Please run the NPC on every college listed on your thread, one by one. You’ll find very different prices.
When you say “I will be paying for my education myself”, what do you mean? Do you mean that your parents aren’t able to contribute? Are unwilling? Are willing but cannot pay their EFC?
Because when colleges say they meet 100% need (some, such as Davidson or Yale, without any loans…*) it’s what they think you need. So if your parents make 280k and feel they need lots of financial the college wont agree.
The reason we ask about income and assets (if they own a farm) is that top colleges will give you a full ride if they make less than 75k, and probably dull tuition if they make less than 125k, and depending on the scholarship you get at UNL an OOS school may be even be cheaper.
BUT not UT Austin or TAMU.
If you meant your parents thought you’d take loans…that’s nor possible. There were so many catastrophes that nowadays you as a student can borrow 5.5k for your first year. Anything else has to be borrowed by your parents (and you really don’t want that).
- if you want a list just ask, but use your search engine " 100% need colleges with no loans".
You should be able to get pretty good OOS merit from K-State. We have similar stats and got quite a bit from them! For us going OOS was worth it because the deal we got from K-State for his major plus merit, plus an alumni scholarship were all worth it. Plus he really likes it there!
I wouldn’t rely on UT or even A&M being a lock for OOS admission with a 32, especially for any engineering. Can you take that ACT again?
At least have a ballpark EFC, no one can help advise you if your perception of finances is not one that would actually garner FA.
^ neither TAMU nor UT will be affordable so they should be crossed out entirely IMHO.
An EFC and whether you parents are OK paying it would help, yes.
Or running the NPC on a few colleges listed on this thread and indicating what they’d cost your family (net price, before loans or work study).
You should be able to get a lot of aid at Rochester or RPI and many other private stem schools such as LeihighYou should also look into high reaches such as CMU, Cornell, Penn or Harvey Mudd, don’t be shy to try reaches, nothing wrong with that.
Sounds like I have a some research to do! Thank you everyone for your help! All of this information is EXTREMELY appreciated. Because I’ve pretty well gotten the information that I needed and I don’t want this to be a discussion that comes off as a way for me to glorify myself, I just want to recap the information in here and also post some of the links that I have found, so those who are looking for reference can benefit and find some information that may help them make some decisions regarding whether or not it may be worth it for them to go out of state for college.
Here are the biggest things in here that I saw (aside from the school recommendations and advising):
- Definitely run the Net Price Calculator at each school you are considering. It will give you a rough idea of the cost of attendance and also help you make a decision regarding how affordable it is.
- Don't rule out an in-state option primarily due to it being in-state. If it is a good school, affordable, etc. certainly consider it.
- If you really do want to get out of state, check out some of the links below to find some schools and ways to make out of state more affordable:
*https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2016-10-24/3-facts-about-aid-tuition-for-out-of-state-students
*http://www.kiplinger.com/article/college/T042-C011-S003-get-in-state-tuition-at-out-of-state-colleges.html
*Also a link to some colleges that provide full-ride scholarships: http://blog.prepscholar.com/colleges-with-full-ride-scholarships
- Don't rule out private schools either. While the prices may be higher, some are able to give generous financial aid packets, which may actually reduce price of attendance below in-state costs.
*Check out this list for schools that cover 100% of financial need: http://www.thecollegesolution.com/list-of-colleges-that-meet-100-of-financial-need/
I am sure I missed some, if not a lot of things, but hopefully this helps any looking for reference.
<<<
but I will be paying for the majority of my education myself
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
How do you plan on doing that. YOU can only borrow $5500 freshman year.
At the schools that give great need based aid, your parents’ incomes and assets will be looked at, including the income/assets of any non-custodial parents.
You don’t need to give detailed financial info about your family here on CC but by being very vague and implying that somehow an 18 year old is going to be able to pay many thousands towards college is just going to get you bad advice.
Most OOS publics will not be affordable for you.
So the situation that I am in, is that I will not be eligible for any financial aid as my parents’ income is too high. However, the actual contribution of my parents will be low, as they believe that I personally should pay for the majority of my schooling. This is the primary reason for cost being a concern. As a result, I have been wondering whether it is truly worth going out of state, with no financial aid beyond scholarships, and taking on the debt.
