Grants for oos tuition

Paying for College
1

<p>I'm brand new here, but I have been reading for a couple of days. I have spent a lot of time researching the FAFSA over the past year and have done everything possible to minimize our EFC. The calculators indicate our EFC will be around $12,000. </p>

<p>My daughter has applied mostly to large out of state public schools which I thought was a good idea because of the overall lower costs vs the private schools. I read some posts yesterday that indicate most public schools will not provide need based grants to oos students. Is this correct? I was really hoping for $10-15,000 in grants for schools with annual costs up to $40,000. There is no way she can graduate with over $80,000 in loans and no way I will cosign for them. If this information is correct, I'm really mad that it is not publicized more. We would have taken a very different approach with picking schools had we known this.</p>

<p>If it's dependent upon the school, here is a list of the oos schools she has applied to:
Alabama
Auburn
Florida State
UFC
Delaware
Maryland
Texas</p>

<p>She's also thinking about applying to ASU.</p>

<p>She has been accepted at Alabama and Auburn and deferred by FSU. We have not heard from the others yet. She's only an ok student, so no merit will be coming her way from these schools.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.</p>

2

<p>In general OOS publics provide little or no grants to OOS students. Why would they? The costs are borne by the in-state taxpayers so in-state students get the grants (which are not large anyway, certainly not as large as you are looking for). </p>

<p>The only exception to this is if the OOS student is one of the tip top applicants to the school and the school wants to attract him/her. You can look at the accepted stats of the schools on your list and compare them to your child’s to see if you have a shot at merit aid. You’d need to be in the upper 90% of applicants to have a shot in most cases. </p>

<p>Hopefully your child applied to your in-state public flagship. If not do it today. </p>

<p>OOS non-aid is very well publicized.</p>

3

<p>I’m not sure where the OOS non-aid is publicized, but I have not heard it mentioned anywhere but here and I have been researching a lot to not make a mistake like this. She applied to one of the 2 flagships here and was accepted at one of the smaller regional campuses. The competition for our main campuses is intense. </p>

<p>She did get some merit aid from the 2 private schools she applied to and I know they’ll be more generous with need based aid, but the better of the 2 schools is much smaller than she was hoping to attend. I just wish I steered her towards more private schools knowing what I know now.</p>

4

<p>*My daughter has applied mostly to large out of state public schools which I thought was a good idea because of the overall lower costs vs the private schools. I read some posts yesterday that indicate most public schools will not provide need based grants to oos students. Is this correct? *</p>

<p>OOS Publics generally do NOT give grants to help with OOS costs. UVA and UNC are the exceptions but they usually only accept OOS students with very high stats, so the aid could be considered “merit.”</p>

<p>Think about it…OOS Publics charge high OOS rates for a reason. It would hardly make sense for them to then just cover the high cost by handing over need-based aid. If that were the case, they might as well not charge OOS rates. Not to mention, the instate people would be furious to see their public school money being handed over to OOS kids when their instate kids need aid. </p>

<p>Publics typically have VERY little aid to give (because their aid often comes from instate tax-money) and they must reserve it for instate kids - which are charged lower rates. Publics generally can’t even help all their instate kids who have need.</p>

<p>However, some publics have scholarships (funded by private donors and such) that they give to high stats kids - including OOS kids. OOS Publics justify giving those merit scholarships to those OOS kids because their stats help the schools’ rankings.</p>

<p>* She’s only an ok student, so no merit will be coming her way from these schools.</p>

<p>Alabama
Auburn
Florida State
UFC
Delaware
Maryland
Texas</p>

<p>She’s also thinking about applying to ASU.
*</p>

<p>Do NOT have her apply to anymore OOS publics. She needs to apply to some more instate publics and some privates that better meet need (and will accept her).</p>

<p>It’s highly unlikely that any of those OOS publics will be affordable. They will unlikely give her any grants - certainly not 10-15k.</p>

<p>There is no way she can graduate with over $80,000 in loans and no way I will cosign for them.</p>

<p>Good! She wouldn’t be able to pay big loans back. She shouldn’t graduate with more than the standard Fed Stafford loans - which are:</p>

<p>frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500</p>

<p>*If this information is correct, I’m really mad that it is not publicized more. We would have taken a very different approach with picking schools had we known this.
*</p>

<p>Yes…sadly you were poorly advised and likely wasted a lot of money on apps and sending scores. :(</p>

<p>Did you run the NPC calculators on the schools’ websites? If not, you should.</p>

5

<p>Your D needs to quickly apply to schools where her stats are high for the school.</p>

<p>What are her stats?</p>

<p>I realize that this is all very frustrating, but schools aren’t going to loudly publicize that they aren’t going to give much need-based aid. They want the applications.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for verifying what I didn’t want to hear:-( Now I have to convince her to apply to more private schools so she has some options. </p>

<p>I have another question regarding privately funded scholarships. I did web searches in the past and found lots of scholarships she could apply for. How realistic is it to get $10-$15,000 in scholarships if she is diligent and applies for everything possible?</p>

7

<p>Be aware that many private scholarships are only for one year.</p>

8

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<p>This will only apply if she gets accepted to a private college that guarantees to meet full need for all accepted students. MOST of those private schools are highly competitive for admissions…although some are less so. </p>

<p>I agree with others, I hope she has applied to some instate public universities.</p>

9

<p>What are your child’s stats (SAT/ACT, GPA)? There are some public universities that seek out high achieving students from out of state. If you share your child’s stats, we can maybe guide you to some of those.</p>

<p>And many private schools that meet full need use the Profile to figure need and so the amount of your contribution may be different than what FAFSA is giving you.</p>

