What are her reservations about them? Each has their own merits-- UF and FSU are great research institutions and each have academic fields where they’re in the top 10 for their field. (FSU consistently ranks in the top 3 for criminology and is one of the oldest programs in the country; they’re also a lot of mentor/intern/etc. opportunities because the program is small, close-knit and has an academic fraternity affiliation.) New College works quite differently than UF and FSU-- it’s more “independent study” oriented and grading works more pass/fail from what I remember; I had a friend whose best friend from college went there and they visited each other quite often.
If she’s got reservations about sports/greek life/the size of the school, those are really easily overcome within the confines of dorm life and who you end up meeting in classes and extracurricular organizations. Have her visit each one if possible; unless you live in the very southern end of Florida, you’re no more than three or four hours’ drive of one of them.
I don’t have any great recommendations for private schools that give great financial aid packages because it’s not an easily diagrammed rubric that doesn’t change for every student. I applied to a couple of out-of-state schools that I knew were more of a reach financially than a good deal and got in. My mom was the head of the household, was probably making around the same as your mom’s nurse position and I believe that, even then, FAFSA felt that the family household contribution required should be $11k per year minimum. I think that your sister needs to look into what she’s interested and what the schools provide and make her decision from there. If she still has reservations about going in-state, she should apply to one or two in-state schools anyway as financial back-up options; there is no guarantee that, even with an acceptance and what the school thinks is a “generous financial aid/scholarship package,” your sister will be able to afford to go out of state for college.
Heh. I went to FSU for undergrad, which has its fair share of people who shouldn’t be in college and still end up getting Cs all the way through. However, a lot of those kids who were there and somehow floating were kids who were picked because of severe financial hardship, athletic scholarships, and a really unique background that made them ideal “diversification” candidates despite their shitty grades and their need for remedial everything classes upon entering. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t students with excellent grades competing for all the merit money at the top of the chain.
I’m attending a (tiny) private school. I’ll probably have somewhere between 70-80k in debt by the time I graduate. (A little bit was paid off when I took a year off, and my parents are currently screwing around with their finances, so I’m not sure what next year’s aid package is going to look like).
Excuse me, I’m off to weep for the stupid life choices I’ve made.
I went to Georgia Tech for a year, but made mad money at the microelectronics research center. So, I owed around $7,000 there, but made almost that much by working. When I got tired of the bullshit, I came back to Greensboro and am now going to UNCG. My first semester cost me $172, with $130 for a parking permit for the year. Now the great part: the other day, in the mail, was a refund check for $500.
I’ve made almost $200 bucks, all things considered, just by going to school. Hell ya!
What’s her rank (if she knows yet)? It matters much more than grades. How many AP/IB classes is she in/has she completed? How many of those tests has she passed? What extracurriculars is she involved in? Does she have a leadership role in any of them? Does she work? What is a “good” score on her PSAT? (there is a world of difference between a 195 and a 215) Does she belong to any sort of ethnic minority?
Does she want to go to a school with an active sports culture? Greek life? Night life? Distinctive culture? Does she react poorly to heat or cold or rain (these make a BIG difference. Don’t underestimate them). Does she want to be able to come home for the occasional weekend or she she ok not seeing the parents for months at a time? Does an attractive campus matter to her?
College board has a great college finder program that lets you narrow down schools by many variables. You can goodle their website. I think you have to register.
Last year she was 5th in a class of 400 or so, I think. Her high school is a good one by Florida public school standards. She has completed 3 APs so far, with a 3 in the one she took freshman year, Human Geography, and two 5’s in Psychology and World History. I think she’s taking 3 APs this year and the rest of her classes are honors. She is in Beta Club and National Honor Society but not in a leadership role. I think she got a 190-something when she took the PSAT last year but she hasn’t received her score yet for this year’s test. I know that she did very well in the reading and writing but had room for improvement in the math. I told her to go over it and I don’t think she did, unfortunately, but she feels like she did better on that this year. She has spent most of her life in Florida so I don’t know how she’d react to colder weather and if she goes anywhere out of state it would be too far to come home occasionally. I know she’s not interested in sports and the greek system, both of which are popular at UF and FSU. I think an attractive campus would definitely be a plus even though that’s superficial but who wants to go to an ugly school?
