Don't know if this question even has a fast answer ...

Paying for College
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<p>What are your D’s stats? Since she’s only a junior, she has time to practice/retest to get better test scores.</p>

<p>What is her GPA? What is her career goal?</p>

<p>If she can get her test scores up, and she has at least a 3.0 (hopefully a 3.3 or 3.5) then we might be able to find some schools that would award her large merit.</p>

<p>How much CAN you afford to pay each year? Once you know that, you need to figure out how much can be gotten in a merit scholarship from various schools. If your D can take out a 5500 student loan, that would also help.</p>

<p>I know you want her to have the full college experience, so maybe you and your spouse can figure out a way to fund that…either with a second part-time job, working more hours, a small Parent Plus loan, and/or something else. </p>

<p>Yes, PA schools are pricey. Frankly, nearly all the flagships are pricey these days when Room and Board are needed…but I know that PSU’s tuition alone is high. :(</p>

22

<p>My daughter is still a freshman … The reason I’m asking all these questions now is so I have time to plan, and so I don’t mislead her by promising something I cannot deliver. I thought we’d be in better financial shape at this point, but like a lot of other people, my savings/investments took a beating this last decade. Then I was unemployed for a while … And then underemployed for 2 years. So even though the salary is finally back up to a decent level, we haven’t been able to save much. </p>

<p>Right now she’s got around a 3.1. For regular, non-honors classes. And that took a lot of effort. She’s not a great tester but makes up for it by doing all her homework, projects, etc, that also count toward her grade. However, her lack of testing ability means she can’t probably rely on a great SAT score to counteract the gpa. There’s a long way to go, of course … But I’m trying to start figuring it out now, since we don’t have the obvious options of high need or merit.</p>

23

<p>I would like to tell you how nice it is to read a parent trying to understand and not give false hope to their child. It seems we read the opposite all the time…the student was lead to believe college was taken care of when the reality is completely on the other side. </p>

<p>Many on here have much more to offer on detail and help, but I wanted to mention what great parenting. Your daughter is fortunate.</p>

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<p>With your financial profile and her academic profile, the chances are not good that you’ll get a lot of aid. I agree with UofRbound that you’ve done and are doing a great job in preparing. Look through the archives here for Momfromtexas’s old thread on full ride scholarships. Her methodology would yield some possibilities for your daughters. The thing is with scholarships is that it is the lesser known schools that are often more willing to pay. The standards go way high as the name recognition grows.</p>

<p>The way I look at it is that paying for college involves past, present and future income from both parent and child. Hopefully, you’ve been encouraging your child to save a bit of allowance, baby sitting earnings, special occasion money, so that she has a bit of a nest egg too. As she becomes old enough to get a work license, she should work and earn some money for college as well as for her own expenses. THere is a whole section on the common application that does ask about that. Kids really should start to make some money outside of what parents give them as they become able. Summers and even a few hours at college should figure in the picture too. Most college financial aid packages do include this self help: loans and work study. She will be able to take out $5500 in loans on her own freshman year and more each year. So she should be mirroring her parent in how this is going to be paid. You have the savings, you will have to budget from current earnings as she goes to college–actually your saving plan will just turn into payments to college, and there is nothing wrong with taking out some loans as well to extend the period of paying for it if you are financially able to swing it and find a school that is worth it to you and your DD to do,</p>

<p>According to all calculators, we can afford college, any college for our kids. Well, except for the one calculator that counts, our personal one which says squeezing $35K a year is all we can manage. So our kids have to come up with the difference if they want to go to a school that costs more. Not bad 12 years ago when the top private costs were “only” about $10k more, but these days the top priced ones are exceeding the $60K line. Still my one who just finished his freshman year came up with some nice choices. He was very satisfied with his choices. Some lesser known schools offered sweetners and were a bit less expensive anyways which made them affordable. We have some fine local schools, and if he commuted, we could swing it. Our state schools were totally affordable with money to spare. And most of the OOS choices also fell under the limit. He’s in your state now at one of the big school choices, and as happy as could be–well, just about, anyways. And financially, it’s working out.</p>

