<p>I feel so stuck, we don't qualify for financial aid, since I got a new job this year, but I was not working the last 2 years, taking care of a sick parent plus the economy... We are using my income this year to help rebuild our finances. How do people afford college these days, we are almost to retirement ( had our daughter later in life ) and we all know how the market has been.</p>
<p>What do people do ? My daughter would qualify for Merit $, top in her class , strong SAT scores, extra curricular, interviews well.... BUT there aren't many schools in the Northeast offering Merit... it is soooo discouraging.. </p>
<p>Have your child go to a community college, live at home, and then commute to the local state college. </p>
<p>If your daughter has really high stats, have you checked into schools outside of your area that may give big merit, like U of Alabama? Merit money is out there, you just have to look for it.</p>
<p>Not sure where you’re getting that idea from, but it definitely isn’t true. Perhaps you’re only looking at schools that offer to meet full need? Those are the schools that are harder to find (and get into) than schools offering merit aid!</p>
<p>Suggest you add some public universities to your list, particularly those in your home state. It’s very possible to get a great education, especially in a good honors program, and garner good merit aid too. What state do you live in?</p>
<p>Many, if not most, students take Stafford loans and use income from (their) work to help pay for books and personal expenses. Aside from that, have your student apply for some outside scholarships…your HS GC likely maintains a list and has apps, though that info often comes midway through the senior year. Although many of these are one-time awards, it will give you a bit of relief for a year while you rebuild your finances.</p>
<p>I second (or third) the idea of investigating your state schools’ honor programs. Also, my D (without tippy top stats) received $15-20,000 in merit aid from several midwest and east coast privates. Not full tuition, but it really helped.</p>
<p>It is hard. We’re older, too, and it is difficult to take on such a huge cost. No doubt.</p>
<p>It sounds as if you only have the one child to get through college. Be glad of that! Not that we don’t adore our second one, of course.</p>
<p>We are recently relocated to New Jersey and seriously looking at Rutgers. The honors college is very good and the Robert Wood Johnston med school is very good and a lovely campus. We are also floating applications at reaches and high reaches and just testing the waters. I had to quit my job when we relocated for my DH’s job last year so we are on one income in a high cost area. It is lunacy! But it is life now. You just shuffle the cards and, as Shirley told Jack in The Apartment, deal the cards. That’s all we can do.</p>
<p>Here are some scholarship opportunities for students with 1400 SATs. The dollar figure for cost (tuition, room and board) after scholarship are a year old. Mom2CK is the local authority on the Alaqbama full-tuition scholarship:</p>
<p>U. of Alabama - $8,214 after Presidential Scholarship ($5,714 for an Engineering major)
Ole Miss - $13,594 after Academic Excellence Nonresident Tuition Award
LSU - $9,963 after Flagship Scholars Award (requires 1440)
Utah State - $5,070 after Presidential Scholarship
Ohio U. - $12,585 after Gateway Awards
Arizona State - $20,596 after President’s Award (close enough)
U. of Wyoming - $14,952 after $5,000 OOS award
West Virginia University - $17,870 after “Academic Excellence Level 2”
South Dakota State - $13,720
U. of South Dakota - $15,260
Troy University - $0 after the Millennium Scholar’s Award (full tuition, room and board w/ a 1380)</p>
<p>Alabama, Ole Miss, Ohio U. and Arizona State have notable honors programs / colleges.</p>
<p>Merit aid is available, but you need to sacrifice the rank of the school so that your D would be above the 75th percentile in terms of scores and thus would be able to garner top merit aid if it is available.</p>
<p>For example: Syracuse offers full-tuition to its top scholars.</p>
<p>Schools like GW and American will offer $20-25K in merit.</p>
<p>Colleges like Muhlenberg offer in the $20K range.</p>
<p>But you still need to know what you can afford…if you take $20K off of American or GW, you are still going to pay approx $35K per year, which can be double the cost of your state university.</p>
<p>Homeschooled. Spent LOTS of money on their education pre-college, and saved virtually nothing for college. They became very interesting, exciting people that the colleges drooled over, and they paid to have them.</p>
