How do I make going to college possible for me?

Parent Cafe
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<p>Northeastern University in Boston can be very generous to students from outside of the northeast US. It has a co-op program which are paid internships in the field of your interest, so if you’re premed you could get a paid job doing medical research which will not only help with your expenses but also look good when you’re applying to med school. </p>

<p>Your grades and scores are very good and you should definitely get in somewhere with good merit aid. Good luck, and don’t give up. It can be done.</p>

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<p>Can you tell us what state you are in? It will help with specific options for your safety schools, where you can be assured of admission and a good aid package. Once you have set up a reasonable list of safeties you can proceed. Make a couple of lists of the schools mentioned here. Some are mentioned for the good financial aid and some are the reach schools that will likely give you full tuition/room/board some with no loans. Keep a notebook of each school, track the special scholarships and programs.</p>

<p>Did you qualify for a fee waiver for the SAT? If so, you can get application fee waivers for many schools. This will help as it will allow you to apply to a wide variety, then see how the money shakes out when you get your acceptances. This may be unusual at your school so your GC may not want you to apply to too many, so you’ll have to explain the strategy.
[College</a> Application Fee Waivers - college fees](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Application Fee Waiver FAQs – BigFuture)</p>

<p>At Brown University, the acceptance rate is less that 10% now, but if you get in they do give excellent all grant/no loan packages for students with families earning less than $60,000. They award money for tuition/room/board/books/laptop/flight home. If you are frugal, you can use the money to pay all your expenses.</p>

<p>They also give advantages to families with less than $100,000. In addition, there is a special Sydney Frank scholarship that covers the expenses of the neediest 128 or so scholars. You will be given an extra grant your first you so you don’t have to do a job or work study (unless you want to jobs at Brown are TERRIFIC, often doing research with professors.)</p>

<p>Although it is extremely hard to get into schools like this, they are certainly beating the bushes to find high performing rural students from states that are not often represented there.</p>

<p>In addition, Brown offers a PLME program, where if you are accepted as an undergraduate, you have guaranteed acceptance to Brown Medical School, you do not need to take the MCAT. Only a few students get this a year. It is highly competitive. But I saw a speaker last year who was in the program, she came from an underprivledged gang area of South Central LA, and certainly didn’t attend a good high school or have role models. Have you done any volunteer actuvities or community service that show interest in a medical career?</p>

<p>Also I think the suggestion of Women’s colleges is excellent. Wellesley and Smith are great for science. And at Scripps you’d be a candidate for a full tuition I’ll bet. Scripps is a very small pretty college, 700 students or so, set with 5 other colleges in the Claremont Colleges in Southern Calif. You can cross take classes with the other ones, they are all next door to each other. it is a community of about 5,000. It is in a cute LA suburb.</p>

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<p>As many other posters, I would recommend QuestBridge too. Although my daughter ended up attending non-QuestBridge school, QuestBridge helped her a lot in starting the process early. You need to start in August; and the deadline is in end of September. They will guide you through the whole application process; and my DD found their advice very useful. If you don’t get matched with a school but make QB finalist, you’ll get to apply to many great schools Regular Decision for FREE (schools-partners waive application fees). </p>

<p>But please do apply to some schools outside QB too. If you consider LAC and think about attending Medical School in future, you need to pick LACs with good science departments.</p>

<p>Also with your $0 EFC you need schools that meet 100% financial need with 0 or very low loans. In my DD’s school loans are capped at $2,000/year. </p>

<p>Good luck! I think you have a great potential and many, many options</p>

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<p>You have all been very helpful. Thank you!</p>

<p>Thefool, your advice and offer to help me to edit my essays is the most kind and I truly appreciate it but luckily this is the one thing I have covered. One of my best friends has a mother who is very capable at helping with these kinds of things and she has promised to help also me. Also her big brother, who will be a senior in very selective college this year, has promised to read not only my friend’s essays but also mine and give feedback. </p>

<p>I will be careful with the first generation thing. I will certainly not want to be dishonest. Though I don’t even really know for sure, if my paternal grandparents have been in college, it is just something my biological farther told my mother and he is not the most trustworthy person there is. I have never met them and neither has my mother and I have a very limited contact with my biological farther. He has major issues and I don’t even want him to be part of my life. My step dad has been my real dad as long as I can remember.</p>

<p>It seems that this may be that one time when it may actually help that we had to take big investment loans for the farm. The debt makes our income very small at the moment but it was needed to keep farm running in the long term. Of course having much debt also makes our farm worth much less than it would be if it was debt free which could help me in the FA department.</p>

<p>As for giving up my dreams, it is not something I’m ready to do. It is just so, that I try to keep open eyes for all kinds of possibilities. My mother thinks I should try to go college as cheaply as possible, study the things I’m most interested in (science) and use that time also to think what I want to do after college. She thinks I know so little about different types of professions and options that I should take my time to learn and decide after that, what I will want to do. She thinks that I basically know three different professions for the more highly educated people, a doctor, a lawyer and a teacher and that is why I can’t yet make a well educated decision about what I want to do when I grow up. I don’t totally agree with her but I have to admit that there have been times in the past when she has known better than I what would be good for me or what I will like or dislike. </p>

