<p>IBstudent92 –</p>
<p>Unfortunately, if your family is middle class, even lower middle class, you will get precisous little need based aid at any school not ranked in the USNWR top 10.</p>
<p>Lower middle/middle/upper middle class kids WITH STATS LIKE YOURS generally go to their state’s Flagship or #2 school. Your stats are not high enough to get BIG Merit aid from any school ranked in the top 200 or so. If your ACT were perhape 3-4 pionts higher, more options appear for Merit aid.</p>
<p>But, you’re obviously not in this alone. Many kids work 15-20 hours/wk during the school year (I did), and full time in the summers, so that their parents pay only half the $20k+ it costs to attend State U. Further, most financially constrained kids don’t pay the EXPENSIVE room and board rates that most schools charge. They get a couple of roommates and live in a one bedroom apartment with bunkbed a 10-15 minute walk (or ten minute bike ride) from campus, and cook hamburger and rice a lot :)</p>
<p>Apply early to Mich. St, get in, and just figure out how to earn $10k per year on your own. Everything will work out.</p>
<p>Oh, and good luck discussing with your parents. In these economic times, they may be embarrassed to reveal to you that they have ZERO money saved for college, or that they don’t even know how they will come up with $10k per year. The whole country is in a Great Recession, and extra cash is tough to come by.</p>