I agree with with itsjustschool, make sure that you apply for reduced, free lunch. No one cares whether or not you like the lunch or eat the lunch in school or bring your own lunch. Your eligibility for reduced/ free lunch in addition to hp with your fafsa will make you guile for fee waivers for the SAT/SAT II, ACT and college application fee waivers which will be beneficial to you.
Thanks to everyone for all of the helpful advice! So I’d have to prove that my mother is legally not filing taxes via SSI paperwork, correct? And my best bet is to apply to UofVirginia? I checked it out yesterday and punched some numbers into the NPC and it worked out to 6k after Grants and Financial aid which sounds manageable, I could find a way to pay the rest. I don’t know how accurate it is though
One more suggestion - do you have a summer job? It’s not too late to look.
If that doesn’t pan out, consider summer volunteer work which can only help you in any college, Questbridge, and/or scholarship applications.
UVA is not easy to get into. What are you interested in majoring in? There are a couple private schools in VA that offer great financial aid for low income students. They may even be cheaper than UVA for you.
No, if your mother is not required to file taxes, you should get an IRS not filers statement (you will not be able to request this until June)
use this form
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506t.pdf
check of verification of non-filing.
The college may still ask for additional information such as award letters from SSA
The University of Richmond, a private LAC in VA, offers full-ride scholarships to qualified admitted students who are Virginia Residents and whose family income is less than $60K per year.
More info. here: http://financialaid.richmond.edu/prospective/virginians/index.html
Your current SAT score is in the range for admitted students, not sure of what your GPA and academic interests are. The 25-75%ile CR+M SAT score range is 1310-1450, total SAT 25-75%ile range is 1970-2170. If you can bring up your scores a bit more, you would be even more competitive.
It is a wonderful school. 2 of my daughters attend, both are in the sciences, but UR has an excellent business school, too, and many other majors to choose from.
I am guessing that to get one of these awards, you have to be a strong student academically and demonstrate interest in attending the school -visit, if possible, meet with professors in academic departments that you are interested in. If you are too far away to visit, contact your regional admissions counselor at UR to express interest/find out if they will be in your area to recruit high school students.
I want to get into Pre-med - does anyone know of any good schools for my situation with great Pre-professional programs?
@Masmag2855 Currently my reading score is pretty low and I’m hoping to raise it 200 points to bring my superscore to around 2200+. Thanks for the Richmond advice! I’ll definitely look into it but I’m not sure I’ll be able to make any visits.
@sybbie719 Thanks! When is the deadline for filing for this if I’m graduating in 2016?
You will have to do this every year. You can file now to get your non-filers statement for 2013. In June (now), you should be able to submit your Paperwork for tax year 2014. If you are graduating june 2016, you will get a non filers statement for tax year 2015 in june 2016.
You should probably order a 2014 tax year non filers statement to have in your files for when you start applying for financial aid for the 2016-2017 application season (as some schools will ask for 2 years of financial information)
If you live in VA and want to go to med school absolutely apply to VCU. I have heard of several kids who got great financial aid there. They have a “guaranteed medical school admission” program to attract high stats kids. If you are admitted under that and keep your grades up they guarantee admission to med school. Nothing to sneeze at.
UVA has a med school and lots of students go there undergrad. There’s also Eastern VA Med School in Norfolk which I don’t know a lot about. You can actually go anywhere and major in anything but I hear there are certain classes you will need to pass the MCAT.
I think there’s actually a med school forum somewhere on CC. There are a few Dr/parents on here who give good advice. I have seen them say that your undergrad school doesn’t matter as much as your GPA,
As Masmag2855 above mentioned, U of R is known to be very generous with financial aid. Check them out.
You are supposed to fill out the FAFSA as soon as possible after Jan 1, 2016. The deadline is early, I think it’s March 30. Better check. You can google for a sample FAFSA form but they change it up a little from one year to the next. Sybbie719 gave great advice to order the non filers statement early to have on hand.
As @OspreyCV22 mentioned there is also a Med school in Norfolk- EVMS. They have a guaranteed entry program through Old Dominion.
The state of Virginia is a very good source of grants and scholarships for residents who study in state. Be sure to check out their website,
http://www.schev.edu/students/undergradfinancialaidprograms.asp
Apply to any and all where you meet the requirements. You will need to complete FAFSA for need based awards.
I second the suggestion to check out VCU, they have an excellent medical school and having a leg up for admission is a bonus. My youngest daughter, a junior in high school, and I visited VCU in Richmond a few months ago and were very impressed. She will definitely be applying.
As I mentioned before about UR, be sure to demonstrate interest even if you are not able to visit the campus by contacting the regional admissions counselors, send emails asking questions that you would otherwise get answered through visits. VCU and University of Richmond are not far from each other geographically and if you could get to Richmond to visit both campuses, they would be good schools to apply to for your situation. George Mason University in northern VA would be another state U to look at. They are transitioning from being more of a commuter campus to being more residential, building new dorms, and they have strong science programs.
Amtrak has 2 stops in Richmond, so if you have access to Amtrak/regional rail, you might be able to plan a visit to both schools. Amtrak fares are pretty reasonable if you book far enough in advance, they have limited seats at value and economy fares that go quickly. Contact the regional admissions counselors for the schools and ask if they could help set up an overnight visit on campus due to your family’s financial circumstances, so that you would not have to pay for a hotel. Perhaps there are other friends or other students at your school who are visiting colleges and universities in VA that you could tag along with.
UR also has excellent pre-med advising that you can work with to become a competitive med school applicant. They have an excellent track record of getting students accepted to med school and they do not weed out applicants like some schools do.
George Mason University in northern VA would be another state U to look at, also accessible by Amtrak/regional rail. They are transitioning from being more of a commuter campus to being more residential, building new dorms, and they have strong science programs. They are close to DC with metro access nearby and there are good internship opportunities for students. They have a nice honors college, with separate housing in a hew dorm.
I visited UR over spring break, and I was very impressed. If you can get in, and they meet your need, I say go for it!