I’m not sure any OOS school is going to work as a transfer for this student. Supposedly he is getting about $20,000 a year from UVM in some sort of aid. His net costs is supposedly $30,000 or so.
I’m going to guess that for a transfer student, most OOS publics are going to be right up,there in terms of net cost.
And again I say…that Pell grant that he is getting now could easily disappear when his sister is no longer in college.
@myos1634 I just googled gpa scale for Miami-Dade and a link quickly popped up with this scale info, so it looks like it is on a 6 pt scale. It is not going to be helpful for any of the schools that are competitive for admissions and require high school info. His best bet is going to be applying as a transfer student where no test scores and no high school info is required. (And, regardless of the OP’s mom’s opinion, taking that path from a FL CC would likely open up equal transfer opportunities with the added benefit of being at a fraction of the cost.)
[quote]
REG HON A.P
A 4.0 5.0 6.0
B 3.0 4.0 5.0
C 2.0 3.0 3.0
D 1.0 1.0 1.0
F 0 0 0
[/quote]
At this point, I agree with @twoinanddone No posts are going to make a difference bc the advice that they want is only found with Alice.
@mom2aphysicsgeek: Thanks for looking that up. Is that for MDC or district? The 4-year system uses the +1 for AP/IB/AICE/+.5 for Honors system and would automatically convert OP’s grades using that system. That may be why OP was rejected by many universities: if he thought the 4-year universities used a 6.0 scale when looking at their data, rather a 5.0 scale, he’d feel confident he’d get into UF and NCF indeed…
OP, are you at home now? Can you discuss the matter with your PARENTS (not just your mother) and tell us what they have to say?
Do they have a Parent PLUS loan? A private loan?
Since you and your sister seem to be the only ones who worry about costs in your family, get together and plan together, then talk together to your parents.
Would they be okay with you doing TCC2FSU or attending Santa Fe-> UF? (At both, you don’t have to live at home. You can live in student residences. The TCC2FSU students can actually participate in some activities on the FSU campus. Your mother can tell her friends you’re in a special honors program to transfer to FSU, guaranteed. Or that you’re in a special honors program to transfer to UF.)
Miami Dade College’s Honors program requires a 1200 SAT CR+M for students with your GPA: retake in January to see if you’d qualify.
You will not get into UMichigan. You will not get into Vanderbilt. Not with with your HS GPA and test scores, even if you got a very good college GPA.
There will be no other scholarships to help you pay for UVermont.
You actually got a very good deal from UVermont in terms of scholarships, but it’s VERY expensive to start with.
Even if NPCs are not accurate for transfers, they do give you an idea, and any university more expensive than UVermont should immediately be cut.
Yes, I agree with thumper. Only while they are both in school will he get more aid.
But a semester or year added to sister’s studies is going to cost a lot more than they would gain.
If UVM is not affordable then OP should transfer to Florida school with merit (FIU, Eckerd) for maximum savings, or to a CC that has agreements with the top FL schools. But mom is not hearing any of that.
My top concern is that OP’s mom can’t come up with the 12 grand anymore and if bill is not paid and money owed to UVM they won’t release transcript and OP won’t be able to transfer anywhere.
Pitt costs $30k for instate students, I know because D goes there. And we can only afford it because she got full tuition merit.
Maybe find an OOS public that has a lower OOS cost than UVM…there are certainly some.
But are they more or as well known as UVM?
Outside of the northeast, UVM has really no more “well known” value than U of Minnesota has in the Midwest.
It simply one of the New England states flagship universities…just like UConn, UMass, U Maine, URI, UNH. It’s not that special,
He’s actually getting a pretty good award at UVM which brings the tuition more in line with other OOS schools. It’s just not enough for his financial situation, as described by him.
