I’m confused. I thought you were getting your figures from the NPCs and hadn’t received any awards from the schools yet.
All I know is that I have a merit scholarship, but I don’t know for sure what the exact cost will be or if I’ll get any need based aid, that’s what I was using the NPC for.
Did the award letter say any notifications might be coming later or did it just specify the merit award? I don’t think you’ll get any need based aid at that income level.
The letter just specified the merit award.
You should apply to ISU as well, at least to compare costs, and whichever public is nearby.
You can’t borrow more than $5,500 for freshman year. Anything else would be on your parents; if they can’t pay $1,000 a month right now, they won’t be able to pay it 5 years from now. (Whether the $1000 are paid to the university or the bank, they have to be paid, and the loan will actually be more due to interests).
I just found out I got a $5k scholarship to UIUC, so it would cost closer to $26k, and I also just got into USF in Florida with a $12k scholarship, so that would be around $22k/year. But if I was ignoring price, how should I figure out which of the four schools would be the best option for me?
Make sure the scholarships are for all 4 years guaranteed if the income is around the same.
Look at all schools and compare the programs and see what fits you best.
If going to Florida or Alabama you have to factor in travel costs to get there, home for the holidays etc.
For parent’s that won’t tell you what they can contribute for college, I would go to your cheapest option which is CC.
. Do they have a 529 plan or other investment plan for college that their not telling you about for you and your siblings? They should start one on your sister that is on 8th grade or some other plan. At $145, 000/year it doesn’t add up to me that nothing was put away for college or they don’t have access to some funds.
If their hurting financially due to poor decisions (we all make them), they might not be able to co-sign for loans. You need to have a serious conversation with them and stop tiptoeing around this subject. It’s hard to give you an opinion of going out of state or to a 4 year college when everything points to that you can’t afford it. Has anything changed recently?
@elsaanna If I understand correctly, your cost at SIU would be 17K (for the first year) which is 27k COA minus your 10K merit scholarship. You could take the federal student loan of 5.5K which gets you down to 11.5K. Work study or part time job during the year plus summer earnings could shave another 5K off that. Can your parents fund 7K per year? If so, then this could be an affordable option for you. I would not recommend going out of state and paying more - in addition, transportation costs can really add up.
Another possible option for you is Southeastern Louisiana U. Now you may not want to live and teach in Louisiana after you graduate, but as you’re considering Alabama and Florida, I thought I’d put this out there.
Unfortunately you just missed the priority scholarship deadline at Southeastern, but you could call them on Monday and ask if they would extend? If not, the honors scholarships may still be available.
Your grades and test scores would qualify you for an OOS tuition/fee waiver. With your stats you could get tuition plus $4000 annually towards room and board. Applying by the priority deadline (Jan 15) would have added 1750 annually to that amount.
https://www.southeastern.edu/admin/fin_aid/scholarships/
https://www.southeastern.edu/apply/assets/oos_fee_waiver.pdf
http://www.southeastern.edu/acad_research/colleges/edu_hd/index.html
If your parents earn too much for you to receive aid but can’t pay anything you can’t ignore prices. Are you planning to finance the ~$100k for UIUC or USF entirely through loans?
The scholarships are all guaranteed for 4 years. My parents can fund $7k or maybe even more than that, they just won’t tell me any exact amount for sure. I don’t know yet how I’m going to finance it but I’ll probably have to get loans.
The federal student loan is only ~$5500/year. If you work summers you may be able to raise ~$3k. With your parents’ $7k that’s ~$15k/year. Do have have any acceptances whose net costs are close to $15k?
The closest is SIU which is $17k.
That’s where you should go unless you find a more affordable option.
You can’t get unlimited loans. You can get $5,500 for your first year. That’s it.
Everything else would have to be borrowed by your parents (either “co-signed” loans, or Parent PLUS loans). If they don’t have the money to fund you they’re unlikely to have the money to repay the loan.
You really need to talk to them to know what they can provide from their income and from their savings.
Did you apply to ISU? To any Honors college?
I mentioned ISU multiple times. It has good merit for instate and a known teachers college. Not sure why not applying. Might be the cheapest option.
I haven’t applied to ISU because I don’t think it will be any cheaper than the schools I’ve already been accepted to and I don’t have much interest in going there, so I don’t want to waste an application fee.
I’ve gotten into the honors colleges at UA and USF.
Why won’t your parents tell you what they can afford?
But can you afford to go to those schools?
In some fields & in some parts of the country it pays to go go to the best college you can get into. Education in the Midwest is not like that. Even attending the state flagship (in this case UIUC) sometimes raises suspicions. The people that do the hiring & your fellow teachers might view anything above the likes of Illinois State & Northern/Eastern/Southern/Western as excessive & gaudy. Darn it, those schools were good enough for them! Go to SIU.
@jym626 They don’t want to tell me anything about what they can afford because they see that as personal information.