<p>I think we need to hear more from the OP to offer more advice. We need clarification about her scores - whether the 1430 is for 3 sections or for 2 ( I thought it was for 3 sections based on her GPA).</p>
<p>So.,,,</p>
<p>SAT 1430 M+CR?? or M+CR+W??</p>
<p>Major: ??</p>
<p>How much money can family provide each year???</p>
<p>Once she's graduated from college, will she likely be earning enough to easily repay any student loans?</p>
<p>Do you live close enough to a state univ that she could commute? </p>
<p>If that is possible, but not that desirable, could she at least do that for 2 years, and then transfer to a more "desired choice" ? (This option would reduce costs during the first 2 years while your husband's job becomes more stable, and you might have time to better prepare for years 3 and 4)</p>
<p>Edinboro has a good performing arts department and many of its students are majoring in some sort of visual & performing arts.</p>
<p>For the PA state system schools - the tuition is the same at $2679/semester this year. The University Fees and of course Housing costs may vary.</p>
<p>Another possibility is attend a community college for two years and then transfer to a state U. Northampton CC is a great CC with many articulation agreements.</p>
<p>Please help me understand how the offers of financial aid packages work. From what I know you can only place your top three choices on FAFSA, correct? So how do my daughter and I apply to countless school and have numerous financial aid offers come in? I thought it was based off of what we put on FAFSA, that we were offered the financial aid from a school?</p>
<p>Also thank you to everyone for all the responses while my daughter and I were gone at Kings college yesterday. All this information is wonderful. Sometimes I feel so dumb not knowing as much as everyone else but I guess I have to start somewhere.</p>
<p>Kings was king of a let down. They offered her 7,500 up front. They told her if her SAT's went up 50 more points they could give her 500.00 more. Which is not a whole heck of a lot when you are talking almost 40,0000 a year to attend there. He did mention that a community college is a great way to start out and then transfer over to kings. He said he would make sure that all her credits were 100% transferable. He did say to hold out until we did FAFSA and see what happens. ALso as I mentioned above, we can see what her newest SATs are, but 500.00 is not much.
Honestly I just don't know how famillies afford this???
Can you tell me what your average monthly payment are for college. I know each family differs based on where a child goes to school. I just don't know what we really can squeeze out of our pockets and I know they do not consider our debt.
well I am sure this is more then enough questions in one post. I just have been told by past poster to try and put all my questions into one post.
Again thank for helping us out.</p>
<p>Good morning ~ I want to answer your questions as soon as possible to that I can have my daughter start applying to whatever other schools would best fit her.
First the 1430 was an OVERALL score. Hopefully this Saturday we will have her NEW SAT scores in from this Octobers tests. She felt she did much better??? As I mentioned in a post to JUSTAMOMOF4 Kings college told me yesterday that with an increase of 50 points they would give her an additional 500.00. Even though an additional 500.00 seems as if it will make no difference when tuition is almost 40,000 ( they gave her 7,500). Her major will be Psychology. She would like to become a school counselor. As to how much we can provide? We are very much in bebt! We would need to finance her education, if we were approved. I gave everything to my kids when life was good and now everything was cut back and the money is just not there as much to pay all the bills.</p>
<p>Also we live 15 minutes away from Penn State Schuylkill Campus. But my daughter has it in her head to go away. She does not want to go to Penn State. Its funny though how many of her classmates are talking about their parents and them telling them to go there.Its simply because it would be so cost effective. I understand her wanting to experience the whole college thing and being away but she may need to do what we can financially afford at first. I will do everything in my power to help her, but there is not much time left.</p>
<p>Ok...
Thanks for providing the answers. BTW... SAT scores will be available online on Thursday.</p>
<p>Facts:<br>
Daughter
GPA: about 2.8
Current SAT for 3 sections: 1430 (waiting Oct results)
Major interests: Psychology and Poly Sci
Family in a bit of financial crisis so won't be able to pay much
Lives in Northeast PA.... close to the Penn State Schuylkill Campus (but d wants to go away to school)</p>
<p>(It helps to have the facts in a list.)</p>
<p>As mentioned about... you need to come up with a list of about 6 - 8 colleges to apply to - including 1-2 reaches, 1-2 matches, 1-2 safeties and 3 FINANCIAL safeties ( you don't want to wait until spring and then find out that you can't afford anything that she's been accepted to.) If spring comes and all you can afford are the financial safeties then at least she'll have 3 to pick from (so she won't feel like she wasn't given any choices.)</p>
<p>Be VERY frank with your d about your financial situation. It sounds like not only are you concerned about paying for college, but also covering the family's living expenses. Make it clear that taking out a BUNCH of high loans for undergrad are not a great idea, since she has grad school ahead of her to pay for, too.</p>
<p>I still think a state school is her best bet. I have to run now, but will do more research.</p>
<p>
[quote]
From what I know you can only place your top three choices on FAFSA, correct?
