I am a junior in High School from Atlanta Georgia. I have a 3.5 unweighted GPA (3.97 weighted).
My APs are Human Geography (9), World History (10), BC Calculus (10), Chemistry (11), English Language (11), APUSH (11), and AP Statistics.
Extracurriculars
Piano
-12 years playing
-finalist in several competitions
-spent summer of junior year at Bowdoin International Music Festival
-Part of Emory Youth Chamber Program
Robotics
-Part of the team since freshman year
-advanced to the FIRST Championships in Houston past two years
-work on business team, where we attempt to gain sponsorships and compete for non-robot awards
School Newspaper
-joined this year
-mainly do sports reporting; I have been covering every school football game, as well as writing other stories
-plan to continue next year as well
I want to major in journalism and minor in music. What schools do I have the best shot of getting admission, as well as substantial financial/merit aid?
Ask your counselor what you need to do to make your UGA application better. With the HOPE scholarship that’s one of your lowest cost options.
Also, next year at this time start applying for small local scholarships. They will be about $500, but they can really add up. Start a list today of everyone you see.
Typically, the same kinds of schools are not equally generous with need-based aid and merit awards.
Colleges that claim to meet full “demonstrated” need tend to be private and highly selective. Examples: the 8 Ivy League colleges (and about 50 others).
Colleges that award large merit scholarships (up to full tuition or full ride) comprise a mix of public and private, but often are public universities located in places that (rightly or wrongly) may not be considered very attractive to many out-of-state students (hence, they need to use merit awards to increase their appeal). Example: the University of Alabama.
Colleges that award “competitive” merit scholarships (which often top out at $25K/year or so) tend to be private colleges that are selective, but not as selective as the Ivies. Example: Case Western Reserve University; many Liberal Arts Colleges outside the USNWR top 20 or so.
You may want to develop a strategy to focus on 1 of these types, or a mix of 2, or even all 3. A 3.5UW GPA probably won’t get you into the Ivies, but your stats should qualify for admission to some of the other so-called “full need” schools. Important: run the online net price calculators on any of them that interest you, then discuss with your family whether you can manage the Expected Family Contributions.
To identify schools in category #2, the Kiplinger “Best Value” college tables may help.
As for category #3, there have been many CC threads on this subject.
Don’t overlook in-state public schools. For many families, they represent a good balance of quality and affordability.
Yes, UGA’s HOPE scholarship is the attractive option here, but obviously UGA is not an easy admit.
In general, private colleges have more merit money (read: scholarships) to throw around than publics (thus, I slightly disagree with the previous poster). Also, in general, a student will receive the most merit money at those schools where she/he is a considerable “cut above” the average admit. It makes sense, since merit scholarships are recruitment tools, a chance to lure a student who is ticketed elsewhere.
However, some private schools have very generous merit for nearly everyone. For instance, Ohio Wesleyan University (not suggesting it; only using it as an example) offers 30K to any student with a 3.4 GPA and a 23 or higher on the ACT. Of course, OWU costs 60K per year. Still, the 50% automatic discount makes the school within the price range of many state flagships.
The OP doesn’t mention what type of school that she/he is interested in, nor how much her/his family can afford. Start scanning schools’ scholarship pages–for both private and public schools. You can simply Google, “[Name of School] scholarships” and you should see what merit scholarships are available, as well as general requirements.
Whether private or public schools will offer more depends on your qualifications and the market you’re considering. Check Kiplinger’s, the online NPCs, and the CDS section H for any that interest you. Or keep it simple and just focus on in-state public schools, possibly including ones within commuting distance.
Some such scholarships may be automatic for stats (but these are becoming less common; many of those listed in the page linked from reply #6 are no longer offered, smaller, or competitive now) while others are competitive (and any listed stats are merely eligibility stats and do not mean that you will get the scholarship). While automatic-for-stats scholarships can be safeties if you meet the stats, large competitive scholarships should be considered reaches.
Depending on your state of residency, some in-state public schools may offer better financial aid and scholarship opportunities that are not available to non-residents.
Mizzou (University of Missouri - Columbia) has a tippy-top journalism school, and it appears that their merit awards are based entirely on test scores, which could be good news for you if your testing profile is stronger than your GPA. https://admissions.missouri.edu/scholarships/
Arizona State is also pretty generous with merit, and has the Cronkite School which offers a BA specifically in Sports Journalism. https://scholarships.asu.edu/estimator
Both of these universities have schools of music that offer both BMus and BA degrees in music performance; both also offer a music minor, and ASU offers a minor specifically in music performance. If your test scores are good enough for merit, then you wouldn’t have difficulty being accepted to either university; the less-certain aspect is whether you’d be accepted to their respective Honors programs.