<p>I live in Arkansas now for most of my life, don’t really like it all that much. I was born in Pennsylvania, but it’s not like I really know the place! I just want to get away from everyone that I know! I’ll be a senior this year so I have one more year left to. At least location isn’t an issue with me 
ruled that out</p>
<p>Well, this depends a lot on you and your finances.</p>
<p>Arkansas has two main university systems, the University of Arkansas (great school) and Arkansas State University. Both of those are likely to be the most affordable options for you if your parents are residents of AR, which is likely. They are also massive state universities, so you are unlikely to frequently run across many people from your high school unless you want to.</p>
<p>There are also Henderson State, Arkansas Tech and Southern Arkansas, which are also affordable options for you but smaller public university campuses. Henderson State is a public liberal arts university that is the size of many small LACs, and Southern Arkansas is even smaller than that. So you have a variety of options to choose from in your own home state: large flagship public, medium-sized publics and small universities.</p>
<p>If you are an exceptional student with high test scores and good grades, plus extracurricular activities, you may be able to earn merit aid at great universities or LACs outside of AR. Or maybe your parents have enough money saved, or are wealthy enough, that they can pay for most or all of the cost for you to attend a private or OOS public university elsewhere.</p>
<p>Most college students attend college relatively close to home, and at least in their own state. There’s no shame in that - that’s what public universities are for, for educating the residents of a state at low cost.</p>
<p>what are your stats?
Many northeastern and pacific northwest schools have a shortage of Arkansas applicants so you may have an edge there (for geographical diversity).
Arkansas is part of the Academic Common Market, meaning you will pay-instate at all these schools, regardless of where they’re located:
[Southern</a> Regional Education Board](<a href=“http://home.sreb.org/acm/participating/institutionstates.aspx]Southern”>Southern Regional Education Board)
For a very different “feel” from most Arkansas high schools, Hendrix is the place:
<a href=“http://www.hendrix.edu/[/url]”>http://www.hendrix.edu/</a>
If you want to go out of State and cost is a major issue, Berea is a good choice:
[Home</a> Page - Berea College](<a href=“http://www.berea.edu/]Home”>http://www.berea.edu/)
As for Pennsylvania, there are TONS of colleges, from small elite liberal arts colleges like Lehigh,Haverford, or Dickinson, to huge schools like Penn State or Pitt, to Ivy league like Penn, to smaller public schools like Slippery Rock or West Chester.</p>
<p>Agreed, it depends on your choices when finances and admission statistics are considered. There is nothing wrong with leaving your state for college if you can afford it, but there is nothing wrong with taking the in-state tuition either.</p>
<p>I thought the Academic Common Market concept only applied when a student was pursuing a degree program NOT offered in his/her state???</p>
<p>I am not sure your information that you pay in-state tuition at any of these institutions is correct??</p>
<p>Transferring OOS is the ideal time to get to know an area you want to live in. For example, my good friend goes to college in the heart of Manhattan. The novelty has worn off, and though she loves the city, I doubt she will be sticking around after recieving her BA.</p>
<p>If you plan on going to a private college, OOS costs aren’t much of an issue, except you don’t have your family close for support, obviously.</p>
<p>Are there any cities/states you imagine yourself living in in the future?</p>
<p>Arkansas is part of the Academic Common Market, meaning you will pay-instate at all these schools, regardless of where they’re located</p>
<p>That’s not true. Your own state can’t have your major. And if you go to an ACM school and then change your major to one that your state has, then you lose the instate rate.</p>
<p>re: ACM - I should have specified that there are restrictions, but at this point we don’t know what the OP wants to major in, only that s/he wants to leave Arkansas. Depending on what s/he wants to study, it’s an option to consider. If an Arkansas public college does not offer a major s/he’s interested in (and depending on the OOS institution s/he selects), s/he is entitled for in-state rates which would allow OP to leave Arkansas as is his/her wish, yet not pay high OOS tuition costs.
For further information, the FAQ page is very well done:
<a href=“http://www.sreb.org/page/1395/academic_common_market_faqs.html[/url]”>ACM FAQs - Southern Regional Education Board;
To qualify for the Academic Common Market, a student must be a resident of an SREB member state, select a participating program that is approved for the Academic Common Market for their state, be admitted unconditionally into that program, and be certified as a resident of his or her home state.
This is the page for Arkansas:
[Academic</a> Common Market Program](<a href=“Arkansas Department of Higher Education - Home page”>Arkansas Department of Higher Education - Home page)
This is how you find out if your expected major is not offered in a public university in your home state, thus allowing you to enroll in out of state with in-state tuition.
