So sorry to hear that.
Some colleges will give extra aid if a family has documented, high medical expenses. Usually that happens after the financial aid is awarded and is done via appeal. So that may help financially.
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Clarifying that the medical expenses correspond to the ābase year ā of income which is a two-year look back. So the first base year for freshman year of college corresponds to the calendar year that starts with the studentās sophomore year of high school. Needlessly confusing, I know.
@kelsmom ā do I have this right?
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Thank you Thumper! ! If I had a nickel for everyone who said I had a lot on my plate 
But I am an eternal optimist with three amazing children, and we are going to get through all of this I hope and pray!
Yes, we can afford UMass. As a matter of fact, the parents are able to contribute from 529ās their agreed upon third. My son does not have his third as agreed to in the separation agreement. Plus what do I do if he gets into a better school? I was hoping he would go further than I did in his academic career because he is a better student but maybe I need to wrap my head around the Massachusetts state schools.
So somehow my son is going to have to come up with $50,000 for umass over 4 years. I believe the most he can take out on subsidized loans over four years is $27,000? Iām not an expert on loans.
I canāt imagine the father will cosign on plus loans. And because Iām not working, I will not be able to qualify? Iāve been advised I cannot spend my other savings on college because the money that I have, I need for my medical/living expenses going forward as full time work may not be an option for me anytime soon.
OP- hugs to you. You have a lot on your plate (and sending healing thoughts to your child with cancer). I hope you have support IRL for all of your challenges right now.
Merit aid is your friend right now. Regardless of what happens with your ex- your sonās award will not change.
Hoping for your health issues to improve, and a good prognosis for your child!
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Thank youā¦ I have no clue how to figure out what schools in parts of the country would offer my son Merit aid based on his A/B grades. Is it mostly private schools? Is it state schools across the country?
York College was mentioned by one other person. Are there any other schools like that that we should look at? That would be so appreciated so we could start working on a list of schools to consider.
Are those privates typically better than Massachusetts state schools? I am a product of Massachusetts state colleges. They were good, but they were very impersonal and lonely for me.
I was hoping for something a bit more nurturing for him given all the challenges of our family life (Catholic would be the best if we could find one!!). It also would be amazing if he could stay in New England to be close to his brother and the comfort that would bring the whole family giving my other childās health issues.
Yes thatās exactly how the medical expenses correspondended. I was paying around $30,000 a year for my own health insurance and medical expenses in 2020-2022 before getting on Medicaid this year.
So that is a good financial aid appeal against my strong earnings from severence on my 2022 taxes.
Since getting on Medicaid this year and my income, lowering that issue has gone away.
I guess when I stop and think about it and articulate it I really want a nurturing, small, not far from home environment for my son for college. We are Catholic. That would be an amazing thing for him, especially given sibling health issues. I want him to be at school that will offer him support and comfort.
I am very sorry for the difficulties your family is going through right now. In order to help offer potential solutions, here are a couple of clarifying questions:
What is your sonās GPA now?
Am I understanding correctly that the father is supposed to pay 1/3, youāre supposed to pay 1/3 (and you have 529 funds sufficient to do so), and that your son is supposed to pay 1/3? Or are all of these 1/3 of the UMass costs? So if UMass-Amherst costs about $31k, that the father would pay a little over $10k, you would pay a little over $10k, and your son would be responsible for paying a little over $10k. Then, if your son went to a university that was more expensive than UMass-Amherst, that the difference would need to come from scholarships or other aid?
My sonās GPA is 4.6 on a 4.2 weighted scale.
When I look at the Aās and Bās and convert them to a 4.0 scale, I think that takes him to about a 3.4 GPA I am still trying to figure out how all of this works.
He has taken a nice mix of honors and AP classes. Thatās why he is above a 4.0.
The school does not offer an unweighted GPA. And heās at 1420 SAT.
So yes, the funds for the price of UMass Amhurst for the parent portion are previously saved. My son does not have any money for his portion of you Mass.
So we have that and yes what Iām trying to figure out is how can I get merit to get him to a more nurturing small school possibly private environment and/or slightly better school academically than umass, given these extenuating family circumstances, I think it would be best for him, his reserved personality and need for family issue support. Catholic would be amazing to mom ā¦but not a requirement for him.
He visited UMass Amhurst and he did not like it.
It felt massive to him. The kids were not looking very social on the holiday weekend that we visitedā¦ It may have been an anomalyā¦ many had their headphones on. He wants to have a nice friend group, he loves watching sports. He is a reserved kid, but usually has a nice group of friends.
Any type of A = 4 points, any B 3 points, and so on for freshman through junior year courses. Core courses only (eng, sci, Soc Studies, math, foreign lang). Divide total points by number of course grades. Some schools will recalculate unweighted GPA this way, some schools will calc a weighted GPA in their own way, etc.
Yes, thatās exactly the case. The father and I are committed to paying 1/3 up to the price of UMass Amherst and can afford that.
Iām trying to figure out if that is the path to go or how where would I potentially do better for him in a private?
I did not have a great experience at Massachusetts state schoolsā¦ I did well academically, but I found it to be very lonely. UMass Amherst campus is intimidating to both of us. High rise dorms etc.
On the flipside he loved UConn and San Diego big schools. Visually appealing? He loves basketball as a fan so I think thatās why UConn appealed so much.
