Desperate for Aid

Paying for College
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<p>Din…you chose the wrong list of schools to apply to. You would likely have been more successful with a better targeted list of colleges that took your family ability to pay into consideration. A better targeted list would also have netted you acceptances based on your stats.</p>

<p>Many students start college at community colleges, or directional universities. Or they start part time. There are lots of ways to reach your goal, but really…putting your family into significant debt should not be one of them, in my opinion.</p>

<p>You said you have a community college option, and your parents were encouraging you to do that. This was in your first post. That being the case, try to embrace a different means to your end. </p>

<p>You will get there. The trip is just going to take a different path.</p>

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<p>Well @TomSrOfBoston‌ how do you react when disappointed? You never say some things that aren’t necessarily true out of anger? Please don’t put anymore time into your your snobby and unhelpful comments. If you had read the rest of the post maybe you would have seen that I have come down a bit and am discussing alternative options, It’s funny how people like myself from the NJ/NY area get the smug rep when you guys up in Boston are no better. If you want to try and give me some good advice go ahead but there’s nothing you can recommend at this point that hasn’t already been said.</p>

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<p>Uh-oh. There goes the thread. </p>

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<p>Unfortunately, his gap will keep him out of Baruch. If you are eligible for Pell, aren’t you also eligible for NJ TAG/ While you may be disappointed that the only choices are unaffordable, it is not a fate worse than death to attend CC. What you need to realize that there is more that one route that will take you from point A to pint B. What CC will do for you now is put some distance between you and your hs gap. </p>

<p>Go to CC, get an associates , kick butt on the GPA, so that you will be in a position to transfer up (yes, Columbia does take transfer students). </p>

<p>If you are considering taking a gap year, is not going to make an appreciable difference in raising his GPA. IF he can get a 3.3 at least he would be in the B+ range. If you can retake in june (especially if you are fee waiver eligible), I would recommend that you do. Hurry, to your GC’s office as the deadline for the June SAT/ACT is on the 9th. start lining up your your recommendation letters. Keep in mind while it will be a year before you go to school after a gap year, the next admissions cycle begins in a couple of months. Find out if you can do something through Americorps (where they will give you ~4k upon the completion of your service year). Or consider getting a part-time to save some money to help defray the cost of going to school next year (if you make less than 6k this year (end of 2014) it will not affect your GPA, when you file the fafsa next january. I would also recommend looking at the thread on the parents forum "about schools for B students.</p>

<p>Look at the sticky at the top for schools, where you can get automatic merit to help defray some of the cost. Start with a bottoms up approach where you first and foremost choose some financially feasible safeties. Apply to schools through rolling admissions, have a list of schools that are affordable that you can get in through EA.</p>

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<p>This student isn’t Pell eligible – his parents apparently do not have any savings earmarked for college and can only put a few thousand a year in for him, but their income is high enough that they aren’t going to get close to a full ride in need based aid.</p>

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<p>Didn’t he say he got 2k in Pell?</p>

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<p>At the top of page 3 (now where are those post numbers?) he said he got a $2k Pell grant.</p>

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<p>OP, a high gpa in college, whether it’s at CC or a state school or where ever will make a huge difference in your prospects. If you can’ t do it locally, it’s highly unlikely you are going to do a turnover at IU. </p>

<p>A lot of the CUNY/SUNY schools get snubbed by top students who go to highly selective schools, do ok, or barely do ok, and then they are incredulous when they try to get into some certification, preprof or grad programs. That GPA is all important. I see a lot of kids who are trying to get into some post BA programs, are already “all loaned up”, have already drained their parents with their ug expenses as well. RIght now, you are revved up with a prospect and goal in mind and what appears to be the most direct way to get there. Not the best way to go. </p>

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<p>I haven’t read the whole thread, but can OP do a gap year and apply to an HBCU? He might get lots of FA. From what I understand, corporations seek out graduates from HBCUs. Would he consider this option? </p>

