<p>I definitely want to go to an OOS university, I am not too fond of the state I'm living in. However, as you all know, OOS tuition is usually quite expensive. My GPA (3.7 uw) isn't good enough to automatically get every scholarship, so I am a bit confused about what to do. My parents make a combined total of about 100k, but living on the west coast costs a lot of money so we're in an apartment as of now. Do any of you have any creative ideas for me to get money for college? Thanks a ton guys.</p>
<p>The first thing you need to do is find out how much your family can comfortably pay for any college per year for the next four years. This is extremely important, since many students wait until April 29 of their senior year to find out that their parents are flat broke or have huge medical bills or just spent all their savings financing a bacchanalian, lemonade-fueled Scrabble orgy with Britney Spears and the top members of the Teamsters union.</p>
<p>After you get a firm number down (you really have to get this number), then you can examine your OOS public options, seeing which publics are within your price range. You want to make sure that you have at least a couple that you can afford without any financial aid other than perhaps a small unsubsidized Stafford loan, but also seek out ones that give substantial merit aid to people with high SAT scores, grades, extracurricular activities, or whatever the Hell it is you think is your greatest achievement in high school.</p>
<p>Don’t count on winning scholarships to bridge a huge gap. Apart from institutional scholarships (those granted by the colleges themselves), most scholarships are small, for one-year only, and are inordinately difficult to win, especially after your freshman year of college. Relying on them is like relying on winning the lottery every year to make college affordable.</p>
<p>Your ability to get a large merit scholarship will depend HEAVILY on your SAT/ACT score. do you have any scores?</p>
<p>What was your PSAT?</p>
<p>I’m taking the ACT and SAT soon and I didn’t take the PSAT because I was new to my school and I guess everyone must have known about it the year before because they didn’t make any announcements; I only found out about it happening about 3-4 days before, so it was too late.</p>
<p>Get some study books and prepare…</p>
<p>Once you have some scores, we can give you a better idea.</p>
<p>Because for you to overcome a high EFC (which you’ll likely have) you’ll need BIG merit that will be high enough that will result in a much smaller amount left to pay.</p>
<p>In the meantime, ask your parents how much they CAN pay each year. </p>
<p>With an income of $100k, their EFC will be likely be somewhere in the $25k-30k range.</p>
<p>I’m trying to get my grades up to a 4.0 for this last semester so hopefully that helps. I used the EFC calculator from collegeboard.com and my EFC was around 5-6k? Something must be affecting it, maybe because my sister is attending college too.</p>
<p>you must be doing something wrong.</p>
<p>Even with a sister attending school, if your parents income is around $100k, your EFC would be at least $10k-15k with 2 in college.</p>
<p>Also…keep in mind that most schools don’t meet need.</p>
<p>What is your sister’s EFC now on her SAR?</p>
<p>I am pretty sure that the numbers are accurate because my sister had filled out a fafsa a dew days prior to me using the calculator and I used the numbers from there.</p>
<p>If she filled out a FAFSA a few days ago, then she’s likely received an EFC by mail. </p>
<p>Ask her what it said. </p>
<p>Now, if she filled out the FAFSA by herself, then she may have made an error, too. There’s practically no way you can have an income of $100k and have an EFC of $10 (for one in college) unless you have a really big family.</p>
<p>What is the size of your family?</p>
<p>Some online calculators seem to have a quirk in them…it’ll be quicker and easier for you to ask your sis and then divide it by 2. Your 3.7 UW is decent but do you know if your HS weights grades on transcripts? You should request an unofficial copy of your transcript anyway, and you’ll also see what your current class rank is. You don’t need to qualify for every scholarship, just enough that makes a school affordable! If that means going to a tier 3/4 school where your stats put you in the top 25% of admits, then those are the schools you’d want to target, preferably those that waive OOS tuition and/or give larger scholarships to OOS students. Do you have a preferred state/region? If you post your “wish list” you may get some input on schools that give decent scholarships. Remember that OOS tuition is only a factor at public schools and you may find better aid at a private.</p>
<p>While you’re taking breaks from your SAT prep, you might want to check out results from the automatic scholarship thread at the top of this forum and here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid-49.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid-49.html</a></p>
<p>I talked to my dad and it turns out he only gets 70k because of taxes. Does that sound more accurate now?</p>
<p>I think you’re supposed to use the Adjusted Gross Income, and that’s before taxes. So, no, $70k would not be the figure. What is your dad’s AGI</p>
<p>Your sister may not have done her FAFSA correctly if she used after tax income.</p>
<p>What did her SAR say? </p>
<p>She should have gotten an email recently that gave an estimated EFC.</p>
<p>Agree with the other posters - 6,000 EFC is much lower then I would expect with a $100k income, even with 2 in school. And as mom2 pointed out, it is not after tax income you report on FAFSA, it is the AGI which is before tax income.</p>
