I am from a very middle class family with my dad, single income, making 80,000 a year. I’ve got a lot of challenges ahead of me. Like the fact that my parents never saved for college , they are also putting my older sister through college and I’m trying to go to private schools with pretty average stats. I know it’s a reach for me to get into some of the school’s I’m applying to but on the off chance I get in, how would I be able to pay?
I’m afraid a lot of people will respond with nothing, there’s nothing I can do. But if there are any tricks and tips people know, or good scholarships than please tell me. I really want to go to a good college.
There are NO tricks. Run the net price calculators on the college websites…get an estimate of your net costs.
If you got accepted to a very generous college that meets full need for all…like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford…you probably would get sufficient need based aid to get you most of the way to having your costs covered. BUT those schools are reaches…for all.
What have your parents said they can pay each year toward your college costs? Find that number!
Then think about your GPA and SAT or ACT scores. Any chance they are sufficiently high that you would qualifynfor merit aid anyplace?
Have you looked at the public universities in your state? Does your state have any grants for folks in your income range?
ETA…you don’t HAVE to go to an expensive private university.
What year in high school are you?
there are no tricks. You can apply to schools that give lots of need based aid…and apply to some that give large merit for stats. Either way, you have to have strong stats. What are your stats?
HOW much are your parents paying each year for your sibling’s school costs?? (Actually paying, I’m not talking about FA).
You need to ask your parents how much they’ll spend on EACH kid when BOTH of you are in college at the same time.
Some parents don’t think this thru. Hopefully yours have. Some start paying $XX for Child #1 and have no means to ALSO pay the same for Child #2. So please talk to them.
“…on the off chance I get in, how would I be able to pay?”
“I really want to go to a good college.”
I think that in the US there is no single answer to this. It sort of comes down to “it depends”.
In some states the in-state public university or universities are excellent. For what I got my Master’s in, UC Berkeley is one of the top universities in the world (I didn’t go there). The best software engineer that I ever worked with went to U.Michigan. In many states the in-state public schools are very good (even if not “world class”). One of my doctors is a U.Mass graduate (and he is very good).
If you are a great athlete you might get a full scholarship.
Some of the very top universities meet full need, for their definition of “full need”. Whether this matches your definition seems to vary. Also, for the really top schools (which tend to be the ones with a big endowments) getting in is impossible for most people and a stretch for everyone else.
Many students get into their dream school and can’t afford to attend. Many students take on staggering debt.
I think that for most “pretty strong but not super elite” students the first place to look if you want a very good education is your in-state public university system. @thumper1 also has some good suggestions.
Every student needs to find a university or college that is a good match for them. In most cases “good match” has to include “affordable”. The the net price calculators will give you some ideas, but in many cases you won’t know whether a university or college will be affordable until you get your offer from the university.
For private colleges apply to schools where your stats put you in the top 25%, preferably top 10%, and you may get a lot of merit aid.
What is your state flagship?
As others have said, it is absolutely necessary to find out from your parents the amount they will be able to pay for your education each year. Once you have that number, you can determine what your budget is (keep in mind that you can take out a $5500 federal loan as a freshman and slightly more in subsequent years and you can also earn money working in the summers and part time at school). With that information, run the NPCs for the colleges you’re interested in. Folks here could help you more if they knew your stats. There are private schools that give some merit aid for even modest stats; you just have to seek out the right schools to apply to. You should also consider your state flagship as well as any local school you can commute to as financial safeties.
Thank you for replying everyone. I am a junior but everytime I try to talk to my parents about how much they are willing to pay, they always jump around the question. I don’t know what a state flagship is either. The two top schools I’m trying to get in are GW and American University. I have average stats like I’ve said before, which will make it hard for me to get in.
GPA: 3.5
AP: AP Pysch, AP American History, AP American Government, AP World History, Honors Anatomy
EC’s: Captain of Debate, Co-Captain of Model UN, Tutor at elementary school, tutor at highschool, GSA member, and volunteer at local food pantry and nursing home.
