, they just need to cover at least a little more than half of tuition. The more, the better, though.
I like Washington & Lee, I was interested in Davidson prior. I’m still wondering if they’d be a good choice. Gettysburg I think will be good if they give me a good scholarship. What other privates do you have in mind in different places?
Yes, you have a good shot at gaining admission to those schools. The problem is you don’t know your financial aid information. I realize this is your parents’ fault for not being up front with you. By all means apply to some of these schools, but be mindful that merit is rare and “meets full need” depends on your FAFSA and you may not qualify for enough for those schools to be affordable. If you want a true financial safety, you need to put a couple of the PASSHE schools on your application list. Their tuition is the lowest starting point and you will likely get some merit to lower the cost further.
While your grades are very good and despite you being first gen, the problem is you’re an average student at most of the schools listed a few posts up. Lehigh, Lafayette or Gettysburg may admit you, but aren’t going to give you scholarships for being “average”. They might meet full need, but you don’t know your need and tuition is very high to start. Without knowing your true financial situation recommendations for private schools that are affordable will be difficult to make. You need to look at schools where you are academically well above the average student. There are several mentioned throughout the thread, Miami of OH, College of Charleston, etc. Increasing your SAT score would likely help you get more scholarships and add more schools to the list (FL State?)
Some of the Catholic schools can be generous with aid and merit. You said you didn’t want religious, but you already have Duquesne on your list, maybe look at St. Joe’s in Philadelphia, Loyola Maryland, University of Scranton, Seton Hall, or St. John’s. No guarantee they’re affordable to the level you need, but might be worth a shot.
I’m not average, and your underestimating my profile. Sorry I’m not a national debater , not everyone is so lucky to be “amazing” XD. There’s more to ECs than that. My ECs are good because they show true commitment, and not “I just did this and that to get into Harvard!”
You’re right, you’re not average. You’re obviously a very good student who works hard and has good ECs. No one is demeaning your accomplishments. However your 3.9 UW/1270 SAT/good ECs are average for some of those private schools because they are very good schools that only admit well above average students. I think you’d be able to get in to most of them, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. I just don’t think they’ll be affordable unless you qualify for financial aid, which you unfortunately don’t know. By all means apply, but realize merit aid in the amount you need is unlikely.
I was the someone who said that. I didn’t say your net cost would be 40K. I said that the full-pay COA for OOS students was around 40K. Since this still seems to be in doubt, I looked it up on WVU’s own website:
|Out-of-state tuition and fees |$25,824|
|Room and board expenses |$11,254|
So that’s over 37K for tuition/fees+room/board. Total COA also includes miscellaneous expenses and travel in addition, so… if it’s not 40K, it’s very close.
The website also provides a grid showing how much auto-merit a student will get based on GPA and test scores. OP’s current stats will net 12K in automatic merit.
So yes, WVU is “20-something” but it’s high 20’s, not low 20’s, unless there is another source of funding other than the described auto-merit. I did not declare that such a source does not exist; I asked the OP how she arrived at her number. I am not trying to be negative; I am trying to make sure the premise that WVU would be an affordable safety is accurate, because I don’t want the OP to end up without a good option.
Here’s the thing. It’s totally fine to be like, “I want what I want.” But OP, what you want is a bit of a unicorn. You want a safety that is somewhat competitive/prestigious, such that you are not an outlier there in terms of your qualifications… but a school will still give you such generous merit that they are educating you at a financial loss to the institution… and the fact is that you generally do have to be an outlier within their student population in order for this to happen.
I suggested Truman State because it is a unicorn school. It is the rare case where you can have a high-quality education with small classes and a pretty high-achieving student cohort, a residential campus experience, and a guaranteed-affordable price. The tradeoff is that you have to go to rural Missouri. Your response was basically, “I TOLD you which states were acceptable and you are not listening.” Okay then. What I’m saying is that you’re in a rough situation and you need a good financial safety. You may not be able to get everything you want, where you want, for the price you want. If you can, hooray - I sincerely hope you can. I have merely offered my time and knowledge on the subject to equip you with alternatives, should the particular unicorn you are hunting turn out not to exist.
Once again, you are not understanding what I’m saying. I never said I wanted a prestigious safety. I’m fine with my safeties being on the lower side, BUT i was talking about how people were bashing my MATCHES AND REACHES. Get it right.
And no, I never said that to you bro. I did say I was willing to hear suggestions form other states, so you must of pulled that out from your behind just like how you did with the I want a “prestigious” safety. Which I did not say. Eric is the only one who has given me an understanding, respectful answer. You did too, but mostly everyone else bashed my stats and called me “average”, which I know is not the case
I even said I was applying to some state schools for safeties. Like IUP. Get a clue bro because you guys keep “quoting” me on things I did not say or imply whatsoever. I did not come here to have my options scolded, which is what was happening
