Sorry if this is not the right place but I thought parents might know more about this.
I got wait listed at all my top choices and my family can’t get need-based aid but also can’t help pay due to recent circumstances which made my safeties implausible.
Does anyone know schools I can apply to for spring admission? U Rochester looks like the best option right now but the more options the better.
Did the recent circumstances involve a change in financial situation? If so, contact the financial aid office at your safeties and talk to them. Or talk to the admissions counselor at the college and talk to them about options.
I would also talk to your Guidance counselor for ideas. Don’t try to do this on your own.
Your options are:
Don’t go to college this fall…take a gap year. Then you will still be a freshman when you start and eligible for scholarships. For financial reasons, apply to colleges where your scores are above average so you get merit scholarships.
Go to community college this year. When you transfer you won’t be eligible for as much merit financial aid but if you go to a state school it might be more affordable.
Find a college that will admit you for spring semester But USA Today says:
Financial aid differs in some ways for spring applicants than fall applicants.
“On a global level, institutions tend to have more money available for students entering in the fall semester,” Schmidt said. “Some federal financial aid programs are limitedly funded and institutions may have exhausted all of government allocated resources before the spring semester even begins. Also, merit-based institutional scholarships may be exclusively reserved for fall-entry term students or require students to apply by a priority date.”
http://college.usatoday.com/2014/09/04/everything-you-need-to-know-about-applying-for-spring-admission/
Thank you for all this information.
It’s not something concrete that I can explain to admissions or financial aid people, unless they take the excuse dysfunctional family being dysfunctional again.
I was thinking of taking a gap year but I don’t know if that could negatively affect admission chances.
I’ve definitely been looking at state schools with rolling admission though but such high acceptance rates.
If you take a gap year, you may want to try for a large-merit-seeking list of colleges, so that the merit scholarships will not be dependent on family financial circumstances.
^^^^ if you need full tuition + room and board covered through merit, your best bet is to take a gap year and apply to colleges that offer full rides to students with your stats.
If you get into University of Rochester or one of the state schools with rolling admission for spring 2018, do you know how you are going to pay for it?
Most state schools are cheap enough that a partial scholarship I earned can cover them but I don’t know how University of Rochester’s aid is.
With a gap year I’m just afraid of having nothing to do.
Most in-state publics? OOS cost for publics can be almost as high as privates.
So university of Rochester costs $67,000/yr. They do give merit, but I have no idea if they give it for spring admits. You should call and ask before spending $ on the application.
Are any of your safeties affordable? Could you ask for more merit (if you got any in the initial packages)?
What are your instate options?
Finally, do you get to keep the scholarship if you take a gap year or delay to spring? That’s important to know for your decision making.
University of Maryland has a cohort that starts in the spring due to space limitations. But their OOS tuition is not cheap. Good school, so worth a call to see if they will still take an app.
University of Pittsburgh is another possibility, as well as Virginia tech and Nc state. These are big schools that might have openings in the spring. (There are usually some students who drop out after fall semester.)
Good luck!
Oops I did mean in-state publics.
Which state?
My in-state options are SUNYs i.e., Stoneybrook, Binghamton, Newpaultz.
and I can still keep my partial scholarship regardless of which semester I start.
SUNY Binghamton - if your major is English or social science. Stonybrook for STEM.
These are both really good schools filled with high achieving students who for a variety of reasons (affordability being the most obvious) are not going to private schools.
If Binghamton has an honors college, I’d encourage you to apply.
I do think you should enroll in the fall if you can. It sounds like you are ready to move on with your life.
Can you commute from any of these SUNY schools?
I can’t commute to any SUNYs. I also don’t know which are the best for grad school placement and scholarships like Rhodes.
New Paltz is also good for English. One of my D’s friends who attended has had a play she wrote performed, locally and in small venues, but still. Another friend’s D majored in art history and minored in English; she is now at an Ivy grad school. Another friend’s D is studying English there and is really happy.
So is Bing. A friend’s D is now an English instructor at a CUNY school after graduating from Bing. She attended law school for a year but hated it.
Stony Brook is best for STEM and is a suitcase school. New Paltz is slightly less so and at least for downstate, Bing is not.
My D’s former bf got a Fulbright from a different SUNY.
I have a friend whose kids went to U Rochester and SUNY Geneseo. She was and is a prestige hound and was, at first, mortified that her younger D chose a SUNY and EARLY DECISION at that. She could well afford full pay but her D wanted to go to a SUNY. Now, 10 years on, I get “Oh, SUNY was such a great choice. I couldn’t have chosen a better private college for her.”
Honestly, from what you are saying, I would choose a SUNY and get out relatively debt free.
You can’t commute to ANY of the SUNY schools? None of them?
It depends on where the OP lives and what s/he wants to study. My kids could commute to 2 SUNY’s, but one was very low rated and the other didn’t offer the programs they wanted. I was always under the impression that SUNYs were put in upstate locations that for the most part (other than maybe Buffalo and Albany) are not highly populated to try to help the business and industry in those areas.
62 suny’s have undergraduate majors, and they are distributed throughout the state. See the map.
The system is not as elite as some state systems. Rather it is committed to access with its multiple locations and low tuition, 6500/year, soon to be free. Even so, there are gems within the system: 2 AAU research universities, multiple LAC, technical colleges, contract colleges with Cornell and Alfred.
I think suny is a good answer in this case.
SUNY’s will not soon be free. There will be a full tuition allotment for students in certain income brackets but room, board, fees, books and other expenses aren’t included.
SUNY’s are a wonderful option. There is a lot of choice and many different majors and programs.
Thank you to everyone who has commented thus far.
It’s looking like my choices are Brandeis, Boston College, Rochester or a SUNY. It seems the best are Stoneybrook or Binghamton since I’m looking at computational linguistics or neuroscience.