College ideas: OOS afforable, and moderately prestigious

College Search & Selection
1

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!

I want to be able to go to college out of state but don’t have very much money to do so. My family struggles with numerous costs like medical expenses and my mother is very bad with money. I worry I will be paying for most, if not all of my college. What out of state (I live in Utah) offer good aid to put out of state students outside of Ivies??

I have a 4.3 UW GPA
30 ACT

Ecs;
-student gov
-debate
-law internship
-varsity athletics

Service:
-student mentoring
-National honor society
-coaching youth sports

Interest:
I allow have no clue what I’d like to do and would love a school where I could have a lot of support and avenues to explore many subjects. I feel Id like a school that also has a lot of support programs for freshmen to help with transition to college life.

**PLEASE HELP with reach and match schools!!! ANY Ideas will help!!

No one has been able to help me and deadlines are coming

Just to give some more financial background:
My families income is 85,000 a year, but we spend 2,000 a year on child support as well as 12,000 a year on medical bills. We don’t have any assets and are renting a home. There are 6 people in my household. I feel like with those numbers I should receive some aid from some university. According to college board’s EFC based on the FAFSA our EFC between my parents and I is 11,000. The institutional category comes out to 8,000 EFC. I have 1800$ from a summer job and 9,900 in college savings. I hope this helps paint a better picture!

I have applied to both Utah state and The U as safety schools. However, I went and toured both and did not like either too much. I have lived in Utah my whole life and want to go out of state to learn to be a little more independent and also gain some new experiences outside of the Utah bubble. Utah holds small amounts of diversity and feels like it is closed off from many other states. I want to try to get into a better school if I can to be able to gain the best education possible and gain new experiences out those of utah. I’ve worked hard in many AP classes through the years and want to at least apply. Id like to push out of my comfort zone a little more and see what my options are for other schools.

I’ve been interested in schools like Duke, USC, Tulane, UVA, Michigan, and Washington. Although some don’t have good institutional aid for out of state students. I see schools like Princeton, Duke, and other respectable universities that offer enough aid to students to be able to attend with minimal debt.

Are there any schools that provide grant aid to make going out of state more feasible with my situation besides those highly ranked schools? Maybe even Liberal Arts colleges or some other private universities.
I feel I could apply to a university that is respectable but not quite as selective as those like Michigan and maybe get in. I’m just struggling to find one that matches my stats, personality, and that has good enough aid to make it possible to go there.

2

Try Lehigh. I believe they now meet full need. Since you live far they will not expect you to visit, but you can try and express interest in other ways. Go on the net price calculator to get a sense of what it ( and others) may cost.

3

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2016-09-19/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need

Trinity (CT) might be one school that could work for you.

4

4.3 UW GPA out of what. If out of 4.0 then you have received A+'s in every course? Or is it out of 5.0?

5

I was just going to ask that same question…

6

Look at WUE schools where you can get reduced out of state tuition:

http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all

There are many to choose from! Some have limited funds so applying as early as possible is best.

What is the GPA scale at your school?

7

The following colleges claim to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. All are outside UT.
All should be more-or-less realistic reach or match schools for the OP’s stats. IMO they are “moderately prestigious” but I suppose that’s in the eye of the beholder.

Bates
Boston College
College of the Holy Cross
Colorado College
Connecticut College
Franklin & Marshall
Grinnell
Kenyon
Lafayette
Oberlin
Occidental
Trinity
URichmond
Wake Forest

Example net price estimates (after grant/gift aid) based on the OP’s information:
$10,490 Bates
$13,090 URichmond
$13,700 Colorado College
$14,807 Grinnell
$16,394 Boston College

For comparison, here are estimates for a few western colleges that don’t claim to cover full need:
$18,976 Whitman College
$22,528 University of Utah (in state)
$42,658 Colorado State (OOS)

YMMV. Run your own NPC estimates for any schools that interest you; I may have missed some key information.
You may also want to investigate merit scholarships, but a 30 ACT may not yield amounts large enough to compete with some of the above estimates.

8

Even at highly selective colleges, a 30 ACT may not be detrimental. For example, at a school such Bates, with a reported middle range of 28-32, 30 would appear to be the average for attending students who submitting scores:

http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/college-profiles-new-sat/

Though a higher score could, in cases, enhance the OP’s admissions chances at Bates and similar schools, it would not, as it currently stands, be a particularly limiting factor.

9

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

10

The University of Utah is a good school.

11

You’ve gotten some great suggestions so far of colleges that meet full need and that would be matches for you, OP. With your current ACT score, you are also eligible for the UA Scholarship at University of Alabama, which is the value of two-thirds tuition at Alabama. With a 32 ACT score you’d get full tuition. You’d have to apply by December 15.

I also agree with the advice to check into the WUE. UW is not a part of it, but Washington State (in Pullman, WA) is. So is Arizona State (but only in certain majors), several Cal State campuses (also only in certain majors) UC-Merced (ditto, but some popular majors like computer science and business are on the list), Colorado State, CU-Denver and CU-Colorado Springs, University of Hawaii at Hilo and at Manoa, Portland State, and Western Washington University. Lots of good choices.

But, I also want to say - most college students attend college in their home state. You can learn to be more independent at university in Utah, and you have your entire life to move away from Utah and gain new experiences elsewhere in the country. Of course, I think you should apply and see what you can get - you may get great financial aid! But I think you should also prepare yourself for the plan B of staying in Utah and getting a good experience there, too. University of Utah IS a great school, and you can make it your goal to seek employment elsewhere.

12

You’ve already posted this several times and the answers given to you before still apply:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1937676-financial-aid-for-oos-out-of-state-student-p1.html

In state will be your best bet.

If your parents are bad with money and cannot afford to send you OOS, asking for help to attend a moderately prestigious university, that you cannot afford doesn’t change the result.

@mom2collegekids has asked you about speaking with your parents about a realistic budget. Why do you want to put your parents in even more debt?

13

Folks…

The OP’s parents will unlikely be reliable about paying their EFC. Bad with money, big medical bills, etc. It doesn’t seem to make any sense to believe that they would reliably contribute a few thousand every year.

Also…there is a NCP who will NOT fill out FA paperwork…that means many schools on the above list will not work.

The student needs to come back and clarify. At one point he said his EFC is actually a lot lower (like $4k). BUT…then said something that suggested that his stepdad’s income may not have been included on FAFSA.

Also…is there a sibling in college? The $4k EFC only makes some sense if there will be a sibling in college at the same time.