Appealing financial safeties for PA students?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Not having any clue how the financial side is going to turn out, I feel my most useful role here is to help my D figure out one or two financial safeties that will appeal to her. She's interested in majoring in English with a view to teaching at the college level, though I could see her pursuing History or Women's Studies.</p>

<p>She got a brochure from the Robert Cook (did I remember the name right?) Honors College at Indiana University of Pennsylvania which made me feel a little more hopeful. There's also Schreyer at Penn State, or just plain old Penn State if she's not admitted to Schreyer. PSU is very big around here but it is hard for me to get past the football cult/pederast thing. There's University of Pittsburgh.</p>

<p>Someone has recommended University of Minnesota as having reasonable out of state tuition. She loves the Pacific Northwest, but I don't know if there are affordable options out there. She's an intellectual kid who values diversity & tolerance and is eager to bust out of our conservative small town. I don't think she's looking for a city experience necessarily, just a kind, scholarly, open-minded one. Class rank is somewhere in the top 10% and PSATs were 98%th percentile. Recommendations, anybody?</p>

2

<p>University of Washington is expensive for out-of-state students, and fewer students are finishing in four years these days. (Many in-state students, admitted to both, prefer Western Washington U.) With her rank and PSAT, she’d likely get good merit aid at Pacific Lutheran, which has lower tuition to begin with. I have never seen a school with happier students. (There are plenty of other schools out her, but you are looking for an “affordable safety”, and I think it would likely fit the bill.) It’s not necessarily academically better than your Pennsylvania options (though there will be smaller classes), but it is in the Pacific Northwest. </p>

<p>Another option (though the tuition is higher because it is a state u) is Evergreen. It’s in my town. It is beautiful, and for the right student (intellectual, not conservative, not pre-professional, but neo-hippy, or ‘save the world’) it is a great place, with inspiring faculty, very good curriculum, and relatively easy to get into. Stephanie Coontz teaches history/family studies/women’s studies at Evergreen.</p>

3

<p>Have you run the net price calculators on the suggested schools’ web sites to see if the need-based financial aid will result in an affordable net price for you?</p>

<p>Others may not be able to give you reasonable suggestions without any hints as to what you consider “affordable”.</p>

<p>If her stats are high enough but your cost constraints are low, there may also be some <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-14.html#post15330528[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-14.html#post15330528&lt;/a&gt; to consider.</p>

4

<p>Are you likely to qualify for need-based aid? If so, is your EFC (from Fafsa) affordable? You can run practice numbers to see.</p>

<p>The other aid option is merit based and she’s likely to qualify for some of that at some schools based upon her PSAT (though she will need to duplicate the score on the SAT or ACT as the PSAT, itself, won’t provide any). Is she signed up to take one of those?</p>

<p>Based upon which kind of financial safety you are looking for, recommendations can differ.</p>

<p>IUP is likely to be less expensive than Penn St or Pitt because IUP (and 13 other schools) are true state schools for us. Penn St, Pitt, and Temple are all state related schools (mostly private) with higher tuition - still less for IS than OOS - but not to the same degree as our true state schools. Penn St is not known for giving much in aid (small amounts). Pitt will for high stats (some get a free ride, but it’s very competitive). Neither are super for need based aid.</p>

<p>You can run net price calculators at these schools and at places known for writing like Kenyon…</p>

5

<p>Not having any clue how the financial side is going to turn out, I feel my most useful role here is to help my D figure out one or two financial safeties that</p>

<p>So, what is your budget? It sounds like you do need FA, so that means money is a concern.</p>

<p>To determine a financial safety, we need to know how much you’re willing to spend since it must be affordable.</p>

<p>Once your D has actual SAT/ACT scores, then we can also consider schools that will give her enough merit scholarship money to make those schools affordable for you.</p>

<p>Sounds like a smaller LAC-like school is what you’re looking for…one that will give large merit for her stats so as to be a safety.</p>

6

<p>The big question is what your budget is. Penn State is no bargain basement school at full price. I believe your two flagships Pitt and Penn State got the ignominous honors of being the two most expensive public universities for their own in-staters, in the country. And PSU has this mean little thing of not coming anywhere close to meeting need and even making starting the year during the summer session a requirement at an extra cost. I was appalled at students being required to do this with zero EFCs and not getting A DIME of finanicial aid from the school itself. </p>