[ADHE</a> | Academic Affairs](<a href=“Arkansas Department of Higher Education - Home page”>Arkansas Department of Higher Education - Home page)
This is only ONE possibility. In my opinion, applying to a college in the Northeast or the Pacific Northwest would be a better option, but this will depend on OP’s stats.</p>
<p>We also don’t know the financial situation of the OP. ACM schools work well for students who can pay the full instate COA. They don’t work well for students who need a lot of aid. </p>
<p>Even tho you’re given instate rates, you’re not treated as an instate student FA wise. You don’t get state aid, and your school isn’t going to give you extra grants that they would normally give their instate rates. </p>
<p>Also, ACM students are also not eligible for merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Thanks, mom2collegekids, I actually didn’t know ACM students are not eligible for merit scholarships, I’ll file it. :)</p>
<p>If paying instate COA is too costly for OP, I would definitively recommend Berea. Also, top colleges and especially the Ivy league and little ivies are (supposedly -am guarded as to how much but it can’t hurt to try) looking for bright, low-income kids from outside their “traditional” searches such as inner cities, so it could be another venue for OP.</p>
<p>We need to know more from OP though.</p>
<p>Well I’m looking at Neumont University in Salt Lake City, Utah</p>
<p>Telling us that you’re thinking about Neumont U doesn’t really tell us much. Are your parents willing to pay the costs?</p>
<p>Edited to add. That school is a “for profit” school. Those can be a rip-off. Why aren’t you interested in non-profit schools?</p>
<p>BYU all the wayyy.</p>
<p>Sorry guys about not providing much info as I don’t really know what I’m doing yet (I’m assuming I’m doing my senior year here, parents are wanting to move and blah blah) I appreciate all the help you all are giving me!</p>
<p>If anything, avoid for-profit schools: very few students graduate, they incur crushing debt and don’t get a degree that’s widely recognized. As Mom2kids said: rip-off.</p>
<p>Did you take the ACT? The SAT? What’s your GPA? Have you taken APs? How many Honors classes do you have per year, or how many “academic” classes did you take? (5 would be a good answer 
but if it’s less it also helps us give you suggestions.) </p>
<p>Do you want to go to a close-knit school where professors know you? Would you rather be invisible in a big lecture hall and cheer football/basketball/hockey teams on weekends?</p>
<p>Are you an under-represented minority? Are your parents immigrants, do you speak English at home? Will you be part of the first generation to go to college? Do you play a sport at the varsity level?</p>
<p>They can’t help pay for my college.</p>
<p>Actually I’m thinking of non profit now, preferably Private.</p>
<p>If they can’t help pay for your college you need to look at a community college to start and then move to the local four year college. If you have outstanding stats the there are merit alternatives. Stay away from for profit schools.</p>
<p>You need to look for colleges that both
1° cover 100% need
and
2° have high 4-year graduation rates.</p>
<p>You CANNOT restrict yourself by State, you need to look at those two factors and see where you can get in. If your parents don’t have much money, your school should help you get a fee waiver (for applications and to take the SAT/ACT). In addition, of course, you should apply to several in-State universities (and, if you have the stats, apply for their Honors Program.) </p>
<p>If the college pledges to pay 100% need, it means you’ll be able to go. Otherwise they may not give you enough money. These schools also tend to have good graduation rates, meaning that you graduate in 4 years, not 5 or 6.
If the college covers 100% need, no matter how much it costs, it’ll offer you the money that you need to go - as long as you’re a desirable candidate. That means you look at the SAT or ACT score range, usually they show you the range from 25 to 75% and you should be close to the close of the 75%. If there is an average, you should be above the average.</p>
<p>Some schools are need-blind, meaning that they don’t know you need money when you apply. They look at your credentials and decided if they want you. And if they decide you should be part of their school, they admit you, then the financial aid office is supposed to make it work so that you can come.
All the schools on this list (below) are need blind, but they’re also very selective and prestigious, so you should ask them for brochures (the brochures are free) and you can also email them with questions.
[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Some schools even have a no-loans policy, so that you graduate with no debt.
[The</a> Debt-Free College Degree - Businessweek](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)
[FinAid</a> | Answering Your Questions | No Loans for Low Income Students](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>Looking at private colleges is a good idea since many of them actually have more money for aid than public schools, but make sure to pick colleges that cover 100% need.
Once you’ve identified a few colleges, email them to ask them if they cover 100% need and what the average grant or scholarship is.</p>
<p>The schools with high four year graduation rates have them partially because the students they admit are high achievers who don’t have to take time off to work (goes with the whole great financial aid thing) or take care of families. I guarantee that if Georgetown and University of the District of Columbia (a terrible local commuter school in DC) switched student bodies and financial aid policies, UDC’s four year graduation rate would skyrocket, while Georgetown’s would plummet. </p>
<p>Also aid policies vary among 100% need blind institutions, full need institutions. Both Emory and Princeton are in that rarefied category of schools, but Emory’s average grant will likely include loans, whereas Princeton’s will not. Schools claiming to be need blind don’t care about how desirable an admitted student is. If admissions accepted you, well then they’ll give you a (hopefully) nice aid package no matter if you were at the bottom 1% of admitted students or in the 99%. </p>
<p>Some non 100% need blind full need schools come pretty darn close to meeting full need for the overwhelming majority of accepted students. Tufts and the aforementioned Georgetown are two examples of this. Also many privates offer the best aid to their most qualified students. To give one random example, Boston University often tailors financial aid packages to how high an applicant’s stats are. 2250 SAT, 34 ACT, 3.9 UW GPA? It’ll probably give you a ton of money. 1750 SAT, 3.3 UW? Well, hope you can afford the full cost of attendance because BU just significantly gapped the accepted student.</p>
<p>To find out about need and merit based aid, you can google a school’s common data set and go to section H2 which breaks down the various aid policies.</p>