The school’s I’m applying to are test optional so I’m taking that route.
Awards: Three Scholastic Writing Awrds, one writers of tomorrow award, best delegate award for model UN, one Law Day award from the Bar Association
Anything else? I don’t have a job but I’m being paid through advertisements to write on wattpad.
When parents won’t commit to a price, that generally means they can’t afford much. Sit down with them and run a couple Net Price Calculators. Every college website has one. I’d find your state public university and maybe a state private school first. See if the net price estimate you get is something they can do.
What state are you in? An $80k/year income is too high to qualify for a Pell grant. You can take the federal student loan (~$5500/year) and can probably earn another $3k if you work summers. If your parents could contribute $5k/year you may have enough for room & board at some schools. That means you’d need to get your test scores up high enough to qualify for a tuition scholarship.
Many kids whose parents can’t contribute much commute to their local state school. Others start at a cc and transfer. If money is tight and test scores are average, private schools may be a financial reach.
My state offers a $3200 scholarship to anyone attending a private school in our home state. We just have to fill out paperwork. I do not know where you live, but see if your state has an option for this. A fair amount of private colleges have the Bonner Scholars Program, which you earn a stipend in exchange for community service. You also get more money each summer you work. The work is also academically/interest based so it would be great if you’re applying to graduate school. Obviously, as others have mentioned, federal student loans and then there’s the parent plus loan.
Sounds like your family is feeling the financial squeeze already, and here you are waiting your turn to start college.
Since your parents are not talking with you about college money, you must assume they can not pay anything towards your college education.
Let that sink in, and take some time to grieve. And then get up and take charge of your educational future.
There are thousands of colleges out there, and some will be affordable for you. Your goal is to graduate from college with minimal debt, qualified to pursue a career that will allow you to repay loans.
College for you might mean starting at a commuter college while living at home, then trying to transfer to an instate public college. Or look at small colleges that are not top tier, where merit aid is given out to lower stat kids.
You may have to take ACT/SAT tests for some of your choices. Or find community colleges with automatic transfer admission into a more respected 4 year college.
If your older sibling will graduate soon, that might allow for some money to flow into your college fund. You can also get admitted to a college and then ask for a one year deferral, to allow you to work and save money for tuition.
It all starts with you. You can not change your family situation. There are no tricks. You can change your mindset and choose to be positive and embrace a new path for your future.
This is a great place to get accurate info and ideas for colleges you may not have considered. I encourage you to keep asking questions as you adjust your journey.
You need to look for merit which will require test scores. Have you taken ACT and/or SAT and don’t like your scores or not taken it? To help you get a better picture, I ran American’s NPC. A family of four with 2 kids in college and income of $80,000, your net costs would be $29,120 per year. I doubt that is affordable.
There are many state schools where the in-state full price is less than that. Please look at alternatives now before you are jammed senior year.
@BellRose
A state flagship university is the main public research university in your state. Some states have more than one school that fits this. For example, CA has both UCLA and Berkeley (actually…most of the UCs are research universities). Michigan has University of Michigan and Michigan State.
In Ohio, it’s Ohio State.
In Illinois, UIUC
In Maine, University if Maine.
And so on…
What is YOUR state?
ETA…George Washington University is OVER $70,000 a year cost of attendance. How will you pay for that one? I don’t believe the school guarantees to meet full need…and merit awards are highly competitive.
American might give you a merit award…but it’s not going to cover the cost to attend. And in terms of need based aid…they don’t guarantee to meet full need either.
You need to cast a MUCH broader net than the one you have right now. In addition to these schools…you need schools you like, that you would attend, that will be affordable.
I would not skip testing. You could help make up for a low-ish GPA for admission to a school that meets need. You can always decide not to send the scores of the school is test optional. Examples of schools you might sqeak into with strong test scores that give good need based aid are Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson. Go run the net price calculators on those with your parents.
Tell us what state you are in as well.
