I think the discrepancy is the student didn’t earlier include the college funds, and may not have included annual retirement contributions.
These students are looking at PA publics and, in their situation, the FAFSA numbers are meaningless once beyond Pell numbers since PA publics don’t give need-based aid.
This student needs to look outside the PA system.
What is your career goal and major
Your brother can live in an apt with roommates, at PSU. That would be cheaper than on campus housing.
Is he doing that?
Obviously they must have paid something to help your brother in the past two years, because his $5,500 and $6,500 loan wouldn’t have been enough to pay $14,000. Have they used his $40,000 college savings?
Do they expect you to commute to the local branch as well?
Where do they think you can go for $15,000 a year (college savings and loan)?
What is your career goal?
Here is a nice big one from the links above:
University of Louisiana-Monroe
Application Deadline: Dec 3rd
Award: Full Tuition + Fees + $5000 housing stipend
Requirements: 3.0 GPA, 30 ACT or 1320 SAT (CR+M)
http://www.ulm.edu/scholarships/freshmen.html
http://www.ulm.edu/scholarships/outofstate.html
Note: First come, first served as funds are available
Lots of others in those links as well like U New Mexico.
How do you feel about being far from home?
If Temple doesn’t change it’s upper scholarships under last year’s criteria would get you Provost scholarship and automatic honors admission. The honors perks are awesome and I love it here! I’m out of state so I’m not sure of the dollar amount of the instate scholarship from last year. It should be coming out soon.
I’m going in undecided, but probably will end up double majoring. I"m interested in the social sciences and business.
If you can bump your ACT score to 32 with application in by scholarship deadline at UA (University of Alabama), you would have 8 terms of tuition with the Presidential Scholarship (they will accept Dec ACT test score but it has to be sent to UA from the test date score submission). Currently, you would have 2/3rd tuition at UA for 8 semesters. Can look to UABirmingham and UAHuntsville to see if you may fare better. If you are engineering or CS, you would have automatic $2500/year ($10K total) automatic scholarship stacked at UA.
Since you have seen how your brother has fared with the 2 + 2 program and costs, perhaps you can apply to a school where you receive enough merit to have a 4 year scholarship that is an affordable school for you.
Be sure to apply to all the schools that are affordable (with guaranteed merit or ‘pretty sure’ merit) so that you do not miss any opportunities. Give yourself some time to make some visits and see what works best for you.
Thank you for the advice everyone! I will be sure to look at the more affordable schools and apply where I know I will get merit!
I don’t have much to offer – I just wanted to say that it is really commendable that you are being proactive and looking at a realistic financial picture BEFORE application season goes into full swing.
Net price calculators are extremely helpful (unless your family has a business or other circumstances that don’t fit the formulas). They can give you an idea what to expect.
There are many posters on this website with lots of experience and I hope you will keep coming back to update about your situation and pursue more helpful advice.
My daughter, a senior in high school, also has a 31 on her ACT. She has received emails & letters from a couple of smaller LACs offering her full tuition. She’s also looking at university of Kentucky. They have a competitive full tuition scholarship for incoming freshman who score at least a 31 on ACT. Also there is University of Alabama in Huntsville that will give you an automatic scholarship for that 31. It is a very nice campus with more & more out of state students every year. We have visited that Campus twice. My son (16 year old) plans to study engineering there. Have you also looked into reach schools like notre dame & Vanderbilt? They can be more generous with meeting need than the state schools, though quite hard to get into with a 31.
Good luck. We are right there with you on trying to find an affordable college.
Vanderbilt is more generous, but not likely getting in with a 31. ND isn’t known to be generous, and not to Vandy’s level.
well, you have full tuition from Alabama Huntsville. that’s a start
http://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships
lots of PA kids wind up going to West Virginia U
see what merit aid your scores might get you at:
Miami Ohio
Kentucky
Alabama
Mississippi
South Carolina
LSU
Arkansas
New Mexico
Utah
East Carolina
if a service academy is in play you could try Coast Guard Academy
If engineering is a goal, U Toledo, U Akron, U Cincinnati might be affordable with merit.
What about some of the PA schools known for giving good merit aide, Duquesne, Saint Joseph’s… I feel like there are more…
Until you run the Net Price Calculators at twenty different schools, you haven’t really started.
Wikipedia’s article on Student Financial Aid includes a long list of schools that offer loan-free packages and/or meet full need. Run the NPCs on some of those to get yourself excited. True, most of those schools are highly competitive, but your stats put you in the ball park for some of them.
PA has a bad reputation for the total cost of attendance at its state schools. Don’t overlook the private schools based on sticker price. Examples: Haverford, Franklin & Marshall, Bucknell, Lehigh. NPC, NPC, repeat.
Okay, I will look at all of those schools and continue to run net price calculators!