[/quote]
Nope. You can put all the schools she applies to. You can even add schools later on.</p>
<p>
[/quote]
Her major will be Psychology. She would like to become a school counselor.
[/quote]
I recommend she go to a school in the Penn State system of Higher ed. Kutztown, Millersville, Bloomsburg, Shippensburg, Lock Haven etc. Have her apply to several of these and visit. She needs PA certification to be a school counselor and generally the state U's are the best bang for your buck. As far as private goes - she also should consider Albright.
If she wants to go to a Catholic college then consider Alvernia as well.
I sent you a pm.....</p>
<p>Thank you for the fast response, I will be going over this with my husband and my daughter. Can you do one more thing for me when you post again. Can you define Reaches and matches for me. I would say obviously the safeties are where she can make it into the college and the financial safe schools would be where we would feel secure in meeting the cost.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>From what I know you can only place your top three choices on FAFSA, correct?>></p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>You can list up to TEN schools at one time on the FAFSA. If your child applies to more than ten, they can add more schools by waiting until the first batch are processed...then going into the FAFSA website, deleting schools and adding others.</p>
<p>1430 on all three of the SAT subtests is not going to be enough to give significant merit aid at most places...in my opinion. That is an average of less than 500 on each section. That coupled with a GPA that is below 3.0 (which is a B) would probably not place a student in the running for significant merit aid at most places. However, that is not to say she won't get merit aid...(Kings gave her some)...but probably not a "free ride" or "full tuition". That is my opinion, however. </p>
<p>I have to say, however, if she started out at a community college and did really well, she could qualify for money as a transfer student at some schools. And it would cut down the cost of the initial two years, and could possibly put her in the running for aid for the last two. It's worth thinking about.</p>
<p>I'm not familiar with schools in PA at all...so I don't really know if this 1430 on all three sections of the SAT is on the low end...it just seems it is for a significant amount of merit aid. I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Reaches - colleges that are highly selective and/or ones that are more likely to accept students with higher stats than what you have. At highly selective colleges, you may have the high stats and still not get accepted (The Ivies, for example)</p>
<p>Matches - colleges that you are likely to get accepted to because your stats match students that they likely accept. You meet or exceed the "mid 50% range" of accepted students and the school is not highly selective.</p>
<p>Safeties - colleges that you are almost certain to get accepted to because you meet the criteria of automatic acceptance and/or you exceed the criteria of students that the school typically accepts.</p>
<p>Financial safety. A safety that you can also rather easily afford. (you don't have to rely on some generous F/A package to arrive in the spring.)</p>
<p>And the really important criteria is that the safety is one that your daughter would absolutely be happy attending, and that you can afford. Both of my kids safety was Millersville- neither of them ended up there but many kids from their HS did and had a great 4 or 5 years.</p>
<p>For that reason, I recommend that a student apply to 2-3 financial safeties (that the student does like and can be "open-minded" about.). That way, if none of the F/A packages from the matches and reaches are adequate, the student still has can make a choice from the 3 financial safeties (and won't feel like he's been left with no choices to make at all.)</p>
<p>I can imagine that there would be a lot of frustration in a home where none of the F/A packages were adequate and the student is only left with one financial safety acceptance. The student is likely going to feel "railroaded" into going to that ONE school. At least if there are 2 or 3 choices, he'll feel some sense of control.</p>
<p>I have a niece at East Stroudsburg. It was not her first choice, but a good financial decision. She is very happy there and education is their top major. My nephew may start at Northampton CC.</p>
<p>After her first year, your D can look into becoming an RA to ease the R&B charges. Good luck.</p>
<p>My nephew attended Edinboro University and LOVED it. It was also a financial safety along with California U. </p>
<p>I attended IUP 35 years ago as my financial safety and had a WONDERFUL experience there. I also received a full fellowship for my masters there at the end of my senior year.</p>
<p>Have you and your d visited East Stroudsburg, Edinborough, and/or Bloomsburg? If not, you really should do this ASAP. Frequently, a child's opinion of a school can radically change AFTER a good campus visit. It doesn't matter if you've been on the campus several years earlier, campuses change their appearances FREQUENTLY. And, many have done cartwheels in recent years trying to make their campuses as appealing as possible.</p>
<p>Try to visit campuses when school is in session. Nearly all campuses look dead when school is closed unless a big game is going on or something. Friday's are not usually good days to do a campus visit. If you can, you can arrange for the student to "sit in" a class of his desired major or other interest (My son sat in on an "Arts and Parody" honors class (not his interest), but he loved the class so much that he's now taking it to fulfill his "Fine Arts" requirement for Gen Ed.)</p>
