@Sybylla So far I haven’t run across any relevant October deadlines on my list, but I could always double check. I wanted to study but my actual grades were suffering and it was the required test date. Considering that my score was a 26 before that, I did pretty well. I’ve started prepping for September, but I could also sit for October if absolutely needed becuase my earliest deadline is Nov 15 and that’s only one school. There are no accredited schools within a commutable distance.
@mamaedefamilia Oh my god, thank you! From my understanding (it was a quick look, I’ll admit), they would actually be giving me more money than the cost of attendance with my current stats. The location isn’t too bad either. New Orleans and Baton Rouge are close enough that I could make occasional weekend trips for fun. My family used to visit New Orleans on random days from twice the distance. The location is also less relevant since people are able to find success despite it.
Okay another Update:
I’ve just gone through all of the NPC’s and scholarship pages a second time. I’m realising that I massively failed in finding UAB’s student work because it’s one page for the entire art department and wasn’t showing up when I googled for it. The design work featured actually looks really nice, which is a relief.
My current list from biggest safety to biggest reach based on the NPCs, before and after loans.
~Southeastern Louisiana University: -2k, no loans
~University of Alabama at Birmingham: 17k, 12k
~University of Montevallo: 19k, 14k
~New Jersey City University: 21k, 16k
~Kent State: 23k, 17k
Of course I am drooling over SLU, but I have to wait until I can see it in person and investigate further. It honestly seems to good to be true. UAB and Montevallo can be toured in the same day as each other if things work out right. UAH is currently off my list at the moment. I don’t see that changing unless the school starts showing more impressive student work or I can tour in person again. It’s too far away for me to see that happening though.
The SUNYs are the only other schools on my list at the moment, but I want to find a couple other schools to replace them so that I have at least seven more reasonable schools to apply to. I don’t really know how I’m going to find other schools other than to go state by state and see if I’d consider their cheapest programs.
My list and attitude in general have already changed so much, and it hasn’t been a full week since I made this post. Again, thank you to everyone who has responded, especially those that have really been pushing me to consider more options than I was initially willing to.
Look at the scholarships at Cleveland State perhaps. UCincinnati has excellent merit scholarships and a great for op program.
Have you run the NPC on seven sisters colleges like Mount Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr…?
UAH lets you update your GPA and test score later in senior year, up until August I believe, and gives the award for that set of stats.
There might be some Georgia schools on that NASAD list that might give merit.
If you’re 18 and you’re moving there for the purpose of going to school, you’re not going to get in-state tuition…even if you took a gap year. Believe me, if it were that easy, half the student population would be taking gap years and paying in-state tuition to every major university in the country. Also, why on mother earth would you want to live in NYC as a college student? Lawyers have a hard time making ends meet out there. College student? Forget about it! 
What you want to do is look at the affordable options you have in your home state, so you can avoid piles of debt that will sabotage your future.
Or look at affordable options outside of her state.
Some SUNYs, such as Plattsburgh or Oneonta, have merit money. It’s up to you (op) to read through the website to find them.
What do the NPCs for RPI or WPI tell you?
@MYOS1634 I’ll look more into CSU because the NPC said about 17k before loans. I had UCinci on the lost because I was really impressed by the co-op and people have also mentioned their merit. However when I’ve looked into it, a lot of people with much better stats that me are getting underwhelming results. Even if I got everything they did it would barely take a chip off the 42k sticker price.
I remember looking at the sister colleges earlier and I don’t remember any of them having a graphic design program. The NPC for whichever one that did was still too high.
I do plan to look through all the SUNYs, I just haven’t gotten to them yet. New Paltz and Purchase were the ones specifically recommended for their design programs, so I started there.
Both of those schools calculated over 20k in merit, but because their sticker price is so high, they still ended up over 35k a year.
how much are your parents willing to pay or borrow for school. sounds as if you will need a full tuition scholarship
@mommdc I already qualify for the highest reward at UAH. I’ve started looking at Georgia now. I think I’ll work my way through schools by region, since I’m already familiar with the southeast.
@gekaia I visited SE Louisiana for the graduation of the daughter of a friend of mine (the one I mentioned up thread). I was really impressed by a couple of things. 1) we drove back and forth to New Orleans a couple of times and it was maybe an hour’s drive. Restaurants and shops on the northern side of the lake were even closer. 2) I went to the exhibition featuring the work of the graduating design students and I saw diverse and high quality talent in many genres. 3) The school has a substantial student population but wherever we went, my friend’s daughter was recognized and greeted warmly by friends, staff, and professors. I am glad that it might be an option for you.
@coolguy40 I already agree with you on a lot. Though my opinion is a bit different now, I’ll explain why going to college in NYC was attractive to me.
