<p>Okay, so I am attending Baylor next year (that's not changing) and I'm wondering what else I can do to help pay for it. Yes, my parents will help me as much as they can, but I don't know what that means. I don't want to be way in debt when I graduate, especially if I want to go to law school after (which could possibly change). I got a scholarship for my SATS, what was it, like $12,000 a year? or something like that. That's still $32,000 each year I still have to pay. I haven't turned in my fafsa yet, but I plan to. How much can I expect from that? What other scholarships are there/how do I come up with the rest of the money? I'm not worried exactly, I just want to be prepared. Any advice/help?</p>
<p>FAFSA is an application for need based aid. It’s impossible for us to say what you will receive in the way of need based aid as it depends on your parents financial situation. The FAFSA produces a number called the EFC which is used by the school to determine what your financial need is. Your parents are responsible for **at minimum **the EFC, possibly more depending on the school and whether they promise to meet full need. If you are very low income and have a very low EFC you may be eligible for the Pell grant. With an EFC of 0 you will be eligible for the max Pell which currently is $5550 a year. As the EFC goes up the amount of Pell goes down. At somewhere around 5200 ish EFC you are not eligible for any pell grant. You will be eligible for $5500 in federal Stafford loans.</p>
<p>Any other need based aid would depend on the school and whether they offer generous institutional need based aid. </p>
<p>You need to sit down with your parents and find out what your parents are actually willing to pay. Then when you get a financial aid package you need to determine whether what they will pay plus the FA package makes the school possible for you.</p>
<p>Yes, my parents will help me as much as they can, but I don’t know what that means.</p>
<p>You need to find out WHAT that means…$5k? $10k? more?</p>
<p>Are you lowish income? If not, then you won’t get ANY free money from the federal gov’t.</p>
<p>For you to take out loans that exceed the federal amounts (which are small), your parents would have to co-sign your loans or borrow the money themselves, if they aren’t willing to do that, then you won’t have the means to cover up the shortfall. Students should NOT have big debt when they graduate from undergrad.</p>
<p>** *I don’t want to be way in debt when I graduate, especially if I want to go to law school after (which could possibly change). ***</p>
<p>If your plans include law school (which will require a lot of debt) then certainly do not borrow much for undergrad.</p>
<p>I got a scholarship for my SATS, what was it, like $12,000 a year? or something like that. That’s still $32,000 each year I still have to pay.</p>
<p>the fed limits for student loans are:</p>
<p>frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500</p>
<p>As you can see, the amounts that YOU can borrow is NOT much. </p>
<p>Private scholarships are hard to get, for small amounts, and usually for incoming freshman year ONLY. so, that won’t help you for soph, jr, and sr years.</p>
<p>*** I am attending Baylor next year (that’s not changing) ***</p>
<p>I know that you think going to Baylor is a given, but if you can’t pay the money, you won’t be able to go.</p>
<p>I hope you have a back up plan because when it’s spring and you don’t have the funding for Baylor, you may need to go elsewhere.</p>
<p>There is no money tree. Insisting that you’re going to go to a school that you don’t have the funding for can blow up in your face. We’ve seen it happen here on CC. Kids insisting that they’re going to go to schools that they can’t afford; then July comes and the school is demanding payment and the kids are panicking.</p>
<p>Please have the conversation with your parents about how your education will be financed.
Here’s some starter questions:
How much money has been set aside/saved strictly for my college education?
How much can you contribute every year towards school?
Do you think the family can afford for me to attend Baylor for 4 years?</p>
<p>Baylor has a financial aid calculator right on their website…it’s definitely time to use it! And get your FAFSA and whatever else they need filed asap! It looks like, on average, they meet 69% of need (which is COA less EFC) and 38% of that “aid” is from loans and work study. I sincerely hope you have a financial safety that you’d be happy attending. Good luck!</p>
<p>sk8rmom…your pm box is full!!</p>
<p>I got in to Baylor with a similar scholarship. I’ve decided not to attend, but I think I can provide some possible ways to get extra money for college. This is gonna be long so bear with me. </p>
<p>Step 1: Retake the SAT. If you think you can do any better on the SAT, RETAKE IT. I first got admitted with a 12.5k per year scholarship. Then I retook the SAT in December and with only 60 more points my scholarship increased to 14k per year. That’s $6000 (over four years) difference for 60 points. Note: I’m pretty sure you can take the SAT any time before you graduate for your scholarship to increase, but check to be sure. Also, check Baylor’s scholarship calculator to see how much your scores would need to increase in order to increase your scholarship.</p>
<p>Step 2: Apply for financial aid. If you haven’t yet filled out the FAFSA, do it. The money given out is usually first come, first serve. Note that Baylor doesn’t meet full financial need, but you should be able to get some grant money.</p>
<p>Step 3: Apply for outside scholarships. Use a scholarship search website like fastweb to search for national scholarships. Also, talk with your guidance counselor and anyone in your community who you feel might have info on local scholarships. Look for scholarships based on religion, gender, race, ethnicity, prospective major, and specifics like that. Those tend to be less competitive. Keep a calender of the deadlines and a folder of applications. Have fun!</p>