<p>(Sorry, that didn’t answer your question. We didn’t afford college without aid.)</p>
<p>How do we afford a private college for our D?</p>
<p>We just live really below our means. We had no savings until D’s senior year in HS when we cut our expenses dramatically and diverted my entire income (part-time job) to college savings. D got a nice merit award, Stafford loans and a part-time job to cover most of tuition, we cover room, board, books, insurance. This year, D got an RA job to cover full room costs. Other than the subsidized Stafford, we have not had to take out any loans. Don’t know what will happen when S2 starts college in 2 years. Luckily, we only have one year of overlap.</p>
<p>I started saving for college at birth. Calculated how much I’d need for tip-top school in 18 years. And every freaking pay period, money went to the college account–and my retirement account.</p>
<p>Son did get scholarship offers for merit at 2 schools he applied to. UNC - Honors Program gave him full ride scholarship offer. Boston U gave him 1/2 tuition ofer. He didnt accept either.</p>
<p>Also plenty of colleges give merit aid to National Merit Scholarship Finalists. Good colleges.</p>
<p>It can definitely happen if her grades and test scores are good. Keep looking. Dont give up.</p>
<p>Colleges expect families to pay for college from many different pots of money: current income flow of both parents, income flow from the student, parental savings (representing past income flow), student savings, loans (tapping future income flow) taken out by parents, loans taken out by students, home equity, investments, etc. A family might qualify for financial aid or the student may have been awarded merit aid. In more than one case, a grandparent has coughed up significant money.</p>
<p>It’s a rare family that can pay for college costs out of current income flow (unless we’re talking about an inexpensive school). And, contrary to CC demographics, a lot of parents don’t have college funds set up for each kid.</p>
<p>In our neighborhood, the kids of parents who don’t have college savings go to less expensive schools, live at home and commute to school (not the ideal college experience, but so what) or go to community college first and then transfer into a 4 year college. We’re lucky in that we live close enough to commute to some good state schools.</p>
<p>It’s obviously too late for you to “save from the time your child was born.” Our son also received no need-based aid and is at one of our state flagship universities and living on campus. How are we doing it? He was an excellent student, NMF, high ACT score, #2 in class, and between the university scholarship and a couple of outside scholarhips he will be receiving $14,000/year for the next 4 years. This goes a LONG way toward in-state tuition for us. He worked hard applying and writing essays and was sick of it, but it was so worth it for him. Seek out scholarships that play to the strengths of your child and apply, apply, apply!</p>
<p>I would definitely try for your instate schools for the most aid if your child has great scores. I would also suggest refinancing your home since interest rates are so low and using that to pay for college. You can repay that over 30 years. Your child can also work and help contribute.</p>
<p>Thank you for responding
Daughters starts are very good
GPA 4.5
5 AP , 2 AP exams she has taken BIO and Eng Got 5’s, rest of classes all Honors
Lowest grade 2 94’s for final averages, everything else 95 or above
National Merit Commendation
SAT I CR 700 M 700 W 740
SAT II Bio 800, Math 1 720
Volunteered at Hospital for past 2 summers
At school, in Key Club, Lector for school, Founded Neuroscience club, Ambassador, Sailing
Interviews well since very poised.</p>
<p>I have saved as well but with the stock market , my savings have not done well, being so close to wanting to retire, 220 K gone is hard to take but will do it if have to
But really will need to help her with MED School which is really expensive… she has a passion for Medicine… She got paid to work at my company, volunteered for Free at the hospital and wanted to go to Hospital everyday.</p>
<p>Community College is not an option…due to her goals and she is a year younger than most since she skipped the 6th grade, so want to keep her closer to home ( Boston Area)</p>
<p>We won’t qualify for any Financial Aid, since our timing is bad… I could not work for the last several years due to terminally ill parent, and then got a great job this year that pays
very well but digging ourselves out of a hole from the past 2 years…</p>