<p>But on the other hand, if your worry is that you can’t afford the expensive privates that have now movie into the mid $60K price range per year, yes, PSU, Pitt, and any of your instate choices are a bargain. Your state also has Grove City and York as some low cost private choices, and any number of Catholic and other private schools, smaller ones that will almost certainly “discount” their sticker prices with merit money if your DD has stats in their upper quarter. You know, schools like Westminister, Allegheny, Washington & Jefferson, St Vincent’s, Gannon, Scranton, Ursinus, Juniata, Albright (guarantees to meet most need), and a whole bunch of others . No lack of schools in PA. </p>

<p>So as Mom2Collegekids says, once your DD has actual SAT/ACT scores, you can look at some realistic possibilities for her.</p>

7

<p>I would spend some time on the “schools known for automatic merit aid” and the hidden gem thread. Both have a lot of excellent ideas for schools that are great schools but also give fantastic merit aid.</p>

<p>You should also run the Finacial Aid Forecaster with your tax numbers from this year, adding in any expected or known pay raises, etc. to get a handle of what your expected family contribution is. Then run the net price calculators on the colleges she has shown interest in and see how the numbers work out. You also need to come up with a solid dollar amount, not a “we will cover tuition and books”, but a figure, $10,000/year or whatever, that you can pay for her schooling. It will certainly help in the search process for everyone.</p>

<p>I agree, there are a lot of great schools in PA. If you have a low EFC, start with Dickinson or any of the Catholic schools in the area as they tend to be very generous.</p>

8

<p>Thank you so much, some good leads here. I will check them out.</p>

<p>We’ve run several NPCs and other FA estimates and our calculated EFC would be within reach. But I keep reading that small business owners (most of our income is from a small, service-based business) can get creamed when their Schedule C is dismantled. Ours is a straightforward business with nothing weird or expensive running through it, no business use of home, car leases, trips, or anything like that, but I’ve heard so many alarming warnings that NPCs don’t work for people like us that I want to assemble a few schools that would be less than 25-30K COA for our daughter. I’m looking for something she would be happy to attend, that would stand up to the scrutiny of graduate schools. I mention PA not because I need her to stay here, but because we do have a number of in-state universities. I didn’t grow up here so I don’t really have a good sense of them. </p>

<p>It would be nice to have some options we can more or less afford out of hand and not have to sweat bullets over the vagaries of financial aid.</p>

<p>Dickinson is just down the road and D has attended some great programs there.</p>

9

<p>^^</p>

<p>Keep in mind that most schools, especially SAFETIES, do NOT meet need, therefore your EFC will be meaningless at those schools.</p>

<p>Yes, at CSS schools, those who are business owners often get deductions added back in as income. Someone mentioned that they had the “employer portion” of FICA added back in…but I’m not sure if that’s true. </p>

<p>Look at it this way…if you can easily afford to pay $15k per year, then your D should find a safety that will give her free tuition, so your $15k can pay for room, board, fees, books, etc. If you can pay $25k per year, then maybe only a good-sized partial tuition scholarship is needed. </p>

<p>Are you saying that you can pay $25k-30k per year? IF so, then likely you will find safeties based on her stats. There are some privates and publics that will give a good student enough merit to get costs down to about that.</p>

10

<p>Have you thought about West Chester or Shippensburg? Also, Millersville has an honors college. A friend of my daughter’s received a scholarship from Shippensburg.</p>

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<p>If you can afford to pay, out of pocket, 30K, you aren’t getting any financial aid other than federal loans so it won’t really matter that you own a business or get hammered on the Schedules. Your best bet will be LAC in the midwest. They tend to give the best merit aid and you will have geographic diversity helping most likely. I would look into Truman State in Missouri to start. COA for out of state students without any aid is $22,000ish including books, travel, personal expenses, etc. Assuming her ACT/SAT comes in as expected, she would qualify for $8000 off the top.</p>

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<p>Neither Penn St nor Pitt (nor Temple) are true PA State colleges. To find the 14 PA State colleges, look here:</p>

