<p>Hi, I am currently a high school senior. I have a 4.1175 GPA, I have over 60 hours of community service, got a 30 on the ACT, and have extracurricular activities such as being a part of the drama program for 3 years, Key Club, National Honor Society, leadership team at school, and a Youth Advisory Committee. I have been accepted to Duke University but was forced to turn them down due to the cost. I chose to attend the University of Colorado Boulder since I could get in-state tuition and I thought the prices would be lower. I have applied to 27 private scholarships through Fastweb and did not get any of those.</p>
<p>After applying to CU Boulder, I filled out my FAFSA, applied for 13 scholarships there and was pretty sure that I could get most of my tuition paid off. My decision finally came in and I was offered:</p>
<p>ESTIMATED Grant Aid
Grant
3,100.00
0.00
ESTIMATED 1st Generation Grant
Grant
2,000.00
0.00
ESTIMATED Work-Study
Work/Study
1,800.00
0.00
ESTIMATED Subsidized Loan
Loan
3,500.00
0.00
ESTIMATED Unsubsidized Loan
Loan
2,000.00
0.00
ESTIMATED PLUS Loan (Parent)
Loan
8,696.00
0.00
Academic Year Totals</p>
<p>21,096.00</p>
<p>I received the news that I did not get accepted for any of the 13 university scholarships I applied for. I am around 14,200 dollars off of the cost of tuition. My EFC was calculated at $8,083 but my parents do not want to pay anything for my education. I am horrified to take out a $57000 dollar loan for undergraduate studies.</p>
<p>Does anyone know of any good scholarships whose deadlines have not passed and I would be well qualified for? That would be appreciated. Also I was wondering if it would be a good idea if I went to the office of financial aide and explained my situation to them in order to see if I could possibly get more aide money. My parents make only $64,000 combined a year and we have around $5000 in savings at the moment. My parents are soon going to buy a new house and there is no way we are going to have enough money to pay for this loan and no way they are going to be able to help me pay. Thanks!!!</p>
<p>Hi CyrustheGreat – First, you CAN’T take out anything more than the subsidized & unsubsidized loans - PLUS loans are PARENT loans, that your parents have to sign for. (If they’re rejected – and most parents aren’t – then you get a slightly higher loan limit on your own, but not enough to cover the gap.</p>
<p>If your parents aren’t able to help with college, then CU is probably not going to work for you. </p>
<p>Given your stats, you would be eligible for merit scholarships at some other state schools, but the deadlines have passed for most of them. Would you be willing to take a gap year? (Most of the scholarships are only given to first-time freshmen.)</p>
<p>arabrab is a little off about whether you can take out more loans. There are private loans. But avoid those if possible because they aren’t good for you.</p>
<p>arabrab is right about possibly getting more money from some other schools. Hopefully, you applied to more than one school, including ones you know you can afford. The reality you may be facing is a gap year or community college.</p>
<p>As for Fastweb, note that basically millions of people apply for only a few available scholarships. I know no one who has received one.</p>
<p>Take out no more in loans than what your first year earnings out of college will be or you will be in financial ruin.</p>
<p>You can go to the office of financial aid and appeal, but with your awards and your parents’ income, you should hold out as much hope as the result of all your scholarship applications.</p>
<p>You say your parents are going to buy a new house as though they are buying a more expensive one and will have to pay money. With $5000 in savings, at their age, and with a child going to college, they should not only either stay where they are or buy a cheaper, smaller home, but they need to be saving for retirement, not your college. You can go to a cheaper school, but they can’t make money when they are retired.</p>
<p>arabrab is a little off about whether you can take out more loans. There are private loans. But avoid those if possible because they aren’t good for you.</p>
<p>Arabrab is right. Without parents co-signing private loans, those aren’t an option either. Arabrab stated the student’s limits, which are true. If parents won’t help out, the school won’t work.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like you were advised well. With your stats, you should have been told to apply to schools that would give you a lot of merit for your stats.</p>
<p>You may need to take a gap year (not take ANY classes) and reapply based on your stats for merit.</p>
<p>University of Colorado, Boulder does not guarantee to meet need and usually does not. Actually, Duke does, though they define the need via PROFILE, rather than FAFSA.</p>
<p>Your best bets for scholarships are local offering, and your guidance counselor at your high school may be able to steer you some of those. Catholic high schools seem to have their noses out sniffing out the offerings in this area, so you might want to check their web sites or ask a friend who goes to one if he’ll share some info. Then you have Fastweb. But these scholarships are truly lottery tickets most of the time. </p>
<p>The way it works for college in this country is that your parents are responsible for the payment and it’s their choice and decision as to what they want and can pay. If financial calculators show they are unable to pay the full cost, and it is the calculators that make that determination, not the parents, then schools like Duke that guarantee to meet full need will make up the difference. Schools like CU do not make such guarantees and will gap you. In the end, the bottom line is not the sticker cost or what the colleges are offering but what you and your family have to pay for a school. </p>
