Full-Ride Scholarship for African-American Males? Complicated Situation

Hi, I am currently a Junior in High School looking to graduate in 2018. I am looking to go to either Ohio State or Cornell for a degree (Masters and possibly PhD in Food Science). My family makes too much for me to normally qualify for financial aid, but we have so much of it coming out of our houses (we have one house that we own because my father didn’t want to sell it) and on that we rent because we moved to a different state. That being said my family doesnt have the means to support me in college but I will be completely the fafsa anyways next year. I am an all A’s student with a GPA somewhere above 4.7. I haven’t takes the SAT and ACT yet but I plan on taking them this spring. I am actually in dual enrollment with a community college in the city I live in, meaning I go to classes there and they also count for my high school credit. So I may graduate high school with a general associates degree as well as a diploma. All that being said, is there any scholarships that would cover me on an out-of-state full ride? Thanks in advance for any replies…

wenderson272, did you take the PSAT and qualify for National Merit?

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ (automatic if you do well enough on SAT or ACT)
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/ (competitive)
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/ (if National Merit)

But check school web sites for changes.

@wenderson272, your best bet will be merit scholarships as you will not qualify for need based aid. I would still get the fin info from your parents and go through the FAFSA and NPC of each college. Are you saying that your parents cannot help you at all? They must be able to afford something.

Tell your Dad to sell the other house to help finance your education. I think that is reason enough to sell??

@whenderson272

Actually, your situation is not complicated or unusual. There are other folks who own second houses…and also who have income too high to qualify for need based aid…or folks who for one reason or another can’t afford to pay the family contribution.

Your best bet is to seek merit aid. That is NOT income or asset dependent.

Ohio State uses on,y the FAFSA. Bit Cornell will also require the completion of the Profile.

Neither school will exclude your second home in its calculations. That second home equity will appear as an asset on both the Fafsa and the Profile.

What is your state of residence?

Check the schools on this thread:

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

It hasn’t been updated for a long while…so you will need to also look at each college website for accuracy.

And really, your ACT or SAT score needs to be known before you can know whether you will qualify…or not.

How did you do on the PSAT?
Sell the house to finance your education or use the rents to pay the monthly fees.
tOSU has some scholarships purely based on stats (and what it comes down to is test scores).
U Cincinnati has the Cincinnatus (Dec1 deadline, high SAT/ACT necessary).
Washington&Lee’s Johnson… but the reason being African American would especially help is that the “old boys’network” is thriving there and it’s far from inclusive (euphemism) so they have trouble enticing AA to attend.
Cornell will not be affordable.

We can’t sell the house, it is not in his best interest. Seeing as we lived in it for quite some time it has a sentimental value now. I receive my PSAT scores tomorrow, wish me luck. Currently we reside in Arizona. Thanks for the answers. It seems like I need to focus more on testing now. I have a part time job but it I might have to quit to only focus on school. My father came from a very -im not sure how to word this but -not helpful family that wanted him to do well in school, but wanted him to do everything on his own, so I understand why he doesn’t want to provide any help for college, and wants me to become independent.

Many replies are hinting at this, but I will say it directly: most scholarships come from the schools. If you limit your list to Ohio state and Cornell, you limit your chances of getting a scholarship. There are national scholarships that can be used at any school, but they are few and very hard to qualify for and then win. Broaden your search with finances in mind.

If your parents are willing to give you any money at all for college, get a clear understanding of your budget.

Run EFC estimator tools at the department of education https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm?execution=e1s1 and at the college board https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator and see if you might qualify for any need based aid as well.

It’s nice that your dad has sentimental attachment to this house…which will be viewed as an asset in the need based aid calculations. But the colleges will not care about that.

Ohio State does have some merit scholarships for out of state students…but they are HIGHLY competitive…highly.

Since you are now a resident of AZ, I would suggest that you look at AZ school.

Holding onto rental properties is a choice. The assets and income from your parents’ rental will be used to calculate your EFC, and colleges won’t give you extra money because your parents’ money is tied up in real estate.

