help me build my college list - Need safeties, targets and reaches pls.

[upper leaf]

assume parent contribution/income is 0
Parent contribution and parent income are very different things, so to say ---- the income (and other factors) decide how much your parents are expected to contribute, but how much will they ACTUALLY contribute is another thing, if that makes sense

moved to the US few months back
This leads to a few more questions:

1. Do your household claim residency for a state? If so, which state?
2. Do you have U.S. citizenship, permanent residency, DACA status or some other forms of "identification" that will qualify you for need-based financial aid?

I'm sorry for bombarding these questions, but if cost is a sensitive issue, it'll be important to factor in (1) whether or not you can get need-based aid and (2) what sort of range we should be looking for

And of note, did you, by any chance, took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, aka PSAT/NMSQT, and if so, do you think you have a score that would put you in the semifinalist range? This recognition (plus some work to become a finalist: that step is relatively easier) will get you a considerable number of full ride scholarships at sound safeties e.g., UT Dallas, UAlabama

[royal scarab]

uh part of this is lowkey bad advice. Top-20s reject a lot of applicants with good grades all the time

OP look into tufts, w&m, university of rochester (they have mid aid tho), wake forest, and your state schools. don't underestimate your state schools lol

umiami and richmond too

santa clara would be a good safety

[quasi pond]

a good question honestly, i'd have to pay intl, if by any chance my status does not change by the time i apply. Otherwise, it'll likely be in-state or OOS fees which i hope so. My parents haven't said me anything regarding this, so either way i'll rely more on scholarships throughout my college years to ease up my burden.

[upper leaf]

I’d urge you to clarify this with them, but if you have to pay as an intl, it’ll make things challenging…

Intls are often not eligible for aid of any kind 😵‍💫

[quasi pond]

unfortunately no, we haven't had any such opportunities at our previous school nor was it offered, and most of my hs years, were taken by covid ~ 2 whole years in lockdown. Regarding to ECs, i don't really have any strong ones, anything & everything i did was before hs. I'll have to make that area strong, now that i'm in the US.

And what ECs would you recommend, to make my application strong?

[quasi pond]

since I'm currently from florida, and most likely will be claiming my residency from here, as far as my knowledge about this is, they do require SAT scores, and i might or might not take them. My next concern is, if by any chance cost does end up being a issue for me, incase it's extremely high or i do not get the chance to make a well-rounded app due to all of this, will going into a cc and then transferring to Good Uni, preferably OOS, be a good option?

[royal scarab]

That’s a good option if you’re the right type of person. But that’s something you have to decide for yourself as you would have to be concerned which schools meet full need of transfers, fit, dealing with being behind a couple years socially. But you also save a shit ton of money and can get a lot of gen Ed’s out of the way cheaply

So it really just depends if you’re willing to make that sacrifice. Plenty of people do and are very successful doing so. But definitely research that more

[quasi pond]

Noted.

Would USF be a good choice, if i take SAT?

[royal scarab]

Yes

[quasi pond]

As a safety, target or reach? I'm really interested in UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCSD as well as Yale. I don't want to get my hopes high tbh if it seems impossible.

[quasi pond]

i sure will check out these. Any recommendations on EC's?

[quasi pond]

Suree, i'm pretty much into foreign languages too, so would maybe looking for an internship at a translating company workk?

[quasi pond]

i don't think so i can win or resort to competitions in a year, more like within the next few months tbh. Limited Time = Brainstorming Ideas lmao. But thank you for the suggestions, appreciate it.