Read post #20 to your parents. Schools won’t care that parents want you to be responsible for cost - they will take your parents income into consideration when they figure your FA. If they see they would be full-pay, then you likely get nothing.
If you really need to contribute, be sure to look at schools where you would eligible for merit.
Actually, show entire thread to parents and have them sit with you while do NPCs.
You cannot “take on the debt”. You can have a 5.5k loan. The rest will be your parents’ to take on.
So, UT and TAMU are out of contention.
Please run the NPC on every college in this list. Bring results to your parents.
Do your parents make less than 75k? More? more than 125k? More than 250k?
(People tend to have wildly different definitions of " middle class").
If your parents have a lot of income you need to look for schools that offer good merit aid for your stats, not schools that offer good financial aid for those in need.
If you won't get any FA, you can scratch most of the reachy suggestions, including privates. OOS isn't a choice if you have no actual choice, hence the importance of financial clarity before having a fantasy college list built. Your vagueness means people give you well meaning suggestions that are completely pointless as you have no financial need and no tangible college budget. Even R&B will cost more than you can borrow. Plenty of kids are in your position.
You may want to consider Iowa State University. They have very strong engineering programs and would be affordable. You can run the out of state scholarship estimator for automatic merit awards…i ran your stats and it offers 8000 a year for each of 4 years automatically before consideration for any departmental specific scholarships. So that brings tuition to about 15,500 per year. The campus is beautiful and they have an honors program popular with engineering students. Students I have known who attended have loved ISU. I believe they also have the largest engineering job fair in the country on campus each year. Similar midwest vibe as UNL but certainly there are lots of out of state and international students, especially in the engineering majors.
Run the estimated EFC and the NPCs to see where your actual numbers land you, before you remove schools from your list. Your family income, assets, and size may or may not be qualify you for aid, but you won’t know until you do the numbers.
<<<<<< You may want to consider Iowa State University…15,500 per year<<<<<<<<<
Plus R&B (usually another 10K) plus travel, but basically, that is 100K + for 4 years.
Lets take the OP at his word that there is no FA, because that is more than possible. What OP needs is budget. I am assuming OP is a rising senior, but maybe not? The AFA thing is what makes me wonder though, as I assume no kid just plucks that out of the air at the end of junior year. I thought that took a lot of planning.
You won’t be permitted to borrow money to go OOS. Will your parents take out loans for you? If not, you can’t attend residential college at all unless you get merit aid somewhere.
If your parents won’t give you money or borrow it for you, your total budget is the yearly ~$5500 federal student loan plus whatever you can earn in the summer (~$3k or so). That makes your budget $8k/year unless you get merit aid.
Where do your parents think you’re going to get ~$20k/year or more to pay for residential college?
I am a rising senior yes. The budget portion does sound nice too. To be honest the large majority of this information is very new to me, and was all brought to my attention within this discussion (that’s what they’re for though right
Sorry, the bottom portion of that post was taken off.
Like I was saying, a lot of the information regarding financial aid and my situation regarding it, has all been very new to me. So I truly did not know that I would not be eligible for FA, and the most that I really knew was that I would need to try to pay for a large part of my education through scholarships and also working during school (how I plan to try to pay for college). The information regarding the $5,500 loans is also new to me so I am very glad it was brought up!
Regarding the USAFA, you are very right, it does require quite a bit of prior planning, and also early planning. One of the biggest steps is getting nominated by a state representative.
Did you take the PSAT, and if yes, is there any chance you’ll make National Merit? If yes, Texas Tech is a full ride (tuition, room & board, books, and misc. / travel expenses, too), and so are several other OOS schools.
Also, if you can nudge that ACT to a 33, I believe you’d get very good merit aid from Bama.
Here’s a link to automatic scholarships based on GPA and test scores. If you see a school of interest, be sure to confirm the info on the school’s own website. http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
UNL also offers good merit scholarships as well. They offer quite a few regents scholarships for those with an ACT at 32 or above which covers full tuition. If you are interested in CS, Business, or EE you can look into the Raikes school as well, which will cover room and board. These are some of the things that I have been looking at to try making UNL affordable.