<p>The parents are also planning for retirement. Kids don’t always understand that parents probably won’t always be working, and that they will need to have enough money in some form to live on -possibly for 20 years.</p>
<p>It’s not difficult to put yourself in a position where there is no extra money. Buy a house, a nice one, figuring that your pay will go up commensurately to the way it has in the few years past, and find that you are having to take cuts instead and the real estate taxes continue to rise, for example. My friend is ever so depressed that what she had hoped would be her last house is probably not going to be affordable. Her taxes have really gone up in the past few years to the point that it close to what she was paying when she had her mortgage.</p>
<p>Get used to leasing cars, have high insurance rates, upkeep on a home including house keeping, lawn services. Sometimes, it just isn’t something people want to do. I 'm trying to cut things down myself, and it’s a killer. Went to NYC yesterday, for instance, because SIL had a medical consult that I wanted to be there for her. Cost me $24, just for transport. I had gone the week before to meet DH and clients for a complimentary concert, and it was another $20 tab for me to do this. When friends had tickets to see a show, again complimentary, it cost $s plus the dinner, that we picked up the tab for. Can’t cut these things out realistically, and yet they add up so quickly. I need a new car. I have dental work looming, I have an adult kid for whom I will be paying health insurance. By the time I go through the bills, we don’t have a lot left. But if we sold the house and moved, that would open up some possibilities When you are stuck in the rut and don’t want to make the big moves, it’s hard to free up the money.</p>
<p>The OP needs to show the parents what the college costs are for the schools on the list and explain that they are not going to happen, where need based aid won’t make up the gaps. I’ve met some parents who were truly delusional in that they believed fervently if their A student got into a top name school, that the cost would be free. They’d heard it too many times not to let costs deter applying to the HPYs and stories of how they meet full need and didn’t get the part that they are not going to get anywhere what they do need to afford the school because they make too much. I know folks here who think they are poor with 6 figure incomes because they have no extra money left each month after spending according to the lifestyle they have set as “normal” for them. </p>
<p>They hears some story of some person who got all of these full rides and think that they are the norm instead of the exception. I know that in a few weeks there will be some well to do parents looking at full pay acceptances to Georgetown,Villanova, BC, HC, GWU and the like, with the full pay on their part, and it’s going to dawn on them that they can’t afford it. My son’s with his friend who goes to NYU right now. He’s commuting, and it’s a pain, and not what he wanted at all, but full cost there is well over $60K and upperclassmen rooms are way up there. He packs a lunch and snack like my son did in high school and takes the train (no cheap ride, I assure you with no student rates for college kids here) and the subway 4 days a week to get that price tag into the low $50K mark. My son found out that the young man is taking out all of the Stafford loans he can, plus has to work full time plus in the summers, and his parents are still having worried talk about the cost. He doesn’t know if he’ll be able to afford going there next year.</p>
<p>You need to sit down with your parents and run the net price calculators with them for each school. You may be surprised at how much aid you do qualify for at meet full need/no loan schools. You need to have a clear understanding of any assets they may have, especially things like second properties.</p>
<p>Where the money has gone is water under the bridge. Have you had summer camp, braces, vacations, music lessons? Kids tend to be expensive. While it sounds like a lot of money, you aren’t at the level of kids who have posted on this board before whose parents are making 300K and can’t pay for school. </p>
<p>Develop a list of top need-based aid schools, possible merit aid schools, and automatic merit aid schools. Getting complete full rides, including room and board and fees, is not easy. I think your EFC at the elites would be less than you would pay for room and board at lower ranked schools where you would get full-tuition scholarships. My own kids are in that situation and need-based has been the way to go for us. Consider top liberal arts colleges and applying outside of your geographic area. As you know, the odds are not in your favor as an Asian female from the west applying to Stanford.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, consider the following for your application list:</p>
<p>Automatic full ride or at least full tuition scholarship schools: safety (make sure to have at least one safety that you like in your application list)</p>
<p>Competitive full ride or at least full tuition scholarship schools: match or reach, depending on how difficult getting the *scholarship<a href=“not%20merely%20admission”>/i</a> is</p>
<p>Extra-generous-need-based-financial-aid schools, if their net price calculators indicate that they are financially possible: reach, since these are all among the super-selective schools (e.g. Stanford, Princeton)</p>
<p>“Consider top liberal arts colleges and applying outside of your geographic area.”</p>
<p>^This. Especially one’s in cold climates (New England, Minnesota, etc.) Many of the top LAC’s are desperate to get Asian Americans. You will be a URM there. Did you receive any invites in the mail for diversity weekends? If you haven’t yet and you checked Asian on your SAT/ACT you will.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that Asian students are considered URMs at some of the New England LACs.</p>
<p>Thumper, I respectfully disagree having been in that situation just two years ago with my son. Most have only about 7%-8% Asians and that includes international students. He was definitely wanted and we got quite a bit more in financial aid than our EFC suggested.</p>
<p>Emilybee…please note…I said “some” not all.</p>