If your family income is too high to qualify for need based aid, then your only resources are whatever merit you can get from each school, plus the federal student loan (~$5500/year), and whatever you can earn over the summer (~$3k). Are there any colleges you can commute to from home that you can use as a financial safety?

I assumed you lived in OH since you spoke about tOSU. There will be some scholarships there but definitely look into ASU Barrett and UA.

Once you know whether you made NMSF you’ll have more choices.

An issue is that you can’t even commute to a community college since you’re in early college. CC typically is the only way out for kids whose parents won’t help. You HAVE TO attend a 4-year. It means you may not be able to go to college after high school, you may have to take a gap year to work (hopefully your dad will let you stay at home).

Does your dad know how much things have changed since he (we) was in school?
Odds are, he doesn’t. Back in the day, it was possible to self fund, sometimes even without a loan; just through a part-time job + summer earnings.
Nowadays, there’s no job a HS student can have that will pay for tuition, fees, room, and board at 4-year college. Most students work AND have a loan AND have parents who contribute.
Run the NPC on Cornell, tOSU, and ASU. Show him the results.

have you considered applying for the Flinn Scholarship program? Your stats may fit that so if your choices don’t work out, you will have great opportunities as the state Us.

That’s the sad thing about Arizona. I have decided to go into the Food Science industry. Arizona has no colleges that have this degree. I have been to the big three (NAU, ASU, and U of A. All of them.offer me scholarships but I simply can’t too because of my passion for food science.

But from what I understand the best route for me is Merit Scholarships. I guess I will be devoting my time to this Spring ACT score. Wish me luck!

Wat is your end goal with a “food sciences” degree?

It is very very possible that another major will get you to that end goal.

I would like a Master’s or PhD in the industry, to either work for a production company helping to make their product better on a tasteful and molecular level, have work as a researcher developing food science in a lab setting (like a field researcher with federal grants and such).

If you take the ACT and end up as a high stats African-American male, then I think schools will be lining up for you. However, that relates more to admission than merit aid. You will have to set your sights somewhat lower in terms of the selectivity of the school to maximize your aid. In other words, Cornell is probably unattainable. Also, state schools for out-of-state student usually have limited merit aid (check out Alabama for stats-based merit aid). Smaller colleges in Ohio have good merit aid (e.g. Miami, Denison, Wooster, etc.). You should avoid ED and cast a wide net in RD to compare merit aid offers. At the smaller schools, you probably won’t find a food science major. The advice above to major in something applicable (e.g. chemistry and economics) for undergraduate and then do food science in grad school is good.

@whenderson272

If you need a masters or PhD…why not look for a related…and affordable undergraduate program?

Then get that advanced degree in food science or whatever.

I’m not sure I see the need to major in that as an undergrad when you will,NEED an advanced degree.

If you have high scores, you may get a scholarship at Cal Poly Pomona. Apply in October with a high GPA and high test scores to CFANS in Minnesota, it’s one of the top programs nation-wide. UGA has Food Science and Tech, too.
I don’t know if they have full rides, but if you have a full tuition scholarship you should be able to fund the rest (start a part time job now, save, move to full time in the summer, save that too; add the 5.5K loan you can get and that’s your budget.
Look into WUE - not for the tuition reduction itself, but because these may have better scholarships than WUE for high scorers (WUE is granted irrespective of scores).
http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all
And finally, keep ASU Barrett on the table. You may be able to cobble something together.
For instance, UA has Nutritional Science and enough space to add some more chemistry and management classes.
Or ABEM major with nutrition minor.
https://cals.arizona.edu/arec/sites/cals.arizona.edu.arec/files/ABEM%20MGMT%204%20YEAR%20PLAN%202016-2017%20AY.pdf
http://acbs.cals.arizona.edu/sites/acbs.cals.arizona.edu/files/ASC%202015%20Food%20Safety.pdf
http://nutrition.cals.arizona.edu/sites/nutrition/files/nutrition_sample_4_year_plans.pdf
ASU has som Food Science, too
http://www.asu.edu/provost/articulation/chksheets/06-07/06ckt-fdsci.pdf
This is a list of all straight-up programs: look at conditions for scholarships at these universities
https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/college-and-university-food-science-programs