Need Advice

Paying for College
1

<p>I really, really need some advice on what to do. I made poor choices in where I applied, did not consider what types of aid the schools offered, or average aid packages etc. I unwittingly applied to schools without merit aid and my family does not qualify for much need based. I can't afford anywhere I have been accepted for this fall. The most generous package would still leave me about 105,000 in debt in the end. </p>

<p>I've been looking for outside scholarships I could compete for this entire time, but I can't find many I qualify for. I am a U.S. Citizen, but I won a scholarship to live in Swaziland for the past two years. I moved back to the U.S in november when I graduated highschool. My problem is not being currently enrolled in a highschool or not having graduated from the U.S. I found a couple I still qualify for that I have applied to/ will apply for, etc. (if anyone knows of anything I might be able to apply for, please let me know)</p>

<p>My parents have told me that it is my education and that they are done with it, so I am getting no advice from them. </p>

<p>What do you feel would be the best option for me to pursue? Do I not accept any offers, work for a year and apply next fall? Does this affect my chances to win merit aid when I apply next year? Do I accept the cheapest one, go into massive debt and just work it out later? Do I accept the cheapest one, and go into a more lucrative field than what I was planning on so that I might stand a chance, and go back to school later? I am looking at rolling admissions schools, but is it worth my time to apply to them now? There won't be space or money left, or is there still a chance? Also, if I wait for their decisions it will be too late to accept my place at the schools I've been accepted to. </p>

<p>I've been spending hours every day reading and googling and researching since I came to this conclusion and I just can't figure out what I should be looking at, or doing, and I feel shut out by my parents and like I have no one to discuss this with at all.</p>

<p>I'm not expecting definitive answers, but I really could use some other people's opinions or advice on what it is I should do.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>What state are your parents a resident of? What are that state’s requirements for in-state tuition? What kind of SAT/ACT scores do you have? How’s your GPA? Did you take any AP exams? Did your school in Swaziland give any internationally recognized exams?</p>

<p>You may well need to take a gap year here and use the next couple of months to figure out practical options.</p>

3

<p>I would apply to rolling schools that may be affordable but plan to take a gap year. There are plenty of people here that have helped students like yourself (some have no parents at all!). Ask for advice and start researching schools that may give you merit aid…I’m assuming you have SAT/ACT scores and a transcript of some type. If you’ll post them here, you’re likely to get some suggestions of school to look at. If your scores are competitive, it would be in your best interest not to enroll in any school you can’t afford as the large merit awards go to first-time freshmen. Do NOT go into debt to that level for any undergrad degree! Btw, it’s probably not even possible for you to get that level of loans.</p>

<p>Btw, do you know what your FAFSA EFC was?</p>

4

<p>Is community college totally out of the question?</p>

5

<p>What are your stats (include SAT breakdown)? What state are you a resident of?</p>

<p>There are some schools that will still give merit depending on stats.</p>

<p>What is your likely major?</p>

<p>A gap year may hurt scholarship chances…</p>

6

<p>Really, M2CK? I thought a gap year was fairly common and wouldn’t affect institutional scholarships! It seems like most schools just stipulate that they not earn credits elsewhere…or is there a catch to that? I’ve only known two kids who went this route (they only worked and travelled during the gap year) so I defer to your vastly superior knowledge of the merit aid arena!</p>

7

<p>Most schools will award aid to students who are applying as freshmen even IF they take a gap year. I don’t know of any school that does not offer aid to incoming freshmen regardless of whether they are directly out of high school…or not. If someone has information regarding this…please post it here.</p>

<p>There ARE schools that do not offer the same financial aid to students who are transfer students or who transfer from a community college.</p>

8

<p>Really, M2CK? I thought a gap year was fairly common and wouldn’t affect institutional scholarships! It seems like most schools just stipulate that they not earn credits elsewhere…or is there a catch to that?</p>

<p>My kids’ school only awards to seniors and Swimcats’ D’s school also does.</p>

<p>Here’s the info from my kids’ school…</p>

<p>How can I be considered for scholarships?</p>

<p>*As an entering freshman (applying for the Fall semester following your senior year of high school), you will need to send a completed application for admission, official high school transcript (grades 9-11), official ACT or SAT scores, application fee, and **the completed scholarship section of the application for admission by December 1 of your senior year in high school. ***</p>

<p>Some schools have this limitation, but they put it in the “fine print”.</p>

9

<p>Oh, I see! The others do say “first time freshman”, with no regard to how long it’s been since graduation…and I know one lady who had graduated at least 15 years prior (and did remarkably well on the SAT’s)! It does pay to read those eligibility guidelines carefully!</p>

10

<p>ruueerian -</p>

<p>What were you doing, and where were you studying in Swaziland? Does the organization that sponsored you have any sort of alumni network that can give you a hand with college applications in the US? Where do the other students who did what you did choose to do on return to the US?</p>

