Potato lover Idahoan wants to visit the big city

College Search & Lists
1

<p>As the title suggests, I’m a student from Idaho who wants to go to a college in an urban setting. I’ve looked at a few colleges so far, but I’m largely restricted by my financial aid situation. Due to my parents owning a small business, my EFC calculated by NPCs is zero. My parents also have no funds available to lend me. Here are my stats:</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 (UW)
Rank: 1 out of ~242
SAT: 2130

  • CR: 740
  • Math: 680
  • Writing: 710
    ACT: 33
  • English: 33
  • Math: 32
  • Reading: 34
  • Science: 32
  • English/Writing: 30
    AP Classes:
  • Physics (3 on the test)
  • Composition (4 on the test)
  • US History (2 on the test, the class wasn’t AP)
  • Macro (didn’t take the test, didn’t comprehend the material online)
  • Lit (Current)
    These are all the AP classes my school offers. I’ve also been in various honors classes.</p>

<p>ECs</p>

<ul>
<li>Junior State of America (Last two years, president of the chapter this year, State of Idaho/Regional Director of Expansion, Pacific Northwest Director of Technology)</li>
<li>Debate (Last two years, Public Forum captain, decent amount of points, went to state and took first at a couple of tournaments last year, took semifinalist at a tournament this year)</li>
<li>SkillsUSA (First two years, did Computer Programming but didn’t place, was president the second year)</li>
<li>Freethinkers (Local chapter of the Secular Student Alliance, founded the club last year, but disbanded it due to lack of interest)</li>
<li>Hawkings (School science club that was started this year)</li>
</ul>

<p>I’ve already put together a ragtag list of schools I’d like to go to.</p>

<ul>
<li>University of Idaho (Best state school, definite safety)</li>
<li>BU</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Northeastern</li>
<li>RPI</li>
<li>RIT</li>
<li>Stony Brook</li>
<li>UMich</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>WUSTL</li>
</ul>

<p>I don’t really know what I’m looking for in a school, as can be seen in my list. I want an urban setting, a school that has a good social life AND good academic life. I’m really interested in the indie music scene, but that can take the back burner to other things.</p>

<p>If anyone had any other schools they could recommend with great financial aid, an urban setting, and a great comp sci or aerospace engineering program, that would be great. Also, if there is a major problem on my list, I would be glad to hear any criticisms. </p>

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>

2

<p>

If your parents own a business then I doubt the NPCs for large private schools calculate your EFC as 0. It’s more likely a pretty high number. We all understand families who can’t afford much for college. You should probably look through the following thread to see where you might get some significant merit aid.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Tons of schools have CS, relatively few have aerospace so you can use that to narrow your choices right off the bat. Use the College Navigator to get a good list:
[College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)
Also, since you are a good student you might earn merit aid at schools that offer it (not Ivy or other super-selectives), but RPI, RIT do. Here are tables that show who offers what:
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/privatecolleges/]Best”&gt;Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts]Best</a> Values in Private Colleges, 2012-13<a href=“look%20at%20the%20columns%20for%20non-need%20based%20aid”>/url</a>. </p>

<p>Good to see you have your state school(s) as financial safeties.</p>

<p>Being from Idaho may give you a small admissions boost at some schools.</p>

4

<p>A marriage in the making. Potato means beans in a soupy bliss.</p>

5

<p>I would remove the following schools from your list because they are not in or near enough to a big city to allow you to engage in city life:</p>

<ul>
<li>Duke </li>
<li>RPI </li>
<li>RIT </li>
<li>Stony Brook </li>
<li>UMich </li>
<li>WUSTL </li>
</ul>

<p>I would add schools like:</p>

<p>NYU
Fordham
Georgetown
George Washington
American
Villanova
Boston College
Loyola Chicago
Loyola Marymount
UCLA
Miami
Tufts</p>

6

<p>Stony Brook isn’t in what I would consider an urban setting, though it may be urban enough to be a huge change for you.</p>

<p>Think about adding Carnegie Mellon and Case Western.</p>

<p>Since you are going to need either generous financial aid or a low price tag, you might look at institutions in the Western Undergraduate Exchange that are in urban areas and might be a better fit than U Idaho, but at a similar cost. For example, Arizona State, U of New Mexico, and both U. Nevada campuses are all flagships in good-sized metro regions.</p>

