How will I pay for college?

I have visited Umaine Farmington, and the atmosphere there just wasn’t for me. Thank you for your help though! @gearmom

What did you object to there? It might be useful in making recommendations.

@tempemom I just didn’t get an overall vibe there that it was for me. I have always envisioned bigger colleges in cities, and Farmington just wasn’t that for me! Ideally, I have always wanted to go to school in Boston. But my financial situation puts a major damper on that.

I think it will be very hard to find an affordable option in Boston but you could try. The average SAT score for BU is 1930. There are high merit options in places down south such as the University of Louisiana or Kentucky and in the Midwest. (Maine is the only really affordable state in the northeast.) The higher your SAT the better. For full rides you need scores like 1400 for just the Math and CR portion with 3.5GPA. Prepare really well for them. I would choose a financial safety in Maine. With a low income, you could have a combination of grants and loans. Run the net price calculators on some colleges that you are interested in to see if they are affordable. You can take out loans 5500 the first year, 6500, 7500 and 7500 following years. Take out the least amount of loans you can. It may be hard to pay back with that major. Plan to save as much money as possible from summer jobs and possibly work during school.

On the PSAT I had a 1340 in CR+M. And I have 4.0 unweighted GPA. I also didn’t take the PSAT very seriously, with no preparation. @gearmom

That is good. On this site somewhere are the school with near full rides. They won’t be in the northeast .Mostly state colleges, Midwest and south. Maybe someone can post them for you.

CC favorites are the University of Alabama and Howard in DC,

Look here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

You’ve heard that old saw beggars can’t be choosers? It’s true. Sometimes you do what you have to in order to succeed. Once you graduate you can move to the big city. I came from a low income family and went to a service academy in order to afford college.

@gtgonewrong I don’t mean good that you didn’t study. PSAT’s can help you win scholarships and are out of a perfect score of 240.

Look at the pinned thread in this section under scholarships and low cost options for automatic full rides.

"Garnering a bunch of one-year local scholarships is not what this student needs. The most generous assistance comes from the colleges themselves, and that’s what she or he needs to focus on. "

Well, I disagree. My daughters have a few of these and they were very helpful. Not all are 1 year, either. A few are renewable, or divided over 4 years. Yes, the major awards are going to come from the school itself, but there are a lot of costs that aren’t covered by the school, and having $1000 to buy a computer or get to the school can make all the difference.

If he’s a Junior its too late for NMSF @gearmom

@kandcsmom Yes I know but it is not too late for the two younger siblings and OP should understand the value in trying hard on the PSAT.

In addition to some of the good advice you’ve already received on this thread I would also recommend a few additional strategies. Use schools’ Net Price Calculators to identify schools that may provide you with surprisingly high aid estimates. We identified the University of Iowa as a good candidate this way and the actual aid offer came in very close to the estimate. We also used this tactic to identify schools that would be unlikely to offer sufficient aid and we crossed them off of the list.

Be sure to get your four application fee waivers from the College Board and use them on schools where you are a reasonable candidate and aid projections are high or where 100% of need is stated to be met. Take a flier on schools known for good merit aid who have free applications like Case Western and Tulane. A lot of very good small LACs also fit into this category. Express interest in the schools you identify by requesting information and attending online presentations so that your interest is gauged as serious.

Beggars can’t be choosers, but I also do not want to spend thousands of dollars and 4 years of my life suffering at a college that is not for me. I may not have much money, but I don’t believe that is a reason to settle being stuck somewhere that I will be miserable at. It is irrelevant anyway because UMaine Farmington does not offer my major.

@gtdonewrong To go to your state flagship in Orono would cost about $5500. That is tuition room and board. You could pay that with a Stafford loan. You’d have to pay for books and personal expense additionally. 14k would be in gift aid = 8k scholarship, 5730 Pell grant, 670 other grant. That is your baseline safety. For colleges far away, figure in travel and other expenses. I used 3.72 as your GPA since you said that you had 93.00.

@gearmom thank you for the help! I looked online and College Board has said that a 93 was a 4.0? I’m confused on how the scale works!

There are three types of schools that offer generous assistance:

(1) those that offer merit aid (based on GPA and SAT/ACT scores) without regard to a student’s financial situation;

(2) those that offer need-based aid and guarantee to meet each student’s full financial need; and

(3) those that offer need-based aid, but do not guarantee to meet each student’s full need. This latter group of schools gives preferential awards to those applicants whose GPA & SAT/ACT scores are above the norm for that school; for those applicants whose GPA and SAT/ACT scores are just average for that school, the awards will usually not come anywhere close to meeting full need. These schools may also offer a combination of merit and need-based awards to their strongest applicants.

Schools in the second category will most often consider the non-custodial parent’s income & assets in determining a student’s need, unless that parent is completely out of the picture, which does not seem to be the case for you. So, be aware that if he has substantial income or assets, the schools that meet full financial need may not be an option for you.

BU falls into the third category - they’ll pay a lot for students they really want. So if you can keep your GPA up, and do well on the SAT or ACT, you have a shot. Remember that you must be above average to get a generous award from BU, so take a look at their admissions stat’s and be honest with yourself about your chances.

@gtgonewrong With that safety, work in the summer to pay for books. Try for local and essay contest scholarships to reduce loans. UMaine is great about letting students keep aid for study abroad and they have a friendly staff. You could study abroad or do an exchange in another state or both for a similar cost. Look into that early. There are scholarships available for study abroad. So you could have both an affordable sleep away college and be able to get out of Maine and explore.

@gtgonewrong I could be wrong but I think that is the GPA. See if your GC can convert it for you based on your school system for a 4.0 scale. Anyway, that is a very good GPA which should serve you well in your pursuit for merit scholarship.

@gearmom http://www.collegeboard.com/html/academicTracker-howtoconvert.html This is what I was going off! But I will ask. Thank you so much for all of your help!