My EFC is zero and I am out-of-state, however, I will not be commuting, my friend and I have decided to get an apartment together and both of our parents are helping us pay.
Is Suny UB generous with their aid?
SUNYs cost $30k for OOS students. How much can your parents pay without borrowing?
SUNY lists the COA at $42k for OOS. My friend’s son attends and I think he received about $15k in merit aid (she claims it costs him the same as our in-state would, about $27k).
The OP might also get a full Pell and perhaps some need based aid at SUNY.
I doubt it will be affordable, but you could give it a shot. My understanding is that you would be more likely to get merit but little aid as an out of state student. I don’t think it’s likely to end up a full ride.
With your stats at best you will get in-state rates but probably less then that. Assume you can get in-state rates, you are looking at about $10K (tuition+fees).
Does UB let freshman live off campus if they are not local to Buffalo?
So an apartment lease will be about $5K/year, and food will cost you another couple of thousand if you eat real cheap but probably more. Without a car, you want to be close to the UB Stampede bus near the south campus. Its free for students.
With full Pell, max federal loans, and job I’m not seeing how you can pull this off without starving or working too many hours your grades will suffer.
Unless you have more money coming in, my recommendation is to stay in your home state, live at home and commute for 2 years. Save up a bunch of money and try to transfer as a junior if affordable. This was my path a long time ago and I ended up going to the school I wanted as a freshman and multiple graduate degrees. I also worked too many hours and my grades really suffered, even for the 1st grad degree. For my 2nd grad degree, I had no significant money worries, plenty of free time to study and threw down a 4.0 GPA.