<p>Anyway, this thread has been very helpful for me. I will certainly try the QuestBridge program. I will also apply to wide selection of colleges and hope I will be accepted to some that give exceptional financial aid or merit money to someone like me. I was able to get fee waivers for SATs so I think I will be able to get them for college applications also, which would help a lot. If everything else fails our state flagship really is one of the cheapest schools and I’m sure that I will be accepted and I will probably also get at least some aid or scholarships so it will be possible for me to go. And while it is a tier three school, I’m sure I can get the education I need also in there. </p>

<p>For privacy reasons I’m not comfortable telling my exact state, but it is other of the Dakotas. So at least I think I will be underrepresented applicant in almost all schools which could help. </p>

<p>Thank you all for being so kind and helpful for me.</p>

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<p>The MAXIMUM federal aid would be about $11,000 (full Pell grant and full Stafford loan). Sorry compared to the cost of attendance even instate at a public university, this would not be a “good amount” for someone with an EFC of $0 who needs significant financial aid.</p>

<p>The OP has received excellent advice. Cast a wide net…there are some terrific schools out there who would love to have you as a student…that do NOT have the “name recognition” of other schools. Look at those. That thread by Momfromtexas is a great one…she found near full scholarships for both of her kiddos. While the info is a bit old, the ideas are good.</p>

<p>Good luck to you…good that you are looking at your options now so you can formulate plan A, plan B and plan C!!</p>

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<p>OP, my D. had similar stats. She is college senior and we did not have to pay her tuition and good portions of R & B were also covered by Merit Scholarships. She got various Merits at every place that she applied to, including one very expensive private school, where we would pay only $5,000 in tuition out of $33,000 if she decided to attend there. Advice - research, ask around, some schools are known for good Merit packages.</p>

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<p>… and keep us updated in your research/choices/applications! We parents are a sentimental bunch and get attached to young posters :)</p>

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<p>*You should qualify for a good amount of government aid (my EFC was higher than yours and I did). *</p>

<p>If you’re including state aid, then that might be true. Fed grants are not a lot of money. They might make a good dent for commuting to a local state school, but not pay much for a school that requires you to be a resident student.</p>

<p>However, if you’re including state aid (some states have generous aid, some states have ZERO aid), then that won’t help this student unless her state also gives generous aid.</p>

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<p>

Um… I have never seen “first-generation” defined to include grandparents. I would assume it to be one’s biological parents, not even counting stepparents. But anyone feel free to prove me wrong with quotes.</p>

<p>Something you should know about Questbridge: if you make Finalist but aren’t Matched, you still often receive admissions preference at QB partner schools (which give excellent FA).</p>

<p>

Scripps has no full-tuition merit scholarships. They have a decent number of half-tuition scholarships (which would give you a “preferential” FA package with no loans or work) and ONE full-ride scholarship.</p>

<p>The OP is right that ND and SD both have generally lackluster state schools… but cheap is good. And high-stat students from either state are HIGHLY underrepresented in elite application pools.</p>

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<p>U.S. Dept of Ed says: " First Generation Students in Postsecondary Education: A Look at their College Transcripts
Description: This report uses data from the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS) of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) to examine the majors and coursetaking patterns of students who are the first members of their families to attend college (referred to as “first-generation students” in this report)"</p>

<p>College scholarships.org says: " First in Family Scholarships
Are You the First in Your Family to Attend College?
For many students going to college is just as much about changing things for themselves as it is for their families. When no one before you in your family has gone to college, there are more than the typical challenges to overcome."</p>

<p>I completely agree there is a difference between attending college and graduating college, and wording of the question is important. But I can not agree grandparents are not family.
Maybe if the college questionaire said “immediate family” then I could see it didn’t mean grampa. Without “immediate” then family before the student includes Grammy too.</p>

<p>Logically, it doesn’t make sense a college would ask: “Are you the first generation to attend college?” if all that they really meant was: “did your parents attend college?”
Look at the second source’s quote- when “no one before you in your family…” it would have been SO much easier to say “if your parents didn’t attend…” if that was what they meant.</p>

<p>Clearly if Grampa attended college, but neither of student’s parents did, then attending college skipped a generation. But by the very definition of skipping a generation, if it skipped a generation, then the student can’t be the very first generation.</p>

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<p>^Not if you want to include all possible definitions of “family,” which is far broader than the typical nuclear family with two parents. It’s not really easier to say it one way or another.</p>

<p>I would interpret “family” without a modifier like in “extended family” to mean the immediate nuclear family, i.e. children plus parent(s)/guardian(s).</p>

<p>Also, I’m not sure how many colleges actually ask whether you’re the first generation to attend college. They may just draw this information from asking parents’ education, which is a required section on the Common App. (If there is actually a question on the CA, ignore this.)</p>

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<p>if you are interested in medical schools, perhaps you should consider Direct Medical Program or BS/MD. You get in those programs from hs graduation and in 7 years you will graduating with MD degree.</p>

