Affording W&M as an OOS

Hello everyone!

I’m a rising senior looking to major in domestic policy, global health, or something related to those majors.

W&M is a university that I’m considering, but I’m having some doubts about its affordability. I’m an out-of-state student, hailing from the South. Being an OOS, I’m already disqualified from 75% of need-based aid, as “qualified” out-of-state students can only receive up to 25% of their tuition in aid. Looking at the recent tuition costs, $67,653, need-based aid would require me to pay at a minimum ~$50,700 per year to attend W&M. Merit aid, while certainly an option, would probably only dent this massive amount of money required even if I qualified and were chosen for one of the scholar programs.

W&M has an extensive history and would be amazing for the majors I’m interested in. It gives me a sick feeling having to cross off a university based upon the fact that my family can’t afford it, but it seems to be a growing reality.

For those who are OOS, how are you all able to manage such a high cost per year? Is it all external scholarships, or do loans begin to become a factor?

Thank you all so much!

1 Like

This is the case with many majors.

Set a budget first and don’t fall in love with any school.

W&M is a great university - but there are other great universities.

They don’t have competitive scholarships (full ride) but few get.

Rule #1 - what’s your budget - let’s look within those parameters. What’s your GPA and Test score - we can help.

Rule #2 - never fall in love - lots of schools have similar characteristics or majors.

3 Likes

Merit is very limited at WM. Only for a few very top applicants. Otherwise, you are looking at loans. WM is a great school. My children and I all attended. But if you would come out with lots of debt, it may not be the best choice.

I largely agree with other responses. First you need to find out what your budget is without taking on debt. Then you need to look for universities that you can afford. Then look at whether they have the programs that you are interested in and how good the programs are. If you need to take on debt then you should consider schools that minimize the debt as much as is reasonably possible.

Picking universities is usually a tradeoff between various considerations, with cost of attendance, the quality of the program in your intended major(s), location, reputation, fit, and multiple other considerations being things to consider.

Most students are significantly restricted in terms of which universities that they can attend based on the cost. This is very common. It can save you a bundle of money to keep an open mind while you are considering multiple universities.

Before our daughters started applying to universities we set a budget. Some universities were just not affordable. Both were able to find universities that were a good fit for them, with very good programs in their major, and that fit the budget. Both were able to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in their preferred major without any debt.

Having no debt, or as little debt as possible, will be a HUGE help after you graduate from university (and has been a HUGE help to both of our daughters).

There are a lot of very good universities. In our experience the cost of attendance can vary enormously between universities.

In terms of how students manage the high cost of out of state or private universities, this varies a great deal. However, in many, many cases students just do not attend the more expensive universities, and instead find an affordable alternative.

9 Likes

We had a budget as well. We were full pay but I wasn’t willing to pay.

You are right - there are tradeoffs - and there are fine schools at every budget.

5 Likes

W&M is amazing but it’s a public university dedicated to the people of VA (who fund it).
There are 3,700 universities in the US, so if you give us what specifically you like about W&M + your stats+EFC&budget (* ) we can suggest universities that share these characteristics and will be affordable to you. :slight_smile:
(* EFC, soon to be SAI, is rarely what your parents can afford, unless your EFC is 0 which is its own problem entirely).

8 Likes

“It gives me a sick feeling having to cross off a university based upon the fact that my family can’t afford it, but it seems to be a growing reality.”

If you think that you will be going to graduate school or getting a terminal post-graduate/professional degree, then the focus of your/your family’s spending on your post-secondary education should be there, and not on your undergraduate degree. Most of the large public universities in the South (where I hail from, as well) have honors programs or colleges within the overall university community; and there are amazing students in those programs who do amazing things under the guidance of amazing faculty. So if funding is going to be an issue, I would encourage you to seriously consider attending your flagship university (if you can get into the honors program there); and if you get great grades and good faculty recommendations, you may be able to get to W&M on the graduate level, should the undergraduate level be financially foreclosed. Further, I strongly encourage you to avoid student debt if at all possible; that is an albatross that may hang around your neck for a long time.

The key is taking advantage of the opportunities that are put in your path, wherever you are.

5 Likes

Hi, y’all! Thank you all so much for your responses.

