<p>@OP - have a good cry tonight over what might have been, and then wake up tomorrow with a fresh eye on what you can do. Find opportunities that are affordable. Oxford is not affordable and not a viable option.</p>
<p>Have you looked at your state universities to see if any of them are on rolling admissions? Or if any of them have Spring Admit dates?</p>
<p>@mtpapaer I was waitlisted at my state university but I sent them my ACT scores today. I think that will be enought, with somewhat rising trend in grades this year. I am still searching for other options in case</p>
<p>Smith and Mt. Holyoke recruit at my local community college, and Bryn Mawr has just signed an agreement with two community colleges in the Philadelphia area formalizing a 2-2 plan for top students, so I know for a fact that you can get into at least three of the colleges on your list from a community college IF you have the drive and the grades to make it happen. If you go the CC route, your options will improve greatly if you can hold down the GPA necessary to qualify for membership in Phi Theta Kappa. There is quite a bit of money out there for PTK members [Phi</a> Theta Kappa - Honor Society](<a href=“http://www.ptk.org/]Phi”>http://www.ptk.org/) Also, if you commute to your local CC for two years, you may be able to convince your parents to slap the difference between what they expected to pay and what they really do have to pay into a savings vehicle so that it is available when you do transfer.</p>
<p>One good gap year option to consider is [City</a> Year](<a href=“http://www.cityyear.org/default_ektid13307.aspx]City”>http://www.cityyear.org/default_ektid13307.aspx) For more ideas, go to the Parents Forum and scroll down. There are a lot of threads on that topic there.</p>
<p>2015hopeful, for a gap year you could also do Americorps or City Year. Both programs give educational assistance when you complete the program that can contribute to your BA education once you’re finished. You get between $4000 and $5000 for each year of service you complete with Americorps or City Year.</p>
<p>Another option is a gap year abroad with CIEE. Those programs are around $20-24K for a year and $11-14K for a semester.</p>
<p>A third option is to serve with the military, but that’s less a “gap year” and more a “gap 4 years.” You will get the Post-9/11 GI bill if you serve for at least 36 months/3 years, which is a sweet deal - tuition payments of up to whatever the per-credit cost is for in-state tuition in that state, plus a housing allowance at the level of an E-5 with dependents (it’s based upon where you live, which is $2700/month in New York, but that’s very high of course). Many schools have a Yellow Ribbon program which tops off the GI bill - for example, at Columbia’s School of General Studies the Yellow Ribbon program + GI bill covers all of your tuition and fees, and the housing allowance could easily be lived upon in NYC.</p>
<p>BUT you should only do the military if…well, you actually want to do the military.</p>
<p>The fact is, as so many posters have said and listed for you, you do have options.</p>
<p>You just don’t want the options that you have.</p>
<p>That is life - sometimes the choices we have are not our preferable choices. It is time for you to become an adult and make an adult decision.</p>
<p>It is fine to take a little time to grieve what you can’t have. But growing up is making responsible choices from the options you do have.</p>
<p><em>hugs</em></p>
<p>No one here thinks you’re an idiot who can’t make it at an “elite” university. In fact, I think the only person who is insinuating that non-elite schools are for “idiots” is you. </p>
<p>We are trying to get you to see that you are being incredibly naive by believing that you are somehow owed a spot at one of these elite schools and/or one year at another school will land you at Harvard. Your high school grades and stats only matter for a very short time in your life but this is the time. </p>
<p>Not taking on debt is especially important if you want to work as a journalist or a writer. Only being debt free will enable you to take those crucially important beginning jobs that pay virtually nothing but provide you with crucial experience. Please don’t make the same mistakes so that you wind up in the same spot four years from now, ruing the fact that you cannot afford to do your dream job.</p>
<p>You seem to be tying your future up in grand gestures…improving your ACT score by 10 points, selling a novel, etc. You absolutely have to start where you are and take the next realistic step. Not the next step you wish you could make but the next step you must make. If, say, the novel sells, then great. But if it doesn’t, then you’ll really be on the right path, not just wishing you were on the right path. </p>
<p>You are in luck in that you want a do-over from high school? Welcome to college! Re-do your application process with fresh eyes, stop looking down on schools you’ve deemed “not elite” and instead focus on area of study and financial matches plus the all important safety schools.</p>
<p>*People need to seriously stop making it seem like I am a complete idiot who will never make it to an “elite” college/university.