<p>It is unlikely you will receive good need based aid to attend an OOS public university. Very few state schools promise to meet full need for even their own instate students. If you have good stats (high ACT/SAT scores plus a high GPA - usually you need a combination of both) then merit scholarships can help. For a chance of good merit aid you need to apply to schools where your Stats are high for that school. For instance my daughter’s State U has good merit awards for students with 32-33+ ACT scores combined with 3.75+ GPA. as that ACT is well above the average for the school. A school whose students average 32-33 would not offer merit awards for that ACT.</p>
<p>By all means research schools outside your state and apply. But make sure you apply to some financial safeties that your family can afford if merit money or FA are not forthcoming.</p>
<p>If you are fortunate enough to have a low EFC for whatever reason, I recommend taking advantage of that opportunity. It is not often that successful families actually get the benefit of goverment programs that their tax dollars go to support, so if your EFC is correctly that low then you should go ahead and use it. </p>
<p>One thing that you might have to consider is the possibility of taking out a private loan from a companie such as Sallie Mae to attend OOS. I can understand your disdain for remaining instate; college years are a time to broaden ones horizons and pursue ones aspirations and it can often be do that when it is hard to leave home. Many students end up having to go to far away from home colleges in order to secure these opportunities for themselves, and the cost of attending an OOS is not to be trifled with but it is far outstripped by the opportunity cost of staying home and never learning how to live independently at the time in your life when you actually have the time to learn these important skills.</p>
<p>There is absolutely no need to incur the costs of an OOS school to learn “how to live independently.” You can do that at one of your in-state schools.</p>
<p>
Which government programs are you referring to?</p>
<p>Federal student aid does not cover the cost of even most 4 year In State Us, let alone OOS. And if the OPs EFC does turn out to be 6,000 that is too high to qualify for federal grants (the cut off for the Pell is an EFC of 5273.) So the federal aid he/she would be eligible for is loans and possibly WS depending on the school’s policy for WS. So $5500 in Stafford loans, maybe WS of$2-4000. Not much of a dent in OOS costs.</p>
<p>
Why? If the OP has the max Stafford loans every year then he/she is likely to graduate with $20-30,000 in debt already. Quite enough debt already. </p>
<p>
Seriously? Instate does not necessarily mean living at home. Lots of students go in State Us that are not commuting distance of home and learn to live quite independently just as well if they were in another State.</p>
<p>*One thing that you might have to consider is the possibility of taking out a private loan from a companie such as Sallie Mae to attend OOS *</p>
<p>Sallie Mae student loans have changed because of the bank crises. Getting these loans is not easy and you have to make interest payments while in college. That’s not easy for most college students.</p>
<p>*Many students end up having to go to far away from home colleges in order to secure these opportunities for themselves, and the cost of attending an OOS is not to be trifled with but it is far outstripped by the opportunity cost of staying home and never learning how to live independently at the time in your life when you actually have the time to learn these important skills. *</p>
<p>This is ridiculous. You act like states only have one state school and it’s within everyone’s commuting distance. My kids go in-state, but it’s a few hours away, so they live on campus. So, a student who wants to “go away” can still go instate.</p>
<p>*If you are fortunate enough to have a low EFC for whatever reason, I recommend taking advantage of that opportunity. It is not often that successful families actually get the benefit of goverment programs that their tax dollars go to support, so if your EFC is correctly that low then you should go ahead and use it. *</p>
<p>LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL</p>
<p>Exactly what fed benefits would someone get with an EFC of $6,000 that he wouldn’t get if his EFC was - say - $15k+ ??? </p>
<p>Really, Bedouin, misleading young students is really bad.</p>
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<p>Bedouin…how will this LOW INCOME family qualify for these massive private loans you are suggesting? This student will need a cosigner for any loans above the federally funded loans (Stafford and Perkins)…who will cosign?..their low income parents? </p>
<p>Please…stop giving this kind of advice. There are ways to get a college education WITHOUT amassing private loan debt.</p>
<p>“Many students end up having to go to far away from home colleges in order to secure these opportunities for themselves, and the cost of attending an OOS is not to be trifled with but it is far outstripped by the opportunity cost of staying home and never learning how to live independently at the time in your life when you actually have the time to learn these important skills.”</p>
<p>This does’nt make any sense. My son goes in-state and lives 3 hours away. Why would someone need to go OOS to learn to live independently? I don’t see the logic in this statement.</p>
<p>I always told my son it does’nt make sense to go OOS and rack up $100,000 worth of loans and then graduate and not be able to pay his own living expenses and have to move back home after college because of his loan payments.</p>