Help a stressed first-gen choose a college? :[

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I have been driving myself up the wall over selecting colleges for the past few months.</p>

<p>All of my information, I receive online- I don't have many friends to discuss with, my parents and I are not close (and they know nothing about the process, so left me to plan on my own.) My guidance counselor has given the typical generalized advice to our class, but is quite distant/impersonal- doesn't help much beyond "look at your scores and choose a safety, a few matches, and a reach."</p>

<p>I just recently weaseled a straight answer out of my parents that they have no money to pay for college. We do not own a house, and our income is around 60,000. I had trouble getting their financial information, but an extremely rough estimate of our EFC, I believe, would be $4000-$6000.</p>

<p>I have a 4.0 GPA and 2020 SAT first attempt, but no real extracurricular activities except NHS, a few hours of tutoring, and STEM club this year. (I was engaged in a few in junior high, but quit them before high school.) I am entirely unimpressive on paper. The few people who know me are highly impressed by my art, writing, etc.- I have excellent letters of recommendation. However, I realize that it is meaningless when I do not have actual accomplishments. There is a reason other than laziness- depression- but it is not a legitimate reason that can be used on a college application.</p>

<p>Should I not bother to apply to more highly-ranked colleges than my state school? Is it true that anybody can take out student loans? (The net cost for my state school is about 23000, so I would have to pay most of that in loans.)</p>

<p>I love learning, but I realize that I am not competitive for top colleges. However, I would greatly appreciate any help, because I am not quite sure what colleges would accept me, and which ones would leave me with the least debt.</p>

2

<p>In the Financial Aid Forum there are several threads about guaranteed merit-based scholarships. Read through those threads and see if any would work for you.</p>

<p>You also should pay a visit to [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) to learn more about how student aid works.</p>

3

<p>You may want to see if any of the big automatic full ride scholarships are at schools that you like: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Also, check net price calculators on each school’s web site. Your in-state public universities may have much more generous financial aid and scholarships for you than for out-of-state students ($23,000 per year seems like list price for many in-state public universities).</p>

4

<p>Your in-state public universities are good places to start your search. However, someone with your stats has many other options. The fact that your SATs aren’t quite in the stratosphere, and that your ECs may be a little weak, could shut you out of the very most selective colleges (maybe about 25 national universities and almost as many national LACs.) That leaves quite a few other excellent, slightly less selective schools. If your family income is around $60K and you have no significant assets, then you are a good candidate for need-based aid from full-need, need-blind schools that are within reach for your stats.</p>

<p>Look over the following list of need-blind, full-need schools:
[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)
Most of them are very selective private schools. The ones that are somewhat less selective include:
Beloit
Brandeis
Holy Cross
Knox
Lawrence
U. Miami
Richmond
Rochester</p>

<p>Especially if you can raise your scores, and if your essays are excellent, you might be a good candidate for a few of the others (Boston College, Grinnell, USC, Wake Forest).</p>

<p>Another strategy is to look for schools that guarantee specific levels of merit aid for students with your stats. In that case, you may want to try to get your scores up to the 2100 mark.</p>

5

<p>*Should I not bother to apply to more highly-ranked colleges than my state school? </p>

<p>Is it true that anybody can take out student loans? (The net cost for my state school is about 23000, so I would have to pay most of that in loans.)
*</p>

<p>YOU can only borrow the following amounts…</p>

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

<p>to borrow more would require QUALIFED (naive) co-signers. So, you need to deal with the limitations of your situation.</p>

<p>Most state schools do not meet need, so you may need to find schools that will either give you large merit scholarships, has a low cost because you can commute, or will give you enough FA to attend. </p>

<p>How much can your parents contribute towards college? If they can’t pay much, can they pay ANYTHING? </p>

<p>You won’t be able to borrow to cover their EFC, since their will already be a 5500 loan in your FA pkgs.</p>

<p>What is your Math + CR score from your SAT? When will you be taking the SAT again? </p>

