colleges with good FA!

Paying for College
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<p>i have sat 1820(m 720, r 510, w 590)
gpa 3.86</p>

<p>i know my state schools are the best fit for me because of my stat which isnt great and my need for financial aid.
but i really want to get out of Virginia(where i live).</p>

<p>can anybody recommend me private colleges that give good FA or any schools with good FA?
Also, my EFC is 0. is that a good thing or bad thing ?</p>

<p>any suggestions would be appreciated!
preferably west or east, urban and warm, but any shcools w/ great FA please!:)
thank you!</p>

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<p>The problem I see is that the kinds of schools that have the FA that you need would require much higher stats. </p>

<p>The schools that would accept your stats, don’t typically offer the aid that you would need. :(</p>

<p>Your math SAT is very good, but your CR is going to hurt you. </p>

<p>Virginia is a big state. Certainly there are some publics that will feel like you’re “getting away” yet you’ll still get all the FA benefits of being an in-state school. :)</p>

<p>When you say that you want to “get out of Virginia,” could that really just mean that you want to get out of your general area? Wouldn’t being a few hours away (but still in VA) feel like you were “getting away”? I would think so. :)</p>

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<p>thanks mom for your advice.
thats very sad that my reading is so low haha.
actually i came from Korea few years ago. and i still need to take TOEFL…
if i do good on that, would that help me?
oh also, i have a green card.</p>

<p>i wanted to go to west especially, thinking i could visit Korea more often… since my mom is still there. well… some of my friends told me that doesnt make sense,… but thats what i was thinking.
also, i prefer so much being in a city rather than being in a rural area which is where i live now and i dont wanna go to urban scools in virginia.</p>

<p>well, i guess i will just have to take the reality…but i wanted to apply to places and see afterward to see my available options…</p>

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<p>If your FAFSA EFC is 0, that is a good thing. EFC = expected family contribution, and if the govt expects you to contribute zero based on your parents completing the FAFSA, its good.</p>

<p>However - the new FAFSA (for 2010, based on the 2009 tax year) was only made available today (New Year’s Day) and the EFC based on your answers would take at least a week to get back to you via email. So, I assume you’re citing the EFC from the FAFSA estimator, which would have been available prior to today. </p>

<p>And I believe its a myth that State Schools are better dispensers of aid, especially for out of state students. I am sure others will chime-in on that last sentence.</p>

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<p>:) I didn’t say that your reading is “so low.” I said it would hurt you, and it will hurt you at the kind of private schools that meet full need with little or no loans.</p>

<p>If you have a 0 EFC, that sounds like you’re rather low income, so would you really have the money to visit Korea very often? Your friends are right. It doesn’t make sense to pick schools in Calif to be closer to Korea. </p>

<p>*** OP quote: i prefer so much being in a city rather than being in a rural area which is where i live now and i dont wanna go to urban scools in virginia.**
*</p>

<p>Certainly, there are Virginia publics that are not in urban or rural areas. There’s nothing “wrong” with applying to a couple of “what if” schools or some privates where your stats might get some merit, but you need to apply to **several ** in-state publics that fit your “not rural/not urban” requirements.</p>

<p>What about these VA publics… (I’m not sure of their urban/rural status - do you know?)</p>

<p>George Mason U - Fairfax
James Madison U - Harrisonburg
Longwood U - Farmville
Radford U - Radford
U of Mary Washington - Fredericksburg
Virginia Commonwealth U - Richmond (is this urban?)
U of Virginia - Wise
Virginia State U - Petersburg</p>

<p>Maybe others can chime in here. I’m not familiar with areas that these campuses sit. Which are NOT rural or too urban???</p>

<p>* ** Zambon quote: If your FAFSA EFC is 0, that is a good thing. EFC = expected family contribution, and if the govt expects you to contribute zero based on your parents completing the FAFSA, its good.** *</p>

<p>An EFC of 0 does not mean that someone else (gov’t or school) will pay for all or most of your education. Most privates for the OP’s stats do NOT meet need, therefore the gap would be larger than the likely gap that his instate public would give.</p>