Bright Futures changed a lot in the last few years. Many can’t qualify because of the ACT/SAT requirements (went from a 22 ACT to a 26-29). Others can’t qualify because of the foreign language requirement. The award amount hasn’t gone up in for several years, even though tuition has pretty much increased at every school. It’s nice to have the extra money, but it won’t pay for college. I’ve known several kids to lose it too, by either not taking 12 credits (dropping a class) or taking the wrong classes (not everything qualifies), or not keeping the required gpa. OP said he didn’t qualify because of the community service requirement, but I don’t think his scores or gpa were high enough either. It is no longer a sure thing, even for the top students. I think they’ll get rid of it in the future as, statistically, it is no longer helping the kids it was supposed to help. Now it is just the top students, and those students have other programs they can tap.
I was at a sports event and people were talking about gpa’s over 7, so there are some in Florida that are even higher than 6. It’s not possible to know if a 4.5 gpa is good or great or spectacular if we don’t have the scale.
@poppyguy If you are still reading this thread, I hope you and your sister can sit down together and realistically create a plan forward. @MYOS1634 posted a great viable path to acceptance at an affordable 4 yr university. If FSU via the TCC2FSU path is at all of interest to you, you need to plan now bc you are ineligible for that program if you take more than 15 hrs post high school graduation. (You can have more than 15 hrs if they are from AP/DE credits.) https://www.tcc.fl.edu/Future/GoldenGuarantee/TCC2FSU/Pages/FAQ.aspx So your decision would need to be made prior to spring semester. If you went that route, even renting an apt would bring your costs down considerably. Tuition is only $100/ credit hr. Plus, your transportation costs would go down considerably.
Your parents also need to think about retirement. It is not easy to save money on $50-60k income. And if $20k+ is being spent yearly on your school, that money could be used for retirement, home improvements and mean less stress for your family.
I know your mom is focused on name, recognition of a school as she perceives it. But you are not just bumming around and taking a few classes at CC without a clear goal.
You would be following a plan, finishing classes at Florida CC to save money and using one of the guaranteed path programs to FSU or UF to finish your degree and might even qualify for transfer scholarships.
You have done well with your first semester GPA, but you can’t transfer to a school like UMICH because they look at your HS grades and scores too. And it would not be guaranteed that it would be affordable for all of your remaining years if income changes and/or sister graduates.
And staying at UVM is too expensive. Other schools that might be cheaper are not going to be ranked higher than UVM or the Florida state schools you would finish your degree at if you follow the plan outlined by Myos.
@poppyguy, you’ve received lots of good advice here from the cream of the CC poster crop.
I just want to point out that the decisions you are making now will have ramifications for the rest of your life. If your parents continue to borrow for UVM or another college with sufficient prestige and expect YOU to repay them for the loans THEY are taking out, your choice of jobs, locations of where you want to live and even whether and when to marry and have kids could very well be impacted.
Think long and hard about what it would be like to have a $900 (or whatever number it works out to be) monthly payment, every single month, for the next 20 years hanging over your head when you would really rather be marrying, buying a house, having children, etc., etc.
Hi guys I went through your posts and put my info below. Sorry if I missed some questions
@MYOS1634 No I didn’t prepare IB or AICE exams
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I took a total of 9 AP classes and scored:
ap bio 3
ap chem 3
ap stat 3
ap psych 4
ap physics 4
ap gov 1
ap econ 4
ap enviro 4
ap calc 3
at UVM I took:
calc 1 A
chem 1 A-
Computer programming 1 A
Environmental Risk A-
Yes, 4.6 on a 6 point scale
@thumper1 I’m taking out the loans, family is paying the rest
Loans totals up to around 22k after graduation if I stay + interest
No private loans are being taken out
Is your family able to continue to pay the costs for you to stay at UVM…because $22,000 total,in loans for four years is fine.
If your total is $22,000, in the grand scheme of things it’s an okay amoun (the federal limit is 27k)… as long as your family can afford to, keeping in mind that in all likelihood you’ll have two years without your Pell grant so it’ll be more than this, expect $10,000 more.
In addition, something’s off wrt income… not sure your parents have told you the truth about the loans, or about how much they make.
Other than costs, are you FINE staying at UVM for the year?
Will you apply to other universities?
