Deciding between colleges without all scholarship info?

Paying for College
1

I’m a High School senior, and I’m deciding between two schools. One is an in-state school that I could attend for about $3,300 in gov’t subsidized loans per year after applying all aid, including a workstudy.The other is an out of state school that I prefer much more for a variety of reasons, but it’d be about $24,000 per year after scholarships and grants (1800/yr can be covered by a work-study, $6,000 a year in subsidized loans, $3,500 unsubsidized, then about $13,000 in private loans). I may be able to apply for in-state tuition after the first year of school, which would make that a much more reasonable number. My question is, I’ve been applying for many scholarships, but I won’t know the results on most of them until after the May 1st enrollment deadline, so should I choose assuming I got all of them, none of them, or some?

Any help is appreciated, I’m very frantic about this.

2

Unless any of the scholarships is a four-year, renewable scholarship, it won’t matter. At best, you’d be covered for freshman year, and up a creek after that.

I think your safest assumption is that you got none of the scholarships . . . but if you’re more optimistic than that and the scholarships you applied for are good for all four years, then you could go ahead and submit a deposit at the private school (as well as the in-state public), just to be on the safe side. It’s not technically permissible, and you’d definitely forfeit the deposit if you decided not to attend . . . but do what you need to do.

3

Thanks for the reply, let me clear a few things up. The out of state school isn’t a private, it’s a state school, just in another state. My university offered scholarship at the very least gives me $15,000 for Freshman and Sophomore years, then $12,500 for Junior and Senior Years, but that’s accounted for in the loan info I gave. Any idea on how to get in state tuition at the least? The school doesn’t participate in the WUE, so that’s out.

4

Let me see if I have the math right to level set this. $12,000 vs. $100,000.
Do you realistically think you will win $100,000 worth of scholarships?

As far as I know, the big scholarships are all awarded by late April, so I can’t think of any that are both big enough and late enough that you wouldn’t know (but I could certainly be missing one).

Personally, I’d take 12K of debt all day and make myself very happy there!

5

You need to check VERY carefully before you assume you can get instate tuition at an OOS public university. While it is possible at a very small…VERY small number of places, it’s not likely at most.

At most schools your state of residency is where your parents reside as an undergrad. In addition, at most places you can’t establish residency while you are attending college. You have to do it 12 months prior to enrolling. AND at a lot of places…if you start out as an OOS student…that is how you remain until you graduate.

What public OOS college is this?

Here are the ways:

  1. Have your whole family move to the new state 12 months before you actuall enroll in college. As you can see...it's a little late for you to do that at this point.
  2. Move to the new state...get a job there...and work, and fully support yourself until you are 24 yeRs old when you will be independent for financial aid purposes...and can establish your own residency,
  3. Check the school for what it takes to get a status change from OOS to instate status. I think you will see....this is NOT easy. YMMV depending on the state and the school. At some colleges it is possible...some. But at most, you won't be able to get that instate status simply because you are going to college in that new state. Think about it...if that were the case, there would be NO 2nd, 3rd and 4th year college students paying OOS rates at public universities. And we know that many DO pay OOS rates at public universities...because their families are not working and contributing tax dollars to,that OOS school.
6

So my one living parent lives on the East Coast. I live in Arizona with my (former) guardian now that I’ve turned 18, and the OOS school is the University of Colorado at Boulder.

7

The likelihood of you getting instate tuition at University of Colorado for your second year…is about zero.

You are currently a resident of Arizona.

Was this a legal guardianship? Were you a ward of the state at any time?

I hesitate to ask this…but what’s the matter with the colleges in Arizona?

8

Aha - independent student! Perhaps that changes things . . . is anyone here familar with the residency laws for Colorado?

9

This student is independent for financial aid purposes IF this was a legal guardianship.

That is totally different than being independent for instate tuition purposes.

It is very possible that this student does not have to include any parents on his financial aid application.

But he would still be a resident of Arizona. He would have to petition to get instate status in CO.