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<p>If you live near the Maryland or NY borders of PA, check the universities in those states that are closest to you for “neighboring county” tuition rates. For example, Frostburg U offers this to certain PA residents. </p>

<p>You are smart to get a handle on the money issues now. Give yourself a big pat on the back for that! I ran the numbers when Happykid was in 9th grade, and it completely changed my understanding of what would be possible. She’s about to graduate from our local CC, and is headed to a state U in the fall. It has been pleasure to have her at home for two “extra” years. I thought it was just her parents who felt that way, but this spring she told us that she hadn’t really wanted to leave yet! Not having the cash for four years away from home wasn’t such a bad deal after all. Had we had it, she would have felt obligated to leave the nest before she wanted to.</p>

<p>If your daughter has always been bad at standardized exams relative to her classroom grades, you may want to have a meeting with her guidance counselor about it. Three contributing factors you could check out: poor test-taking strategies, test-induced anxiety, undiagnosed processing issues/dyslexia. There are other possibilities too. Each has its own fix or workaround. She has access to better help with this kind of thing while she is in HS than she will once in college.</p>

<p>In the end, you and your daughter are going to be fine. Hang in there!</p>

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<p>Closer college. I’m sorry, I don’t know your region of the country, so I will give you an example close to me. If I had a child like yours, then I would look at a college like Stephen F Austin. It is an hour away from me. For a Texas resident to live on campus, it will cost 21,000 a year. They give scholarships with test scores starting at 1100 for the SAT and a 24 on the ACT, though better ones are for 1220 and 27. Is it a fabulous school? No, but a decent one. If my kid was willing to work hard, she could get a decent education.</p>

<p>Another example is Louisiana Tech. They waive the out of state fee VERY easily
:Incoming freshmen – Category A
(Students with fewer than 12 semester hours of college credit)
• Must be admitted.
• ACT 23 or SAT 1050 (CR+M) – any test date before enrollment, and
• 2.5 Overall GPA (on a 4.0 unweighted scale), and
• Have no need for remedial English and Math. (You do not require remedial courses if your
minimum ACT/SAT subscore is English ≥ 18/450; Math ≥ 19/460)
Retention requires full-time enrollment (8 or more credit hrs per quarter), and a cumulative and quarter GPA of 2.00.</p>

<p>On top of that they give other scholarships:
Outstanding Student Scholarship - Out-of-State
•
Must be an admitted incoming freshmen (all majors) from out-of-state.
•
Requires: GPA: overall 3.0 (on unweighted 4.0 scale), and
• ACT: 23-31 or SAT: 1050-1390 (CR+M)
•
Awards for $1,200-$4,100 per year for four academic years are available.
•
Student must remain full-time and maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 by the end
of each academic year.
Application Deadline: Apply for admission by priority deadline of Jan 5. Updated
ACT/SAT accepted through December test date.</p>

<p>We are using this as a safety for my son. He DOES test well and got a 34 and they have this scholarship:
Presidential Scholarship
•
Must be an admitted incoming freshmen (all majors).
•
Requires: GPA: overall 3.0 (on unweighted 4.0 scale), and
• ACT: 32 or SAT: 1400 (CR+M)
•
Unlimited awards which pay tuition, fees, and on-campus regular dorm and
meals for four years.
•
Student must remain full-time and maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0.
Application Deadline: Apply for admission by priority deadline of Jan 5. Updated
ACT/SAT accepted through December test date</p>

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<p>Happymomof1 - We do live in SE PA, about 20 minutes from the Delaware border and maybe 45 minutes from Maryland. A neighboring county to DE but not to MD.</p>

<p>My daughter has been tested for learning disorders, but they say she doesn’t have any. Maybe borderline ADD, but no “H” component. We’ve tried ADD meds, but they just made her jittery and restless. </p>

<p>She is in a program at school where they are trying to teach her study and organizational skills, so we’re hoping that might help. </p>

<p>Momknowsbest3 - I don’t know of any schools in PA/DE/MD that have those kind of programs, but I know I still have a lot of research to do. </p>

