<p>* There’s a possibility that I would be borrowing $150k, if not more. Maybe this is inexperience and naivety speaking, but I don’t mind if I have to pay debts off after I graduate - so long as it is a fairly regular and manageable payment every month*</p>
<p>You have to realistic…you will NOT have a “manageable payment” if you borrow large sums. </p>
<p>And, to borrow more than the federal student loan amounts, you would need your parents to qualify and co-sign…which it’s not likely that they will do.</p>
<p>With your current stats, you have some options, but they’re not unlimited. A school like NYU would be unaffordable…totally.</p>
<p>Find some schools that give good aid/merit and where your ACT 29 is high for the school.</p>
<p>forget about big debt…it will ruin your young adult life.</p>
<p>If you can get massive amounts of loans (doubtful without a cosigner) then I would urge you to do so. You will find that no matter how much you spend, as long as you are persuing a career through your education and not just getting some general degree with no career track, then you will easily come out ahead.</p>
<p>OP,
"Is it going to be a really stupid decision to take out that many loans, so I can go to a school that I love? "</p>
<p>-I would not use such strong expression, but since you have ask, I say YES. There is no reason to pay for UG, choose school that gives you full tuition/full ride or close to it in Merit scholarship. Many do. My D. did and we appreciated it so much that we are paying for her Med. School now. $50k family income is too low to be able to contribute to college tuition. Why choose what you cannot afford? Your future success will depend on what you do at college, not the name of it.<br>
For reference and comparison purpose, my D. has graduted #1 from her private prep. HS. She had met very many valedictorians from private HS’s at her state public college. She had great academic challenges there and awesome opportunites well beyond her expectations. She still misses her UG, visited it several times, it will stay in her heart for the rest of her life. It also helped her to get accepted at several great Med. Schools. She is with great number of Ivy’s graduates at her Med. School, so D’s end result is the same. Do not underestimate other schools, you do not need to go to place that you cannot afford, but it is your decision at the end.</p>
<p>BTW, I did not see ACT=29 before. So, why to apply to all these schools with 29? My advice in post #24 might not be valid as it might not be possible to obtain Merit scholarship with 29. I have assumed that your stats are tops based on list of your schools. Now I am totally confused. Is there a hook that you did not mention?</p>
<p>I think those were her “reach” admission schools. For a smart young woman with a very low Expected Family Contribution, the Women’s Colleges can be a really great deal. I hope the OP considers applying to get help from Questbridge, too.</p>
<p>I strongly urge you to think twice before maxing out loans to go to a name school. There are hundreds of stories out there of students who did just that, then couldn’t get a job after graduation (I assume you’ve noticed the high unemployment rate) or couldn’t get a job that paid enough for them to cover the loans with sufficient money left over for living expenses. I know recent grads who are living at home with 2 PT jobs because they can’t get a single FT job; kids who turned down a “dream job” because the salary was too low to cover their loan payments, etc. This is happening to students with degrees from top schools as well as the less prestigious schools. The economy is extremely unstable and may not pull out of this slump for years. If you can’t get sufficient financial aid that is not completely loan based, I urge you to consider community or state options, at least for the first year or 2. What matters is where you finish, not where you start. We have had kids from our local community college transfer to ivy league schools. It can be done.</p>
<p>I would agree that taking out significant college loans is a mistake. No one is saying don’t apply to your reaches, but also look for matches and safeties (both stat wise and financially). The bigger your list the more choices you will have come April. My D got a wide range of merit money and even financial aid from the colleges on her list. You don’t want to limit your choices up front and then find out you can’t go to a 4 year college because none gave you enough $. If you find colleges where you are in the tippy top, or top 25%, with your stats, you will maximize your financial package at a fair number of schools.</p>
<p>“Basically, does anyone have any advice on how a poorly-endowed student can afford school, without the parents’ help? Is it even possible to manage, or should I lower my sights and just be happy to attend a “lesser” school and graduate debt-free? I don’t know whether I’m giving up too easily or doing the right thing.”</p>
<p>1) Do the Questbridge paperwork this weekend. For help with that, visit the Questbridge sub-forum inside the Financial Aid Forum.</p>
<p>then</p>
<p>2) Pop by your local public library and pick up a copy of “Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, Or Mooching Off My Parents” by Zac Bissonnette</p>
<p>then</p>
<p>3) Spend some time scrolling down through the Financial Aid Forum, and read up on the process. There are a number of threads on merit-based aid that may help you find a good match for your ACT score and your GPA.</p>
<p>[qote]My family makes roughly $50k a year - but this isn’t how it has always been and certainly not likely to stay this way for very long, either, as my dad is in sales and a lot of his paycheck comes from commission and can be really unpredictable.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Your financial aid from a college will go down as your father’s salary goes up. You’ll have to factor that in as you plan.</p>
<p>“”@StillGreen and @college-query - I’ll definitely give Questbridge a more in-depth look. I’m curious to know what the stats are as far as acceptance rates through using the program. So far it sounds like it might be a good opportunity, though! Thank you for the suggestion.“”</p>
<p>If you were to go for Questbridge, you had better be quick, because 2 letters of recommendation and 1 report from the school counselor, are required as part of the application package due in only 7 days, on September 30. Here are the stats.</p>
<p>Of the 310 National College Match award recipients:
77% were among the first generation in their family to attend college.
22% were 1st in their class.
80% were in the top 5% of their class.
SAT Score (CR + M)
9% scored above 1500.
29% scored above 1400.
61% scored above 1300.
89% scored above 1200.
Income
33% had family income less than $20,000.
79% had family income less than $40,000.