<p>An EFC of 0 can be a curse in many ways unless you have high stats and get accepted to an elite full need school. Nearly all EFC 0 kids find it very difficult to get all of their expenses covered.</p>

<p>Students with an EFC of 0 also typically have the problem that they don’t have parents who can afford to take out Plus loans or co-sign other loans to pay for gaps in FA packages.</p>

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<p>im applying to gmu and vcu which are urban.:slight_smile:
thanks for your help.</p>

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<p>This is in general totally incorrect. Most kids with 0 EFCs have the fewest college options. If you are an extremely strong student with very high grades and scores who qualifies for the small number of colleges that meet full need, then yes, it’s a good thing. But kids fitting that description make up less than 1 percent of the college going population.</p>

<p>Some state schools will meet need for families under certain incomes, but significant loans are almost always part of the package.</p>

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<p>Incorrect. My experience with many students in this position has shown students with 0 EFC have a great deal of excellent opportunities.</p>

<p>Students with the greatest financial need often have the red carpet rolled out to them. Unfortunately, many students in that position have been beaten down by other socio-economic factors to the point where they have lost hope and do not pursue the opportunities.</p>

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<p>*scottaa quote: Students with the greatest financial need often have the red carpet rolled out to them. *</p>

<p>You must be talking about the few lucky ones that have stellar stats that get accepted to ivies/elites.</p>

<p>The many who post on CC who have decent stats and want to go to college have less options. Many of the schools that they qualify for, only give fed aid, which doesn’t cover COA.</p>

<p>A child who is poor, who doesn’t get accepted to an elite that covers everything under the sun for COA (including several roundtrip airfares home and personal expenses) often cannot go that far away from home, so his choices are often limited to schools within a 3-5 hour drive. </p>

<p>Having a 0 EFC is not good. Many of those kids’ parents cannot qualify for Plus loans if needed for gaps (and yes, many schools have gaps in their FA packages - even for 0 EFC kids). </p>

<p>Remember, an EFC is not the minimum a student/family must pay for most schools. And, there are not enough full-need schools to go around (nor would most 0 EFC students likely qualify.)</p>

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<p>*im applying to gmu and vcu which are urban.
thanks for your help. :slight_smile: *</p>

<p>I’m confused. I thought you didn’t want urban (or rural).</p>

<p>Are any of the schools is post #5 in areas that you would like? Have you visited any of those schools to see if they would also be desirable?</p>

<p>BTW…just because a school may be in a so-called rural area, does not mean that it won’t be a fun place to be. When we visited Clemson, we saw that it was in a rural-like area, but we could also see that it would be a fun school with many inviting off-campus hangouts. :)</p>

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<p>claremont mckenna has great financial aid!! source: princeton review 2009-2010</p>

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<p>I forgot that USNews puts urban, suburban, etc in their books, so I’ve added the info below…</p>

<p>George Mason U - Fairfax - suburban
James Madison U - Harrisonburg - urban
Longwood U - Farmville - rural
Radford U - Radford - urban
U of Mary Washington - Fredericksburg - suburban
Virginia Commonwealth U - Richmond - urban
U of Virginia - Wise - rural
Virginia State U - Petersburg - suburban</p>

<p>So, it looks like there are a few suburban choices :slight_smile: However, I wouldn’t immediately dismiss those that are in urban or rural areas; some of those schools may have features that you really like which overcome whatever you don’t like about urban or rural areas. :)</p>

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<p>It’s very common for students to want to get away from home - but keep in mind that college is only 4 more years, after which you can aim for graduate school or a job in another area. If you do a year abroad, then it’s only three more years. It’s not worth it to pay more money to go out of state and study the same thing. Just do as well as you can academically in Virginia and the options will open up. My son is in the same boat - we live in NC and he want to go to a school in the big city. Chapel Hill and Raleigh do not measure up to his standards, but he may have no choice unless he gets scholarships</p>

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<p>*It’s very common for students to want to get away from home *</p>