10

Okay, here’s everything you need to know:

http://www.colorado.edu/registrar/students/state-residency/guidelines

And the answer isn’t entirely straightforward. As an 18-year old who was in a legal guardianship (I am assuming the guardianship was court-ordered - if it wasn’t, then it’s a different situation), you are potentially eligible to establish residency in Colorado, since you have no legal residence elsewhere. But to do so, you’d have to be able to prove that you are entirely self-supporting. If your former guardian (or parent) is continuing to support you, than you wouldn’t qualify.

Assuming that you are able to prove that you’re entirely self-supporting, you run up against another hurdle - a state law presumption that students who seek residency are doing so solely for purposes of qualifying for in-state tuition, which, under state law, is not a legitimate purpose. As a self-supporting, independent student, you could argue that you intend to remain in Colorado, but there’s no guarantee they’d believe you. And it’s highly unlikely that any of this would resolved until after your freshman year.

Your best option, in my opinion, if you really want to do this, is to (1) find out if you can defer your enrollment for a year; (2) move to Colorado immediately and get a job; and then (3) apply for residency after you’ve lived there (and been entirely self-supporting) for a year. Before you do this, in addition to requesting to defer your enrollment, you’d also have to ask if it’s even possible to change your status from out-of-state to in-state after you’ve already been accepted as a student.

So, as far as I can tell, it’s possible that you could get in-state residency, but you’d want to confirm this with the university before you try to do it. It’s possible the school has a “residency officer” who handles just this kind of issue. If not, then you’d want to confirm your plan with a senior member of the admissions office.

Just to be clear, this is my opinion based on a fairly quick review of the information posted on the link above. I have no experience with Colorado residency laws, so I may be missing something. When I have time later this evening, I’ll do some more research and see what I can find.

11

Thanks for the advice everyone. Alright, so it was a court ordered legal guardianship. I did look at that residency link, it’s very complicated but I’m emailing the financial aid office to get some help. Additionally, the answer to “What’s wrong with the Arizona Schools”, there’s a few things. Firstly, to elaborate, I’ve been accepted to UA, NAU, and ASU in addition to all of their honors colleges. However, even with honors level work, I prefer Boulders’ Engineering programs and scientific programs. Furthermore, Boulder’s running(XC+Track) programs are miles above any Arizona school aside from maybe NAU, which is the weakest in-state school in engineering. Also, in addition to some other personal reasons for the choice, I prefer the cold weather and scenery in Boulder over anything I’ve seen in Arizona.

12

Wouldn’t being self supporting include paying all living exoenses including those OOS college costs for the first year? I believe you would not be able to get financial assistance from anyone other than the college or a scholarship,agency. No guardian…no parents.

I agree with Dodgersmom. Your best bet is to ask if you can defer your enrollment there until fall 2017. Move to CO…and get a job. And demonstrate that you are self supporting. Change your driver’s license, register to vote, rent a room or apartment. Change your health insurance to CO…etc. do this for,the year before you plan to enroll.

You will need to check with the college directly. At this point, they have acceoted you as an OOOS student. Make sure that your plan to establish residency will work.

And clarify your guardian status. As noted…if this is NOT a court ordered legal guardianship you were in, all this advice might not be applicable.

Were you independent for financial aid purposes?

Also…where will you get the $13,000 in private loans for your first year? You will need a cosigner for those. Not sure how having a cosigner for a loan impacts establishing you are financially self sufficient.

13

Who is going to be qualified and willing to cosign your loans that are beyond federal loans??

14

<<<but it’d be about $24,000 per year after scholarships and grants (1800/yr can be covered by a work-study, $6,000 a year in subsidized loans, $3,500 unsubsidized, then about $13,000 in private loans). I may be able to apply for in-state tuition after the first year of school, which would make that a much more reasonable number


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??

