What is your home state?
@mommdc 5-7k is perfect. I may be able to go up to 9k but that is probably my absolute highest. PSAT was good, buy nowhere near merit levels. Birmingham’s scholarship wouldn’t cover tuition. IN, but I can’t afford any public schools here.
You pretty much need a full ride to get to $5 k with travel and personal expenses for OOS school
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Howard might give you a full ride looks like, apply early to have a safety.
Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne is on the list in above post, free tuition. You couldn’t afford R&B with a $5,500 student loan, can you qualify for a state grant or Pell?
You can’t afford IU?
@mommdc Howard Founder’s pays for pretty much all minus a few things. It’s a respected school and pretty cheap. Weird why a school like that offers such great merit aid when nobody else in that tier of school does.
@NASA2014 No. It’s about 22k a year and I can’t afford that at 7k a year.
Howard also has a med school… so that’s great
Like I said above I doubt R&B at IPFW would cost $22k. You should get free tuition.
I would definitely put some instate publics on there as well for safeties. Any in commuting distance?
Do you know if you would qualify for any federal or state financial aid?
Have you faced and overcome adversity, would you qualify for the Horatio Alger scholarship with your family income?
https://www.horatioalger.org/scholarships/program_indiana.cfm
Didn’t read the whole thread, but if you would be able to get good FA, you might want to look into Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon. They seem to fit your social preferences and have great science programs.
Food for thought.
The Doctors I work with who have an IU degree from IPFW are paid the same as if they were from any other school you might go to, including the Ivys. It is in the IU Medical school system and very connected to very well respected Residency programs. Don’t go into unreasonable debt for absolutely no reason.
@Goodkidsdad No insult to IPFW but room+board is 9.5k and that is really the tippy top of my limit just on r+b! I don’t see why I would break my budget for IPFW when I already have Howard as almost entirely a full ride
@mommdc 22k is for IUB. IPFW already eats up my budget just on room and board so I can’t afford it.
Should I apply ED to anywhere?
You should apply ED to your top choice school whose NPC calculator returned a favorable estimate. ED should not be thought of as a way to strategize to get into the ‘best school’.
@International95 I am thinking of ED’ing Chicago or Rice because they meet all my requirements and have good aid for me.
They come in as net price of $5-7 k?
You never answered the question about qualifying for federal or state aid.
@mommdc I don’t know what that means. My NPC showed a Pell grant if that’s what federal aid refers to. I don’t know anything of state aid, so probably not.
How much Pell grant did it show?
http://www.in.gov/sfa/# Info about Indiana student aid
If you run the net price calculator for your instate school, does it mention a state grant?
@mommdc No mention of state grants, just institutional scholarships and grants. It knocks the price down considerably but all of my instate schools are still to expensive for me to attend.
The NPCs shows Pell grant being ~3-4k.
Ok so I still don’t understand this, you said your family can afford 5-7 k, correct?
So if you get free tuition somewhere, like your instate school, then the remaining cost would be room and board.
You said NPC showed $3-4 k Pell, your family can afford $5-7 k, then you might get a state grant if you look at the link I posted to see about income eligibility. You can also take out subsidized and unsubsidized student loan of total $5.5 k, that combined with some summer earnings and maybe work study would not pay for your remaining costs?
If so then you need to find a school where you can get a full ride or your net price is guaranteed 5-7k.
But you need some safeties, where you are guaranteed to be accepted and can afford.
Howard seems like it might be one, but you have to apply early because their scholarships are limited, first come first served I believe.
it would be better to have a few choices that’s why we suggested some instate schools because instate tuition is usually lower than OOS and since it looks like you qualify for Pell you might also get some state aid in addition. And with a full tuition scholarship that should make it affordable IMO.
Even UA might be affordable with a cheaper dorm or meal plan option and I think off campus housing for after freshman year are pretty affordable there. Travel costs obviously would be higher than instate though.
I don’t think ED is a good choice. You would not know for sure if you could afford it. You need to compare aid packages.