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<p>The student said he got $2000 in Pell grant money. This means his EFC per FAFSA was about $3600. The problem…he applied to a colleges that guarantee no significant need based aid beyond the Pell, and Direct Loan. </p>

<p>But then, he didn’t have the GPA or standardized test scores for admission to most of the schools,that DO guarantee to meet full need.</p>

<p>I’m with Sybbie. He needs to research ASAP funding for lower income students in NJ. </p>

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<p>wrt to HBCU’s, and example: Howard, one of the premier HBCU’s in the country, has a full tuition scholarship for students with your stats. If you managed to raise your GPA to 3.25 (which should be doable if you do a good job on your finals, since you have 3.23, right?) and 1300 CR+M, you get full tuition, fees, and room paid for. And HBCU’s ARE recruited.
That’s the type of aid you could count on if you took the SAT this June, raised your score, and applied to Howard as soon as the application goes live.</p>

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<p>I think I would place a call to that motivational speaker that gave you the idea of all of the scholarships that you thought you would get and let him know your situation. </p>

<p>Here is the thing: I know you have big plans for the future. 4.0 in college, oh yes, and big fat juicy internships to pay off those loans you are going to get your parents to take out, and then a very high paying job that 's going to take care of all you and they borrow. Do you think for a nanosecond that this isn’t the way a lot of kids think too? Some of them don’t even need to badger their parents to borrow, have their way paid by merit, need award or just their parent’s money, are straightaway in a top school or program, have connections to the field through family–often very deep seeded ones, and have already shown that they can test high and do well in very rigorous settings. And most of them are NOT going to meet that goal. And you think YOU, who have shown nothing of that mettle yet are going to do better than the top of THAT group? The chances are ludicrously low. Yes, can happen, but I don’t think so. Yes, you can do it but that isn’t the optimal way to do so, I guarantee you. I’ve had kids going to college and know their experiences and that of their peers now for 10 year afterwards, so I have a pretty good idea how this works, not to mention that I know how the IB world works. As I may have said earlier, you might as well start buying mega lottery tickets. You can strike it rich that way too.</p>

<p>The problem with your plan is not the aspirations, the goal, the determination or even whether or not you even have the “right stuff”. It’s that it is a high risk plan and you are putting your parents’ future on the line and they really aren’t gung ho about this. Even if they were, it would be something that is not smart. You want to go into business, finance, IB, you stop and think about what you are asking them to do. You asking them to borrow more than they can possibly afford if you don’t hit it right. What if you die, are disabled, just not make it? It’s one thing that you take it on the chin, …but them? How could you? You have better odds at Atlantic City, frankly, and you wouldn’t have them borrow for you to go to the craps table there. And that is all compressed in a short time period What you want to do, is going to take years of consistency, dliigence, hard work, and LUCK. All that time every dime they borrow is a growing debt due the nature of interest. Do the numbers. </p>

<p>The other thing is that you are a teenager with lots of big plans and ideas. That you had no idea how this whole college thing worked, that you believed superficial reassurances are both clear indicators you have no idea how thing are in the real world. And this is really simple stuff where they are taking money for chances. Wait till you have to go get the money. Then you meet the real sharks. </p>

<p>I’ve seen this scenario many times. If you really want to do this, study up on the courses you need to make it most likely to happen. Work your tail off at what options you have, the low cost ones. If you can show you reallly can make the grades at CC, taking a risk at transferring would be a more palatable one I, for one, am much more amenable for parents taking a chance on a 4.0 CC grad at age 20,wanting to go to Kelley or whatever school, than a 3.2 teenager who isn’t out of high school yet. It’s not like you are passing up any money IU is offering you. They’ll take you then , if they’ll take the likes of you now–in fact more likely as a top gun CC grad who has taken courses as similar as possible to those in the first years of the program you are eyeing at Kelley and doing extremely well in them. If it were a matter of them offering you big bucks to go there, and having to borrow, say $10K for the gap, and it’s the ideal program, that’s one thing. You are being offered the back door and told that your parents need to borrow for you to have this chance. This is NOT a good offer at all. They have nothing to lose, and your parents have a lot to lose if it doesn’t work out , and there is no guarantee you even get into the program you want even if all went well. </p>