*</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>No one is saying that you’ll “never” make it into an elite school. I think everyone or nearly everyone has presented a plan to help you get there. What people are saying is that you’re not going to be in an elite school within the next 12-18 months. However, if you commute to a CC or state univ for 2 years and do super well, you might get accepted to an elite. However, you still might have funding issues at that point. </p>
<p>If that happens, then you should do your best at whatever univ you can afford and then apply to “better” schools for grad schools…since many of those programs have merit based funding.</p>
<p>You have plenty of options. You have a supportive family with whom you can live while you rethink even more options. You just don’t have the options that you want. You applied to schools without having financial safeties that were very likely to accept you. Your family has so much that they can pay, and that is it. Like with most things in life, you are constrained by cost. You cannot afford the options you want. </p>
<p>The average college student in this country is 25 years old, works and goes to school part time. College is an expensive proposition and many families just don’t budget enough for it. So the student has to take those options that are affordable.</p>
<p>I just spoke to a financial aid representative at DePaul and they said that I need to pay $16,200, that is what is left over if my parents pay 10,000, and with my merit scholarship and federal stafford loan. So I am just trying to hopefully find some scholarships online to apply for…</p>
<p>Please remember that you will have other expenses besides what you need to pay DePaul. You need to get to Chicago from Massachusetts. You might want to go back home for break. You will have expenses for books. Will you need to pay for your phone? You need to buy toothpaste and shampoo at some point. Make sure you have budgeted for those expenses.</p>
<p>2015hopeful…Wow…if nothing else I’ll give you points for persistence. Now that having been said, let me borrow one of mom2ck’s phrases…</p>
<p>HARSHNESS ALERT!!</p>
<p>People have tried to be patient with you and give you sound, common sense advice and MULTIPLE alternatives to put you on a path to an affordable, quality education…but you obviously don’t want to listen. You must be smarter than all the rest of us, so by all means…proceed with whatever plan floats your boat.</p>
<p>Please do let all of us know when you discover (at this late date no less) the previously untapped well of scholarship money that will get you over that last little $16K+ hump. Have you considered scratch-off tickets or the PowerBall?? Both of those plans have just as much chance of working as your insistence on making DePaul work this year.</p>
<p>If your family members decide to back your plan and fund your education…congratulations to you and God Bless. In the meantime…might I suggest you stop wasting other people’s time on this thread by continuing to insist your flawed plan has merit. You’ve already ignored enough sound and solid advice. I suggest you just drop back 15 and punt.</p>
<p>@limulus my parents are giving me around 200-300 a month in college for allowance to pay for stuff like that.</p>
<p>@wolverine I am trying to apply for as many scholarships that I qualify for (and many of the ones that I have looked into are not that known about). I am hoping to apply for as many as possible and get at least 10K.</p>
<p>@wolverine "the meantime…might I suggest you stop wasting other people’s time on this thread by continuing to insist your flawed plan has merit. "</p>
<p>If you all do not want to read my threads, you do not have to post! Or just do not read them! I am trying the best I can here to find alternative solutions to finance my education. I will be stubborn and not give up on my dreams.</p>
<p>“In the meantime…might I suggest you stop wasting other people’s time on this thread by continuing to insist your flawed plan has merit.” Excuse me wolverine but 2015hopeful started this thread, so…it’s kind of hers and she is correct–you DON"T have to read it. </p>
<p>But…2015hopeful… you have asked for help and lots of people are giving you excellent sound advice… which you choose to ignore! I followed parts of your sad story on the Smith, Bryn Mar forums weeks/months ago and thought you had found a happy place at DePaul. Good luck with that last minute scholarship thing and let us know how it works out for you.</p>
<p>Please, please, please listen to the advice you are getting here. </p>
