Why apply here if you can’t afford high 30s??
That’s a bigger question.
Not today - but sometime before this summer you will need to sit down with your family to determine a true budget.
Since you didn’t mention CCS, I wasn’t aware that you knew about it, as CCS at UCSB is a different experience than straight UCSB. But since you want more schools, below are a number of them, most of which offer a PhD in math, so there should be sufficient depth for any of your mathematical studies:
These would be matches/reaches, so run the Net Price Calculator on these. If the price wouldn’t be affordable, then eliminate them unless they stack their merit aid on top of their need-based aid in a way that would make it affordable for you. But the odds of sufficient merit at these schools is low:
- Brandeis (MA): About 3700 undergrads
- Emory (GA): About 7100 undergrads
- Lehigh (PA ): About 5600 undergrads
- Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ): About 4100 undergrads
- Baylor (TX): About 15k undergrads
- U. of Denver (CO): About 6200 undergrads
- U. of Miami (FL): About 13k undergrads
These schools are primarily public colleges, with a couple of Jesuit ones thrown in (Loyola and Saint Louis). As I mentioned earlier, the public schools are the ones where you are most likely to get all of your credits able to transfer. Odds for sufficient merit aid to bring the prices down to, or close to, your budget are much better at these options. The ones in “flyover” states tend to provide a great value:
- Colorado State: About 26k undergrads and a WUE school
- Loyola Chicago (IL): About 12k undergrads
- Miami U. (OH): About 17k undergrads
- Montana State: About 15k undergrads and a WUE school
- New Jersey Institute of Technology: About 9k undergrads
- New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology: About 1200 undergrads and a WUE school
- Saint Louis (MO): About 11k undergrads
- U. at Buffalo (NY): About 21k undergrads
- U. of Arkansas: About 26k undergrads
- U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 30k undergrads
- U. of Hawaii - Manoa: About 14k undergrads and a WUE school
- U. of Houston (TX): About 38k undergrads and probably one of your best bets of getting a non-WUE school within budget. With a small merit scholarship you would qualify for in-state tuition of about $9k, I believe.
- U. of Kansas: About 19k undergrads
- U. of Missouri - Columbia: About 20k undergrads
- U. of Montana: About 7200 undergrads and a WUE school
- U. of Nebraska - Lincoln : About 19k undergrads
- U. of Nevada - Reno: About 17k undergrads
- U. of New Mexico: About 16k undergrads
- U. of Texas - Dallas: About 22k undergrads
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I may be wrong - but ASU COA is now $53K or so and the most I’ve seen OOS is $15K.
U of A is more aggressive - but if you had a 3.9 UW and you don’t.
I hope this is true but I don’t think it necessarily is. It’s college dependent. Some might give you placement - but not credit - especially your dream schools. But yes, lower level publics are more generous.
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Yeah I’ll definitely try my best. It’s super frustrating but every time I bring it up they always shut it down. I genuinely think my grandpa’s end game is to just see which universities I get accepted to first and then see which ones I’m able to finance to.
He thinks that I’m a much stronger student than I actually am so he’s convinced I’m going to get a bunch of scholarships or something and while yeah I’m definitely above average I’m not so above average that I can rely off of scholarships lol.
I really don’t want to harm my relation with my gramps but as it stands it seems like the only way to get him out of this state of mind of “we’ll finance it when the time comes” is actually seeing how expensive these unis will be once I’m accepted to them. I’ve tried to show him how expensive they are before and he just doesn’t budge, he doesn’t think university can be that expensive and since he knows that schools do need-based aid he thinks that the aid will actually be need-based lol.
I looked at ASU and it’s current cost is 32k (assuming I do not make it to the honors program. If I do then it’s 34k) I believe which is definitely steep but not as steep as 53k. Granted this is for the Polytechnic campus so there may be a cheaper campus available.
Wow this is super detailed, yeah I’ll look into as many of these as possible, thank you very much!
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Absolutely not. Only parent income/assets are reported on FAFSA.
This is not true. I think you may have misunderstood. There is a change to who is reported as parent on FAFSA if the parents aren’t married. Instead of being the one the student lived with the most in the last 12 months, it’s now the one who contributed the most money for the student in the past 12 months. This may be the parent who earns the most, but it may not be. And it definitely does NOT require anyone other than a parent to provide income/asset information. The fact that your grandfather has the most money or even contributed the most money for you is absolutely not relevant.
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So I’ve been reading through all this - and I’m not sure how to process this.
I want to find a “dope” college for OP.
But I wrote after reading an earlier post - OP needs a budget.
is it $15K but has no need? Will mom, with no salary have big need or does she have assets? What will be the absolute worst case that can be afforded?
So - without getting too deep - if you like ASU, then (and you’ll need a test), you’ll want to look at Alabama, MS State, Ole Miss, and maybe some others. Now you might say - I don’t want to go South or I don’t want to this or that- but this is why you need a budget.