<p>Better you do well those two years, and reassess as an older and wiser young man who has shown he can perform academically. It might be better to take some strong academic courses as inexpensively and as loan free as possible, focus on the GMAT, not the now old business, your SATs, and try to get into a top grade MBA program. As an AA with good grades and an early jump on the GMATS to do well on, I would say if you can stay on task, your chances would be excellent for entry at a top level MBA program, and then making top level salaries. I say this as one who has gone on that journey, and walked the walk, not just talking the talk. And it would all be on your own dime by then as YOU get to take the loans out for those programs. Lenders are not willing to bet a dime on teenagers like you with big plans–they grab your parents hostage; when you are college grad with an accept to a prof/grad program that holds promise, well now, that’s a different story. They’ll invest in you then as the outcome is very favorable. </p>

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<p>Sorry, I missed the student’s comment on getting a Pell Grant. I thought the family income cutoff was around 50K, and he said his family earns 50K - 80K. So that is why I figured he was not Pell eligible.</p>

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<p>Is there only one child in college? An EFC of $3600 on $50,000 income sounds very low to me. </p>

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<p>Sorry that I did not go through all 7 pages of comments. I just found it awkward for a student that admit he is coming from a low income family and yet trying to ask his family to support $40k/year to go to an oos public college.</p>

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<p>Yes there is only one child in college as of next year. I’m not sure of my EFC off the top of my head but it is around 3600, only off by a few hundred maybe. </p>

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<p>Even if you have another going to college in a year or two, the reduced EFC will not translate into much more aid from IU. only about 1500 more in a Pell Grant.</p>

<p>however, since the state of NJ does give state aid in addition to fed aid, going to a NJ school could be quite affordable. </p>

<p>See if any NJ publics are still accepting apps and see if it is too late to apply for NJ state aid.</p>

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<p>According to the NACAC list, Richard Stockton is till accepting applications. More may be published in the coming days.</p>

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<p>Heres my plan. I decided to look into Baruch a bit more. While it is not at the level of Indiana, I sort of like the idea of the city setting it is in. My dad and I have a friend at a local school who is an admissions person. He is friends with a director of admissions at Baruch. I am going to try to meet the director, tell them my situation, and hopefully I could work my way in there for the next fall semester. I would go there for a year or two, then depending on the situation transfer out to an even better business school like Indiana, Michigan, NYU, etc… . What makes that even more financially appealing is if I can excel at Baruch, then I could possibly get a much better financial package. Of course if Baruch does not work out, then CC is the way. </p>

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<p>If you plan on being in NY/NJ you are much better served going to Baruch than going to Indiana. It is highly unlikely that you are going to get into Baruch for the fall regardless of who you know because applications are not sent directly to the college but to the CUNY processing center. There is no meeting with the Director of Admissions at Baruch to get you in, because that is not how it works. With a 3.23, your gap is low for Baruch.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/undergraduate/counselor-corner/Admission-Profile.pdf”>http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/undergraduate/counselor-corner/Admission-Profile.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>However, they now take essays and recommendation letters as part of their process.</p>

<p>Your chances of being admitted for Fall 2014 are nil, because you are way pass the application deadline for a seat in the class and they are full. You can probably apply for spring 2015 admissions (as that application is now available). Even if you should be admitted to Baruch, you will still pay out of state tuition and fees which are currently $16k. With your family being low income, the only aid that you are going to receive is Pell and a $5500 loan. How are you going to close the gap?</p>

<p>I agree with MYOS1634, that you should peruse the NACAC list and apply to a school in NJ, where you will have an opportunity for increased aid.</p>