97% had family income less than $60,000. </p>
<p>ACT= 29 is approximately equivalent to SAT= 1,300 (CR+ M). If your class rank is within the top 5 %, then your stats including ACT and family income, are all within range. But of course, a higher ACT on a retest would only raise your chance. And you may still apply with Questbridge through regular decision, even if no college were initially matched for a scholarship, whereas financial aid is no longer guaranteed through regular decision. Also please be aware that the initial match for a college if successful, is binding, except for MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale.</p>
<p>National College Match Statistics
For the years 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
Number of applicants 6647 5830 4889 3715 3345 2200
Number of finalists 2748 2506 2470 1794 1594 913
Number of finalists offered admission and College Match scholarships 310 268 260 204 103 46
Number of finalists offered admission and financial aid through Regular Decision 1240 1040 820 730 575 310
Total number of finalists with the above offers 1550 1310 1080 930 680 350 </p>
<p>So about 43-56 % of the finalists between 2006 and 2010, were offered admission with either a full scholarship or some financial aid. Likely because of your ACT, please be realistic in ranking your choice of upto 8 colleges for Questbridge. Good luck and be pro-active.</p>
<p>^ACT=29 is low for Merit scholarships even at in-state public college, unless there is some status/aspects that we do not know. Also, schools listed in post #1 are not “reach” for ACT=29, they are beyond horizon, again, unless there is a hook. These schools are “reach” for ACT=33+/GPA=4.0.
From what I see, OP needs to be more realistic about possible acceptance in addition to what is affordable.</p>
<p>there is a lot of financial aid out there, but your parents will have to fill out the FAFSA forms. </p>
<p>You could do a hitch in the armed forces - once you are out the G.I. Bill is fairly generous these days. You can get four years of full tuition at a state school or apply an equal amount to a private school.</p>
<p>“”^ACT=29 is low for Merit scholarships even at in-state public college, unless there is some status/aspects that we do not know.“”</p>
<p>Questbridge is only available for applicants with lower family income. The selection process isn’t entirely merit-based. The average ACT is 30 for finalists and even as low as 26 for those matched with a full scholarship. Besides, the OP has indicated retesting ACT.</p>
<p>I think I might have confused some people with my “potential” college list in my OP, and my ACT score of 29. I primarily listed those schools in particular because, aside from the fact that they are interests of mine, they showed kind of what I had in mind. This definitely doesn’t mean that they are the only schools I’m applying to - or even applying to at all, really. It would be unlikely that I would end up in any of them where I stand currently. So they certainly are not where my sights are focused; I’m still building a list of schools that are better fits, in terms of finances and acceptance rates/stats. I thought I would use a more extreme example, just so I would have advice in case that’s what I ended up considering.</p>
<p>However, I am going to be retesting for the ACT in a month and IF I can get my score 3-4 points higher at least, I might consider applying to a few of the universities I listed. I have good subscores in English (35) and Reading (33), so I think I will end up with an okay score if I can really improve on math, which is probably a big contributor to the 29. Anyway, it will really depend on what score I end up with after the retest to see what schools I apply to (and, of course, financial aid).</p>
<p>About those suggesting Questbridge: do you know if you can apply to the program as a homeschooler? I’m homeschooled (so that probably weakens my college admission chances even more) and I don’t have an official class rank, etc. so I don’t know how that would work. I’ll go look around on the site, though, and see if I can find some answers.</p>
<p>The stats for successful Questbridge finalists is higher than you might think – it’s not a secret back door to the Ivies. My son applied via Questbridge and was accepted at 4 top-20 schools (Brown, Amherst, Williams and Northwestern), but he also had a 36 ACT and a 1/400 class rank. </p>
<p>Questbridge applicants with lower than median stats but special situations are often picked first during the initial rounds – a strong preference is given to low-income URMs (black, Hispanic and Native American) and also to those students who are the first in their families to go to college. Questbridge applicants who don’t meet either of those criteria really need to have stats competitive with the particular school’s mid-range of applicants.</p>
<p>One of QB’s greatest advantages is the opportunity you get, through their longer multiple essays, to fully describe your own unique situation, especially as it regards having overcome obstacles in your life.</p>
<p>““The stats for successful Questbridge finalists is higher than you might think – it’s not a secret back door to the Ivies. My son applied via Questbridge and was accepted at 4 top-20 schools (Brown, Amherst, Williams and Northwestern), but he also had a 36 ACT and a 1/400 class rank.””</p>
<p>And among the Questbridge partner colleges, there is also Trinity (ACT= 25-29). If the OP were to raise the ACT in a retest, then also Oberlin (ACT= 28-32), Scripps (ACT= 28-32, all-women school), Wellesley (ACT= 28-31, all-women school)… Of course, the higher the numbers the more choices, only need to be realistic.</p>
<p>The website says they do accept homeschoolers, which is a plus, but I have to wonder looking at their criteria now if it would be worth trying. Last year we made $48k and I have a family of 6, and it’s not looking much different this year, so it looks like I fit the low-income category just fine – but otherwise I’m not a URM, not the first to go to college, and my ACT will be on the weak side if I can’t raise it substantially. Not to mention that for some of the schools I have to have SAT II’s by October, but I won’t be taking them until Nov/Dec. </p>
<p>Ah! I guess I’d better make a decision by today, though, since I have going on less than a week. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>There’s no downside to applying – you can always apply outside of Questbridge during regular decision if you like. As a homeschooled student, you may find the extra essay questions to your benefit, to better describe your special situation. My son was a 3-year high school graduate, a different special situation.</p>
<p>
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<p>My son did not apply to any binding schools during the initial match round – we wanted to keep our options open. Your odds of getting accepted to a mid-tier elite QB college during the binding match round is far better than getting into Yale or Princeton (where acceptance is non-binding).</p>