<p>I need help! I homeschool my four children and am about to graduate the oldest. She is interested in an out of state college which is way beyond our budget. She has good grades and good test scores. She is also dual enrolling in a local college with a 4.0 there and will have accumulated 30 college credits upon high school graduation. Questions: 1. How do I find available scholarships? 2. We had planned on taking the basics at a local college then transferring to the out of state school. Is it better to go as a freshman for scholarship opportunities or are there scholarships for transfer students? P.S She did not take the PSAT because I did not know about the National Merit Scholarship :-( Any advice?</p>
<p>I suggest asking your question also in the Financial Aid forum here.</p>
<p>I assume your daughter is a senior right now (graduating May 2011)? What was her SAT/ACT scores?</p>
<p>There is generally more merit scholarships from the colleges themselves than from outside sources and these are most often reserved for incoming freshman rather than transfer students. </p>
<p>When you say the OOS college is far beyond your budget, it may be that it will be unaffordable because there are not that many scholarships out there that pay the full freight. If one is fortunate enough to win an outside scholarship, chances are it will be in the $500 to a few thousand range, which while helpful, often is not enough to bridge a gap of 10K - 20K - 30K or more.</p>
<p>the best scholarships from a school will be as a freshman…not very many out there for transfer students. do you have an idea of what you can pay? then look for schools that offer merit scholarships solely based on grades and test scores…for example Univ Alabama, UAB, Auburn…give very good scholarships that may cover tuition which then leaves just room and board. by checking if she meets the criteria, you would know what you would be expected to pay…and that may be covered by financial aid depending on your finances…there are other schools out there that also go strictly by stats. pm me if you would like more info on UAB, check out the UA and Auburn forums here for the info on those…or check the schools website</p>
<p>i already had some of these in my bookmarks so here you go:</p>
<p>UAB:
[Out-of-State</a> Residents](<a href=“http://main.uab.edu/Sites/apply/financial_aid/scholarships/69028/]Out-of-State”>http://main.uab.edu/Sites/apply/financial_aid/scholarships/69028/)</p>
<p>so if she qualified based on scores for the elite… your remaining cost would be: about 3200 for tuition, 3200 for food and 5000 for dorm…11K per year left to pay</p>
<p>[College</a> Costs](<a href=“http://main.uab.edu/Sites/apply/financial_aid/costs/]College”>http://main.uab.edu/Sites/apply/financial_aid/costs/)</p>
<p>OP </p>
<p>I live in a state with MANY colleges. I know of quite a few students whose total cost after financial aid and merit for private schools is cheaper than our state schools. Please have her keep all options open (private and public). Please consider the colleges carefully for 4 yr vs 6 yr graduation rates. It may be a higher priced school per year is cheaper overall for the degree if you can graduate in 4 years vs. 6 years.</p>
<p>I don’t have direct experience, but I have read here that those CC courses while at high school age can change the applicants status from “freshman” to “transfer” with the large number of credits you are reporting. This is a double edged sword – Some colleges won’t transfer the credits if it is for dual enroll purposes, while other colleges may view her as a transfer. </p>
<p>Is your daughter set only on 1 OOS college or is she interested in simply going OOS for school? If she is set on one particular college you should post it and folks may be able to tell you scholarships awarded at that school which may not be posted on the college’s website. There is also a section on this forum by college name.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help. I am new to this site and to college prep. I see there are links to certain schools here and I will search/post there as well. It so happens the school she is interested in is Auburn Univ. She wants to study horses and go pre-vet. UGA has a program here in GA, where she can get the HOPE, but she really likes the rural setting of Auburn and it’s closer to home. She is graduating high school this spring. Her ACT score was 30. She could probably improve if taken again…only took it once and has not taken SAT yet. I hope we will qualify for financial aid as well. Is Financial Aid state specific or same no matter where you go? Thanks again for help for this newbee.</p>
<p>My kids were homeschooled and are now in college. As others have said, the aid will be better for incoming freshman than for transfer students. (One of mine was a transfer, so we’ve dealt with this.)</p>
<p>If she is dual-enrolled at the community college those earned credits should not cause a problem with her status – that is, she should not be considered a transfer student for having taken them. (Of course, this is a generality and I don’t mean to suggest there will never be a situation that works out differently.)</p>
<p>There are so many factors to consider. Because of our income, it’s less expensive for our D to go out of state to a private, selective and heavily endowed liberal arts college that meets full need than for her to attend our local public university where I work and get a 50% discount on her tuition. That was a total surprise to me. Also, it was a surprise that her College Algebra course she took at the local college while in HS would not transfer to her new school (they only accepted Calculus and above). </p>
