<p>Hello everyone.
I will be applying to college next year, and while I've been researching all of my dream schools I have failed to realize how I will come up with the money to pay for my college education. As of now both of my parents are in my life. My mother is the one I live with, and my parents were never married. My father just recently found a new job and makes about 10,000 a year, he is a high school graduate but has never attended college. My mother is currently receiving benefits from the government ( food stamps, medical ) and we live in HUD housing. Our rent is 0$/month. My mother is self employeed babysits part-time and made about 10,000 last year. She just recently received $3,000 income tax. I will be getting a summer job to try and save money for when I do go to college for the extra money that I may need. I really don't want to attend a Community College for a couple of reasons. One being that I would really like to leave Ohio and I don't think I could afford an apartment right away. ( Seeing that most community colleges don't offer housing ) So basically I'm very confused on what I should do. How will I pay for my college education? I don't beleive my parents will be eligible for any kind of loan, and the measly $4,000 I'll receive won't do me any justice =/ Helpppppp.</p>
<p>What are your GPA / SAT / PSAT / ACT ?</p>
<p>Do you mind going out of state or do you want to live close to home?</p>
<p>I reallllllllly want to attend college out of state.
My GPA is a 3.5 unweighted and a 3.8 weighted.
And I have yet to get my SAT or ACT scores back, and my PSAT was 50 something.</p>
<p>I’ll assume you mean 50 for each section, so that’s not a bad score.</p>
<p>A lot of institutions give generous merit aid for good SAT scores. Your best bet, if you don’t want to attend CC and cannot guarantee 100% FA, is to aim for a very high SAT score, then research schools that give good merit aid to OOS</p>
<p>What is my SAT scores aren’t great? Then what can I do? I was thinking I could go to a college that wasn’t really all that expensive and then maybe transfer to a better college but once I’m a transfer will I be required to pay for college all the way? Or can I still get scholarships, ect.</p>
<p>You can absolutely get scholarships, yes. In fact, I suggest you start applying to outside scholarships the summer/fall of your Senior year. I can’t say specific sites, but if you google “scholarship search site” you should be able to find some good resources.</p>
<p>If your SAT score isn’t great, then (obviously) try to retake. But if that doesn’t work out, then you should probably start realizing you might have to make some concessions…</p>
<p>I know it’s in-state, but OSU is a great school. Tuition is 8k for IS residents. Assuming you live near main campus or a branch campus and will not have to pay room and board, $8,000 is a pretty good deal.</p>
<p>Whatever other colleges you apply for out-of-state, please don’t neglect finding some in-state public schools. They are likely to be the most affordable (perhaps the only affordable) choices for you, particularly if you don’t have the highest gpa or SAT scores. While I know that the desire to go out-of-state can be really strong, putting all your eggs in that basket could result in you posting something similar to many of the threads posted in the past weeks by other students with a $0 EFC who are only now seeing how impossible many of the financial aid packages are. Don’t be one of them!</p>
<p>Try Questbridge.</p>
<p>I was really trying to avoid OSU. I already have to hear OOOOOO–HHHHHH–IIIIIII–OOOO in the hallways after lunch, this really sickens me. No offense to any OSU fans.
I will work, whatever I have to do and not spend a $ of my money to leave this state.
