A bit of background: I’m a white female from the Midwest, a conservative republican who grew up on a horse farm (but not it isn’t legally registered as one) with lots of animals. I give slight preference to colleges with less-restrictive pet policies (e.x., MIT). Lower-middle middle class, with a single parent household. The practice tests I’ve taken for the ACT have put my composite at around 26-27, and I hope to raise it to about 32-34 by junior year. I will take the following APs:
Biology, Chemistry, Physics B, Calculus AB, Pyschology, U.S. History, Enviromental Science, Human Geography, European History, Lit. & Composition, Lang. & Composition, and possibly Music Theory and Calculus BC.
Currently 2/160 in my class. Either going pre-med, pre-vet or an animal science major. Instate for UW-Madison. Any suggestions?
Is the parent you do not live with alive? If so, many of the best financial aid schools will require that parent’s information, in addition to the information of the parent you live with. When using net price calculators on college web sites to get financial aid estimates, check first if the school requires CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA to apply for financial aid. Schools requiring CSS Profile will need both parents’ information, unless they explicitly say that they do not need the non-custodial parent information.
Do your parents own a farm? If so, you may not get need based aid.
Merit is not easily had at top 40 schools. They tend to focus only on need-based aid since all their schools are filled with top students…so everyone would qualify for merit.
Many who own farms or ranches find that they don’t qualify for need based aid because of the farm’s value, the equipment value, and the many deductions get added back in.
Ask your parents how much they’ll pay each year.
For you to get large merit, you need to look at schools from about Top 70 - 100
I kind of thought it would be like that; I plan on applying for a lot of local outside scholarships. I think I would be okay as far as cost, and I wouldn’t sacrifice lower academics for big merit scholarships.
As far as I know, we aren’t legally registered as a farm. Just have 5 or 6 horses, couple rabbits, couple dogs, a few chickens and some barn cats here and there. We’re on 60 acres out in the country.
There have been a few success stories of top notch students bringing in a bunch of outside scholarships but, for the most part, that’s a pipe dream. When you say you would “be OK on cost” does that mean your parent is willing to pay up to $70K/year for college, because that’s what some cost.
You need to just have fun at this point. Enjoy school, do well. You have lots of time.
As an 8th grader, you really should just focus on doing well in school. However, UW Madison is a great school and a big school. If being a conservative is important to you, there is a very active chapter of College Republicans at UW and it would be a great way to meet like-minded individuals.
MS State has a program where select students (maybe 40?) as UG are in their program, where with successful UG, continue on into their vet school. I do believe they make the program for a student to be able to be in-state along the way; I know the scholarship level is such that the student may have tuition scholarship based on stats. I know two that have taken advantage of that program - one is currently UG sophomore and the other may be through vet school by now. Both were high stat students.
However you may want to stay in-state WI and hope you can eventually go the route into vet school or in some of the other ag programs that you may be suited for.
One may need a lot of test practice and some test prep or tutoring to raise ACT score. Really look to do more of that 2nd sem junior and 1st sem senior.
It doesn’t hurt to scope out schools and keep track a little, but merit does change some from year to year. Don’t want to rely on old info.
Gah, I didn’t mean for this thread to end up like this, I just wanted some suggestions for colleges. Alright, I’ll try not to worry more than I always do.
You would get in-state tuition at University of Minnesota, too. It is a ways away for you, but you want to keep your undergraduate costs and debt as low as possible if you are pre-med or pre-vet, as both are expensive graduate degrees.