<p>As for loans, the earlier posters pretty much have that covered. On your own, you are pretty much limited to the Staffords and possibly other government loans. PLUS is for your parents and private loans will probably want both of you to sign. </p>
<p>You need to go over you alternatives and the costs with your parents and determine what you are able and willing to pay. </p>
<p>What was Duke’s financial aid package? I am surprised that with the info given that they were not generous.</p>
<p>I think what I probably will do is try and see if I can avoid staying in the dorms since my house is 30 minutes away and that would save me around $5000. Also I was wondering, what exactly are Merit Scholarships?</p>
<p>Merit scholarships are monetary awards that go to those students that the sponsor of those scholarships determine best serves purpose of those awards. Many colleges have them and usually admissions gives them to the students that they most want to come. They can be totally merit based, in which case need has no bearing on who gets them, or they can have need as a vital or partial component of qualification. It is a broad category so, requirements to get them can vary widely. Some times a special application is needed to get some of them; sometimes not. Most colleges have a bunch of them for which all applicants are considered when the admissions office is reviewing the applications.</p>
<p>They can also be private. Target has some. The local Elks chapters often sponsor some. Organizations may send out the word that they are giving out a number of Merit Scholarships, and the requirements can vary all over the place. Just like the ones I described above, some could have need as a factor; some not. Some also may have special features narrowing the field on who has the better chance to win. My friend’s daughter worked at Marshall’s or some other such store part time, and in doing so was favored for their scholarships. Sometimes, if you or a relative works for or has affiliation to a sponsoring organization, you can be ineligible. That is how widely they can vary.</p>
<p>Colleges do not care about your parents plans to buy a new house or plans for their savings or income or their other financial commitments. In the case of CU, where they do not guarantee to meet need, they give you what they can from what they have in the aid pool, and it does not tend to even meet need as defined by your FAFSA EFC. It’s a take it or leave it proposition, and you are in the same boat as a lot of kids who have applied there. They tell you what it costs, bottom line, give you some loan and maybe work options that you can take and investigate, and the rest is up to you and your parents.</p>
<p>*I think what I probably will do is try and see if I can avoid staying in the dorms since my house is 30 minutes away and that would save me around $5000. Also I was wondering, what exactly are Merit Scholarships?
*</p>
<p>Yes…if you can commute, you’ll save a lot of money. </p>
<p>Merit scholarships are awarded for stats. Some schools have competitive awards, some award for all with certain stats. If you have been better advised, you would have been told to apply to a few schools where your stats would get you very large merit awards.</p>
<p>School merit is often for all 4 years. Private scholarships are often for only one year, so not that great sometimes for helping to pay for school.</p>
<p>you might try sending an app to Mississippi State…very good engineering, very good merit, even at this late date.</p>
<p>I heard that UAB is also still awarding merit to OOS students. contact Parent56 by PM…I know the website says the deadline is passed for UAB, but she looked into and found out that OOS students are still being awarded merit.</p>
<p>I think the best solution to my problem would be seeing if I can avoid the two semesters that are required to stay in the dorms. That would take my debt to only being $4000 short each year instead of $14,200. If not then I hope that they have extra financial aide for staying in the dorms. Also the reason why I did not attend Duke was that I was about $20,000 short of the tuition cost, they did offer me scholarships but I really did not know of a way to get $20,000 for the education there, I would have to end up taking an $80,000 loan for 4 years there!!!</p>
<p>CyrustheGreat -</p>
<p>Where are you going to get that other $4,000 from if you do commute? If you are driving to and from school every day, what are you going to do to pay for all of the gas and the car maintenance? Think this through very carefully. You may not be able to start at Boulder this fall.</p>
<p>Would it make sense for you to commute to a Community College for two years and then transfer to Boulder? OR Would it make sense to take a gap year now, and reapply next year to places that will offer you bigger scholarships based on your grades and test scores? Do check up on the places suggested by mom2collegekids they may be much more affordable for you.</p>
<p>I am going to work over the summer and the money that I save will go towards my college education.</p>
<p>My friend’s son commuted to CU Boulder from Aurora, a suburb of Denver. It was not a cheap commute even with gas prices lower than what they are now. It was also a long commute and a tiring one, and though the young man had a decent car, there were car issues, as there are always car issues. Still, if you live only a half hour away, have a car, have back transportation and your parents can cover your at home living expenses, and you pack a lunch and snack, you can save at least $5K each academic year.</p>