Don’t count on any merit aid from UW-Madison.
Off campus housing might be cheaper…but if the OPs parents won’t pay for off campus housing, that will be an issue for this student.
See if you can get your parents to commit to a yearly budget to cover room and board. If they don’t commit to an amount, you probably need to attend a school that has guaranteed housing for all 4 years.
Go to website and there will be information
Apply to University of Alabama! If your stats are good (30+ACT/1390+SAT and 3.5+ GPA), you will get a minimum of $19,000/year, a maximum of a full ride. Check their website. There’s also a thread on here with schools that have auto-merit admissions, where if you have the numbers, you’re guaranteed the merit scholarship. That’s worth looking at
^ actually there’s no full ride, and not even full tuition anymore. However if you get a 33 you should be able to cover the gap between free tuition and what they offer (with savings) and your parents would pay for Honors college housing+food.
@micec1357 Did you say your home state is Michigan? That’s a no-brainer. You should apply to every in-state college/university that offers what you want to study. You are so lucky to live in a state that has excellent state universities.
Tuition for Michigan residents at your state flagship, University of Michigan, this year is $14,498. That’s for LSA (school of Literature, Science, and the Arts – the liberal arts portion of the school). To work with round numbers, let’s say it will be $15k next year.
The engineering school is $15,528 this year, so it will likely be more than $16k next year. If you major in neuroscience, that major is in LSA, so stick to neuroscience to save several thousand dollars.
Back to LSA for the neuroscience major. Let’s say it will be $15,000 even next year. You can take out a student loan of $5,500, which means you will have to pay $9,500 out of pocket in tuition for the year. Payment is required per semester. So you would have to pay $4,750 at the end of August, and another $4,750 at the beginning of January.
Room and board – that means the dorm and the meals – this year for a standard double room costs $11,198. Again, it’s paid per semester. You said your parents will pay for the dorm. There’s no way to separate “room” part and the “board” (meals) part of that fee. It’s a package. so let’s say it goes up to $11,500 next year. Your parents will be paying $5,750 at the end of August and $5,750 at the beginning of January.
Books and supplies are estimated at $1,048. You said your parents will pay that.
You also, will need money for laundry, entertainment, football tickets (if you want to go to games), transportation to/from home when you go home, and transportation within Ann Arbor if you ever want/need to take a bus off campus or an Uber.
Also note that tuition, room, and board go up every year AND tuition is always higher for juniors and seniors than it is for freshman and sophomores. To save some money, DO NOT use your AP credits UNLESS you have enough to graduate a semester early. Otherwise, those extra credits will just make you reach “junior” status a semester or more early and you’ll have to pay the higher tuition. Class status goes by credits earned, not by number of years as a student there.
Good luck!