GPA: 3.85/4.00
AP’s: 2
Honors: 11
Senior Year: 4 AP’s. I exhausted all the Honors.
EC’s: None. I grew up in a household of alcoholics and drug addicts. They didn’t even let me start going outside until I was like 13. There’s no reasoning with them at all.
First Generation College Student.
State: Michigan (Metro Detroit area)
Prospective Major: Biomedical Science (not premed, I’d go to grad school and eventually work in pharma research and development.) or Mechanical Engineering (if this is what I do, then I would go to grad school for Biomedical Engineering.)
SAT- 1060. I have really awful test anxiety. I was able to manage it a lot better last year,(I went from a 3.65 to 3.85), but I completely broke down SAT day.
I am AWFUL at sports, drama/acting, arts/crafts, and debating/public speaking. With that I mind, I won’t do any of those things.
I am okay at video editing, but I would go into full blown panic attack mode if I had to be in a video. I have made lyric videos on YouTube since I was 13.
I am pretty good at writing informational pieces, but creative writing is a real struggle. I would do some essays, but not a lot.
I can’t really venture too far from home, again alcoholic parents.
I’ve got $3000 a year that I am eligible for from my mom and grandpa’s work.
Scholarships are typically merit awards given for some accomplishment that is above the average for a school.
I’m going to give you some free advice…please get some help for your anxiety. You mention that in a few places in your post as a reason for doing poorly on one thing or another or not trying something. TBH…it is my opinion that you need to address this.
Your SAT score is low and so is your GPA…for merit awards given by most colleges.
You mention staying close to home. How about attending a community college? Is that affordable for you? I have to say, however, it sounds like living elsewhere would be good. What about your grandparents? Could you live with them?
@romanigypsyeyes any suggestions for,this Michigan resident?
My family, and I mean all of my immediate family members, don’t believe in anxiety disorders. I have plenty of reason to suspect that I have one, but no outlet to get any help. They believe that people who have things like social anxiety are only trying to get attention, sympathy, or pills. So I haven’t opened up about any of this to them. There’s no options for me because the nearest clinics are too far and any traditional methods would show up on insurance.
I can clean up after myself, do my own laundry, make my own meals, etc. I have done this for years. I think I could take care of myself in college. Could I give a speech without bursting into tears? Probably not.
I want to venture off on my own, plus it would be far easier to accommodate my needs without someone calling me an attention-seeking brat. I have family members who refuse to talk to me because they suspect mental illness. I haven’t spoken to my Grandma in 5 years.
Living with someone else is not an option.
I’m not going to CC. My mom is okay with me going off to school. I’d like to get at least an hour between me and my situation.
How do you plan to pay for,this college?
You have $3000 per year…so for freshman year…you have $3000 plus the Direct Loan of $5500. That’s $8500.
Is there a residential college that costs $8500? I don’t know of one.
Do you have the grades or SAT score for merit aid? You would need a full tuition scholarship…at least. Your $8500 won’t even cover room and board for a year at most schools.
You need to consider many options. And you need to look at the costs. Can your parents contribute to your college costs? At all?
Do you have a job? If not, get one…and save.
When I brought up the local university and the CC to my mom she told me this: “Seriously? Shoot higher than that.” She said she would rather have me go somewhere like Michigan State or Central. My dad is an invalid living on his own, but my mom and grandpa say that they would help. They just don’t tell me plans or numbers.
I would take out the 5.5k in my name and she would have to do parent PLUS.
I have 2k saved up in my room, a trust fund, and small college fund. All that would at least total up to be 16 or 17k.
Do you have any advice at all on how to convince them to let me get a job? My mom says she doesn’t want me working while in high school. My grandpa agrees with her and says I need to wait until after my freshman year to work.
Central Michigan costs about $25,000 a year for an instate student. Right now…you have $8500 for your freshman year…plus 1/4 (because college will be four years…at least) of $16,000 in other funds…so $12,500 total.
That’s 1/2 the amount of you costs to attend Central Michigan.
Your parent would need to either cosign or take out the additional $12,500 to attend…and that’s yearly.
If you took $12,500 in parent loans…plus the $ for the Direct Loans annually…your debt on graduation from undergrad would be just under $80,000…and then you say you want to attend grad school.
That is going to be a TON of debt.
Why can’t you go to Community College?
I don’t understand why there is such a negative connotation with your family?
It saves a ton of money and prepares you for your education at a full university.
Is it an elite thing?
My son (a student at one of the top ten universities-Caltech) took several California CC classes this past year with students from Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, and USC during their breaks. They were happy to take the classes to get a jump in their college curriculum. It seems to me that bright students take advantage of everything they can access.
With my trust/personal money/college fund, +$8500 I would have freshman year covered. The other 3 years would put me close to that estimate, but I have no other choice. I have gone on 4 hour walks just to get away from my family before.