<p>What is your major?</p>

<p>What is your home state?</p>

<p>Edited to add. In another thread you say that your parents think that they might be able to pay up to $8k per year. since they don’t have savings, that means that they would have to pay about $650 per month for 48 straight months. That might be very hard based on their income. Talk to them about that to get a clear idea based on how much they really could pay out each month to this new expense (college).</p>

6

<p>In addition to the above recommendations, which I think are good ones, don’t be immediately dismissive of your state school. There are many highly intelligent kids who don’t have the money to go elsewhere. Check out the honors programs in particular - they often provide a ready made peer group of top students, the best housing, preference in enrollment, and other perks that can make the experience comparable to a much more expensive private university. </p>

<p>Also, a number of state schools have arrangements with other state schools that might allow you to enroll OOS at instate tuition - so which state you are in matters.</p>

7

<p>Thank you everyone.</p>

<p>My Critical Reading is 710, and math is 640. I am going to take practice tests and try to better pace myself to improve my scores, and am next taking the SAT October 6th.</p>

<p>My major is undecided, but I am leaning toward computer science, biochemistry, or neuroscience.</p>

<p>I asked my dad for a realistic estimate of what they could contribute, and now he said up to $4,000 or 5,000 per year from tax returns. Although that is not definite, because it’s all the money we have to pay for emergencies such as car break downs.</p>

<p>My home state is Pennsylvania.</p>

<p>I agree, I like our state schools; I am mainly concerned about the poor financial aid.</p>

8

<p>I asked my dad for a realistic estimate of what they could contribute, and now he said up to $4,000 or 5,000 per year from tax returns. Although that is not definite, because it’s all the money we have to pay for emergencies such as car break downs.</p>

<p>this is why I asked. Modest income families are very affected by things like car repairs, appliance breakdowns, medical expenses, and other costly unexpected expenses. Within a 4 year college period, a family is going to have many of these kinds of unexpected expenses.</p>

<p>If your dad knows that the family often gets about a $4k tax return, then he may think he can earmark that for college. But since often emergency expenses simulataneously show up, the full tax return shouldn’t be earmarked for college.</p>

<p>PA schools don’t give great aid and their instate tuition is high. However, is there one that you can commute to?</p>

<p>If you get a higher SAT, then maybe some of the schools that give large merit will work better for you as safeties.</p>

9

<p>As a PA resident, my son chose to NOT apply to any state schools. He found more affordable options at privates and OOS and preferred our Community College as compared to the commuting distance state schools. </p>

<p>I’ll pm you the research we found.</p>

<p>Just be aware, that most schools will cost more than $9,500 (parents $4000 and $5500 loan for yourself) for room/board.</p>

10

<p>If you could raise your SAT score just a little, you would be eligible for full tuition at University of Alabama-Huntsville. That would leave you with approximately $10,00-11,000 per year to pay. <a href=“http://uah.edu/iFinAid/scholarships/2012-2013%20approved%20scholarship%20gridNEW.pdf[/url]”>http://uah.edu/iFinAid/scholarships/2012-2013%20approved%20scholarship%20gridNEW.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Also, take a look at the list of merit scholarships that ucbalumnus has linked to–you appear to qualify for a few of those already.</p>

<p>I would also suggest if you are talented in art, that you put together a portfolio of your work. Also, if you’re a good writer, take a look and see if there’s an online paper or even your school paper that you can write for. It’s not too late to highlight your talents and show some initiative. If you can raise your scores (and even if you don’t), you should apply to Macauley Honors Program at CUNY. If you get in, it is free (you even get housing if you pick one of the CUNYs that offers housing) and it’s a wonderful program.</p>

11

<p>You have a 1350 Math + CR SAT. </p>

<p>I see that you have an interest in STEM. </p>

<p>If you major in an engineering discipline or Comp Sci, then the University of Alabama and its College of Engineering would give you TWO scholarships that stack on top of each other. </p>

<p>The two scholarships would COMBINE to give you FULL TUITION PLUS 2500 per year. If you add a $5500 loan, $2-3k from your parents, and maybe $2k from summer earnings, you would have your costs covered. You’d probably also have to work a few hours a week for “pocket money”. My kids always worked about 6-12 hours a week which gave them $50-100 a week for dates, movies, etc.</p>