So here’s some background… I live in Illinois with my mom and my dad lives in California. I knew since I was little that I wanted to go to California for college. I had dreams of Stanford and UCLA but I got older and realized I wasn’t that smart haha. So I ended up applying to UCSB UCI Pepperdine LMU and I applied to DePaul in Chicago as a safety school. I got into all of them but financially they didn’t all work out. Pepperdine ended up being $41,000 per year so that’s too much. Also I thought I could get instate at the uc schools because of my dad but that seems like that’s not going to happen anymore. So UCSB and UCI are out of the question most likely. That leaves lmu and DePaul. Lmu is known for being very expensive but they gave me leadership scholarship of $15,000 per year that only 20 people get and an early action award of $2,000 and a work study of $3,200 per year. Each year at lmu totals $36,000. I know that’s a lot. DePaul gave me their presidential scholarship of $17,000 per year and a grant of $7,000 per year, which makes it about $28,000 per year. I know depaul is smarter financially but lmu is ranked higher. Also I’m in the honors program at lmu but not depaul. Both schools are good for my major of either business or communications but I feel like the opportunities in la would be bigger. I visited depaul and I didn’t connect to it like lmu. I feel like if I go to depaul l won’t be very excited about college because I will think about the better schools I go into and how I gave up California. I also haven’t connected to people at depaul but I have at lmu. My parents told me I’m pretty much on my own paying for college and they never gave me a savings. I am known for working hard and I’m trying to get outside scholarships and I’ll work hard to get a good paying job in the future but I can’t promise that will happen. I’m so lost. Where should I go?? The cheaper school (depaul) or my dream school (lmu). I just don’t wanna regret anything.
You are limited to a $5500 loan as a freshman. How ill you bridge the gap for any of them?