Ok before I start, I will point out this is mainly my fault. I began searching for scholarships around March, so majority of a good ones were gone. But also to be fair, no one told me that it’s important to apply in the early fall for scholarships, but still my fault. Also sorry for the word wall.
Anyways, this has been stressing me out so much recently. I have been accepted into TAMU, but I have not received any of the scholarships I applied for, and I didn’t get any grants, only loans. So I have no clue how I’m gonna pay for college. I have a 4.0 GPA, 26/526 in my class and got a 1370 on my SAT, so it’s not like my academics are poor.
I understand that I will probably just have to deal with the consequences for my freshman year and that I’ll need to find scholarships when they reopen back up, but it seems that there aren’t much scholarships available for current college students. Plus at that point all my hard work in high school will be irrelevant.
So I know this sucks, and it’s mainly my fault, but I have no clue what to do, no one has really prepared me for this situation and even looking up online, I find myself in dead ends.
Some advice and/or suggestions on what to do and how to handle this situation would be greatly appreciated!
(Please avoid the talk about how I should’ve started earlier, cause trust me, I know; if I could go back I would.)
If parents won’t pay, then TAMU is unaffordable. Request to defer enrollment until 2019. In the meantime apply to SCHOOLS that will give huge awards for your stats.
In order for us to help you, we need this information:
What’s your EFC?
What’s your parents’ budget for college?
Are you instate for TAMU?
(If not, what state are your parents residents of?)
Did you fill out FAFSA?
Do you qualify for Pell?
@Ashbug, I don’t know if you were aware that the best scholarships come from the universities themselves based on a number of factors. That’s why the previous posters are asking about EFC, instate residency, FAFSA, etc.
No one really gives full rides anymore. Those schools that do provide large funding, do it based on need and even then, it is hard. If you need merit dollars, you have to be one of the few tippy top students (top 2-5% of your class, 1500+ SAT, etc.) which is difficult and competitive, so you have to find schools that want you and are affordable.
Most people, go to their instate options and have their parents pay for school through a combination of savings and loans. This planning is usually done before you apply, so that you and your parents can figure out what is affordable.
Right now, it doesn’t sound like that happened with your parents, and, unfortunately, you are stuck.
Applying for outside scholarships is limiting and competitive, in that, what they give is way under what you need and usually, the coverage is for one year.
I think that unless your parents can pay the bill by August, you will have to defer attending this school. Work for a year to save up some money.
(If you go to a community college, at this point, you would be considered a transfer student with college credits, and would no longer qualify for freshman scholarships.)
I’m sorry that this has happened to you but you are not alone, as this is very common at this time of year.
Are your parents contributing? If not, there is NO way you can take out loans for the full cost of attendance in your name only. Your ability to do so is limited to $5500 for your freshman year.
So…
How do you plan to deal with this your freshman year? Please understand...you will be dealing with this for all for years of college at TAMU....not JUST the upcoming school year.
If you plan to transfer after freshman year, please understand that your merit aid possibilities will be greatly reduced because the best merit aid goes to incoming freshmen, not transfers.
You are not likely to get significant scholarships for subsequent years at TAMU.
How much In loans would you need? Will your parents co-sign?
For the majority of students, outside scholarships aren’t enough to fund tuition, much less take a chunk out of the room and board costs, so your situation probably wouldn’t be different even if you had applied to more scholarships. You can only borrow ~$5500/year. You need to have a solid plan for paying for all 4 years before you start because transfers don’t get much aid.
How much will your parents pay? Add the ~$5500 loan and whatever you can earn over the summer (~$3k) and that’s your budget. If you let us know what that is, maybe we can help you find an affordable option. I’d request a deferral from your current school until you figure out a long term plan.
It looks like you need to take a gap year, and apply to places that can be made affordable. Your stats are solid. Read through the thread on automatic merit scholarships at the top of this forum. You qualify for some now, and with a bit of a boost on your SAT score, you qualify for more of them. Yes, the universities aren’t TAMU, but they are decent options, and you can’t afford TAMU anyway.
@Ashbug TAMU stinks with merit. Don’t beat yourself up. My 34 ACT, #10/700 kid got $0.00 in merit aid. Zero. Most kids don’t start early enough and most don’t understand how it all works.
If you are looking at $20,000 in private loan debt or parent loan debt please step away, decline your acceptance and focus on a solid gap year. You will feel some momentary pain in August when you see all of your friends moving into their dorms on Snapchat and Instagram. But YOU focus on YOU, work hard and make some plans and your year will fly by. You can get a job, do some community work and find a school you can afford that will give you some solid merit. Apply EARLY to your new schools!
Your stats ARE good enough for merit at a number of UT and Texas A&M branch schools. For instance, you would get almost full tuition at UT Arlington. My daughter is taking a summer school class there and having a great experience.
I’m not going to pull all the links and do all of your research but I’m pretty sure UTSA, Texas A&M Commerce, etc. will have similar merit scholarships. UT Tyler has some also.
Going off to TAMU this fall with more than $5,500 in loans is a horrible idea. You may qualify for a small departmental scholarship after freshman year but you may not.
Agree with others. Take a gap year. Retake the SAT, and take the ACT, in Aug or Sept. . Study those things that will being your score up. Do not waste time reviewing those things you did well on. The library probably has books you can borrow. Reapply to schools others have suggested. Don’t worry what others think. My D’s very rigorous school has several students who take gap years every year. I know you are anxious to get college underway, but you do not want to graduate with a lot of debt. Best of luck.
It sounds like you’re out of state. If you can’t afford it, then really, you have no other choice but to go somewhere you can afford. Take a year or two at community college, then transfer to a good school based on what you can afford.
