Help please

After being out of work for 2 years, we drained our savings and accumulated a great deal of debt. Now my wife and I are both gainfully employed (thank God), but we have no college savings and make too much for aid.

My son is a 3.3 student at a competitive school and scored 1300 on the SAT. Any words of advice? We are from NJ, so even the state schools are no bargain.

Is anyone aware of good schools that would give merit money? I read U of Maine offers in state tuition deals for out of state students who qualify. Anyone familiar with other schools who offer the same? NJ has no reciprocity with neighboring states. (yes NJ sucks in many ways)

Thanks in advance.

Maine offers that deal because enrolment at UMaine had been falling for several years. I have not heard of any other states doing that,

@wildcats115

Your son would be eligible for the Amigo Scholarship at Univ of New Mexico. Value =$15360/year.
Amigo requires either 23 ACT/1130 SAT and 3.5 GPA OR 26 ACT/1240 SAT and 3.0 GPA

UNM OOS tuition& fees = $22,037/year
room & board (traditional dorm) = $9,662/year
Total = $31,699
Amigo Scholarship = $15,360


$16,339 =final direct costs

Might get instate tuition at UofSC with stats. Would bring cost to instate cos of around 25k

WVU and some schools in Ohio like Kent State, Youngstown State, Cleveland State would give merit for a 1300 SAT. Also maybe Duquesne, Gannon and other Catholic schools in PA.

Try some net price calculators on their websites.

How far is he willing to go? How cold? ND, SD, Wyo, Neb, Idaho, Montana have low OOS tuition to start with, often lower room and board costs, plus some offer merit. My daughter is at wyo and her r&b was under $9000, she got a Rocky Mtn scholarship, a department scholarship, and an alum scholarship. We just kept stacking whatever they offered.

Take a look at the Automatic Scholarship thread at the top of this forum. Some of the scholarships discussed might work for you kid.

@wildcats115
Where are you in NJ that he couldn’t commute? That alone would save about half the cost of every state school in NJ.
Rowan is the only school that gives substantial merit aid. At 1300 he would likely get about $6,000 a year for 4 years.

You have to be realistic here. If he goes to New Mexico, you have to get him (and his stuff) out there and back. That isn’t free. Nor are flights at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break, Summer. There goes the “savings” of going to New Mexico. Is he a junior? If he is a senior, where has he applied, it is getting rather late and he may want to take a gap year, work his ass off and save, and reapply after researching options. He would go in as a freshman with freshman aid.

Another option is the NJ Stars program, do you know what that is?

Final piece of advice - involve him in these conversations. It shouldn’t just be you doing all the footwork, this is his life. We involved my daughter from the get go, and it really paid off in a happy kid, feeling in control of her (limited) choices of what we could afford to do.

Best of luck.

How about Stockton in New Jersey?

Also what is your FAFSA EFC if you were out of work 2 years ago?

Would you still qualify for NJ Tag?

Correctional comment - my “foster son” is not legally my foster child. He is a young man who came to live with us as a senior in high school due to a disastrous home situation and has stayed with us the last three years. We are grateful to have been able to offer him a safe place, and he has brought us much joy and a great deal of new learning opportunities along the way. I use this term to strangers who don’t know the entire story so they can quickly understand the type of relationship we have.

Just wanted to make sure there was no confusion with regards to the dependency override discussion.

Guess what? If you don’t have the money you don’t go home 4 times a year, and you don’t have a lot of stuff. My daughter is 2000 miles away and comes home at Christmas and for the summer. Total cost for flights is about $500 per year. She has no stuff! She had 3 tubs of stuff to store and did it at a friend’s house the first summer, and then moved into a house where someone gave her a bed, desk and dresser. She’s planning on giving those to the next teammate who moves in to take her place.

When you have to save money, you do. If the student wants to get out of NJ (and it seems so many do) you have to make compromises and coming home at Thanksgiving might be one.

You can do this. Random thoughts:

Your son can take approximately $5000 a year in federal student loans. So if he takes those and goes to a place like UNM your annual out of pocket would be around $12,000. Tack on another $2000 for travel. That’s high but it’s best to be conservative.

Most universities offer monthly payment plans so figure out how much you can pay out of pocket each month (leave yourself enough cash flow and savings for emergencies).

If commuting somewhere for two years is an option that should be considered but keep in mind that the scholarships people are mentioning here are for freshmen and would probably not be available for transfers.

Finally, not every kid would do well with a gap year but it is something to consider to give all three of you an extra 12 months of savings to bank. If he does this without taking any college courses during that year he will retain his first year status and the merit scholarships will still be options.

I believe U of Maine charges whatever your instate school charges, so no savings except if the room and board charges are different.