Assuming you have over a 3.5 and a 32 ACT or 1420 SAT, you’ll be all in about $20K. ASU will be nearly double. And you don’t have to worry about - are there smart kids - since they are a top three (they were #1, not sure now) in # of National Merit Scholars. MS State is equally aggressive. Some of the Florida publics (not UF or FSU) can be aggressive. And even schools in places like the Dakotas could be.
Other options could be through WUE - schools like Wyoming, Washington State, Idaho, Colorado State…now given your ethnicity, I know these may not work but they are possible financial choices. For Engineering Physics specifically, UN Reno has tuition of $11,520 and New Mexico State $10,092.
For smaller schools, UAH (test needed), W Carolina (who has a $5K OOS tuition), Truman State (a well respected smaller school) and others - for example, SD School of Mines.
And the CSUs - my goodness - the CSUs are fine - or maybe a UC (Merced?).
Whether engineering, physics, math, etc - there are low cost schools out there but the question will be - do you need them?
Now then you have meets need schools that aren’t easy admits but maybe a little easier? Of course, until you do NPCs, you won’t know the estimate of what is covered.
But you’re not getting into MIT or Cal Tech - so while it’s ok to reach, it’s good to be realistic and hit reaches that are - not impossible.
I’m thinking of “reaches” like Lehigh (maybe an ED if the NPC works out to enhance odds), Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, Bates (if ED), Denison, Union, etc. Still unlikely but you never know…
In the end, after getting up to this message - haven’t yet read on - this chain is a mess - because there are questions being asked but answers not accepted, there are lists galore with no idea what you could pay or what schools will say you can pay, and well it’s just premature until that type of info is known to even starting picking schools.
But your grades are below where you think they need to be, you have no test (yet) but don’t think you’d apply with a test. Your ECs are interesting -but can you validate, for ecample, that you’ve written lots of books?
Traditionally, your in state system is the best help when needing money - and you have great CCs and CSUs. But WUE will help too and the top merit schools - if you’re open to them.
I’m really speechless - this is a tough one to analyze - but that’s a best guess for so far.
Good luck to you.
Here’s Every College That Offers 100% Financial Aid (prepscholar.com)
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Tsbna - If ever a thread and a frequent poster were made for each other…that was masterful.
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It’s more like - you can’t apply efficiently if you don’t know.
Or you’ll have to find that true safety - the one you know you can afford - which may be a community college - and then do what you want - but know it’s a strong possibility you end up there.
Maybe you can make an appointment with the guidance counselor and bring a relative - to talk about funding college.
I just looked at Poly Technic - and it’s $53-54K (full price) and Tempe $53-55k - likely differentiated by major.
The most I’ve seen is $15K merit - but I think you are looking at older pricing.
Nonetheless, either my estimate or yours isn’t close to $10K or $15K.
Thanks…I think 
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Aaaaah that’s where we were off, I was using the net price calculator which only looks at Tuition rather than everything else.
Yes that’s definitely a bit much lol
But that’s where - given if you have a great test - an Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, UAH type come in - and there can be others, especially with WUE depending on the ultimate major chosen. And your Western Carolina, Southern Illinois and Central Michigan all don’t have OOS tuition with W Carolina (technically it does have OOS tuition) but it’s set at $5K.
If money is truly an issue, at the public school level, UVA and UNC meet need but that’s it. Then you have to follow the money. The schools may not have your desired location or “pedigree” or racial makeup - but when money is involved, tradeoffs have to be made., etc.
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Someone’s claiming to write novels regularly while taking/having taken 18 DE courses early their junior year of high school, and we’re not treating this entire thread as a work of fiction?
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I claimed 18 total, I actually did the math wrong it was 15 total (I accidentally counted my 1 DE biology course as 3 classes and I forgot my school combined 2 of my kinesiology courses as 1 course.)
I only do 3 per semester and I have a lot of free time so it’s not a really big deal. Writing a book isn’t impossible especially if you’re like me and are really sloppy with it lol.
I am completely serious though, if I was here to play around this’d be a really boring way to do so lol
Thank you very much! And yeah I know it’s a bit of a nightmare to help me out cause there’s not really much to help out with (especially with budget). As I’ve mentioned I don’t particularly care about prestige, how many smart kids, or really anything like that lol. As long as I get to be a part of some community and I’m not out here getting blacklisted by grad schools I’m fine.
I’m also curious, why do WUE schools not work because of my ethnicity? Do these schools have like racist admissions or something? Or is it something else?
But yeah i don’t really care about a whole lot as long as I’m not near my family I’m fine lol. I’ll look into these unis when I can
You didn’t claim to write one book. You said you write novels regularly.
If you want to improve your chances of admission, make sure you take the math exams like the AMC AMC 10/12 | Mathematical Association of America
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