I am just not happy here, my family doesn’t help much either.</p>
<p>If I end up having to attend college in Ohio, it wouldn’t be OSU probably Miami U. I really want to attend a smaller liberal arts college.</p>
<p>gamerchick,</p>
<p>as much as it sucks you probably are going to be stuck at an in-state school. Out of state tuition is 3 to 4 times more expensive and unless you can get a full scholarship you will most likely not be able to afford it. Going to school in Ohio can’t be the worst thing in the world. You made it this long, just think of it as an incentive to do well in school so you have the freedom to go where ever you want. You may also want to look at the community college option and get your AA degree first. Then, if your grades are high enough, you may be able to transfer to an out of state university, or you can use those two years to save up and move. It may feel like eternity now but in the long run it may be the best thing for your future. Also, I dont understand why you said only $4000. If your EFC is 0 the pell grant alone is around $5500.</p>
<p>Apply to schools you would be happy at and make sure you can at least consider few within your state.</p>
<p>Well, I’ve done my research and whatever happens happens. I’ll apply to a few of my dream schools next year and see what kind of financial aid I’ll receive, but I’ll also apply to a couple of in-state schools. However, there are colleges that have affordable tuition for both in and out of state students. So I may look at those as well. Obviously I won’t be attending a school who’s tuition is 50k a year. Bye bye Scripps & Barnard :[</p>
<p>You should look up schools that [claim</a> to meet full-need of their students](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/paying-for-college/2010/02/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-the-full-financial-needs-of-students.html]claim”>http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/paying-for-college/2010/02/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-the-full-financial-needs-of-students.html). Many private colleges like Barnard have extremely high costs of attendance but also have robust need- and/or merit-based financial aid opportunities. The only danger you’re looking at is if they want to meet your need largely or primarily with loans, which you want to avoid if it’s at all possible since they are much more expensive than they initially appear. </p>
<p>I even found a short list of colleges that claim to meet full-need without loans:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What I recommend is that, if this is within your means and you are interested in some of those colleges, to apply to these and to more affordable in-state alternatives. You will be able to qualify for four CollegeBoard application fee waivers (these are usually given out by your high school guidance counselor) if you are on free or reduced lunch (and you likely qualify for that if your family’s income is as low as you say it is in your post).</p>
<p>Until we know your SAT scores, we can’t give you much firm advice yet. those will largely determine whether you could get accepted to the schools that give the best aid.</p>
<p>That said, if your PSAT had 50’s in each section, then your PSAT was probably around 160 (does that sound right)??? Let’s assume your SAT scores come out around 1700…That isn’t bad, but it’s not high enough for dream schools or big scholarships. The schools in the gray box in the above post expect top test scores…like SAT 2100+</p>
<p>Doe anyone know if Ohio provides any low income residents any additional aid (like Cal grants in Calif)? </p>
<p>What schools are you interested in?</p>
<p>Primarily I’m interested in small liberal arts colleges. I’m really interested in all womens liberal arts colleges. I’ll even atttend a larger public university as long as the education is good. I would really like to move to California, anything towards the East is good too.</p>
<p>[QuestBridge</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/]QuestBridge”>http://www.questbridge.org/)</p>
<p>Scripps is an all Women’s college in socal. It is a very small LAC that is a claremont school. It’s a questbridge scholars school. Consider QB.</p>
<p>“as much as it sucks you probably are going to be stuck at an in-state school. Out of state tuition is 3 to 4 times more expensive and unless you can get a full scholarship you will most likely not be able to afford it. Going to school in Ohio can’t be the worst thing in the world. You made it this long, just think of it as an incentive to do well in school so you have the freedom to go where ever you want. You may also want to look at the community college option and get your AA degree first. Then, if your grades are high enough, you may be able to transfer to an out of state university, or you can use those two years to save up and move. It may feel like eternity now but in the long run it may be the best thing for your future”</p>
<p>They nailed it pretty good. EFC=0 pretty much means your guaranteed an in-state school unless you have killer SATs to get you a full ride. I know this is really dissapointing but I feel the exact same and am in the process. I’m in VA and I hear Virginia Tech all day long. I don’t mind going there but would REALLY prefer to go somewhere OOS simply because EVERYONE in VA goes there… OK, everyone is an exageration, but you get the idea. However, because of OOS costs, typically 40k-50k, I’m pretty much stuck with an In-state school. </p>
<p>Supposively UVA and UNC-Wilmington meet full need. Check them out. </p>
<p>In the end, unless you crush your SATs, you need to accept going in-state. I know its hard to do because you feel like you can’t escape your family’s problems/issues without distancing yourself but you must push through it. If you adapt a stubborn attitude about refusing to be in-state(like I did) then you will be sorely dissapointed when the time comes and you will feel worse than ever before. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.</p>
<p>your best bet is miami of ohio, although you might need to bump your SAT scores. Miami used to offer an access grant to cover tuition and books for low income students, hopefully they still do. You need to call them and check that out. If they have a sample finaid package for low income students ask to see it. If it checks out and is doable you may want to consider applying ED. Unless you are a urm, a top athlete or bump the SAT scores into the 2000 range you are not likely to have out of state options although if you can get the SAT’s up to 1800 or 1900 some liberal arts colleges may become financially accessible, but probably with heavy loans. You probably should apply to other instate public schools also.</p>
<p>For real out of state liberal art school options you need to bump your SAT scores quite a bit.</p>
<p>Well I’m guessing I didn’t do too well on the SATs. I’m going to retake them and hopefully score higher. If I don’t then I’ll make the best out of things. How does transferring to one of these stellar LAC look for me if I can manage to get extremely good grades for the first year or two in college. Will I be able to receive more financial aid? Or is that not even a logical option?</p>