What do you think you would get from your 1st choice school that you wouldn’t be getting from the LAC or local school? I
@ColdinMinny I might apply to Trinity, as well. My mom graduated from there so I might be able to get some legacy scholarships. Plus, I can get some scholarships there (and UTSA) from my work because it’s associated with the San Antonio Area Foundation.
@SonOfAbraham I have some saved up, but I only have saved $600. My parents have not put anything aside for my college.
@JustGraduate It is a small LAC and is ranked as one of the best colleges in Texas, with the #8 best career center in the US and the best in Texas. It’s also right outside of Austin, so they offer several internships at the Capital and with senators and congressman, which would be great for law school. Not to mention it is a beautiful school with really talented professors. The other LAC is a decent school and isn’t as rigorous, but it is located in a smaller town with nothing close by, so internships and such would be less of an option. At UTSA I could still potentially gain internships in San Antonio, but the class sizes are so big and the campus is so large I don’t believe I would enjoy the environment as much. Plus, with there being as many kids as there are at the school, I would imagine that it would be much more difficult as I couldn’t get to know my professors well enough to get good letters of recommendation.
Really, my top choice would be perfect if I had more financial assistance or if it were less expensive. Right now, however, Trinity does seem like a very good suggestion as it is a small school as well. Does anyone on here know about how generous their FAO is, or would it be around the same as my 1st choice?
Trinity is an excellent university - I thought it was the #1 in Texas. After that there’s Austin, Southwestern, St Edwards…
Apply to UTSA and its Honors College ASAP, in order to have that as a safety. Depending on what you’re looking for and your stats, you could apply to UTD&AES scholarship (tech), Hendrix (humanities/economics/math), Rhodes (sciences, social sciences), Rice (excellent in everything but especially the sciences + meets need)
Don’t guess prices: run the Net Price Calculator.
if the financial assessment of your paying capabilities doesn’t sound fair, ask for a reassessment through professional judgement (for example, if a parent recently lost a job, etc).
is there a reason your parents won’t help with college?
SU was actually my top choice! The only two that outrank it are Rice and Trinity. It is very expensive though. I applied to UTSA today and am applying to Trinity as well just to see what happened. My stats are in the ball park to attend there so I will just have to see about aid.
My parents are divorced and my mom was unemployed for four years, only getting a job this year so she hasn’t been able to help. My dad makes a decent living by hasn’t made the best financial decisions, so he doesn’t want to/can’t help out. That being said, I don’t qualify for great need based scholarships but also can’t afford to attend a lot of schools without them.
@Ifrancis95 I agree! $5500 per yr w/out a cosigner, plus work study & apply for some of those private scholarships, CC even has a page to learn about ones you qualify for - you can get a few thousand a yr out of them I bet. The $5500 is not due until you graduate and if you go to graduate school then you have even longer - and no interest till then! Please take another look at all this!
^^Forgot to mention that the 17k is after the federal loans. I will look into the scholarships too and see but I don’t want to accept the admissions offer until I know I can come out with little debt
So the school would cost you about 24k a year + car insurance + cell phone. That numbers not possible without help.
It’s not that you could almost swing it and you’re on the edge. You can’t afford it unless your brother is willing to take 68k of loans out for you (very bad idea).
I’m assuming you had to submit your fafsa. What was your EFC?
You also mention grad school. That 96k + interest will be piling onto whatever you stack up with grad school debt.
@Jpgranier My EFC was $4,465.
So your top school is no where near your need as they are quoting you 24k.
Are your stats high enough for a chance at rice? Their deadline isn’t for a while
My class rank and GPA might be, but my SAT definitely is not. From my understanding, Rice is supposed to be even more expensive than Southwestern also.
I am also considering Texas Lutheran–my stats are much higher than their mid score range so I would qualify for much more in merit scholarships. Plus, I qualify for need-based scholarships there as well so it would be well within my affordability according to the Net Price Calculator.
I’m just not sure if it is the best for internships and work as it is in Seguin which is the middle of nowhere.
With your low EFC, do not tell any school you are not coming until you have both your need and merit aid awards. Need based awards take a little longer.
@AroundHere Thanks! I haven’t made any decisions just yet, I am waiting to see how all of my options play out. According to their net price calculator, Trinity has my estimated net price at around 4K so that might actually work out if I just live at home.
Do not think too much on the sticker price of the school, rather the the cost the NPC spits out at you when you enter your finances.
While Rice has a higher sticker price, their needs based aid is top notch:
Play around with net price calculators at the schools your interested in and let us know what they say.
https://new.trinity.edu/admissions-aid/net-price-calculator
https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/tlu
Also, many schools require a CSS Profile as well for financial aid reasons. It goes much more in depth. Have your parents remarried? I believe the step parent’s income will be accounted for as well.
It sounds like your mother did not have a job for last year’s tax returns, so if she is employed and your family income goes up, so will the amount of money college will expect you to contribute since they will reassess your need each year.
You have such a low EFC that it’s worth trying at Rice - they met full need, which means that if they admit you, you’d only have to pay what the net price calculator says - and if it says $4,465 (which it may not, depending on circumstances, since they use CSS Profile in addition to/instad of FAFSA… but it’s quite possible), what you owe is $4,465, not 24K. And if your family’s income is 80K or below, everything will be covered by grants and work study, or, if it’s abov 80K, thy limit the loans to 2.5K a year. So, it’s really worth it for you to try and at least run the NPC.
Note that your cost of attendance will be adjusted downwards for living at home.
For example, Trinity’s cost-of-attendance chart allows 12,754 for room and board on campus, but 5,134 for your expenses living at home. If you change your housing, they will rework your financial aid because you have less financial need due to lower costs. They won’t just take the dorm charge off and leave the aid unchanged. Be sure to discuss everything with financial aid before deciding where to live so you understand your package.
If you can afford to live on campus the first year, it tends to help both academically and socially, but sometimes you do have to live at home to save money.
Good luck!
Thank you all for your input! This has been so helpful!
This could be an issue at colleges that use both parents’ finances to determine your financial aid (usually with the CSS Noncustodial PROFILE).
https://profileonline.collegeboard.org/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv says that Rice uses the Noncustodial PROFILE, but Trinity does not. Southwestern and the various UT campuses do not appear to use CSS PROFILE, since they are not on this list.
For schools like Rice that use the Noncustodial PROFILE, include both parents’ income and assets in the net price calculator. But be aware that many schools’ net price calculators are less accurate for the divorced parent situation. However, including only one parent’s information for a school that wants both guarantees an unrealistically optimistic estimate.
@ucbalumnus Would it still be an issue if my mom’s income is low? She only makes 21K a year & is working on getting a second master’s online, plus she takes care of my little sister and I have another sister in college. Do they look at this as well?
My dad’s income is 65K a year & I live with him, I don’t know if that makes a difference or not.
@Jpgranier My parents never remarried. My mom’s income will go up, however her income is still so low that it doesn’t look like she would be expected to contribute anything for a while. When I checked the TLU calculator it was estimating around 8K before loans.
Rice estimated me for 9K after Financial Aid