Looking at the responses, and beginning to have discussions with my family I will most likely cross off W&M from my list. I’ll continue looking up and down the East Coast for schools like Clark that offer good programs at affordable prices. Looking at what Gandalf replied, I will most certainly attempt to pursue honors at whatever institution I do end up committing to - I know some schools do offer financial aid for being in Honors and some don’t. I definitely want to avoid debt, I’ve read countless stories of people graduating Uni with over 100k+ in student debt… yikes.

Here are some stats if anyone has any suggestions for any potential choices:

GPA: 3.9 (UW)
Ranking: N/A (grad class of 150, the school doesn’t rank outside of the top 10%)
ACT: 33
SAT: 1410
Education: Full IB-Diploma candidate
Classes: HL English (A), HL Biology (A), HL History (A), SL French (B+ [Took this class initially at HL so it brought my grade down a bit]), SL Chemistry (A), IB TOK (A), SL A&I (A).
Electives: Member of school symphonic orchestra for 5 years (Now principal trumpet), NHS chapter officer, Model UN Head Delegate (12th), Co-president of school’s Health Club (Looking into doing HOSA this upcoming year)

IB Classes are iffy when it comes to being considered “honors” or not, my counselor says they do but it doesn’t seem right to have that high amount of “honor” classes.

ECs

  • Works with local EMS, looking to get my EMR or my EMT certification when I turn 18.
  • Competitive swimmer - 10 years of experience, not the fastest but decent.

There’s probably more but I can’t recall at this time, but I’ve tried to stick to the same extracurriculars for several years to show commitment.

If you guys want any more stats, I’d be happy to provide them! Thanks, y’all.

1 Like

Most colleges will see your IB classes as similar rigor to AP or college level, so higher than honors. Nice job there.

It sounds like you will need to apply to a range of colleges if trying to find merit money to reach a cost your family can afford. Keep in mind many colleges define need differently. So your aid packages will vary.

All the best.

What is your state?

1 Like

Your profile is excellent! (well, what has been coined “average excellent” by @lindagaff, check out her post from about her “average excellent” daughter’s story.)
IB SL is considered similar to AP and IB HL post-AP, with the full IB Diploma the highest level of rigor possible for college admissions (equivalent to having 12 APs or post-AP classes).
ACT 33 is stronger than your SAT (top 2%) so submit that.
Competitive swimming, principal trumpet in orchestra, Model UN Head Delegate, EMS work = nice EC’s :1st_place_medal:

Run the Net Price Calculators for the colleges listed on this thread - each college calculates differently so you need to do it for each, entering the name of the college and “NPC” in your search engine, then answering the questions (they’re often the same so after a while you’ll go fast).
It may be uncomfortable for your parents but college costs have increased much faster than inflation so you need to have this conversation.
If you live in a state where there’s a state program (like TN Promise, Carolina Covenant…) look at the conditions carefully: do they cover tuition? tuition&fees? tuition, fees, room&board? etc.

If your family’s income is roughly 65K for a family of 4, look into Questbridge. Not sure when the application date is though, probably very soon.

Contact D3 swimming coaches with your times at the colleges below to see if they’d support your application. Or check out their teams’ times and see if you’re within range of their freshmen. D3 means that you can’t get an athletic scholarship but it doesn’t mean you can’t get financial aid or merit scholarships (and with a full IB diploma + ACT 33 you can get a bunch of those) plus coach support facilitating your admission, but you have to move fast because D3 coaches are recruiting right now.

Wrt debt: when you read about college graduates with 100K debt… you’re reading about their parents having contracted the debt for them and their having to pay for their parents or their family will suffer. You, as a student, can borrow 5.5K for freshman year, 27K total (31K with the interest), which is what most college graduates can pay back in 10 years. It’s important not to go beyond that and why NPCs indicate “net price”; (write those down for each college); then you’ll see “federal student loan: 5.5K” … and there some colleges blithely add “parent plus loans” which are just a bad, bad idea (basically, cross those out) or they may simply indicate you need to pay XXX when your parents can afford X and, without saying so, expect your parents to go into debt.

Principal trumpet may mean you can try for colleges like St Olaf which highly value music and may give preferential admission or scholarships to strong musicians - run the NPC to see whether it’d be affordable; they’re topnotch for public health Public Health Studies < St. Olaf College, a concentration you can add to any major and which often complements one of the “Conversations” (American conversation, Science Conversation, Race matters conversation…) programs as well as an institute about civil discourse that should be of interest to you. Being from the South would give you a boost since they don’t have many applicants from that region.

