I’m having a hard time finding matches to apply to that are within my budget and appeal to me. I’m looking for a medium-large school with a lot of spirit, hopefully in the midwest but I’m willing to travel if need be. I’m from Michigan so I’ve mostly been looking at schools in state and in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
My UW GPA is a 3.9, W is a 4.2 and my ACT score is a 33.
The safeties I think I will be applying to are
Grand Valley State
Central Michigan
University of Alabama
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and the reaches that I am considering are
University of Michigan
Vanderbilt
Any suggestions for matches or even your thoughts on any of these schools would be really appreciated!
Do you qualify for financial aid? If so have you and your parents run the net price calculator for any of your reach colleges. The one for Vanderbilt (which has a need blind admissions policy) is at: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/financialaid/net-price-calculator.php
If the need based financial aid (as for example from Vandebilt) is inadequate will you need merit aid?
What is your intended major? What are your 2-3 top ECs?
U of M as a reach would most likely be affordable regardless of financial aid because I qualify for in state tuition. I have run the NPC for Vanderbilt and it looks like it may be out of budget without merit aid unfortunately, which I don’t believe I will qualify for.
I hope to major in neuroscience or Biology.
Most of my ECs revolve around my community service, I am the treasurer of my high schools community service club and have gained over 100 hours worth of service over the past few years.I am also a member of NHS and have my varsity letter in academics.
Unrelated question, do jobs count as ECs?
Your stats are above 50th percentile for Michigan LSA, and around 50th for CoE, so I’d call Michigan a match for you considering that you are in-state. Jobs are an EC. Michigan values GPA above all other statistics and you are in good shape as long as you have taken a rigorous schedule.
Why not add MSU honors as a safety?
What do you plan on studying? That would help with match selection.
Have you looked at Miami of Ohio? That would be considered a safety but may meet your criteria and you would likely get nice merit aid there. Also, you might qualify for merit aid at Case Western.
What about the Midwest Student Exchange Program? Any schools of interest there? http://msep.mhec.org
@N’s Mom
I have looked into that but still am not totally sure I understand. Do the lowered costs automatically apply, or do I have to fill out additional form?
@suzy100 I am considering Miami Ohio and am trying to visit it, I’m just concerned it will be out of my price range. Same goes for Case Western, even with merit it may be too pricey for me to attend.
@TooOld4School I have not ruled MSU out of the question, however it is such a large school it isn’t too appealing to me right from the get go.
I plan to study neuroscience, or also possibly biology.
As a fellow high school student in Michigan, I recommend taking a look at Kalamazoo College. It is a small school with around 1.5k students, but Western is just down the street, so there are still tons of college kids around. It’s not selective, with a 70% acceptance rate, but still has very high quality academics, ranking well for graduate programs and I think 3rd for its study-abroad program.
As far as Central goes, all the people I know who go there are big in the party scene. It definitely has a reputation as a party school around here. Have you considered Wayne State? You might qualify for free full tuition. Apparently the campus is actually quite safe, too. It’s quite good for the medical field and has a nice med school, if you’re considering that down the line.
I would also look at private, out of state schools that pledge to meet 100% of need. We found that they are about the same as in-state UMich for a middle class family.
The honors colleges (at larger public universities, usually) tend to be much, much smaller in feel, and have greater access to research, special counselors and tutors, advisors, early access to class registration, etc. They may also have additional FA /merit aid available.