“My sister told me not to worry about the costs of college even though my direct family (my dad) is very poor she is a surgeon and she cares a lot for me apparently, so I’m lucky there.”
“She hasn’t mislead me at all. …she hasn’t responded to me in any way based on whether or not she could pay THAT much for it.”
It seems there has been some level of miscommunication between you and your sister. Because she is a surgeon, “cares a lot” for you, and told you to “not worry about the costs of college”, you probably assumed she was going to pay a substantial amount of money to make most (any?) colleges affordable for you. I suggest you discuss the Pitt financial aid letter and resulting money needed to make up the gap with her. Ask her if she is willing to pay the 20K gap/year (perhaps 90K over four years). Listen to/discuss with her what she says. Then, you’ll know where you stand financially.
As others have recommended, it’s prudent to explore other affordable in state public options you haven’t considered and unis like alabama huntsville. Run the NPCs; discuss the results with your family.
Depending on how long she has been a doctor , she may be still paying off her own educational loans. It might be a financial stretch to pay for both your education and her education.
I don’t know what you major is but Berea college application deadline is 3/31. Everyone that gets accepted gets free tuition there. With an EFC of 0 there might be even more aid for you to cover room and board. If this is an option for you, you need to get on the ball with the app because they have a rolling admission policy so the sooner you apply the better chance you got of getting in. Good luck
My S applied to Cincinnati and they gave him the best award. What is your intended major? His was engineering and we were told that they front load their scholarship as it’s a co op program so you would be working after your first semester sophomore year. My S received department scholarships late that year as they were trying to get him to enroll.
I’m pretty sure U Toledo is still accepting applications. Depending on your GPA, you could receive $6000/year. Guaranteed http://www.utoledo.edu/admission/freshman/scholarships/2017/. With your pell grant and loans it could be very affordable. Also a co op program for engineering.
If your EFC is $0 that means you qualify for the maximum Pell grant and student loans. You got that.
You also got SEOG and work study, which not all students get.
Pitt also gave you an institutional grant, which not every (OOS) public school does.
But your aid is not enough. $0 EFC does not mean that the school will give you enough aid to meet your need.
Some schools do, but not very many, and they are very hard to get accepted to.
In our state of PA, a $0 EFC student can expect to get about $10k of Pell and state grant, and a loan of $5,500.
That does not pay for Pitt or PSU main, or many of the PASSHE schools, if living on campus, unless the student also gets enough in scholarships, or parents can help pay.
But it might be enough to commute to a local branch campus, combined with student work earnings.
The schools that you applied to, do give some scholarships, and need based aid, but not enough to cover your need, after all federal aid is applied.
What is your career goal? How much of a state grant can you get if staying in Ohio?
Your sister may just be assuming that because you’re low income you’ll get lots of grant aid. That’s a fairly common misconception. You should call her as soon as possible and discuss any offers you have. The most you can borrow on your own is the ~$5500/year federal student loan. I would avoid cosigned loans. Your dad can’t afford that and since your sister has med school loans, she probably can’t either. If she has children, or plans to, she’ll need to start saving for their education too.
Do you have a financial safety on your list? Is there a community college or 4-year school you can commute to if none of your other options are affordable? If not, you need to find one. You may have to take a gap year so you have time to craft a list with affordable options.
I would encourage you to apply to Youngstown State as well as Kent and Akron. Youngstown State is one of the most affordable state schools in Ohio and they offer some automatic merit for your stats. You need to apply before February 15th.
@Synful122 What is your intended major? Sorry if you answered this before, I didn’t see it. Looking back at your original posts, a few comments/questions.
“… I know that you can pay all of this off later in life or something, but I just really need someone to help me understand all of this.”
First of all, PLEASE don’t go into this with the notion that its a great idea to borrow whatever you need, and worry about it later. This is a mistake so many people make, and it will haunt you for a very long time. 10 years from now, the difference between a school that you could afford vs. one you had to borrow a lot of $$ for is mostly non-existent in the real world, but the debt to pay for the unaffordable school will still be the albatross around your neck. It’s just not worth it.
Second, you said a few times that you need help understanding the award info. Did you get the answers you needed? If not, please post what you need help with/explained. The financial aid stuff can be very confusing.
Also, you said “…It’s just like if they see that I’m 0 EFC then other offer to pay $7500 like why even give me admittance. I obviously can’t come up with the rest. This is just very unfortunate.”
Agreed, it is unfortunate but even more unfortunate would be to decide for you that you can’t afford it and base admittance based on that. Plus that is illegal soooo no. But it is a huge letdown and it sucks.
For what its worth, New Mexico State has fantastic aide for OOS and its a great school. Ask me how I know!
@mom2collegekids about affordability. I’ve pretty much just received a full tuition scholarship from Miami University ($13,300/yr). Is it safe to assume that I’ll get all of my other federal aid that Pitt granted me or is that stuff different school to school? I know like the Pell Grant and stuff is guaranteed, but I’m wondering about the other federal aid Pitt gave me. If that’s the case then assuming Miami gives me ZERO FA from them (I wouldn’t be surprised because of the merit aid they gave me). If I can apply those same FA Pitt gave me it would cost me ~$8k over the four years which I know is AMAZING. Also the full ride from UD I should find out by the end of the week whether or not I will be getting that scholarship. I’m feeling confident because well they said they liked me a lot and most of all the guy after two weeks remembered my name and he has done like well over 200 interviews for it, that has to be a good sign right? They’re picking ~30 kids for it.
Pell would be the same. SEOG MIGHT be the same but it might not. Loans would be the same - basically $5500 plus maybe Perkins on top of that if you qualify and if Miami has the funds.
So $13K merit + $5920 Pell + $5500 Direct loan = $24,420. You’d owe about $3K after that if their published cost is right for you (in terms of that meal plan, dorm option etc). Any additional aid you’d get could cut that down, and you may be able to get work-study also.
You’d need to add books, travel, etc. and maybe fees if you are planning on business or engineering or art. And know that tuition/fees may well rise each year (in fact these #s are for the current year, not next year).
@OHmomto2 At Miami they have like some tuition+ room and board promise so it should all stay the same. But either way $3k doesn’t sound too shabby. Plus $1k for extra stuff I’ll say. I only live around an hour away from there so travel and stuff could be negligible.
@sybbie719 I assumed that it would be different at most schools, that’s why I asked. But either way for Miami it shouldn’t be too bad of a pocker puller.