<p>I’ve got to look at all these links you guys have provided. I know they’ll give me a good start. If I have to have nasty surprises, I’d rather have them now then in her junior year. </p>

<p>Cpt – About summer jobs - there is one place in our town that hires 15 year olds, and I urged her to apply. However, she has been doing a summer-long theatre program for the last 4 summers. She loved it but had no time for anything else. This summer, she isn’t doing it because she wants to visit family in CT, go to the shore with friends, etc. She’s heard that this workplace is not at all flexible with schedules, and if she worked there she wouldn’t be able to take off for vacation. Apparently, they’re not too crazy about accomodating vacation time, or even sick time. She knows people who were fired because they needed time off - since they’ll never run out of applicants willing to work the hours needed. (Welcome to the real world, dear!) So I’m letting her have her one summer with no scheduling. But I am urging her to do some volunteer work. She wants to volunteer with a local animal shelter, so that will be a good thing.</p>

<p>UofRbound - thank you! I’ve been feeling disappointed because when my daughter was 5, PSU was about $7000/yr for tuition. At the time, I could have afforded it. But who knew how bad the increases would be? Now, 10 years later, it’s over $15,000 and that doesn’t count whatever the increase will be for this fall. And since state govt has severly cut state school funding, I’m sure it won’t be pretty. And of course, those numbers don’t count room and board. And, unfortunately, my salary isn’t much higher than it was 10 years ago - but my expenses are.</p>

<p>Sucks being a grownup, huh? lol</p>

28

<p>My advice is to consider having your daughter take community college classes while in high school. I know some places hs students taking cc classes take them for free and, other places, you have to pay, but if she can handle them (and they don’t have to be hard-- she can even start with some p.e. or art credit as a junior and then some classes senior year), it could cut off a semester or even a year of college. This is especially useful if she’s likely to attend a state school because they are usually good about accepting cc credit. </p>

<p>Oh, if she does work (which is a good idea), don’t save the money in her name. Student assets get assessed at 25% and there’s no income protection for dependent students.</p>

29

<p>OP, I just want to second UofRbound . . . congratulations on trying to get ahead of the game. You can move more money into qualified retirement accounts now if you need to. You can start looking at colleges you can pay for. You can tell your D how much you’ll pay so she can look. It truly is a gift. Just one more thing I’d suggest, tell your D up front not to fall in love with any one school. </p>

<p>I’ve got a sophomore in hs and a college freshman. The freshman uses my tuition remission benefit, but my employer won’t be a very good fit for my sophomore, so we’re in the same spot you are. My EFC is lower, and I will be able to cover it for 4 years for D2, but my goal is to get the kid through with no loans. We are in the midwest, in a state that does not have tuition reciprocity with anyone else, and have no smaller, cheaper public colleges or directional Us. For financial safteties, we’re looking at some of the MN states, which don’t charge anyone out of state tuition (some do, so you do have to look), and a school in NE (and FYI, around here NE means Nebraska) that waives OOS tutition very easily. We might try for tuition exchange benefit at a few schools, and then throw in a few crap shoots.</p>

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<p>Here is a site that lists all Pennsylvania Universities:</p>

<p>[U.S&lt;/a&gt;. Universities, by State](<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/#PA]U.S”>http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/#PA)</p>

<p>I just started with Albright… To be honest, I don’t know anything about it. It looks like it is fairly expensive, so it is probably out, but here is the link to their scholarship page:
[Albright</a> College - Admission](<a href=“http://www.albright.edu/admission/scholarships.html]Albright”>http://www.albright.edu/admission/scholarships.html)</p>

<p>I would do this for every single college in the state that you think might be a possiblity. I have a notebook where I keep the information on the schools I think my son will be interested in. I print out the admission requirements, scholarships, and deadlines for each school.</p>

<p>I bet you can find something. Good luck.</p>

31

<p>Does she have any clear career goal yet? Some do, some don’t. If she does have a career goal, there may be more than one way to enter that field. For example, Theater Tech/Design can be entered by joining the union as soon as you turn 18 and working your way up, by completing a formal apprenticeship sponsored by the union then working your way up (some are offered by nearby community colleges and award transferable college credits), or by completing a degree at a two or four year college.</p>