<p>If you go the community college route, find out which courses you can place out of and/or get credit for with CLEP exams. [About</a> the College Level Examination Program (CLEP)](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Earn College Credit with CLEP – CLEP | College Board)</p>

11

<p>Thanks so much everyone! I didn’t think I would get so many people willing to listen.</p>

<p>I’ll post up some rough stats quickly</p>

<p>ACT-35
SAT-- I don’t remember exactly, I can go find the reports though I have them somewhere. I only took reasoning, all of the sections were above 700. I was a National Merit Semifinalist.</p>

<p>I took AP classes before going to Swaziland— US History, Calc BC, Physics, Spanish, All 5’s. I took half a year of Language and comp, Stats, Chemistry, before I moved away. That was all the AP classes offered at my highschool.</p>

<p>GPA was around 3.9 unweighted, I was 5/481 in my class.</p>

<p>In Swaziland I earned the International Baccalaureate diploma, with 42 points, taking four HL classes. We didn’t have class ranks/GPA</p>

<p>My extracurriculars are not as strong. While I do not have many leadership positions (stage manager, once), I have consistent involvement in various groups, especially arts related–drama, music, creative writing, but I won’t list them all out and bore you. :stuck_out_tongue: The most important and extensive thing I was involved in was as one of the core group for a school chapter of a community service that supported orphaned and vulnerable children at a rural school in Swaziland. </p>

<p>There was one other girl at my school from the US, she is going to a state school in Washington. She made sure she had a financial safety, unlike me! </p>

<p>I am relieved to hear that it does not seem to matter too much in earning scholarships if I take a gap year. That was what was scaring me, the thought that I couldn’t afford it now, and that I could end up taking a year off just to not be able to afford it later! </p>

<p>My concern with starting community college was that if I did that, there seems to be less available for transfer students? Do you guys recommend I take the gap year and work and volunteer, and apply as a first time degree seeker in the fall? Or enroll in community college and apply as a transfer? </p>

<p>Other questions, lets see-- My EFC was around 50,000, which is more than half my family’s income before taxes. And we do not have any savings really, no equity in the house. My parent’s do not even have a retirement fund anymore. :frowning: They have admitted to me that they have been very unwise with their earnings. I cannot even complain about it, because my family is really better off than many others. I feel guilty about it too, because even though I had a full scholarship we still payed the plane tickets to Swaziland, and I did not realize how much of a strain that was for them until now. </p>

<p>And… we are residents of Illinois! I think that was everyone’s questions, I’m sorry for this being so long! </p>

<p>I feel encouraged just reading this though, and will keep looking at all of the rolling/late deadline schools!</p>

12

<p>Make appointments with the admissions office and the transfer office at the community college closest to you. Talk with them about the articulation agreements that they maintain with 4-year colleges and universities. You may be able to complete your A.A. for very little money, and then be guaranteed a transfer into your major at one of the public universities in your state, or into a private college/university. Don’t forget to ask about their experience with finding merit-based scholarships for their transfer-out students.</p>

<p>You also need to run the FAFSA and CSS profile calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board) using several different scenarios for your parents’ money. For an EFC of 50k, there is a significant amount of money that exists on paper at least! A pre-tax earned income of 90k without any other investments outside of retirement accounts should not result in an EFC of 50k. Our family earned income is in that range, and our EFC is about 20k.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

13

<p>Something is not right if this is a FAFSA EFC…happymom is right, you need to look very carefully at the instructions and compare it to the data your parent’s entered. If they want to do a fairly quick calculation by hand, there are worksheets/tables in this link (they only need the ones marked for dependent students and the A tables):</p>

<p><a href=“https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf[/url]”>https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If/when they find the error(s), submit changes and notify your schools by email. They may or may not be able to offer you additional aid for next year. Were they FAFSA only or Profile schools?</p>

<p>Which schools did you apply to and what are you looking for in terms of major, location, size, etc? There are threads here that can help you to target schools with very good merit aid…one is stickied at the top of this forum. Use the search function to look for “full ride”, “full tuition scholarship”, etc. and check out the list of schools that meet 100% of need (assuming your EFC is actually lower) on the Project on Student Debt website. </p>

<p><a href=“http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php[/url]”>http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

14

<p>ruueerian – Am I correct in guessing that you graduated from the United World College in Swaziland? My oldest graduated from UWC Atlantic last May. </p>

<p>It sounds like you didn’t get very good college counseling advice. </p>

<p>You have gotten some very good advice – start by reexamining the FAFSA and CSS Profile, your EFC does not sound correct for the family situation you describe. you also need to sit down with your parents one more time and see exactly what they can help you with – will they contribute some room and board money? spending money? anything?</p>

<p>Contact your schools and appeal the FA decision – are any of these schools a Davis Scholar school? If so, they have a vested interest in enrolling you since they are given grant money for each UWC graduate that enrolls. </p>

<p>Did the schools give you lots of loans and gap you in your package – or is your high EFC the reason behind your projected high debt? It makes a difference in the advice that you are given.</p>