Maybe there are other basketball fan schools that he would enjoy in the northeast. I could see him happy attending games as an outlet. Heās not a party guy at all. Super studious but social too.
The more merit you need in merit, the less selective the university. Two of my kids who didnāt want to go in state had one B and a higher score, they are at out of state publics (not better schools than our flagship, my son had a 3.7 30 act so state flagship it was). Iām not familiar with smaller MA publics but maybe there is a gem?
Iām not sure I understand thisā¦ The more you need Iām merit the less selective the University? Could you please clarify?
Does this mean that selective schools donāt want you if you need Merit?
One huge question I have is whether or not, he should apply using the application fee waiver. He is entitled to financially. I am afraid that this could raise a red flag to private schools that he doesnāt have the money to pay, and that they will then reject him. Would he be better off applying not using the fee waiver so as not to be biased against him?
I guess thatās the question of the blind versus not need blind. I need to probably understand which schools are need blind and which school is my discriminate against him if he has a need.
Colleges use merit to attract students who are stronger academically than the academics of the students who make up their typical student body. They are using merit to woo kids who would otherwise go to a school that is perceived ot be of āhigher rankā. By doing so, they get the merit kidās higher GPA and SAT scores that will then help boost the collegeās own rankings. Itās all very calculated. (Sigh).
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OP- I donāt know if it will be affordable but run the numbers at Providence and Stonehill. I think itās the environment you are talking about. Faculty who are committed to teaching undergrads, nice kids who want a good mix of social, sporty and academic life. And for sure the size is the opposite of what you felt at U Mass.
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So adding on ā the amount of merit and the āselectivityā of the targeted school varies with each student/college combination. For maximum merit, students seeking merit will likely have to look a couple of tiers ālowerā than schools in a tier where their stats would place them academically in the majority of the students. That varies between students, of course.
How does he feel about the SAT? His score is quite good ā did he study for it? Would he be willing to prep some more (or at all) in an attempt to raise his SAT score? That might unlock additional merit. Has he tried an ACT practice test under timed conditions? Some kids prefer that and can score even higher on the ACT than they would on the SAT, with minimal extra work.
Others can probably speak to this more.
For Catholic and smallerā¦look at Emmanuel College, Canisius, Merrimack, Regis (MA), Saint Anselm, Stonehill.
Also consider U Mass Lowell and U Mass Dartmouth. Are either commutable for your S?
Run the net price calculators at all these schools to see if they would be affordable. Colleges wonāt care what the divorce papers say about who pays what for college.
You/your S can do your own search here by state/size/religion/major etc. College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics
Your S can take out $27K in loans $5.5K/$6.5K/$7.5K/$7.5K over undergrad. I would not recommend you or your ex take out parent plus loans, or private loans.
It does sound like itās a possibility that starting sophomore year of college your ex may well be the FAFSA parent. For FAFSA only schools, I would run the NPC with your info for the first year (include child support from your exā¦all of it, not just a portion that you might want to earmark to one of the three kids), but would also run it with only your exās info, to get a sense for what might be in the future. When running NPCs for any school that uses CSS Profile, you will need to put in all financial info for both parents. A big caveat is NPCs are not yet updated for coming FAFSA changes.
Thoughts @kelsmom?
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Those are great suggestions. I love Providence College. My friend went there and the campus was beautiful when I was younger. I have never visit d Stonehill. It sounds nice but some people think it is expensive for what it is. I believe Providence may only look at custodial parent on CSS which would be nice.
But the price tag looks like itās close to 70 K but certainly worth a look. For some reason my son has not been excited about visiting PC it looks like a high acceptance rate so I think he gets turned off by those kind of stats but we need to look!
He has worked so so hard academically that I think he is looking for something as selective as he can qualify forā¦like manyā¦ He wants to push the envelope on where he can get in but thatās a balance with right fit and financially friendly.
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UMass Lowell has been suggested to him. The campus is not in the ideal type of setting.
I went to UMass Dartmouth. I found it to be incredibly lonely. I lived off campus however as a transfer student. My roommates all went home on the weekends. It was also heavily regionally attended by commuter students, and it was difficult for me to make lifelong connections there as many people were from the south east part of Massachusetts, and I was not.
My experience with so lonely there that I do not want my son to have a similar experience it really was not enjoyable for me. I just worked my jobs to pay for school on my own all the time and studied no social life. I think we all want some thing better than what we experience for our children. It was a hard grind there for me with no spiritual or other supports back in the day.
That being said UMass Dartmouth served me very well for my future, and I am grateful. I flourished academically, and it set me up for wonderful success in grad school.
I understand. The reality though is that finances are the primary driver of your Sās college list, so I encourage him (and you) to be open-minded and cast a wide net. We wonāt know if any of those smaller Catholic colleges I suggested are affordable until you start running NPCs. One step at a time. For some of the NPCs you may need an unweighted GPA, so do calculate that as wellā¦unless the 3.4 is the updated/correct number?
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That is excellent advice! I will get his help to come up with the unweighted GPAā¦ My quick back of the envelope calculations last night I came up with a 3.4 range when I took out the electives and focused only on his core classes like math, science, language history. Assuming my math is correct.
I converted his letter grades into numbers, and then
I just used the āaverageā feature in excel to get to 3.4
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