My parents have said that they would pay for up to $25k of my tuition and after that, I would have to find scholarships or take out loans. I can either go to schools that cost this much already (SUNY, UConn in-state, other state schools) or go to schools that I really want to go to but cost more than that (NEU, BU, etc.). I’m hoping for some merit aid because I have good grades, play sports, and do various musical things on top of having a part-time job, but is it even worth applying to the more expensive schools if I might not get the aid I need and have to take out $20k a year in loans anyway? My school doesn’t do much in terms of helping us figure out how to pay for college, and I’m close to my second semester of junior year, so I’d really like to start narrowing it down.
You can not borrow that much money, nor should you want to. Stats? Major? Plans after college?
185 PSAT last year and estimated 2100 in March for the real thing. My weighted GPA is a 3.9 and my school doesn’t provide unweighted until you meet with your counselor second semester of junior year. I want to major in biochemistry, biology, or neuroscience, but I haven’t decided yet. And after college, I want to go into research.
The answer is that it is possible to get merit aid to lower the costs of some private schools to $25k or less. You really need to do your research. There is a lot of info online for each school and the percentage of merit aid, as well as the stats for their admitted freshman. You need to be realistic and apply to places where you have a good shot at merit aid. My son applied to a school in Chicago and received a half tuition scholarship with his acceptance letter. The cost would now be about $23k a year. It all depends on your grades, the competitiveness of the schools and what they offer. Good luck!!
Check out this list: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/07/08/education/edlife/8edlife_chart.html
If you google merit aid scholarships and variations thereon, other similar lists come up. Review them and see if any of those school grab your attention. Then go to the Common Data Set for that school (again, google it) and look at the stats in section C for admitted students - you will need to be in the top quartile generally speaking if you want a reasonably good chance of getting the merit money you need.
First, run the Net Price Calculator for the colleges you are interested in to see if your family qualifies for any financial aid. If you do not, and only merit aid is on the table, go to collegedata.com and search by college to start getting a better idea of what is possible.
I looked up BU for you. Per collegedata, they offer merit for 7.2% of freshman who had no financial need. The average amount was $17,409. Overall cost of attendance: $65,906. Next look at the average scores for admitted freshman, you should be be WELL ABOVE the average to be in the running for merit aid. (3.6 GPA, 672 M, 624 CR, 648 W, 59% were in the top 10% for school rank).
Also, if your parents aren’t ready/willing to go over all their financial information needed for the NPC, you can go to https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ to get an average net price by income ranges to give you a ballpark of what to expect.
Good luck & aloha.