<p>Thumper, noted.</p>
<p>If you live in commuting distance, please be assured that life and academics at UW are still pretty good, especially in the Honors College. You could work part time, live at home, and still swing the tuition and fees.</p>
<p>No need to judge your parents - they seem to have gotten you this far in pretty good shape. Life has a habit of giving us expensive lessons that we don’t always discuss with the kids.</p>
<p>shacherry–as much as I would love the income to pay for our twins going to college next year, most of the schools are on the “schools known for merit” thread for free. Also, in general, pretty much any LAC in IL, IN, WI, IA, MN will be a good place to start. Check into the state schools in ND and SD, their starting cost is cheap. I do want to quantify that many of these schools and “net” costs will include federal loans. I’m ok with JUST taking out federal loans, you may not be. Truman State is another specific school that has an “out of state” award that I don’t think is tied to the Midwest Exchange any longer. For the OP’s child’s stats, pre-loan cost this year would be about $14,000 net. I love Truman, both of our kids applied there and were accepted and got the “OOS” award and basic merit to get them into the $14K range. D picked another school, S is still considering.</p>
<p>I’ll also add that the “hidden gem” schools thread is a great place to look for schools that give great merit aid too.</p>
<p>It looks like the OP’s cost constraint is closer to $13,300 net price, including any loans:</p>
<p>$5,000 = actual family contribution
$5,500 = Stafford loan
$3,000 = typical expected (by college financial aid offices) work earnings</p>
<p>Regarding Truman State, its net price calculator indicates automatic-for-stats scholarships of $8,000. Deducting from the out of state list price of $25,875 (including indirect costs) leaves $17,875 net price. There are, however, additional competitive scholarships to try for. See:</p>
<p>[Truman</a> Scholarships - Office of Admission - Truman State University](<a href=“Admission | Truman State University”>Admission | Truman State University)</p>
<p>I’m sorry.
It just feels like I’ve being forced to settle for a school that I always thought would be my safety.
I can’t apply to any of the other schools that I’ve been planning on going to, it seems. </p>
<p>So, regardless of my major or the quality of the school (let’s face it, some schools are better than others), I should just go to whatever school offers me the most merit aid? :/</p>
<p>The UW isnt a safety.
If you are brilliant enough that the UW * is a safety*, then carefully selecting schools that will offer you merit aid may bring your costs down.</p>
<p>Valedictorians with straight-A’s were denied admission, while out-of-state students with lower grades were accepted.</p>
<p>[Local</a> News | Why straight-A’s may not get you into UW this year | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2014670294_admissions03m.html]Local”>http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2014670294_admissions03m.html)</p>
<p>Please don’t second guess your parents savings/lack thereof. You are not privy to all the details of their financial life. They have 4 kids to take care of, you live in an expensive area, many people took huge financial hits to their investments with the downturn in the economy, etc. Being upset with your parents does nothing to help you anyway. Focus on the things you can control at this point.</p>
<p>OP, you sound like a very decent, honest kid. You will be doing fine regardless of where you go to school. I get these stories over the years of reading cc. There’s this kid who turned down Yale for Rhodes College on a full scholarship; she ended up going to Yale med school after undergrad. There’s this other kid who turned down Harvard for a full scholarship at UNC-Chapel Hill; he ended up going to some top medical school. There’s this kid who turned down not only Hardvard but Princeton for a full scholarship at Baylor University; she’s only a sophomore there. You see, it’s what you make of your education, not much the other way around. Good luck.</p>
<p>Also, it doesn’t matter how much other parents pay for their kids. Just like it doesn’t matter how many kids in the state of Washington getting to Harvard. Really irrelevant to your own situation. The only relevance, if there is, is that it irritates you. Stay away from that.</p>
<p>UW has 6,000 new Frosh each year. 25% (1500 students) have an ACT equivalent score over 30. You would be in classes with a ton of really, really strong students. Most schools would kill to have that number of 30+ ACTers.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus–We are part of the midwest exchange so starting price is $22,000.</p>
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<p>It looks like you are just flailing with guesses about financial aid, scholarships, and your parents’ situation. Take a deep breath and do the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Get together with your parents in front of a computer.</li>
<li>Go to the web sites of UW, Stanford, Princeton, and perhaps a few other desirable schools.</li>
<li>For each school, search for the “net price calculator”.</li>
<li>Fill it in (your parents will need to provide information for it).</li>
<li>See the results and discuss with them about whether the school is affordable (with no more debt than Stafford loans).</li>
</ul>
<p>From this discussion with your parents, you should get a realistic assessment of what is affordable, so that you can build your application list appropriately. But note that the list should have a safety that you are certain to get into and certain to be able to afford – the automatic full tuition and full ride list offers some possibilities.</p>
<p>Re: #56</p>
<p>There was also a student who chose Florida A&M over Harvard (which made sense once you read what his criteria were).</p>
<p>I don’t have straight A’s (3.85 GPA, so a few B’s) but I have very strong test scores (2350 SAT, 35 ACT)
That’s part of the reason why I assumed it was a safety.
Additionally, I am doing an internship in the summer at the UW Biology labs.
I’ve also done a few selective summer programs and volunteer programs on campus. </p>
<p>Allegedly, UW’s acceptance rate is also expected to go up this year.</p>