Insight on paying College needed

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<p>NO NO NO. The vast majority of colleges do NOT guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. The FAFSA is used to determine federal aid eligibility. The full Pell of $5600 plus the full Direct Loan of $5500 will NOT fund studies in the United States at a residential college. </p>

<p>The colleges that DO guarantee to meet full need are highly competitive for admissions. It is unlikely at this point that you would gain admission which is the first hurdle for these schools. They accept under 10% of applicants…and deny admission to 90% or so.</p>

<p>NYU is terrible with fin aid. Also, you have to understand that these American universities setting up little foreign outposts mostly do it to make money (some times as vanity projects if the host country subsidizes them enough). Though merit aid is possible (an Egyptian on CC evidently got a full-ride to NUS-Yale), I imagine that an exceptional application is required to get that.</p>

<p>Well, NYUAD (back in 2009) said they covered full need (Abu Dhabi must be very generous), but they also have an insanely small admission rate.</p>

<p>One option is to go to community college to get your general education credits, then transfer to a 4 year university to finish your degree. Your federal aid can be used for community college, and you can probably get a job to help pay for living expenses. Alternatively, try to apply to unis that give automatic merit scholarships for academics. Your grades appear to be good, but you will need to improve your SAT score. Many unis will give up to 1/2 tuition, and some rare ones give full tuition (but you will need an outstanding SAT for that). </p>

<p>^^^
I wouldnt recommend that. </p>

<p>He’s OOS for all the CCs. He couldnt pay for his COA with fed aid. Plus, as a transfer, he would likely get worse aid. </p>

<p>There are some states where the OOS tuition at a cc is still very low, Nebraska, for instance. Now, would one want to attend cc in Nebraksa? I have no idea.</p>

<p>Residential CC is probably ideal. Richard Bland in VA, maybe? Guaranteed pathway to W&M if you get a certain GPA. Not sure if direct loan + Pell would cover it. Probably need Perkins & work-study as well. Paying for W&M as OOS would be a challenge as well, though you could become in-state in VA by then.</p>

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<p>Point taken, but there are a few schools out there that are need blind (for US citizens), meet full need, and have acceptance rates of greater than 20%.</p>

<p>^ Those would still be reaches with those SAT’s. The OP needs at least 2000+ to have a shot.</p>

<p>@PurpleTitan‌ </p>

<p>That CC has a high OOS cost</p>

<p>Tuition and fees $13,860
Room Only $8,540<br>
Books and supplies $1,200 $1,200<br>
Estimated personal expenses $1,996<br>
Transportation expenses $1,041<br>
Estimated Total $26,637 </p>

<p>The above doesnt include food, insurance, intl travel…another 4-5 thousand</p>

<p>Wow, there’s a cc that would cost $26k? Why would anyone do that? Here’s info from NE CC in Norfolk, NE. </p>

<p>How much will a year cost?</p>

<p>Resident students - $82.50/credit hour
IA and SD Resident Tuition: $83.50
Non-resident students - $116.00/credit hour
Fees - $18.50/credit hour</p>

<p>Totals based on 30 credit
nNon-Resident
Tuition $3,480.00
Fees $555.00
Books (est.) $1,429.00
Room and Board (Simon Hall) $5,950.00
Total $11,414.00</p>

<p>You could do it for a full Pell and a direct loan. Would only have to come up with travel money. It’d be huge culture shock. And given this is cc, we tend to focus on schools people have heard of, but . . . If you really want to come stateside to start your education, there are places you can pay for with available federal aid (assuming you’d have a zero EFC). </p>

<p>Now, I am not from Nebraska, so am not trying to sell you on the place, but there are other rural parts of the country where the prices are low if you’re truly not picky and just want to get here. </p>

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<p>Not necessarily. There’s at least one school that fits the description that is test optional. And its acceptance rate is around 70%.</p>

<p>@MiddKid86 Here’s the list of colleges that meet need: <a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Highest acceptance rate is from Thomas Aquinas at 80%. However, it’s a religious school with a non-traditional curriculum; no majors are offered, at all.</p>

<p>After that, the least selective school is Mt. Holyoke. It is SAT optional, with an acceptance rate of 42%…but it’s a women’s college, and I think the OP’s a guy. Same with Bryn Mawr: 41%/test optional/women’s college. When you get to co-ed, there’s still some test optional, but the acceptance rates drop. Seems like whenever there’s a category which fits/helps the OP, another one disqualifies him/puts him at a disadvantage. He needs to get serious about test prep!</p>

<p>^^
I’ve seen other meets-full-need lists that have a different mix of schools, so I’m not sure which list, if any, is definitive. Be that as it may, my point was that not all meets-full-need schools have a single digit acceptance rate. In fact, some have relatively high acceptance rates. Certainly, enrollment at some of these schools may require a trade off to take advantage of a meets-full-need policy (less prestigious, smaller course catalogue, etc.), but the option is there.</p>

<p>@Middkid86 Here…</p>

<p><a href=“List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/list-of-colleges-that-meet-100-of-financial-need/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You’re right, there’s a few more schools. Not that many, though…</p>

<p>Yeah, not all meet-need schools have single-digit acceptance rates. But 10-20% or 20-30% is still a reach for the OP, when the big majority of schools are not test optional (even if a few are, but most are not) & the SAT ranges are high. Even if the rate is 30-40% or 40%+, he still needs to be in the ballpark in order to get in. It’s not about the prestige, it’s about having options in the first place to even worry about prestige…A couple of schools isn’t enough.</p>

<p>Yup, and there are other lists too, and none of them are identical. Again, my point wasn’t so much about the OP, just that not all meets-full-need schools have a single digit acceptance rate.</p>

<p>“not all meets-full-need schools have a single digit acceptance rate”</p>

<p>Yep.</p>

<p>OP, you still should aim for higher scores if you want more options. Start prepping now! You can do it lol</p>

<p>Well i have been working my ass off. i have managed to raise my Maths score to a 750, my writing score to a 650. and i still have 2 months and 10 days left. i think and i hope i might able to raise my scores do a good point :D</p>

<p>Yep, acceptance and merit aid is usually more possible if you’re a girl (at all-female colleges & many engineering schools). Granted, the competition is a bit more fierce for a place at the elites.</p>

<p>OP, do you have any family still here in the US? It would be nice if you could live with them and commute to uni. And regarding community college, I think you have to investigate out of state tuition costs individually by county. Whatever you decide, university or community college is going to take a lot of research and investigation on your part. Good luck!</p>