In addition to Clark, also of potential interest could be Kalamazoo, Muhlenberg, Allegheny, Agnes Scott, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Connecticut College, Denison and Kenyon (the last 2 could be of interest if you’re a very good swimmer - swimming there is was football is at many southern flagships :stuck_out_tongue: but they’re also very good for your interests and Denison has the Lugar program);
As big reaches check out Georgetown, Emory, Rice, Vanderbilt, Davidson, Bates, Colby, W&L, Bryn Mawr, Barnard. These are all different in “vibe” so after you’ve run the NPC to check whether the net price would be affordable for your parents, read Fiske guide looking for things that sound appealing (could be anything: primarily pre-professional or intellectual student body, important Greek life or not, weather, career center quality…) You’ve got the stats but at these universities everyone is qualified so there’s high uncertainty of admission.
These colleges meet need and many also offer merit scholarships.

In terms of honors colleges, look into you state flagship’s honors college of course, then compare what they offer (academically and financially) to App State (Waukesha AND Chancellor’s), College of Charleston Honors, ASU Barrett, Ole Miss Sally Barksdale, USC Columbia Honors…
For more about Honors colleges you can read this website/check out their book (your library may have it)

6 Likes

I’ve had 2 kids in honors colleges at public universities, no extra merit, 1 was free and the other cost an extra $1000 a year. I’ve had 2 kids not in honors colleges at their public universities, 1 honors college really had no benefits, the other is very selective (you most likely wouldn’t be admitted, my kids with very similar stats were not, it’s our flagship), but all who are accepted get more merit. All east coast schools.

3 Likes

Some schools give a bump to full IB diploma candidates. Unfortunately it’s old and I haven’t seen an update, but this what put out showing how IB candidates fared vs other admits:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0By1hhGTm3Q0OZnJhMUxaYUVPTFU?resourcekey=0-H9UqWUfGNsjL6ROO6NvFsA

I might have missed it, but is their a particular field of study you’re interested in? It might help narrow things down.

3 Likes

We actually thought in look - maybe not vibe - Miami Ohio was similar but obviously larger. You’d get strong merit there.

Some schools give Honors money. Some don’t. In addition to U of SC, KU has a great program and is cheap. No it’s not east coast.

One thing you still haven’t given is budget…at least that I’ve seen.

You need a specific # before real suggestions can be made. You can’t just just say affordable.

Thanks

I would use the NPC for UNC and see if it is affordable. There is an out of state student association (OSSA) that provides grants to OOS students in order to meet need. Also, it is a profile school but uses the Fafsa EFC (I have not heard that this has changed).

The Gillings School of Global Public Health might be of interest to you. It is a reach for OOS students but worth investigating.

If you provide a budget it would help. I would also check out the South Carolina public schools.

Texas!

Yeah, I’m interested in Domestic/Foreign policy (haven’t decided between the two), and global health. It may come down to a double major, or I could take Poli sci/Int. Relations with a Public Health minor.

Yeah, I realize I didn’t provide a budget. My family is looking for, at max, a school that will make me pay ~$35,000 after need-based aid. Obviously, I can also look for external scholarships and see my luck with merit-based aid, so that may bring in universities that would cost ~$40,000 after need-based aid into play.

I’ve looked at Miami Ohio, and was considering applying to their Bridges Program so I can go check that out - if I do get selected in that I won’t have to pay any costs.

To clarify, I thought this may be misinterpreted - The Bridges Program is a program for visiting HS students to spend a couple of nights at Miami Ohio, and see what the campus is and take some college-level classes.

1 Like

So if you have a $35K budget, Miami could get you there.

College of Charleston - look up the Charleston Fellows and International Scholars - both could get you there.

You know who would get you there and it’d be a wonderful place to combined international relations and public health at your budget - and it’d be a safety. Ole Miss and their Croft Institute (for international studies).

I’d look at Kansas and Arizona too. KU has community health for example - and if you want liberal, both KU - yes in Kansas and Arizona are blue dots.

When you have a budget, you have to make tradeoffs. Location is a tradeoff.

Both Kalamazoo College and College of Wooster might make the cut budget wise if you want smaller.

4 Likes