<p>I have a little trick that I advise parents to use to help a school make a good "first impression" on their child. I call the admissions office and ask which is the best looking entry to the school ( believe me, a school will often have one or two "very pretty" entries and a couple of just plain entries.) So if the prettiest "entry" is on the north side of campus, enter THAT way - even if it's a bit out of your way. (Sometimes you can figure out which is the "prettiest entry" by visiting the website and looking at the campus map if there are accompanying pictures and such (interactive maps are very helpful with this.).) Make sure that your child is awake and looking around when you approach the campus. Slow down a bit and take in all the prettiness.</p>
<p>Also, find out where the local "off campus" hang outs are (sometimes called "the strip") and plan to visit the area either before the campus tour (for breakfast) or when you are leaving the campus (for dinner or late afternoon snack). Try to eat lunch on campus at one of best eating venues on campus (but try to pick a less busy time to eat lunch (not at noon!)</p>
<p>Also, before you visit a campus, find out if the dorms are included on the tour. If not, call the housing office to arrange a visit - often they have a "model dorm" available for you to visit. Make sure that you get to, at least, stroll thru some of the nicer dorms (if that is where your child will likely want to reside.)</p>
<p>If your child qualifies for the school's honors program, make an appt to visit that office (not usually automatically included in campus tours.) Find out all of the benefits to being in an honors program - usually the preferred registration status is a huge deal for most kids because it helps them to get the classes that they want at the times that they want.</p>
<p>I agree about visiting schools that she might not be considering (or even think highly of right now). S2's stats were similiar to the OP's so flagship state u's were not even a consideration nor were privates an option (didn't qualify for aid, didn't want loans). That left him with four state u's he would prob. get in. He had a clear first choice among them.</p>
<p>He made a few disparaging remarks about the sch. (prob. because most from his h.s go to the flagship u. or one of the more popular state u's) even after he got accepted and knew it was prob. where he would attend. I believe he thought no one else would think it was a good sch. so was trying to act cool about it. We planned a visit and he willingly went along but was not overly excited. </p>
<p>The visit changed everything. We had a great tour guide who obviously loved the sch. All the kids in the tour group and the students on campus looked like his "kind of people" (basically your "regular guy"). Lots of kids walking around with sch. t-shirts and sweatshirts looking happy to be there. The school just made an overall good impression. He came away much more excited about going there.
In the car on the way home he said "ABC Univ. is awesome, I don't know why more from our town don't go there." </p>
<p>Later, he found out that about 8 or 10 other kids from his h.s were also going there and was esp. happy when one of his good friends decided to go also. He got school hoodie, t-shirt and cap for Christmas and wore them proudly all spring semester. </p>
<p>He is now a happy freshman and told me after a recent weekend visit to flagship state u. that he didn't even like it and that his sch. was so much nicer! </p>
<p>So OP, please go visit some of the other state schools that have been recommended to you. Your D might really like one that she was not initiially thrilled about. It happened here.</p>
<p>Your story is very heartwarming. So happy to hear how it all worked out for your son. Isn't it sad that there can be so much "peer pressure" in high school that students might not consider various "good schools" simply because some don't consider those schools to be on the "cool list."</p>
<p>Now that your son and about 10 others are going there, don't be surprised that in future years, more kids from their h.s. go there, too. The "good word" about the school will spread around. :)</p>
<p>Thanks JL, So far, so good. S2 seems happy. I asked him recently how I should reply when people ask me how he's doing at sch. He said "Tell them it's great. They should all send their kids here".</p>
<p>Yes, the high sch. version of "cool schools" is very annoying, even moreso when their parents totally buy into it too and feel free to make disparaging remarks about schools they really know very little about. </p>
<p>You are right about word spreading. Some friends from here visted for the weekend and a football game and are now very interested in applying for next year.</p>
<p>It's really easy to get caught up in the whole cool school thing...that's our job as parents.....not to let them!!!</p>
<p>We have always been about, "a man makes the school, not a school makes a man," philosophy. You have to do what is best for you. I have always told my kids that they could be happy at 100 schools in this country. So, if you don't get into your first choice, there will always be another one in which you could be happy, so let's go and find em!</p>
<p>I think some parents get too "hung up" on "certain schools." Either because these parents are living "vicariously" thru their kids (wanting their kids to go to the schools that the parents always wanted to go to) or the parents went to these "dream schools" and EXPECT their children to go, too, even though admissions have gotten tougher and prices have exploded. (When my husband applied to Harvard (and was accepted) in the 70s, the competition was NOTHING like it is today.)</p>