<p>Hopefully this will all work out for you!</p>

15

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>With your stats, if you apply quickly, you can get free tuition, housing, meals, books at UA- Huntsville. [UAHuntsville</a> | The University of Alabama in Huntsville](<a href=“http://www.uah.edu/]UAHuntsville”>http://www.uah.edu/)</p>

<p>I don’t know what your major is, but it is VERY strong in engineering, sciences, pre-health, and business. The school resides within Cummings Research Park, which is the second largest research park in the United states. Therefore, many kids get internships, and co-ops, and great jobs after graduation. The city is very nice. I live about 10 minutes from this school, so I pass it all the time. Lots of new buildings, very nice and new dorms, lots of money spend on this school.</p>

<p>At a minimum, you could go for a couple of years, and then transfer elsewhere.</p>

<p>Here’s the scholarship info <a href=“http://finaid.uah.edu/1011scholarshipgrid.pdf[/url]”>http://finaid.uah.edu/1011scholarshipgrid.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You would need to fill out a school app and a scholarship app. Don’t worry about “priority deadline” dates. They have extended the deadlines.</p>

<p>You need to do this as a good back up in case your other things don’t work out. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

16

<p>Yes! I did graduate from the UWC there! And no, the college counseling advice was not very good. But I am just mad at myself for not realizing that it was bad advice, and doing a little more research on my own. (We were told explicitly to avoid applying to state schools, and that money should not be a huge factor in decision making, BECAUSE of the Davis fund. I see how little this makes sense, now. ) A little forsight and a couple extra hours of reading could have saved me from making these mistakes in the first place. In fact, my dream school now would be Indiana University, one which I had been told not to waste my time on before! They have rolling admissions, but lots of deadlines for different types of aid. I applied anyway, in a bout of optimism. </p>

<p>Mostly, the schools offered me only the Davis money and nothing else. (I don’t even know where to go to take out such large loans for what is left over!) Some schools did not even give me that 10,000. (I’ve been told since graduation that Davis money is a ‘last resort’ for schools in the financial aid package? I am very frustrated by this UWC scholarship, it is not very transparent, at least at Waterford. Throughout the two-years we were led to believe that you just kind of got the money, irregardless of the fact that it is supposedly need-based. It wasn’t until I started getting aid packages that I found out the decision is up to each school individually. Many of my coyears had the same problem.) My co-year from Seattle had lots of the same problems as me, and is really disappointed right now with where she is going. On the other hand, some of my international friends, some of whom I know first hand have more resources than my family, are coming to the US in the fall on full or near full rides. :confused: I do not know how to play this game!!! </p>

<p>The worst part though now is that my parents talk all the time about how UWC was a waste of time and money. That is the furthest thing from the truth for me, I can’t imagine not going. I didn’t realize that the whole reason they let me go was for the promise of the scholarships on the other end. </p>

<p>The EFC is the reason for the debt. There are either no loans in the aid package, or a 5,000 dollar government backed loan. I am accepted to Pomona, Reed, Vassar, and Earlham. Reed and Vassar the remaining contribution after the Davis money is 40,000. Earlham and Pomona did not award me the Davis money. </p>

<p>My major is very wishy washy, I have a huge interest in linguistics and foreign languages, cognitive science as well, but I wonder how realistic it is for me to pursue those at an undergraduate level, when I would need a higher degree to compete for good jobs in those fields later. But I am working on a lot of assumptions there, so I should learn more before deciding on something.</p>

<p>Thanks so much everyone, I am looking at all of those links and will look at the FAFSA again. And I am applying to UAH just now! I’ve spoken to the offices at my community college, they seemed to think I was crazy when I asked about the merit aid available to students who transfer out. They gave me a packet about aid available to students while attending the school, instead. 3 of my friends who went to this school and have graduated now have gotten stuck, and are in a panic themselves in that they cannot afford the schools they applied to transfer to and there was very little help from the community college itself. </p>

<p>My parents had originally said they would help with appealing the financial aid decision, but yesterday they told me they had decided it was not worth the time. So, that is on my list of things to gather information on today, since I will be doing that myself. I feel like I am running one lap behind everyone else and the timer is counting down to 0, and I have to be sure not to run into all of the large, pointy objects that are in the track! </p>

<p>Oh, if I were to need to wait a year in the end, what do you think is the best thing for me to do? Just work? Transfer? Should I apply for January term somewhere?</p>

17

<p>There are a number of threads in the Parents forum about Gap years, and the general consensus seems to be that you must make a plan to do something productive in that time. Some students commit to a volunteer project, others get jobs. Since you don’t have clear career goals yet, you might look for a position (paid or volunteer) where you could test out some of your possible career ideas.</p>

<p>And, there always is the option of starting some place else even if it is just your local CC. And boy am I sorry that that visit was such a bust for you! Our CC has terrific honors programs and excellent college transfer advising, but I recognize that not all of them are like ours.</p>

<p>Can any of the other UWC alumni give you some advice about this? That may be another resource for you.</p>