32

<p>She doesn’t have a career goal yet. For a while, she was thinking about becoming an elementary school teacher, because she loves kids and is very good with them. However, she’s been hearing the job market isn’t that great for teachers, and teachers have actually told her that they wouldn’t recommend it as a career anymore. </p>

<p>I actually think she has the right tempermant to be a pediatric or NICU nurse … however, science has NOT been her strong point. Next year is Biology – so we’ll just have to see if she does well or not. I know nursing is a very rigorous curriculum, though, and I’m definitely not banking on her being able to do this. </p>

<p>The one subject she really likes - and does well at – is French. She just started taking it this year and has a 97 average. But I don’t see where the career options are for that. Her writing skills are okay but nothing spectacular. And I say that as a writer (it’s what I do for a living.) She likes singing, but will have to drop chorus after this year because they make insane demands on the kids - in addition to the daily class, they have to miss another class every week for additional rehearsals. Plus, there are periods during the year where they have multiple after school rehearsals. She needs that after-school time to meet with teachers to get extra help. I know it doesn’t look good to drop activities, but this one was impacting her other grades, unfortunately. Extra-curricular activities are insane in this school - they take up ALL your time. Play rehearsals are every school day for 6-8 weeks. Soccer was every day for the whole season (either a game or practice every day.) It’s hard for an average student to do any of these things and not have grades impacted. </p>

<p>Ok, rant over. lol I wish she had a career direction. It would help. But, not yet.</p>

33

<p>Your D is a frosh? If so, then she has time to work on her GPA and work on her test scores.</p>

<p>When she’s a junior, have her take BOTH the ACT and SAT…some kids do much better on one than the other, and she’ll want the best score possible. </p>

<p>When she’s old enough to start working, have her do so. The more you have set aside for college the better. You could have her savings in your acct or you could work out a deal with her…for every thing that she pays for that you would normally pay for, you’ll put that amount into savings for college in your acct. So, if she pays for her car insurance, then you set that much aside for college.</p>

<p>Are you a single parent? If so then some schools require the financial info of the other parent as well. </p>

<p>If you are a single parent, then the calculations for FAFSA will be worse for a ONE parent, ONE child family. And, the savings protection is MUCH lower for a single parent…less than $20k I believe.</p>

<p>Yes, college costs have skyrocketed…technology demands, implementing extensive safety measures, etc have causes costs to rise much faster than inflation. </p>

<p>You mentioned nursing as a possible career. I don’t know how it is in PA, but it may be as difficult to get into a BSN program as it is in the states I’m familiar with…Calif and Alabama. Programs are severely impacted, and sophomores are denied “promotion” into the program. During the first year or two, the student is “pre-nursing” and then applies to the nursing program. My kids’ undergrad had 500 sophomore apps for “promotion” to upper division program and only 94 were admitted…average GPA was a 3.97. Ugh! If you get more than one B, you might as well change your career goal. Brutal!</p>

<p>There are some “direct admit” nursing programs, but I think a strong HS GPA & test scores are needed, and a very good GPA is needed to continue in the program. I think many of the “direct admit” programs are at privates, so costs will be an issue.</p>

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<p>Right now she’s got around a 3.1. For regular, non-honors classes. And that took a lot of effort. She’s not a great tester but makes up for it by doing all her homework, projects, etc, that also count toward her grade. However, her lack of testing ability means she can’t probably rely on a great SAT score to counteract the gpa. There’s a long way to go, of course … But I’m trying to start figuring it out now, since we don’t have the obvious options of high need or merit.</p>

<p>I would have her carefully manage her GPA. Have her take the “college prep classes”, but not a bunch of extra ones. Balance hard classes with easy classes. If she can handle APs and her school weights the grades, then do that. If she can mix up her schedule to include some lighter courses to free up time to dedicate to the harder courses, then do so.</p>

<p>As for her ADD… Do look into that more. Adjusting, changing meds could be the answer. Or even taking a half dosage could work. Change doctors if need be. Find one that will work for your D. </p>

