College Tuition vs. The Budget

Parent Cafe
18

<p>DoveMom,</p>

<p>If you’re willing to read and learn, there’s a lot of info in what I will give you in this post.</p>

<p>This is the thread I was thinking about earlier: </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>and </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Now here’s the link to the financial aid board on college confidential. Scroll down to see the 7 threads that pinned to the top. They all start with the word “IMPORTANT.” Peruse them, especially “Best schools that give the most merit based aid.” </p>

<p>[Financial</a> Aid & Scholarships - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/]Financial”>Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>And here’s a really good book that might give you some ideas:
Paying for College Without Going Broke 2002, by Kalman Chany with Geoff Martz </p>

<p>By the way, here’s a hint regarding your daughter’s Spanish. I don’t know if AP Spanish 6 is AP Language or AP Literature, but she should try to maximize her credits by taking several tests. If she’s going to consider a state school, it may be worth her time to take the CLEP. It’s a test that is often not accepted at higher level schools, but many state schools give credit for it. I actually earned 12 credits from my perfect score on a CLEP foreign language but only 6 from my perfect score on the AP language test. </p>

<p>For example, SUNY-Stony Brook doesn’t list what they give for CLEP (only that they do give credit for it) but SUNY Plattsburgh does. She can earn a maximum of 6 credits through AP and 12 through CLEP. She wouldn’t be able to apply them both since the 12 CLEP would cover the 6 AP language, but still, 12 credits is almost an entire semester worth of college credit for one test that I believe costs under $80: </p>

<p><a href=“http://web.plattsburgh.edu/admissions/transfers/credits/exams.php#clep[/url]”>http://web.plattsburgh.edu/admissions/transfers/credits/exams.php#clep&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;