Oh, I know. I don’t think she has any plans to not apply in-state, but I don’t think she should just give up on the whole idea of going out-of-state or a private school completely. I think she’s wondering if taking a challenging course load in the hopes of maybe going somewhere private or more prestigious is worth it when she can take a few easier classes and still go to UF and have tuition paid for.
Don’t forget, UCF in Orlando and USF in Tampa are both good, solid public universities with many options for students who don’t know exactly what they want to do. They are both easier to get into than UF, and I can’t speak for FSU. UCF and USF are both growing like crazy, especially UCF, and they are both in the top ten largest universities in the country, student population-wise (along with UF), but neither feels as huge as UF. I live in the Orlando area and have many friends who went to UCF and loved it, and there is certainly a lot to do here. I can’t speak for USF even though I’m in grad school there. I am a distance learner, so I don’t know what it feels like to be a USF student or to live in Tampa.
If your sister is ranked that high in her high school, and she lives in Florida, 100%+ of her tuition should be paid for by bright futures. She should take advantage of that.
Four years exactly with 180.5 credits to my name–.5 more than I needed to graduate. I had a lighter schedule my first year.
No, I didn’t have time to enjoy enough of it.
Another USF Tampa undergrad reporting in. I’m so glad I went here, as opposed to the other schools I applied to. It’s a fast-growing school; it seems like every other day, we’re adding some new program. Parking is hell on earth, though; if you want to live here, live close enough to walk or bike, and try not to get killed crossing Fletcher.
It’s very, very cheap — I could conceivably pay for it myself, if I bumped down to part-time and found a full-time job, if worst came to worst. But it gives wonderful need-based and merit-based financial aid, and tuition is a cool $105/hour in-state. I expect to graduate with less than $10,000 in debt (only to sink into destitution in grad school. :() My yearly expenses work out to around $9,000/year, counting tuition, fees, rent and books, and it’s pretty much completely covered by state and federal financial aid, which is good, because otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.
I don’t really have any numbers to throw up. But I think 15k over 4 years is a seriously low number. Debt sucks, but in the grand scheme of things it just doesn’t matter that much. As you progress in your career the payments just become a smaller and smaller part of your income. (of course it’s usually a good idea to pay back as fast as you can). This is presupposing she makes at least 30-35K(todays dollars) after graduating. If shes going to be an art teacher, then well yea, as little debt as possible is the way to go.
That’s very solid: she should probably look at some of the top-tier schools, like Dartmouth or Cornell. Not a sure thing by any means, but they have Very Nice finacial aid packages and she’d have a shot. Duke, also, if she likes the warmth.
Tulane would be a good choice, though it may be too much of a party school for her. They offered a good package to a student of mine with very similar stats and no finacial need at all. He did have a very good essay. Emory and Vandy would also be worth looking at. If she’s more of a hippy-type, she might look at Reed in Oregon. They work with kids on money, I understand. Centre College is little, but very good, school in Kentucky that really likes to recruit at least a few kids from exotic places like Flordia. If she likes Texas, Baylor, Southwestern and TCU might be good choices, though the really good scholarship packages I’ve seen from there have all been offered to minorities .
If she wants to improve her chances, she needs to get some leadership experience and some sort of summer job. Athletics would also be good–even if it’s just manager of the softball team. She should also find out what the “trendy” dream schools are on her campus (for us it’s Stanford. No idea why) and put her energy into applying to other schools. The often only take one kid per campus, so why compete with those kids?
Remember, too, that she can make 2-3K a summer fairly easily (40 hrs/week * 10 weeks * $8/hr=3200, and summer is longer than that). If together she and your parents can cover 5K/year, that isn’t peanuts. She also has a good chance of picking up a couple thousand in local one-time scholarships if she hustles/is lucky.
Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll pass them on. And thanks to everyone else who responded, although I still have no clear idea on how much is too much. Good thing I’m not the one going.