<p>Freshman grades are not the best predictors. Nor are test scores at this point. I thought my younger son wouldn’t qualify for scholarships when he was younger. He did well in school, but wasn’t a great test taker. At some point in high school he changed and was able to score quite well in the end. He ended up with a full tuition scholarship to our flagship. I don’t want to give false hope, but I also don’t want you to totally despair at this point.</p>

<p>When the time comes, have her take an ACT and SAT prep class. I’ve seen kids’ scores jump considerably after taking those courses.</p>

35

<p>I’m not a single parent. Our income is from both of us working.</p>

<p>It’s ridiculous that you have to be a straight A student just to get into a nursing program. I’m not sure of the details for schools around here. First, we’ll have to see how she handles biology next year! But it’s absurd that a 3.97 is average just to get into a program. Just like it’s absurd that you need around a 3.8 to get into PSU main campus. Heck, the average GPA of incoming freshmen at West Chester State University (small state school near me) is 3.5! Insane! Sorry, but most of the world is not made up of 3.8 students. My daughter may improve her GPA - I hope so, but I can’t count on it. But I got into PSU main campus with a 3.2 and a 1240 SAT (a long time ago.) It was an affordable, good education for a middle-class family. I know that’s not how it is anymore – but it’s totally out of control now.</p>

<p>Edit to add: Mom2collegekids: She will take one honors class next year and see how that goes. If she can handle it, she’ll take more in her junior year. From what she hears, the honors classes are significantly tougher than the regular college prep classes. Much faster pace, less help, waaaay higher expectations. AP seems totally out of reach, at least unless something changes. She is taking cooking as an elective next year. I was worried that this weak elective wouldn’t look good, but right now I think it’s more important she concentrate on her core classes.</p>

36

<p>It is ridiculous, I agree. I don’t understand why the demand for nursing programs is unmet is this country.</p>

<p>The way it is working with a number of flagship universities, PSU included, is that kids can start at an ancillary Penn State and are automatically accepted to the main campus once they reach junior status. There are simply too many kids who want to go to the main campus, and by taking only the top candidates, they hope to gate keep out those who are not going to make it through the first two years. It’s also a way to save money, for both the university and for you. If there is an ancillary campus near you to which she can commute, then you can save money those two years and not worry about acceptance to the main campus since it is automatic. If she chooses to go to West Chester, she would have to apply to PSU main campus as a transfer student. </p>

<p>There is a small private college near us that gets a lot of traffic because it does offer a nursing program. Expensive, but if you commute to the school, it 's doable. Getting into a state nursing program here is very difficult, therefore this school has a nice market niche.</p>

37

<p>Nursing programs are expensive to operate. They require expensive equipment, lots of faculty to adequately oversee clinicals, and whatever else goes into outside certification. I think that might be why there aren’t more of them. </p>

<p>My employer has one. It’s a very popular area of interest for incoming freshman, but only those who get meet the first year GPA requirements in the prereqs get in. And yeah, it’s mostly the science grades that keep kids from getting accepted into the major sophomore year.</p>

38

<p>*Nursing programs are expensive to operate. They require expensive equipment, lots of faculty to adequately oversee clinicals, and whatever else goes into outside certification. I think that might be why there aren’t more of them. *</p>

<p>Absolutely! My kids’ undergrad just built a new Nursing building with the state-of-the-art labs and equipment (including robotic computerized patients that exhibit various symtoms based on what the profs have programmed them to do to see how students react to various crises). The whole process is incredibly expensive. Today’s nurses have to be super-smart and tech savy. </p>

<p>It’s ridiculous that you have to be a straight A student just to get into a nursing program</p>

<p>My kids’ undergrad can only handle two “promotion cycles” each year (94 student each cycle). Of the 500 sophs that applied, a number were CC transfers and none were admitted. Maybe at some point, they’ll do 3 cycles of promotions.</p>

<p>One reason why Nursing schools have very high expectations for admittance is because they want to maintain their high passing rate on the National exam. My kids’ undergrad has a 99%-100% passing rate for first-time test takers. All of this affects the ranking of the nursing school and probably affects things like donations, grants, job placement, etc.</p>