Does Boulder allow a reclassification if the student starts as an OOS student?

anyway…you’re talking about $40k+ in federal loans and $50k+ in private loans. That is way too much debt. Who knows if you’ll even graduate with an eng’g degree…most who try do NOT. That said, that is too much debt for an eng’g degree…

what are your stats?

Who is going to cosign those private loans???

15

I think the loans are out of the question - for two reasons: (1) they’re unaffordable (and likely unattainable) and (2) more importantly, if you borrow the money to attend Boulder as an out-of-state student, it’s going to be an uphill battle to get reclassified as in-state. It could well be impossible. The only potentially feasible plan would be to take a year off, establish residency in Colorado, and then apply for in-state tuition.

Again, it would require careful planning, but the worst that could happen is that, at the end the the year, they’d say “no” . . . at which point you’d have to take another year off, reapply to Boulder, and try again.

The question is whether it’s worth doing all this to be able to attend school in Colorado. Only you can decide that.

BTW, it’s not the financial aid office you should be contacting - they have nothing to do with deciding whether or not you can be classified as in-state. Start with the Registrar’s office - they’re the ones responsible for the webpage I linked to earlier. (Their phone number and email address are at the bottom of that page.) Then, if you’re serious about pursuing this, contact a senior admissions officer and find out if you can (a) defer your offer of admission for a year and (b) be reclassified as in-state if you meet the qualifications for in-state residency during that year.

Meanwhile, the residency requirements are definitely complicated, but is there anything specific that you didn’t understand? Perhaps I can help.

16

I just need some time to think, thank you for the help dodgersmom. If I have any questions I’ll reply here.

17

@MrArtichokeMan please take it from me since I live in Colorado…I would not go to CU-Boulder with your situation period. CU Boulder is known here for being hard to afford for state students with its mediocre aid for residents and almost non-existent for OOS. Believe me I know what you mean by the beauty and environment of Boulder…my jaw dropped when I saw the mountain scenery there for the first time…and I have lived in Colorado my whole life! But it is absolutely not worth the worse case scenario that you have to take a boat load of debt for that experience. Fighting for in-state residency is going to be an awful uphill battle with some of the worse bureaucracy you will ever encounter…this is coming from my father who graduated from CU. Please take it from me and avoid trying to “afford” going to this school…even if you somehow got in-state residency by living here one year for the reclassification how are you going to afford the very high cost of living and the tuition? Almost all our merit aid is reserved for Colorado high school seniors or very high ranking OOS but even then the aid is mediocre at best. It is not a secret that Colorado public colleges are in awful shape for funding and they look to exploit the nature appeal of our colleges for students who can pay full price. There is a reason as an in-state student I skipped this school and decided to go out of state with better aid instead…the experience is overrated and you will regret the debt and headache you will put yourself in to try and go. Don’t ruin your life or those of your family for Boulder.

18

Very well said. CU Engineering courted my DS and was considered instate due to Army husband being stationed there and even with the little merit scholarship he still discounted the school as being too expensive! He gave me all the free tshirts and hoodies they sent. Be smart. That debt isn’t worth it Plus take into account tuition costs going up every year as well.

19

@Rdtsmith don’t get me wrong CU has a wonderful and robust engineering program that has some programs as strong as Mines…but in the last few years they have not raised merit scholarship amounts while tuition has been increasing by about a thousand a year for in-state…it’s unfortunate but with such a school with a 89%+ acceptance rate, their main priority is getting as many kids to attend that can pay full price, whether or not they are stellar students. It’s just business for them, unfortunately.

20

I don’t understand going into MAJOR MAJOR debt to go to a school with prettier surroundings. It would be much cheaper just to take a few trips there.

Missouri is the state that has easy methods to get residency if you strictly follow their rules…Living there, working there, not going home during summers, and probably voting and getting Drivers License there.

My concern is that you haven’t had adults in your life who have provided proper financial guidance. The idea of burdening yourself with major debt just to be in Colorado is so short sighted.

What are your stats? Maybe we can find a cheaper alternative for you.

Where all did you apply?