<p>DO NOT waste any more time trying to figure out how to borrow enough to attend DePaul. The “real” cost of your loans is FAR more than the actual amount you will borrow. The interest alone will be ridiculous. You are considering borrowing much too much.</p>
<p>You need to get a clue, right now. You have two choices that make sense:</p>
<p>1) Gap year. Use that time to find schools for which you ARE a match (not for which you want to be a match). These are the schools to which you will most likely be accepted and be able to afford. </p>
<p>2) Go to a CC. Meet with an academic advisor to work out a plan of studies. You can get good academic scholarships to fine schools with excellent CC grades.</p>
<p>Ask your parents to set aside the money the would have paid for a more expensive school while you take a gap year or attend CC. This way, you can have an extra $10-20k or so to put toward university for future years. Gap year is free; CC will be do-able with loans and/or a job.</p>
<p>Is this your dream? No. Will it work? Yes … far better than sticking your head in the sand and hoping everything will be okay if you just wish hard enough.</p>
<p>The time to grow up is now.</p>
<p>*and they said that I need to pay $16,200, that is what is left over if my parents pay 10,000, and with my merit scholarship and federal stafford loan. So I am just trying to hopefully find some scholarships online to apply for… *</p>
<p>* 10,500 merit scholarship. However, the cost of attendance is 45,700,*</p>
<p>10k from parents
5500 stafford</p>
<h2>10,500 merit</h2>
<p>26,000 + 16,000 (uncovered) = 42k (I’m guessing that $42k is basic costs)</p>
<p>are you certain that your parents will give you a few hundred per month in spending money in addition to the $10k per year? </p>
<p>I’m sorry but it’s very, very unlikely that you’ll get enough scholarships to cover much of that gap…private scholarships have pretty much already awarded, are for small amounts, and usually only for ONE YEAR…so you would be very short for soph, jr, and sr year. </p>
<p>At this point, you might find 1,000 (at most), but not likely more than that. </p>
<p>* I will be stubborn and not give up on my dreams.</p>
<p>I completely dumbed myself down and made a fool out of myself.
*</p>
<p>If we haven’t seen a few kids with this attitude every year, we’d might think that you have some chance. But every year, kids post that they are going to do “whatever it takes” and then around July when the money is due, they post in absolute desperation because the money just isn’t there.</p>
<p>There is no money tree. </p>
<p>You need to get off this fantasy train and begin a plan that is consistent with the real world.</p>
<p>If you don’t “get real” you’re going to feel like you’ve really made a fool out of yourself.</p>
<p>Hey OP, something else that worries me: you say that your parents are going to give you $10k a year. Which is wonderful…but you also write that your father has serious health issues, and that there’s a $500k mortgage. </p>
<p>My concern is that your parents may be able to come up with the $10k this year, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll have that money in future years. Being ill and having a big mortgage to meet is a very tough position to be in. Even if he wants to, your father may not have the resources to help you in the next few years. </p>
<p>I agree with other posters that trying to come up with $16k in scholarships is highly unlikely. Remember, the same people who you were competing against for admission to colleges are also applying for these scholarships. </p>
<p>It’s one thing when we see students who are trying everything possible in order to go to their dream school. You are trying everything possible in order to attend a school that you see as a stepping stone to something better. This makes absolutely no sense. The advice that every adult has given you so far, both within your family and here on CC, is consistent. When you can’t find even one person who is saying “you go, girl!”, then it’s time to really reassess your plan.</p>
<p>If there was 16K worth of scholarships available for the mere wanting for students with 3.0-3.3 gpas we could practically close shop here at the forum. (It is not as if we are jealously holding back information from you!)</p>
<p>Many scholarships are merit based and you are simply not competitive enough. You are grasping at crazy straws now if you think that Plan A can reasonably be winning 16K of scholarships X 4 years. Please don’t take our advice as something to fight against–I would be advising my own children the very same way (I have two in college and finances have always been an issue that needed to be realistically wrestled with).</p>
<p>To OP
If you find yourself with no options start looking in Canada now. Go there for a year or two. Cheap tuition, maybe.</p>