the issue is that if OP is a high-achieving lower income student attending a lower-resourced HS, they may not be able to afford their flagship university, whereas top universities would be free (Columbia covers tuition, fees, room, board, and books entirely for lower income students; if OP lives in NYC, they could try to get a slot through HEOP. But they need to have specific classes in order to qualify).
If OP is lower middle to middle middle class, their flagship may be more affordable, but itâd really depend on the State.
So, while one can get an excellent education at a stateâs flagship about anywhere, the issue here is being financially able to attend.
What matters is your terminal degree. Since youâre going to get another higher degree, an Associate degree wonât do anything for you, either later in your career or in college admissions.
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The only thing we know is that they are on track to get an AA degree. We havenât seen any grades or test scores to know if the OP is actually a candidate for any of theses schools. In my local area, the criteria to get into DE and a possible AA isnât that high.
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OP already mentioned that while they will apply for fin aid, the family is willing to cover without aid even rack rate at private schools - although I am not sure whether OP and family understand that that is about 300K for undergrad at private schools which will not give credit for the dual enrollment community college classes.
some of the things I picked, perhaps wrongly indeed:
low academic quality HS that offers DE to replace the rigor thatâs missing would imply to me âlower income areaâ and âhigh achieving student for the schoolâ, as well as some expression by OP that would seem to indicate first gen or family unfamiliar with college (ie., not picking up on the fact 2 years of Spanish and stopping at Algebra2 is going to be a red flag, or not knowing that foreign language is sequential thus that AP Spanish isnât the honors version of a random Spanish class). Also, wanting Columbia would indicate a student with ambition and, hopefully, smart enough to know that ambition has to be backed up by grades.
OP may be middle class in a lower income school, or simply attending a school in an area where academic achievement isnât valued much for various reasons and/or where guidance is limited to the local directional, or attending school in a lucky state where the flagship is easily affordableâŠ
Thatâs why I asked for EFC.
However, you raise a good point.
@xoxoalli: can you clarify: Whatâs your unweighted GPA at the HS and GPA at the college? What State do you live in? Did your mom or dad attend college in the US?
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mother is currently getting a phd, currently already holds 2 masters and a bachelors, dad never went to college
I am a black female
aware of financial cost of private schools especially Columbia, & I know they will not accept any of my de credits but these are considered the hardest courses at my school. I see I made the mistake of transferring to this school but it would look bad on state school apps if I quit the program because it does count for them
5 siblings , oldest in military, 2&3 oldest never went to college, me & youngest still in school
my gpa is a 3.8 @ h.s & cc
I live in Texas, Dallas more specifically.
only in-state schools on my list are SMU and UT Austin.
I donât want to sound like the other kids on here but I do have good ecs, I will be three years president of an organization with national / regional/ state positions at time of apps, & very involved with another community based organization
I will inquire directly with the college about taking math and spanish lang courses this summer
As of now, iâm not interested in going to business school.
Class rank? That is the most important thing for Texas public universities.
Intended or possible college majors?
may apply as a business concentration major but declare something diff to help with admissions since my coursework shows a business interest, or I may do english. Iâm interested in declaring political science, philosophy, linguistics, public policy, urban studies âŠ
If youâre interested in being a lawyer, thereâs no need to major in business. The other ones you mentioned âenglish⊠political science, philosophy, linguistics, public policy, urban studies âŠâ are all fine.
Law school does not require any particular college major, but high college GPA and LSAT score are most of the admissions selection. Law job hiring is strongly associated with law school rank (either top 14 nationally, or top in the state or region you want to practice law), and law school rank is closely associated with admission selectivity (i.e. the GPA and LSAT scores of the students).
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Two of the three universities you mentioned (Yale and Columbia) donât even offer a business major. Only two Ivy League universities (UPenn and Cornell) offer a business major and theyâre in their separate school/college (transfer into them after admissions is difficult).
I think to somewhat summarize, there are two main points.
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An AA degree in itself will not help your chances at the reach schools. What is important are the actual classes. So, donât do something just to complete the degree requirements.
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Looking at you total class schedule, you are deficient in two areas, Foreign Language and Math. You should do your best to correct for these shortcomings. I donât know if any top schools will consider ASL as a foreign language.
On common app, Columbia gives you the option to apply to Columbia College with 3 choices of intended areas to study. It allows me to choose Business Management as one. I made sure to do my research on it and they offer a special concentration but I do not even plan on pursuing it. I just want to make my application look better by making sure my courses, extracurriculars and essays all support the major I am applying as or my intended area of study.
According to this page:
http://bulletin.columbia.edu/columbia-college/departments-instruction/business/
The business management is a special concentration you apply when youâre already a sophomore or junior at Columbia with additional academic requirements. Not something to worry about now.
As an URM, trying for a top school, I think that your best bet is to try to get the best grades you can in all your classes, and make sure that you will have had at the least preCalc by senior year. I think that schools will accept ASL as a foreign language, but you should check. In fact, if you have a connection to the deaf community, or an interest in speech language pathology working with the deaf, that might be an essay topic.
I would not worry about completing the associateâs degree if youâre shooting for upper level private schools. If your flagship state U will give you credit for the associates degree, then yes, it would be worth finishing it.
What I meant about the value of the associates degree and the flagship state U was that you would have money available to you for graduate level work, if you needed it, assuming that your parents have the means to pay for college, but you wind up not using it for college.