<p>Transfer credits will vary on the school she is considering. Many schools have “transfer calculators” on their websites that show how specific courses might transfer in. Some are very picky and don’t allow you to transfer much. You need to determine this to find out if she’ll be considered a freshman or a transfer student. Scholarships will almost always be better for freshmen.</p>
<p>For local scholarships, look at the websites of high schools in your area. Ours list available scholarships under our Counseling area. I looked at our HS and several neighboring HS websites to find out about them.</p>
<p>The answers to all your questions - it depends. It depends on your income, the school(s) she’s considering, her scores/grades and whether or not she offers “something” to the school (geographic diversity, athletics, outstanding extracurriculars, etc.), how they will treat her college credits so far, and the school’s financial aid policy.</p>
<p>Has your daughter applied to UGA? Is she going Fall of 2011?</p>
<p>Here is the thing. If she is HOPE eligible, it will be hard to beat the costs of a GA school. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.auburn.edu/scholarship/academic-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://www.auburn.edu/scholarship/academic-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>You appear to have missed the deadlines for out of state student scholarships at Auburn unless she has already applied. </p>
<p>HOPE makes it hard for many families, even those of the best students, to justify going to a public out of state university.</p>
<p>at auburn with a 30 act she would qualify for the heritage ie 2/3 out of state tuition
Heritage Scholarship
Requires a 30-32 ACT (1330-1430 SAT) and a minimum 3.5 high school GPA for consideration.
Awarded at 2/3 non-resident tuition, currently valued at $59,632 over four years ($14,908 per year).</p>
<p>so that would leave her with 7+K tuition and room and board 9630= 16K plus (obviously if in georgia her transport costs wont be as high as estimated here)</p>
<p>Non Resident: Undergraduate (12 hours) Tuition/Fees $21916 Room/Board 9630 Books/Supplies 1100 Personal 2510 Transportation 2346 TOTAL COSTS $37502</p>
<p>if she is interested in auburn…do whatever you can to secure housing…they sometimes have a problem meeting the need.</p>
<p>Time for the money talk:
It would be fiscally irresponsible for your student to want to be a vet and NOT use Hope at UGA. Athens is fairly rural. You will spend thousands more on Auburn, money that will help her a lot more for Vet School. Also, if you can avoid loans now (defering them for vet school instead) you will not be paying interest from day 1. UGA is as good if not better school as Auburn in so many ways.</p>
<p>It is too bad you are getting a late start. With her scores she would have been eligible for early action, as well as quite likely to receive additional scholarships and honors housing. I think some of it is SAT based though. My daughter got EA, as well as a few other scholarships monies that she did not have to apply for specially. There are a few other merits at UGA, but the deadline on them have passed I think.</p>
<p>Have the money discussion with your child. If she is smart she will see the value in graduating debt free from a great university.</p>
<p>Consider joining the yahoogroup hs2coll . It’s a group for parents who homeschool their teenagers who are planning to go to college. We discuss college apps, standardized testing, scholarship opportunities, transcripts… anything connected to homeschooled students and college. You will find a wealth of information in the archives – so much that you probably won’t have the time to digest it in time to benefit your oldest daughter, but you’ll be in a much better situation for her siblings.</p>
<p>Send me a private message if you want more info – my son has been homeschooled since K, and he’ll be going to college in the fall of 2011.</p>
<p>parent56</p>
<p>Those scholarships aren’t guaranteed, they are competitive and if the student hopes to enroll next year, they have missed the deadline.</p>
<p>Imontoya gives you good advice. The HOPE makes GA schools very attractive.</p>
<p>i havent kept up with deadlines but to the best of my knowledge auburn’s scholarship are stats driven not competitive as long as apps in on time… uab and alabama are the same…she may well have missed the deadline as you say.</p>
<p>From the Auburn website:</p>
<p>Academic Scholarships are awarded among eligible non-residents in December, based on academic achievement as demonstrated by the high school GPA and standardized test scores. These four-year, renewable scholarships are awarded at three levels: Presidential, Heritage, and Charter. Students must meet the December 1 Freshman Scholarship priority deadline and the minimum ACT or SAT score and high school GPA requirements to receive consideration at each level.</p>
<p>Academic Scholarships are awarded competitively, and the minimum test score and GPA required for consideration at any level does not guarantee a scholarship will be awarded at that level. Minimum test scores required for consideration at each level do not include the writing score.</p>
<p>thanks lastminutemom… hadnt seen that, my son was instate and it was last year that he applied, maybe it was different</p>