Is your sister getting FA? If so, depending on the colleges, she might see an increase, while both of you are in college. Your college might up its offer a bit, same thing. But this depends on the colleges, their FA strength and policies. Run the NPCs, as said.
When you’re in a financial pinch, you need to be very open minded. No saying it’s got to be private, unless you’re smartly targeting merit money.
Edited, realized you did name some colleges. But still, we’d need to know strengths in cores related to your major, not just gpa, plus scores.
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everytime I try to talk to my parents about how much they are willing to pay, they always jump around the question.
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Can you ask your sibling how much the parents are paying for his/her school? (Again, actually paying, not FA).
You should assume that your parents can’t pay much.
Have them run the NPC on each school’s website and see what the results are.
Neither GW or AU give great aid…so even if you got in, likely you won’t be able to attend.
Agree with @mom2collegekids : The schools you are looking at are not known for generous aid However, there are other schools out there. You need to cast a wider net.
Your in-state options are generally lowest sticker price: In-state public schools, or community college and transfer if you are really low on funds and do not qualify for much aid.
For private schools, if there is one in commuting distance, you may be able to lower the price tag by community from home.
After that, it’s the financial aid system. You need to find schools for your major that are generous with either need-based aid or merit aid for your stats.
Most (but not all) colleges give at least some more support to a student who has a sibling attending college at the same time. That means your sister’s price might drop when you go to school and your price might jump once she graduates. It is important to have a discussion with the financial aid office about how they handle siblings in college so that you are not suprised by a price increase.
Do you have a summer job lined up? It can be tough to work a lot during the academic year, so earn as much as you can this summer.
I was in the same situation, my parents always jumped around the question, but always saying “we’ll help! we’ll help out with the cost!” while actively encouraging me to apply to almost all OOS schools. SO obviously I assumed they would help pay for the OOS schools I was applying to.
However, when it came down to it, I got little amounts of merit aid, ranging from 7500 to 500 a semester. (and the school that gave me 7500 was still 40K a year, so it was barely a dent. ) We got back our FAFSA forms and it turns out my parents believed that I, myself, could take out as much loans as I needed. However, you can only take out 5,500 your freshman year. Everything else your parents must take out in the form of Parent Plus Loans or Private loans.
Unfortunately, my parents didn’t qualify for either of those(Not that they would want to take out >25K a year in loans anyway) So I didn’t have many college options. My cheapest college was around 15K a year, which I probably could have afforded, but I didn’t like the campus/location at all and I didn’t fit in with the student body.(I am very liberal, hot pink hair, piercings, tattoos, etc. The campus was in a very small farm town) So I decided to go to a CC for a year and transfer next year.
Have you already applied to this colleges or is this for next year?
Also, to jump off of @LuckyCharms913 , You will probably want to work full time(35-40 hours a week) during the summer. I was able to save around 3k and still have some leftover to buy some fun stuff. I found that the easiest job to get was a summer camp counselor. It’s a little late, but check around at your local YMCA or Rec Center. It’s a pretty fun job, you get to play with kids and we went on field trips once a week and swimming twice a week.
I work during the school year and it is hard, esp if your taking AP classes. I had to cut down my hours and I only make around 200 each paycheck. SO my savings is still growing, but much smaller than it was in the summer, when I was making 500 a paycheck. What I do is i calculate 75% of my paycheck and put that into savings.
Also, if you work as a summer camp counselor, it’s easy to find childcare jobs for during the school year. Lots of places have after school programs that need people to work and play games with the kids.
The colleges you mentioned will be a big academic reach and will not be affordable. If you want to go to a private school I would look at the 2017 3.0-3.4 thread- those parents have compiled quite a list of schools where their kids have been accepted and are getting merit aide.
Does your school use naviance? Take a look and see where students with your stats are likely to be accepted. Because of your family’s financial constraints you may have to stay in state and go public where you will be most likely to get a decent financial aid package.
Where does your sister go?