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Have you considered attending community college and then transferring in state?
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Someone with his stats should NOT start at a CC. He would ruin his chances for the huge merit he needs to complete his degree.
How’s he supposed to pay for the last 2 years when at that point, merit awards will only cover a fraction of tuition, and none of room and board?
He needs to take advantage of his strong scores and get into a school that will give him HUGE merit for all 4 years.
Alabama you’d be eligable for a huge scholarship
Vanderbilt is an academic reach (or, at least, a high match) for the OP. I think the OP has an excellent chance of getting into Tulane, and should take advantage of their non-binding Early Action. Tulane will not be affordable without a major merit scholarship, however.
Considering some of the colleges you’re interested in, don’t overlook Temple. You will almost certainly get into the Honors College, and qualify for a hefty merit package (possibly full tuition).
Oh, and Clemson might offer you a pretty nice scholarship, also.
this student is in a bad situation. Her parents have a strong income, can’t contribute at all to any costs, and she didn’t realize that she can only borrow $5,500 for frosh year.
Therefore, her initial strategy of looking at schools with a $20k-35k+ per year net cost won’t work. She likely thought that she would borrow $100k to pay “her share”…not happening.
Also…it is doubtful that her parents are going to pay for a bunch of apps, sending a bunch of scores, paying for CSS profile, etc. More to the point, her parents will likely be very annoyed if they end up paying for some of these costs that will be a total BUST. The process of applying to a single school can be $100.
Even if the OP is paying, her funds are going to be needed for COLLEGE, so he shouldn’t waste money on colleges that won’t work.
With an ACT 32, schools like FSU, UNC, UVA, VT, Clemson will NOT work out…even with a scholarship that gets instate rates. None of those schools will give her free tuition plus…which is what she needs. Each of those schools, if they award merit, will only give a portion of tuition.
For instance, at Clemson, the most this student would get, would be about $17k per year (and that’s if she’s given the max, which isn’t likely for an ACT 32). Even with the max award, that would only cover about HALF of tuition ($33k) and only about 1/3 of the overall COA ($48k). This student has no way of paying the other 2/3 (roughly $30k)
She needs to concentrate on a handful of schools that will give her HUGE merit…a minimum of free tuition, but hopefully MORE.
@Abinater What is your major and career goal? We need to identify more schools that will give you HUGE merit.
It’s just an option. In some states, CA, NY and FL come to mind, this can be a more affordable option than in others. The student can work to get some savings and could talk with parents about whether their finances might be different in two years. No guarantee that they would, and a full ride four year is generally better, but it could be another option.
We are in a similar situation, though my son’s GPA isn’t quite so high. We’ve been looking at smaller liberal arts colleges in hopes of getting more aid - our state’s flagship is very expensive and offers little aid except for the very top students. I’ll be interested to see how things work out for you.
@jjplus3 Is your son a junior? What are his stats?
There are some LACs that want more males and are sometimes extra generous.
What do you want your net cost to be?
Some of the smaller Catholic schools are giving generous merit…
I don’t know if St. Mary’s of California is considered to be a LAC, but it is very generous with merit…probably not enough for the OP, but maybe enough for jjplus3
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will have all honors and AP classes this year with a 3.47 unweighted core (I know - I was over-involved last year and my grades suffered - though I’ve never had below a B and usually those B grades are almost A’s). and somewhere around a 3.6 or 3.7 weighted core - much higher with electives added in. I took the SATs once (in June, unfortunately!) and will take them again, but so far have a 690M 640V 590W (which will improve drastically next time since I have learned about the formula they want you to follow when writing the essay!).
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Your son wrote the above…you aren’t allowed to use the same screenname…it’s a TOS violation. please make your own screenname when posting questions.
@jjplus3 Your son has a 1330 M+CR…which is equal to an ACT 30. There are a number of schools that will give good sized merit for that.
OP, are there in-state colleges or private colleges within commuter range for you? Definitely look where you can get huge merit and lowest cost to attend. If parents truly are not going to pay a dime. Do you have any relatives that live near a college where you also may get merit and then have low costs for room/board? What do you want to study?
While it may not be your first choice, U of MD - College Park is ranked highly among state universities, has a good honors program, and offers reasonable merit aid, especially for in-state students. You could do a lot worse.
My son is a senior, school GPA is 3.63. takes honors classes, no AP. Took SAT in spring, CR 580 M 540 & W 500. He will take them again in Dec.
We are in similar predicament in that we earn over 100K with no savings, little in home equity, no savings for college and little room in budget for college.
As I read thru this post, I realize how confused I am between what the NPC shows a school to provide in aid vs. what they would potentially give in merit aid. The second part of my confusion is related to finding the schools that will provide merit aid based on his grades in order to figure out which schools are potentially affordable. How do I figure this out? I used the link for full tuition being paid as you can see he doesn’t qualify for those given his SAT scores.
We live in MA, he would like to study accounting and finance. Any advice or insight is appreciated.
UMass and UMass Lowell are certainly options.
Yes both on the list as well as UMass Dartmouth and Salem State. Also hear that you shouldn’t rule out the private schools because they end up close in cost to public. Because of this I was keeping private on the list assuming he would get $ from private schools to bring them in line with cost of state schools. Now based on above thread I’m not sure if that is the case. Other schools on the list are: Stonehill, Endicott, Wheaton, Western New England University, Clark, Assumption.
Additional question - are the student borrowing limits for federal student loans? I ask because the sum of the 4 year limits is < $30k and you see/hear where students debt exceeds $30k for many schools. Does this mean that there is student loans outside of the federal loans?
@rbomom has son done ACT? Don’t know if he believes he will do better on SAT or if he has taken ACT already, take ACT again. Bringing the score up will help.
Are there any schools within commuting range? Based on how the financials work out for 4 year programs, perhaps save some money by going to CC for first two years. Son could also get a PT job. Not bad for what he wants to go into anyway. Good luck.
Those loan amounts listed in the news had to be cosigned by parents or independent students (over 24, military, having dependents of their own). The limits you have are correct for traditional students.