I’d be delighted if I could stop after undergrad, its just that every career I am considering wants or recommends an MS.
What about non tuition costs? Health fees? Extraneous expenses?
Are you saying you have $50,000 in the bank? That’s the $12,500 you DO NOT have covered just for the first year. And I included $4000 from your other money with the $5500 plus $3000 you said you had.
Is this wishful thinking or do you REALLY have the money to lay your college bills?
It honestly sounds like wishful thinking to me.
Can you retry the SAT and ACT to aim for a score that will get you a big enough scholarship from the list in the sticky thread at the top of this section?
I think I misunderstood your previous statement thumper. I am sorry for that. With all of my different accounts combined, I have around 17k in the bank.
I just don’t think it would be mentally healthy for me to stay another 4-6 years here. It takes a heavy toll on me to be around them because I have to put on a whole act for them. When I don’t, I am stigmatized, trash talked, and manipulated. I isolate myself for very long amounts of time to get away from it.
Here are some options for you to consider.
- Retake the ACT and SAT...do the best you can. Do some practice tests in the meantime.
- Consider getting a full time job...and moving out of your parent home. You might be able to rent a room in a place near a community college. You could work full time...and attend school part time. Your Direct Loan, and the $3000 from your parent/grandparent employer should pay your tuition. You will only be able to get 1/2 of that loan if you attend school part time.
If you work full time…that money should be able to cover your living expenses.
Yes…this will take longer…but you can also take courses in the summers…and perhaps get the two years of community college courses done in less than 3 years.
- If you go the community college route...immediately start a discussion with the transfer advisor. You want to know which colleges have articulation agreements with your CC, where your courses will be accepted, and perhaps where you might get merit aid as a cc transfer.
- Do NOT lose sight of your goal of getting a college degree. Sure...you want to do it the traditional four year college way. And sure...apply to some colleges and see what happens. But understand...you need to be able to pay the costs or you can't attend.
- Are your parents married? What is their annual income? Are you low income? Does MI have any college money for low income students @romanigypsyeyes
- You are not the first or last student who has been inna similar situation, and wants to succeed. But you also need to be realistic about the costs...and how you will pay them.
- At this point...get your bachelors degree somehow. You may find that you will have to work doing something between your bachelors and grad school. But that is the future. Right now...think if now.
Wanted to get back to you on point #5.
They were never married, but they lived together from the time I was born until I was 11. After that, my mom got my dad evicted. My dad worked for some time, but his alcoholic habits turned him into a vegetable. He can hardly walk right now, lives off of disability, sleeps 16 hours a day, and needs a nurse.
Before the income tax, my mom makes around $68k. I don’t think I qualify as low income and I know for a fact FASFA isn’t going to be generous.
Not going to think about grad school as an if, but I will leave it in the future.
With $68,000 income…and a family of two (you and your mom) you are likely right. You won’t qualify for a Pell Grant at all.
Honestly, though…with that income…I would not want to see your mom in debt for,your college undergrad education…if at all possible.
Please…retake the SAT and ACT…see if you can improve those scores. It will give you way more options.
Michigan (the state) provides no aid.
I advised the OP to put an app in at Michigan Tech. They try to recruit women to balance out the gender ratio.
MSU is probably going to provide little to no aid as well. Stats are too low for merit and income is too high for need-based.
Given the OP’s home life, I am going to advise against going to Eastern or OU so close to home. I know what it’s like to live around addicts and it can significantly interfere with academics.
With that income? Sorry, I just want clarification because she probably has one of, if not, the highest incomes in my family.
I won’t rule out MTU. After learning more about Ypsi, MTU climbed to 3rd on my list.
I will do a few retakes, but I won’t depend on them. Thank you.
Your income is $68,000 a year or so. That is a decent enough income for,you and your mom to live on. BUT I doubt she can afford to give you much lit of that to support your college costs.
The colleges will likely expect your family to pay the bulk of your costs. Your state schools (other than University of Michigan) do not meet full need. So…in the example above of Central Michigan…your family would be responsible for covering just about ALL of the costs to attend.
You would get the $5500 loan freshman year…and you say you have $3000 from an employer of your mom, and then there is 1/4 of the $17,000 you have saved. That totals 12,500…so…where is the remaining money going to come from??
If you are willing to look farther from home, there may be options for you in the list of test optional and no test required institutions at fairtest.org. Read through that and see if any could work for you as reach/high matches. Some can be surprisingly generous for the right student (e.g. the women’s colleges including Bryn Mawr).
Yes, if you want to look outside of the state, there are definitely options.
Unfortunately, with a 68k income, the only state school that would give you substantial FA is U of M and right now your stats are just too low. (Come back though when you have your ACT score- like I told you before, I did WAY better with ACT than SAT.)
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but check out Kettering.