<p>Northwestern and Brown have them and you should look into it, Brown certainly has the means to pay a full ride. There are many threads on CC that discuss these programs one of them is below:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/527002-straight-med-direct-med-programs.html?highlight=direct+medical+program[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/527002-straight-med-direct-med-programs.html?highlight=direct+medical+program&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>A friend of mine’s S is going to the USC bs/md program and he is no where near the stats you have and your EC which is manage the farm is far better than other kids’ club presidents stuff. Don’t ever say it is not significant.</p>

<p>I don’t know why you are afraid of identify your state? Even one of the Dakotas or Montana has few hundred thousands hs students each, with just a screen name you have not identified any thing that will back lash on you.</p>

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<p>If a college doesn’t specify that they are limiting the question to immediate family, then “anyone in the family” is included, even gramps.
If I invite all my family to a “family only” holiday dinner, would my grandparents or grandchildren NOT be welcome? Would I say - you can’t come in, you’re not family. ? Seriously?
If grampa hit the lottery, you can darn well bet his grandchildren would consider him family.</p>

<p>from dictionary.com:
"fam·i·ly   /ˈfæməli, ˈfæmli/ Show Spelled [fam-uh-lee, fam-lee] Show IPA noun, plural -lies, adjective<br>
–noun

  1. a. a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not: the traditional family.
    b. a social unit consisting of one or more adults together with the children they care for: a single-parent family.
  2. the children of one person or one couple collectively: We want a large family.
  3. the spouse and children of one person: We’re taking the family on vacation next week.
  4. any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins: to marry into a socially prominent family.
  5. all those persons considered as descendants of a common progenitor. "</p>

<p>So yes, family does mean grampa UNLESS there was a specific modifier limiting it. A modifier to expand it is not necessary to consider gramps as family.</p>

<p>Maybe your interpretation is more convenient for you.</p>

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<p>Artloversplus - Unfortunately you’re math is a little off. There are 812,313 people TOTAL in the state of South Dakota and in 2007-2008, the last year projections were available, there were 8,210 high school seniors in the state (Source: DOE NCES Digest). Certainly not “hundreds of thousands of high schoolers.” :D</p>

<p>I also think the commenters getting hostile about whether this young woman is “truly first-gen” are missing the point. Firstly, she doesn’t even know with any certainty whether these paternal grandparents, whom she has never met, did indeed earn college degrees. Secondly, the whole concept of benefiting first-generation college students is to give a helping hand/leg-up to young people who do not come from families, environments, or communities with college-going cultures. That certainly seems to describe this young woman. In this scenario it would be akin to penalizing an adopted student whose biological parents “may have” been college-educated, though his/her adoptive family did not.</p>

<p>To the original poster – both North and South Dakota (and I’ve been to both several times!) have tuition reciprocity agreements with other schools including, but not limited to, the University of Minnesota. UM-TC is an excellent place with lots of opportunities for research in the sciences. </p>

<p>Additionally, in exchange for 2-4 years of service with the National Health Service Corps working in rural areas, you can receive tuition, fees, other reasonable educational costs and living stipend paid by the federal government for medical, dental, or nursing school. I’ve often wondered why young people don’t pursue the NHSC option more often - albeit there are some limitations (primary care and related fields like pediatrics are the only eligible specialties for MDs) and it requires a commitment that make necessitate deep lifestyle changes, but you sound like a PERFECT candidate. Think about it for med school. Of course you have some time before then ;)</p>

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<p>By the way, in case anyone was interested in NHSC, here’s a link explaining the scholarships: [National</a> Health Service Corps](<a href=“http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/scholarship/apply.htm]National”>http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/scholarship/apply.htm)</p>

<p>(This may age me, but think “Northern Exposure.”)</p>

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<p>sorry that I did not even look up. Sure if most of the population is in Pierre, SD, a rural valedictorian will stand out in such small community and easily be identified. :)</p>

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<p>

Please note that dictionary definitions are listed in order of common use. The first three definitions listed refer to only a nuclear, not extended, family.</p>

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<p>Haven’t looked at the Common app…but…the couple of Fall 2011 entry apps I have looked at just ask about parent’s education, and there is no direct question about first generation. Maybe the common app asks???</p>

<p>A “true” definition of first generation won’t matter if it’s not the question that’s asked. If all that is filled out is parent’s education…many colleges will assume first generation for “preferential” purposes.</p>

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<p>Thank you for your 2 cents, 2boysma. What you’ve found so far- schools are asking only about parents formal education so they are worded as asking about parents’ education.
Makes sense to me.</p>

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<p>One negative about the BS/MD programs I mentioned above. Applicants must be interviewed by the school in person and it is not an option. A friend of mine took her son traveling all over the country and did not accepted in any which is very costly and time consuming. He ended up went to Berkeley. I don’t think traveling in that maner would be an option for OP.</p>

<p>One of the possible solution is to apply to a program close to OP and hoping they will pay for the traveling cost.</p>