What about, since this year seems to be okay financially speaking (although it’s likely there’s something off wrt your parents’ income), you try to stay at UVM for two years, planning to transfer to UF or FSU in the Winter/Spring of your sophomore year, on the basis of continuing with excellent grades? If your grades slip though you’ll be in a rather dire predicament.
(Since they use your HS grades and scores, you will not get into UMich.)
Note that the TCC2FSU option is only open to you if you do not attend UMV in the Spring…what seems the best path to you at this point? Would you rather stay in Vermont or return to Florida and attend the TCC program?
Have you talked with your parents (both of them together)? What did they say?
I agree with @MYOS1634. There does seem to be a “disconnect” with your family income, and the amount your parents are paying UVM for the year without loans.
Agree also that when your sister graduates from undergrad, the Pell will at least be very reduced, if not gone altogether. And also, the costs as UVM will likely increase.
If you can find an instate public in Florida that will cost less out of pocket…it will get you where you need to be as well as UVM will.
@thumper1 That’s the thing, we might be able to but with sacrifices and it’s unsure (bc my parents take commissions and their jobs aren’t stable, etc.)
It it wasn’t a problem then I would just stay at UVM
I would really rather not have loans though because it’s unnecessary. I just ended up at UVM because I didn’t apply to enough schools and my mom didn’t want me to go to FIU because it’s like 10min away and if I were living at home my mom would complain at me all the time
That’s actually what happened to my sister before she transferred, it was a really bad situation at home and my family didn’t want that repeated tbh
Also I didn’t want to stay in FL myself. But now I’m kind of more ok with it tbh, so I’m gonna tell my mom that and see what she thinks
@MYOS1634 I’m fine with staying at UVM for the year apart from costs, yeah
I don’t think I’m really ready to apply this year bc of how recent my hs stats were
The plan you mention sounds good but that’s the thing, Idk if it’s too much to pay for another UVM year bc of how we were kind of lucky with finances this year, etc
I guess my dilemma right now is, should I apply to transfer this year? Bc in either case yeah, for sure I will plan to transfer to UF/FSU etc. with good grades the year after that
The TCC2FSU option sounds good but unfortunately I can’t do it because I have to go to UVM next semester, we already started the payments for next term also
My sister reminds my parents about finance stuff more than I do and it includes my stuff, so she brought up my transfer situation with my mom recently and told her that I would have to go to FL, but my mom responded that she wanted me to enjoy my college experience and she knows I wanted to go out of FL… So yeah it’s just my mom mixing up priorities also I guess (she wants me to have a good college experience and she kind of is just impulsive with the money)
So once she’s not busy I’m going to tell her that it’s ok if I go in state
One thing I’m really concerned about though: I want to go to grad school and I feel like a top 50 grad school will feel like I went to a “no-name” school and not consider me along with the other applicants that went to well-known research schools (like Mich and Vanderbilt)
I know that UVM isn’t on that same level, and I guess there’s no way I can get into a high level undergrad like that right now. I just want to make sure that I’m not shooting myself in the foot at all by going to somewhere not known at all
Also btw thanks everyone for the responses, they really helped a lot
Sorry I was gone for a while, we had new years celebrations and guests over the past few days
Please…it’s been said over and over and over. There are tons of successful folks in excellent grad schools who did not go to undergraduate school in the top 20. You need to get over this thinking.
If you were a solid academic student who had an excellent HS record, and excellent college grades then sure…apply to some top 20 schools and see what happens. But you need to have a Plan B, because you aren’t a tippy top,student, and you don’t have tippy top grades from HS.
There are tons of ways to success. I think you believe your mother…that a prestige, top twenty school…or bust…way of thinking is the only way to go.
Well…it isn’t the only way to go. There are tons…TONS of very successful folks who never went to a top 20…or even top 50 or 100 college and they have still been successful.
@thumper1 Ok thank you for the reassurance
I kind of wonder why people apply to top schools then if success is possible from anywhere
Why do people carry the latest Coach purse instead of a Beall’s clearance bag?
But the Beall’s bag still does the job. Do you want to be paying for this year’s Coach purse 10 years from now?