<p>It’s not urban, but U of Alabama-Huntsville is known for aerospace engineering, and it would guarantee you a sizable merit award that would likely bring the cost to equal your in-state option or even lower. I think you would have a good shot at discretionary awards over and above the guarantee, too. This might be a great financial safety. I doubt the music scene is anything special, but you’d be close enough for weekend trips to Nashville.</p>

7

<p>You might receive great financial aid at IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology), and Drexel, two urban schools that offer ABET accredited programs in at least one of your two intended fields of study. </p>

<p>Santa Clara would probably be extremely generous with financial aid since you are, by all accounts, an outstanding applicant. It’s not located in an urban area, but in suburban Silicon Valley. However, San Francisco is just a quick BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)ride away.</p>

<p>University of Denver might also give good aid since you’d be one of their top applicants. Urban setting, decent comp sci department (also has an ABET accredited computer engineering program), and only a couple of states away.</p>

<p>University of Miami gives good aid to their best qualified candidates. They offer both computer science and aerospace engineering.</p>

<p>University of Rochester is known for being very generous with aid, and gives merit scholarships. They don’t have aerospace engineering, but they offer computer science and computer engineering.</p>

<p>If you need some reaches, UPenn and Vanderbilt should be on your list.</p>

8

<p>“If your parents own a business then I doubt the NPCs for large private schools calculate your EFC as 0.” I would agree out of principle, however both business profit and personal income equal out to near zero. On paper in the last two years, our family made $14,000 yearly. Would that make any difference?</p>

<p>BeanTownGirl: Thanks for your list, it’ll help me out a lot!</p>

<p>xiggi: Never tried potato soup. It’s an unfortunate happenstance.</p>

<p>informative: I’ll look into those schools. Thanks!</p>

<p>Hanna: I’ve been trying to avoid state schools, but with my financial situation, I may have to look into those. Thanks, I’ll take a look at WUE.</p>

<p>whenhen: I’ve put those schools on my watchlist. </p>

<p>Thanks for all the help, guys! I’ll report back on what I find.</p>

9

<p>The NPCs generally are not good predictors for smallbusiness owners because they don’t go into the detail that the fin aid office formulas do. Often the real formulas add certain expenses back into the income.</p>

10

<p>Music Scene, City, and CS instantly made me think of University of Texas in Austin. Big Indy scene in Austin and Dell has put a lot of money into the CS program.</p>

<p>Carnegie-Mellon is a solid choice! Vanderbilt is in Nashville and always worth a look.</p>

<p>If you are from Idaho (and not Boise) you may not really need to move to a big city to get a big change in culture and enjoy the transition. There are a lot of great schools out there. The best thing to do is take some trips. I would advise on visiting a handful of schools everywhere you go. For instance, I always tell students: if you were to fly to Atlanta to visit Georgia Tech, also visit Emory, make the trip up to Berry College and the trip down to Mercer. Yes, it may extend the trip and you’ll spend more money than if you were just visiting Georgia Tech, but you really want to get a feel for different types of schools, different sizes of school, and the people in the area. It is best to spend some extra money now than to spend money on lost credits transfering because you aren’t happy down the road.</p>

11

<p>OK people. Let’s think about this. The OP’s family nets $14K/year. How are UMich, UCLA, NYU, U Texas going to work??</p>

12

<p>Oh, good suggestion about IIT and Drexel, whenhen. OP might qualify for strong aid at either one.</p>

<p>Erin’s Dad, they certainly will not work. Suggestion threads always seem to generate some unrealistic options.</p>

13

<p>You could qualify for a good bit of merit aid at Fordham in NYC. Look into both campuses - the larger, traditional campus at Rose Hill (in the Bronx with easy access to Manhattan), and the smaller urban campus at Lincoln Center.</p>

14

<p>I’ve looked into Drexel, IIT, and Fordham. They all look like very good colleges for me to apply to. I’m going to add them to my list!</p>

15

<p>Seattle U and as someone already mentioned LMU</p>

<p>Both are in cities with good merit aid for your stats, and both
have engineering</p>

16

<p>If the OP is going to look into Seattle U, he might also consider U Portland. Both are in major cities, have good merit aid, and offer some engineering, although not aerospace. They both seem to have adequate offerings in computer science, and aren’t overtly Catholic.</p>