10

<p>Thumper is right…many privates are just as limited with funds. </p>

<p>You need to have her apply to schools that are known to give lots of aid and where she’ll be accepted.</p>

<p>From the list of schools on her list, she seems to like the big rah rah spirited big-sports schools. If that’s the case, then we need to know her stats so we can recommend the right schools for her to apply to.</p>

<p>And, how much can you contribute every year?</p>

<p>* I have spent a lot of time researching the FAFSA over the past year and have done everything possible to minimize our EFC. The calculators indicate our EFC will be around $12,000.*</p>

<p>What did you do? Your EFC is still beyond Pell grants, so I hope you didn’t earn less money just to have an EFC of $12k. </p>

<p>Loyola-Maryland is known to “meet need” and isn’t hard to get accepted to.</p>

<p>DePauw also gives good aid.</p>

11

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<p>I don’t think that’s realistic at all. The competition for national scholarships is fierce and they’re well publicized so she’d probably make more with a part-time job. Aside from athletics, my kids have won a fair amount from local/regional scholarships, a little from state scholarships, and nothing from the national ones. IIRC, the highest was $5K and most were only for freshman year. Once she’s in college she may be able to get department scholarships if she maintains a very high gpa, but this may be tough at a large school unless she’s in a small department. YMMV</p>

12

<p>*How realistic is it to get $10-$15,000 in scholarships if she is diligent and applies for everything possible? *</p>

<p>HIGHLY unlikely for the following reasons…</p>

<p>1) these are usually for small amounts and ONLY for FRESHMAN year…so nothing for years 2, 3, and 4. Few private scholarships are for multiple years. And very, very few are available for continuing students to apply for. </p>

<p>2) The big scholarships (like Coca cola) have deadlines that have long past.</p>

<p>3) You said her stats are modest.</p>

<p>4) It doesn’t sound like she’s a URM. There might be some for URMs.</p>

<p>5) Rarely can a student get anywhere close to that in private scholarships…and it usually takes high stats. My own kids (who had high stats) only managed to get private scholarships for 2500 (one child) and 2000 (other child) per year and that was from H’s company. One son got a one-time $800 award for being the top math student.</p>

<p>Your D needs to quickly apply to some more schools…ones that will likely work for her.</p>

<p>What are her stats?</p>

13

<p>I don’t have the exact stats, but I should be close.
GPA =3.2
Math SAT=530
CR SAT= 570
Writing - upper 500’s, not sure of number
She is in the upper half of her class, but probably not upper quarter.
ACT 24
She has been on the swim team all 4 years and is the captain this year.</p>

<p>She has scholarship offers from:
Xavier - $9,000/yr
St. John’s - $13,000/yr</p>

<p>So at least we have those offers which are both better than oos tution at the other schools. The Xavier NPC wasn’t too bad. We visited Xavier last summer and there is a lot to like about it. She’s really looking for a school with a lot of school spirit and definitely no smaller than Xavier. </p>

<p>I want her to apply to SLU, but the NPC seems to indicate that there would be no need based aid. Does anyone know if that would be the case?</p>

<p>Any other school suggestions would be great. I thought I did a good search based on size, but maybe I missed something.</p>

14

<p>You might have her look at Ohio University. My son has slightly higher stats and got a little money and it is not a super expensive school to start.</p>

15

<p>Sorry, I am editing this since I missed the awards and acceptances in post number 13. Congrats!</p>

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<p><a href=“College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics;

<p>This site will list average grants and % of students receiving them.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>When looking at those stats for publics, keep in mind that the grants listed might be misleading. Instate students might get grants that won’t be given to OOS students. And, Pell Grants might be included in the amounts, and your EFC is too high for those.</p>

<p>Clueless…I doubt SLU would give your D much. SLU gives largely merit and requires higher stats.</p>

<p>How much are you willing to pay? </p>

<p>You might look at some of the other Catholics like Duquesne, Le Moyne, Canisius, Spring Hill, etc.</p>

<p>Look at the middle quartiles for the above schools and have your D apply where her stats are strong.</p>

<p>*She’s really looking for a school with a lot of school spirit *</p>

<p>I sensed that was the case. What is your budget? Is your D going to take out Stafford student loans (5,500 for frosh year)?</p>

18

<p>^^Absolutely. I was thinking private schools in terms of the link above. Xavier is now in hand. I would add a few privates and instate schools to that. Select, and complete those FA forms!</p>

19

<p>*She has scholarship offers from:
Xavier - $9,000/yr
St. John’s - $13,000/yr</p>

<p>So at least we have those offers which are both better than oos tution at the other schools. The Xavier NPC wasn’t too bad. *</p>

<p>Actually, the award at X brings the tuition down to about the same as the OOS publics. With merit, X’s tuition is about $22k per year…which is about what your OOS publics charge (like Bama and Auburn).</p>

<p>How much are you willing to pay each year?</p>

20

<p>I’ll have to spend more time looking at the total costs for each school. When I ran the NPC Alabama had a total cost close to $40K and Xavier had a total cost of around $41K (or $43K, I forget which). The $9k scholarship made a big difference with that caclulation. </p>

<p>We should be able to pay $20k a year, so anything under $30k, I’m sure we’ll find a way to do it between loans and D working more hours.</p>

<p>We’re in PA and did not get accepted to Pitt main campus. She has no interest in Penn State, but probably would not get accepted at main campus anyway. Most of the other state schools are teacher colleges and really not what she’s looking for. </p>

<p>Thanks for the links and the Ohio U suggestion. I’m going to check them out now along with the other school suggestions.</p>