I wanted to experience the city specifically in my young adulthood, when I had no other responsibilities. I was afraid that things like a long term relationship or making all of my connections in another area could influence me not to take the chance and regret it. Also, it sounds crazy, but I was looking forward to at least some hardship because I’m unhappy when I’m not challenged/ there is no risk of failure.This doesn’t mean that I was willing to build up crippling debt. At the time the CUNY/SUNY schools seemed like my cheapest options and I was going to have to take the gap year to save up. I’ve realized now that all my options in that area are just to expensive for all 4 years, and it’s risky that they’ll take any transfer credits from the schools I’m looking at now.
@sybbie719 my parents are so unreliable that they don’t know. They are already paying 2k a year to send me to my high school so I think I can at least count on that much.
Beloved,
If you can only count on your parents for 2k (their EFC is going to be way more than that), how do you propose to make this happen. You will need 2k to cover transportation, books and misc expenses.
So you are actually looking for /need a full ride.
That’s the minimum, and I’m hoping they can pull together more. They payed 26k a year (close to my efc) for the first 2 years my brother was in school, and he had to take out loans for the last 3 years. That was almost a decade ago though and they have to start saving for retirement now. If I feel uncertain that I won’t be able to afford college right now, then I will be taking the gap year (s).
Full rides or even just full tuition scholarships are not common/easy to get. Trust me, I’m trying. Even in state, my lowest npc price was 10k. I go to one of the best high schools in Alabama and most of the graduates stay in state as well. Even then, I know of only 3 that got genuine full rides and they were National Merit Finalists, had really solid extracurriculars, and/or were low income. One of the only full rides I’ve seen for my stats at a school with my intended major has been mentioned in this forum and that’s SE Louisianna which I am planning to tour.
@sybbie719
Admittedly I haven’t read all five pages of this thread… has anybody mentioned Utah? It is the one state I know of that allows students under 24 to establish residency after a year. U of Utah has a great design program http://design.cap.utah.edu/programs/bachelor-of-science/ and it’s in a major city that is vastly more affordable than NYC. The “sticker price” is relatively reasonable and there is merit available.
I know that there is a path for first-year students to establish residency and pay in-state rates thereafter. I don’t know, however, whether the same path is available to a non-matriculated student who moves there and takes a gap year. You could ask about it, though.
Sorry if this has already been suggested - it’s late and I only read pages 1 and 5 
@aquapt No worries, I think you’re the first to mention it. I took a quick look at the program and ran through their NPC and I’ll at least be looking into it. Thanks!
Even in state, U of U is almost 10K a year and 10K room and board, that is 20 K a year after that first year of OOS rates of 20+10.
Merit of real significance is very competitive, presidential/eccles etc are for tippy tops stas like >34 act plus max rigour, merit for OOS might exclude in state adjustment so check how this actually works, in state your stats would maybe get you 2500 a year in scholarship $ (that requires a 3.6 GPA to keep), if they offer more for OOS, it might be only if you are paying OOS rates. There are many high stats kids that stay in state, just as in your own home state.
It is hard to imagine any OOS public is going to save you money over your own in state school. Study for your next ACT to help you with that.
@Sybylla I figured that stuff out about U of U pretty much as soon as I responded, but I still appreciate the suggestion. In terms of IS and OOS affordability, I’ll never truly know what I’ll be able to afford until I see my offers. However, I do go to one of the best schools in the state and am definitely not in the top 10% of my peers. The majority of seniors pick to stay in state so I have about 70 people to verify the NPC’s, and I don’t think the in state schools are going to be super affordable either. In fact, the cheapest school on my list is SE Louisiana, which was recommended on this forum and I have been highly considering it ever since. From my understanding, I already qualify for an automatic full ride there. It’s NASAD accredited, impressive according to mamaedefamilia, and close enough to tour myself.
Hard to beat free, unless somehow that schools turns out to not be what I was looking for.
https://www.southeastern.edu/admin/fin_aid/scholarships/
Also I’m still considering less direct routes of going OOS near a major city that may or may not make it within the range of what I can afford. At the very least, taking and gap year and getting prereqs from a junior college close to my university of choice will be cheaper than going straight into the OOS school. Of course, going to SE is still the main thing on my mind and I’m hoping that it works out for me.
Yeah, U of U may not be as inexpensive as you need; I’ve just always found that program impressive, and the fact that they do allow transitions to in-state is enticing. If you really wanted a change of residency and particularly loved the program, you could look into paths like CC-to-flagship there. Also there are cheaper publics in Utah, but then you’d be giving up the major-city aspect.
TBH it seems like in-state is going to make the most sense for you. FWIW, UA does participate (and so does Alabama State and A&M) in the National Student Exchange https://www.nse.org/exchange/find-campus/ , through which you could spend a semester studying graphic design at Queens College CUNY, and pay your home-campus tuition.