<p>[Welcome</a> to the PA State System of Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.passhe.edu/Pages/default.aspx]Welcome”>http://www.passhe.edu/Pages/default.aspx)</p>

<p>IUP is our largest.</p>

<p>Penn St, Pitt, and Temple are state related schools getting only a small portion of their funding from the state. Therefore, they are mostly private, but with a small IS deduction for students - hence - their being higher cost (in between our true public Us and private).</p>

<p>If the OP’s situation is as it seems (able to afford 20 - 30K per year), then I’d be looking at schools with decent merit aid. If in state, York (private) provides nice merit aid, but their stats are considerably lower than the OP should have. Lafayette could be a nice choice (pending whether they like the location). Ditto that with Muhlenburg. Dickinson was already mentioned. Bucknell could also appeal.</p>

<p>Heading OOS could give several options. English/writing is not my forte nor anything I’ve looked at for schools for my own offspring, so others might provide better OOS w/merit aid options. If looking for a city experience, consider Fordham (know students who like it).</p>

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<p>Allegheny is another which gives fairly good merit aid.</p>

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<p>At $25,000 to $30,000 per year, the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-14.html#post15330528[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-14.html#post15330528&lt;/a&gt; would be in reach if the student’s stats are high enough.</p>

<p>There are also some OOS schools that may be within reach if you add Stafford loans to your $25,000 to $30,000 (e.g. SUNYs). Some may be cheaper than the limit even at list price (e.g. Truman State and University of Minnesota - Morris). Of course, for safeties, the student needs to be admitted (Truman State’s net price calculator does calculate automatic scholarships for stats, so if the student is estimated to get one, that seems pretty likely for admission).</p>

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<p>As of a couple years ago, the top merit scholarships at Dickinson and Lafayette were 20K, and they were not impossible to get. Dickinson is one of the few colleges that has still been hiring tenure track English profs, and they say they have a much larger history dept. than most liberal arts colleges.</p>

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<p>With your daughter’s interest in writing, etc–maybe Iowa? There are actually a lot of neat kids there. Also maybe Truman State in Missouri? or, going smaller, maybe Goucher?</p>

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<p>We are PA residents.</p>

<p>This is how I approached the process. My son’s interests are different, but the overall approach should work:</p>

<p>earlier on Cook at IUP, Millersville and Temple (as a commuter) began our baseline.</p>

<p>For various reasons, we did not believe IUP would be a good fit and it was dropped before visits.</p>

<p>Once we had ACT and SAT scores (and yes, I made son take both even though he didn’t want to), then I started adding the regional privates and OOS schools with guaranteed merit or high merit.</p>

<p>Pitt and Bama were an early on fav because of the merit and the early rolling admissions decisions. Having the decision in hand in the early fall really did take my “sweat” factor away.</p>

<p>Schreyer was too high a price for our family. Given the very low admit rate, odds at small private LACs with merit were going to be cheaper and better fit for my son.</p>

<p>Arcadia in Philly hasn’t been mentioned yet. It offers some full tuition merit and is a great choice depending on the major - strong study abroad. Like York, the overall stats may be too low for OPs student to be happy. </p>

<p>Ursinus has a competitive $30k/yr merit for writing.</p>

<p>OOS with lower costs before any merit:
UNC - Asheville for a LAC
College of Charleston
many mid-western schools
We looked at many of the Colleges That Change Lives schools. Also, Roanoke in VA.</p>

<p>The BIG things to keep in mind --</p>

<p>Is merit guaranteed or competitive? Many of the competitive require an interview weekend which will add time and cost. Some will overlap on the same weekend</p>

<p>What is the GPA to retain the scholarship once in college?</p>

<p>Can outside merit “stack” – Juniata is one of the few schools that do stack outside merit.</p>

<p>Overall, with a lot of hours of research, I presented my son with an extensive and varied list of schools. He then narrowed where to visit and apply. We are both content with choices so far and we are looking at all schools so far being at the same cost as Millersville in state. </p>

<p>Don’t get caught up in the “name” of the school to help get into grad school – look at the opportunities and how easily your student can get those opportunities. Hands on internships and research will get most further than the UG name.</p>