<p>Step 4: Get yourself a job. You can either start working now or over the summer, but anything helps. Try to get a job with tips! I worked a job full time at $10 per hour this past summer and after taxes made $4,000. If you do this every summer you could save $16,000 by the time you graduate, possibly more depending on the kind of jobs you get.</p>
<p>Step 5: Take adavantage of work study. If you get offered work study, do it. I know plenty of people who do work study and make an extra 3000 a year by working simple jobs a few hours a week like swiping cards. Depending what job you get, you might be able to study while working.</p>
<p>Step 6: Become an RA. I don’t know about Baylor’s compensation for resident advisors, but lots of schools provide free room and board to RAs. You can start as early as sophomore year and it will certainly save you thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>Wow, that really was long. Let me know if any of this helps. Good luck</p>
<p>Thank you JNLx10! It helped a lot!</p>
<p>I am looking at a $32,720 per year scholarship at Baylor (NMF, 36 ACT, class rank 1) and I still don’t think I can afford to attend. It will cost at least 8K a year and tuition goes up but the scholarship is set for four years. I had my heart set on Baylor too, but I had to look at other alternativesw so I can afford grad school. 8K x 4 years = 32K in debt over a full ride at a public school. Baylor is where I wanted to be too, but I am unwilling to go in debt for an undergrad degree. My folks can’t afford much.</p>
<p>Snowbound, can you get a job?</p>
<p>*I am looking at a $32,720 per year scholarship at Baylor (NMF, 36 ACT, class rank 1) and I still don’t think I can afford to attend. It will cost at least 8K a year and tuition goes up but the scholarship is set for four years. *</p>
<p>$32,700 from Baylor covers what? </p>
<p>COA for Baylor…</p>
<p>tuition and fees: $31,658
Room and board: $8,664</p>
<h2>Books and supplies: $1,390 </h2>
<p>about…$42k per year (and will go up every year)</p>
<p>And, the above doesn’t count personal expenses and transportation which a job would cover. Personal expenses and trans will likely cost another $2k - 3k. If the student could earn - say - $5k per year, then only a couple thousand could go towards the shortfall. </p>
<p>A student loan could cover $5500.</p>
<p>I can see the concern…</p>
<p>What is the public school that you’ll get the better scholarship?</p>
<p>What is your major and career goal?</p>
<p>How much can your family contribute? $3k per year? more? less?</p>
<p>Have you done your FAFSA? What is your EFC?</p>
<p>Snowbound…are you and your parent using the same screenname?</p>
<p>Did you get a likely letter from Dartmouth? if so, are you concerned that your family won’t be able to pay the expected “family contribution”? Is that the issue? </p>
<p>how much will a school like Dartmouth expect you to pay?</p>
<p>I love Waco so much… But I’m really starting to think that I can’t afford it. My dad recently (Friday) lost his job, but what my family made last year was a good amount, so I don’t think I’ll get much from financial aid. I just don’t know. I feel like all of my dreas are falling apart.</p>
<p>I know that this is disappointing, but it’s good that you find out now. It was unlikely that Baylor would have been affordable even if your Dad hadn’t lost his job.</p>
<p>What other schools did you apply to?</p>
<p>sam houston and arkansas… (kill me) </p>
<p>my backup and an out of state school</p>
<p>You only applied to 3 schools?</p>
<p>UArk will likely waive OOS tuition, right? Did you get any other scholarship money there? how will you pay for the rest of the costs?</p>
<p>BTW…going to UArk is not some punishment. It’s a very nice school with SEC sports to watch and cheer for. </p>
<p>What’s the story with Sam Houston? how will you pay for those costs? Can you commute to that school?</p>
<p>I would think that going to UArk would be better than Sam Houston…but if UArk won’t be affordable, then…</p>
<p>Do you have a financial safety school? ( a school that you know for sure that all costs will be covered)? If not, can you apply to a state school that you can commute to?</p>
<p>yes, i only applied to three schools.
i haven’t turned in my fafsa, so i don’t really know yet about money at uark.
sam houston is closeish to home and a few people from my family went there. i like it okay, it just doesn’t have that great of a reputation… it is relatively cheap though.</p>
<p>@baylorbear,
@snowbound, I too had to make a decision last spring, between my dream schools and what makes financial sense. I was admitted to my dream schools (Duke, WashU, Vandy, …) but also received a free option (full COA) from my (highly ranked) state flagship university. It was painful, but I know I made the right choice. I could not be happier and I never worry about money 
</p>
<p>Baylorbear, is it possible you could still get into UT Austin? If not this fall, how about spring? UT Austin is your state’s second highest ranked school with one of the largest endowments in the nation. I was offered a full ride at someplace called UT Dallas, do you know anything about them?</p>
<p>For any future readers of this thread, there are lessons to be learned here. Make sure you apply to enough schools. Include a broad spectrum of both academic and financial choices to give yourself a chance to receive that “offer you can’t refuse”. And try to always include your state flagship. That’s where the resources are …</p>
<p>Plumazul,</p>
<p>I’m very glad to hear you’re having such a positive experience at UT Dallas. I think it’s an underrated school but it seems to have a lot to offer including those great scholarships.</p>
<p>@sbjdorlo, sorry if I was unclear, I never applied to UT Dallas. They sent an unsolicited offer. The COA scholarship was from my state school (University of Maryland College Park). I’m certain UT Dallas is a great place, but I don’t handle heat well :(</p>