<p>Yes, but many states are large enough that a student can “go away” without leaving the state and having to deal with OOS rates. :)</p>

<p>*My son is in the same boat - we live in NC and he want to go to a school in the big city. Chapel Hill and Raleigh do not measure up to his standards, but he may have no choice unless he gets scholarships *</p>

<p>Hope he gets what he wants. :slight_smile: Where did he apply? What are his stats? Did he seek out schools that are known to give nice merit?</p>

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<p>No that is not what I’m talking about. </p>

<p>The typical “0 EFC” student with reasonable stats has plenty of opportunities. However, those opportunities will not be found in the Ivies or near-Ivies and are not normally found at the states either. The LAC’s are where most of their opportunities will be found.</p>

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<p>*The typical “0 EFC” student with reasonable stats has plenty of opportunities.</p>

<p>However, those opportunities will not be found in the Ivies or near-Ivies and are not normally found at the states either. The LAC’s are where most of their opportunities will be found.
*</p>

<p>I don’t know what your definition of “reasonable stats” is.</p>

<p>I don’t think most 0 EFC students with what I call “reasonable stats” get free rides to the LACs that they would qualify for. </p>

<p>How many mid tier LACs meet 100% of need with little to no loans? How many are ALSO need blind? </p>

<p>The problem I see is this…</p>

<p>Without high stats, a 0 EFC student with “reasonable stats” is not that financially desirable for many mid-tier schools - at least not desirable enough to give a free full-ride. An exception might be if the 0 EFC student is a URM that is badly wanted by the school. </p>

<p>Schools that use “enrollment management” like to use FA to target desirable students. It can be almost a game. If they have a set amount of FA and 10 desirable students (whose need ranges from partial to full need), they are going to “divvy” the money up to get the most students to say "yes. If that means giving bad packages to the 0 EFCs, they’ll do it. There’s a name for that - accept/deny.</p>

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<p>I’ll refer back again to the example I’ve used over the past 9 months. Student with 0 EFC, 28 ACT, applied to 6 colleges, rcvd 5 full ride offers with no more than the standard Stafford complement. She was not a top 10%'r at any of the schools to which she applied.</p>

<p>There are less than 50 schools in this country which are need blind. So honestly, that doesn’t mean squat to the typical college applicant. What matters is the bottom line offers you receive from the colleges, and good offers are a matter of good strategy.</p>

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<p>scottaa: Student with 0 EFC, 28 ACT, applied to 6 colleges, rcvd 5 full ride offers with no more than the standard Stafford complement</p>

<p>Ok…Scott…here’s the disconnect…A student with an ACT 28 is in the 91st percentile.</p>

<p>A small percentage of kids with 0 EFC’s are in 91st percentile (or higher). Kids with 0 EFCs with “reasonable stats” are more likely going to have ACT 25 or ACT 26 (about 80-85th percentile or so). Those kids do NOT have many (or any) full ride opportunities at mid-tier LACs, especially if they’re not a desired URM.</p>

<p>The child you describe may have also been a URM. Many schools will snap up a URM with an ACT 28 and give them a full-ride (even though its going to cost the school $200k) The school benefits ITSELF by offering such to a high stats URM. Many schools see little “self-benefit” of offering such a package to a non-URM with a 0 EFC (Colleges may seem benevolent, but they’re also self-serving when it comes to giving away money.)</p>

<p>So, for the typical “better than avg” stats student with a 0 EFC, his choices are far more narrow…especially if he’s not a URM.</p>

<p>*good offers are a matter of good strategy. *</p>

<p>Scott, if you’ve read my posts, you’d know that I’m all about strategy. I’ve worked with non-URM kids with 0 or low EFCs with ACT 24 - 26 (or so) and have tried various strategies. They are dedicated students, but their stats aren’t high enough to really attract the full aid they need. Yes, they can get some aid/discounts, but a discount that leaves a $20k+ gap might as well be $20 million.</p>

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<p>I was referring the schools to which she applied, not the ACT pool in general.</p>