<p>My D has a friend at school, a senior this coming year, who is on welfare. Her single mother is no help when it comes to college advice. Her friend told my D that she wants to go away for college like her other friends and asked for my D's help in figuring out how she will pay for it, so my daughter of course came to me for advice.</p>
<p>I know it's easier to obtain aid when you are poor but she is a B student, not an academic superstar. She is a minority and her father died some years ago, so I would hope that admissions officers would take that into account in admissions decisions, but I still don't know how she would be able to pay for room and board if she goes away for college, since she probably won't be able to get into the elite "meets full need" colleges with her grades. Even the state colleges charge over 10K a year for room and board.</p>
<p>Any help or advice for her would be appreciated!</p>
<p>What is her SAT breakdown, or what is ACT? Anywhere will be at least 10k for room and board. There are opportunities for B students in the automatic tuition thread, last post, pinned to the top of the forum. It will be limited though and pretty tough to make this work.</p>
<p>Does this girl have any idea what she wants to do? Would she be open to being a health care worker?</p>
<p>In my opinion, the best advice you can give her is to go to the local CC and get certification in respiratory therapy, dental hygiene, x-ray tech, or some other health field. She can likely do any of these programs for free or very near free with her Pell grant. Hopefully, she has some funds from a part time job to cover books and transportation. If not, she should borrow what she needs, but keep that borrowing to an absolute minimum since it doesn’t seem like her mom will be able to help her much at all in the future. This girl can be living completely independently by the time her friends are graduating college. Stress how it may seem like everybody’s going away, but they’re not. And some of those who do go away, will end up back home after a year. It happens all the time. </p>
<p>In any case, if she keeps her debt low and gets that associates degree as quickly as possible, her options will stay open. I know many hospitals in our area now have programs on site for workers with associates degrees to complete their bachelors. </p>
<p>FYI @halfemptypockets I’m a Nurse Practitioner and if the community colleges near the OP’s friend are anything like here there is fierce academic and EC competition for those seats, both with HS students and adult learners. There are very few people who get in and out in 2 years because of it. Nursing is a calling, IMO, not something to do because you can be self-supporting quickly </p>
<p>There would be a way to do that if the student really wants to make it work, a “B” is still a good average. I would start by going to Questbridge. There is even a button on their site where you could refer the student. She probably wouldn’t qualify for one of their top programs but I believe that they will do some Guidance work with students who qualify from a need standpoint. </p>
<p>It provides full tuition and dorm for four years.</p>
<p>I would also look at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Usually part of their mission is to help students who are extremely low income. For example, here in Delaware, we have Delaware State University. The in state tuition is only $7,366 and a year of dorm is $6,996 (cheapest). So for $14,000 a year you can go to school. Between school aid and student loans and maybe a scholarship, a motivated student could make that work. Part of their stated mission is to specifically to help low income students. </p>
<p>Also, if a parent is on welfare and the child goes away to college, does that automatically make them an independent student? That would mean they could borrow up to almost $10K a year. </p>
<p>Anyway, it would take a lot of research but there are definitely programs out there. Can the Guidance Counselor at school provide any help at all? </p>
<p>What are her SAT scores? There’s a thread pinned to the top of the financial aid forum that lists automatic merit aid for specific combined CR and math scores. Low income students may qualify for full Pell (roughly $5k/year) and they can get federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans of $5500 as a freshman, $6500 as a soph, and $7500 each year as a junior & senior; if she has both of those it might cover her room & board. Her best bet is to get as high an SAT or ACT as she can so she can qualify for some guaranteed merit to cover tuition (she should ask for a Work Study job too).</p>
<p>An alternative would be to commute to a local school for the first 2 or 3 years and work to save the money for her last year or two. I lived at home and attended a local cc (many years ago) fully funded by Pell, then worked for a year to raise money so I could dorm at a 4-year school. It would take longer and she might not be able to dorm for more than a year or two, but at least she’d have the experience.</p>
<p>Is there a school she can commute to that has a reasonable tuition? Here in NYS, a student receiving full Pell and the $5500 loans could go to a local cc for 2 years (at ~$4k/year) then commute to a 4-year SUNY (for ~$10k/year) and have less than $15k in total loans. It wouldn’t involve dorming, but at least she’d have a degree.</p>
<p>Programs like Upward Bound do not provide funding, but they do provide support services and help with acquiring financial aid. Google names of local colleges and “upward bound” to find schools that offer this program.</p>
<p>@DEfour that is not quite how Questbridge works. They just have an application for Jr year counselling and Sr year College Match. This girl is past the advising program stage, that was just for Jr and it is only if you apply and are selected. This girl doesn’t sound like a contender for Sr year college match, but you never know.</p>
<p>Welfare does not make you independent for financial aid.</p>
<p>@BrownParent -Oh, thats a shame that she missed that deadline. There still does seem to be a lot of info on the Questbridge website though. Perhaps something there could still be helpful. </p>
<p>I think that she should contact the HBCU that is closest to her right now and start there. Put an application in and assuming she is accepted, she can use that as a baseline to see what a bottom line cost would be for her. Oprah Winfrey attended a public Historically Black University and it worked out pretty well for her : ).</p>
<p>I would call the admissions office first and find out about a fee waiver. </p>
<p>Thanks all. As I mentioned, she told my daughter her grades are B level- I’m sure if she had amazing grades and SAT scores she would be all set and would qualify for a number of programs. I have not found out SAT scores yet, but it sounded from what my daughter said that they are not towards the top percentiles.</p>
<p>My daughter will be talking to her soon about meeting with the two of us (D and myself) to get more info and find out what the guidance office has already gone over with her.</p>
<p>In cases like this there often is just no way to get the sleep away experience and it can be very disappointing to the young person. Sometimes commuting to a local CC and/or public 4-year is the only way. That’s not to say don’t try the suggestions others are/will offer but often it’s the reality. She doesn’t want to be saddled with debt that could affect her life after college for years, limit car/home buying and other options as she begins her post-college years. This is what the majority of college students in the US have to do. Just point out that college is 4 or so short years and the goal is the 60 or so years of the rest of her life and you can create a good life with good academic performance at the local options.</p>
<p>She should apply to the schools that want more ethnic diversity since she is a URM.</p>
<p>There are schools like DePauw, Loyola Maryland, and a few others that try to meet need for low income students. The Loyolas really try for URMs. </p>
<p>@4kidsdad - true on the room and board- and that is indeed costly. I guess subsidized, unsubsidized, Perkins, and work study would have to be scrounged together for that. It does cover a required on campus summer “bridge” that lasts several months.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but “you cant always get what you want”. This child wants to do what all the other kids are doing but she hasn’t done anything to help herself become attractive to a school. There aren’t that many schools that have scholarships for underachieving URM’s. She can’t afford to pay for room and board so I would suggest that she go to the local Community College and then transfer to an in-state school.</p>
<p>How do you know she hasn’t “done anything to help herself”? We really don’t know anything about what this child has done since her father passed away. Maybe she helps take care of siblings, or works part-time, or has suffered from depression that caused her grades to suffer. Being a B student and poor doesn’t necessarily consign a kid to the local cc. In NYS, Pell, TAP, and federal loans can be enough to cover costs so poor students can commute.</p>
<p>Yes, I know she doesn’t want to commute, @M2CK. I think other things are worth pursuing. (Can SAT scores be raised? Are there other grants?) I just don’t think it’s right for people to pass value judgments on how hard kids work and decide that cc is all they deserve.</p>