Hi, I’m a junior in high school, and I’m in the process of looking for colleges that are the right fit. I’d like to study political science/international relations and eventually get my masters or go to law school. I genuinely enjoy school, and I’ve been working hard to maintain a decent unweighted GPA, 3.85, because I care about my grades and my future. I just found out that my college fund did not perform well. I’m having a difficult time finding competitive schools that won’t break the bank. Any advice? Thank you. I’m an only child with a single parent who is now retired. I was told by a financial advisor that I would most likely not receive need-based aid, so now I’m looking for schools that are generous with merit aid. I’d like to be in an environment with like-minded kids who are just as motivated and interested. I had been looking at Villanova, Lehigh, and Haverford, but the tuitions are simply too high. I don’t want to be in debt before going on to higher education (graduate program after undergrad). I’m looking for schools in the northeast or D.C. Thank you for any advice during this stressful time.
How much can your family afford each year? Have you taken the ACT or SAT?
What is your SAT/ACT? Home state? Yearly Budget?
How far are you willing to go from home?
You should work with your parent to run the net price calculator for schools — a family financial advisor may not be up to speed on the nuances of financial aid.
However, if that parent is divorced, the other bio parent may need to provide financial info as well.
If you can tell us your budget, test score info, and home state, we can give suggestions.
If your parents are divorced, please read http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2083835-faq-divorced-parents-financial-aid-and-net-price-calculators.html .
Look at New College of Florida. Perfect for motivated kids who want to learn. And they have an automatic OOS scholarship.
Quite different from most colleges, though.
While New College of Florida is a nice school, as purpletitan pointed out, it’s not for everyone.
Are you female? There are several more schools with merit combined iwth need-based aid that are excellent if you’re female
Generous with merit aid often depends upon SAT/ACT scores, not just GPA (or AP/DE, etc).
The good news is many colleges have students who actually enjoy learning and will make a good peer group. You generally find them in certain clubs, labs, and/or the library. Once you have folks you enjoy hanging around with, it really doesn’t matter so much what the others are doing.
But still… finding colleges that are affordable certainly is an issue for most students. A rough annual $$ figure and SAT/ACT scores would be super helpful. If you don’t yet have official scores, have you tried any “real” practice tests to know what range you’re in? Consider studying for these tests. A higher score can be worth thousands at some schools.
Thank you for your responses. I scored a 1440 on the SAT but will be taking it again to improve my score. I can spend at most 25,000 without going into debt. I know this is a substantial sum of money and that I am very fortunate. My mother became a widow when I was young, and we live off the money from investments. I know that colleges consider investments as well, and my mother is officially retired so no annual income (older parent). My home state is NJ, and I’ve been looking into Rutgers and TCNJ. I know I need other schools as backups, but I’m having trouble finding out of state schools that are the same cost and academic rigor. I would prefer to stay in the northeast close to my mom (being an only child); however, I am interested in D.C. schools for my major/career (expensive though, I know). Are there any schools out of state that I could consider as well? Thank you again, appreciate the help.
The 20,000 is per year (forgot to mention before). Sorry, not 25,000…20,000 is the actual number.
$20,000 a year with a student loan would come very close to covering tuition, fees, and room and board at Rutgers. But you still would need to come up with books, materials, travel, and other personal expenses. Do you have a part-time job now? Can you get one this summer?
In the past, there were a number of automatic full-tuition (and even full-ride) scholarships at some universities. Every year they change, so start with this thread from the Financial Aid Forum and keep checking eah institution that is mentioned to see what is on offer for next year. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges-p1.html