I recently attended a college night at my school and met with a representative from University of Alabama. She showed me the layout they have for scholarships. The level depends on SAT/ACT score and it is given to all students with that score. With a 34 on my ACT I qualified for the presidential level which includes full tuition. If I retake my SAT and get a 36, something I am planning on attempting this spring, I would be in the Presidential elite level and receive full tuition, 1 year of housing, stipends and study aboard.
I love how the scholarship is almost guaranteed if you have the score. The thing is I don’t plan on attending University of Alabama. Does anyone know of any other top schools that offer this type of tier merit scholarship? University of Michigan, University of Texas, UF, etc?
So…where do you plan to attend? If you need that level of merit aid…it’s going to be very hard to beat the net cost…guaranteed…at University of Alabama.
Why isn’t Alabama on your application list?
****Are you an instate Florida resident who qualifies for the highest Bright Futures award? If so, your costs at an instate FL college could be comparable to Alabama.
ETA…you ARE a Florida resident. Your instate options will be not costly given your stats.
Are you a resident of NY? If so, and you qualify for the Excelsior, your tuition would be covered.
If you are a resident of CA and qualify for the Calgrant, your instate tuition would be covered.
University of New Mexico offers the Amigo scholarship guaranteed. Is that of interest to you?
Mom2collegekids, I am not a NMF. I did not do as well on my SAT and PSAT as I did on the ACT. My family will not be paying for my education at all. The big issue for me with Alabama is the location. There is not a direct flight from Ft Myers to Birmingham or Fort Lauderdale to Birmingham. It would be a huge process that includes renting a car and driving 1-2 hours on both ends. I am very family oriented and it is important for me to be able to get back home here and there. I would rather attend a school within driving distance (UF) or one near a major airport.
I am majoring in Marketing and Creative Photography in hopes of being a competitive creative director.
@thumper1 I do plan on applying there but due to the location I doubt I will choose to attend. For now it is a back up school. Traveling there from my hometown is difficult.
@auntbea you’re right. I do not NEED the money, which is why I do not qualify for financial need. However, my parents are not contributing money to my education and I would like to get to graduate school with as few student loans as possible. I am not sure Alabama makes as much sense from the travel aspect and the additional cost of coming home.
@Florida2020 - So you don’t expect to get any help from either parent? The most you, yourself, can borrow each year is about $5,500 … Are you aware of that?
You will need to take the merit opportunities offered by the Florida unis, methinks. They’re closest to home, and since that’s important to you, your costs will be much lower.
Hey, be thankful you live in Florida! You’ve got great help and higher ed support there!
U Mississippi and Mississippi State have generous scholarships. Arizona and Arizona state do too, but it sounds like you are not interested in going anywhere farther away from south Florida, so does it really matter if these types of scholarships are available at Michigan or Texas?
@twoinanddone Michigan at Ann Arbor and Texas Austin are both short frontier flights from ft Myers. Alabama is just in an inconvenient location. I will look into Arizona. I am looking to go to a competitive school that ranks high in Marketing.
@Gatormama my parents said they will help with food and small flight costs. That’s all. That is why I am trying to keep my school costs low. I already have a full ride to FGCU and top bright futures but I am hoping to attend a nationally recognized school like UF. Do you know of any additional scholarships to UF? Lombardi and presidents seem to be rare and given mainly to minorities, which I am not. I looked into declaring independence for financial aid reasons but it seems virtually impossible in my situation.
UT is almost pointless OOS. just for admission, as for free money, well, you can imagine they don’t need to buy your admission. Why are your parents not contributing at all, is it your major?
Apply to competitivf full rides. But understand that the odds of winning are extremely long, even more so than getting admitted to the Ivies. If you don’t win any, you’ll need to stay local.
When they went to school in the 90’s UF cost only a few thousand per year and they could borrow that. Now it costs much more and a student can only borrow $5500 for freshman year. You are VERY lucky that Florida public schools are so cheap and that you can attend with BF and the $5500 loan. The more money you can contribute through working, the more choices you have.
If you want to go to Alabama, that’s going to mean you aren’t going to go home often. If you want to be closer to home, you are going to have more limited choices (but because of BF, you have a lot more).
Even if Michigan or Texas would have the kind of FA that Alabama does (and they don’t) those schools are still far away and there is no such thing as a ‘short, cheap’ plane ride from Florida to Michigan. It is always a 5-6 hour trip.
Maine also offers ABET-accredited engineering; well-developed theater programs; a famous writing program; a major airport in the same city so that you can get to it. Here’s the page with the promo video – https://go.umaine.edu/
The Service Academies offer no tuition, such as Coast Guard; Annapolis; West Point; Air Force Academy. You would need to serve in the military after graduation, however.
One way to pay for college on your own, without your parents’ help, is to have them declare you independent of them. This often requires a hearing before a judge and you would need to live on your own. I know of only one person in the last five years who has done this. This person was a high school student, was supporting him/herself in a major city as s/he was employed as a professional actor. This person’s parents lived in a more distant reach of the city, making commuting difficult, with the specialized HS s/he attended far away from home and his/her working schedule, so this person was living with some sort of relative. I suspect this person was paying rent or the courts would not have allowed this. In all ways, the person had a record of living independently and was granted independent status from parents. Being declared legally independent is one way, but this approach is difficult, legally and I suspect emotionally.
The only other way that I know of is to wait until age 23 (or thereabouts, check the precise age); be self-supporting; and then you don’t need parental contributions. There are many programs at colleges for non-traditional students. Often they are excellent colleges. Programs vary for nontrads in terms of what age they accept them. Check with each school of interest.
Other people granted independent status are foster kids who age out of the foster program and homeless kids who have been kicked out of the house for some reason – and the courts make this decision, I am pretty sure. You can’t simply declare that you’re homeless and unwelcome at home.