<p>I recently found out my parents have no savings for my college education. My family is pretty terrible with money and will probably only be able to donate 3-5k a year on my room, meal plan, books, fees, etc... I do not want to take out any loans, because I definitely want to attend graduate school. There is no excuse for my gpa such as illness, family death, etc. </p>
<p>If the college calculates gpa like alabama by adding electives into the mix then my gpa would be above 3.6. </p>
<p>Sophomore year gpa: 2.75
Freshmen: 3.5
Junior: 3.75</p>
<p>M+CR = 1460</p>
<p>EC: nothing to write home about</p>
<p>I've been searching and so far i've found</p>
<p>U of alabama
LSU
UT-dallas (their financial aid guy said i'd more than likely recieve a nice package, but i'm unsure what nice is to them.</p>
<p>You really need to face the reality that you are going to have to take out loans. Almost everyone does. Usually you don’t need to start repaying student loans until you finish schooling, and if you go on to graduate school right after college then you won’t have to pay them until you finish grad school. You are very unlikely to get a full-ride to any school in this recession, schools can hardly offer that much to students with 4.0s. Just don’t worry about it and try to focus on getting an education so you can pay back the loans.</p>
<p>Sadly, no, I simply studied my butt off for the SAT. Went from 176 psat to 2210 SAT</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses, i’m going to look into those colleges drizzit.</p>
<p>Even if the college won’t give me a full ride, full tuition would be great. I’ve looked into posts about full tuition on CC, but have had trouble finding colleges which fit my gpa.</p>
<p>Montana State has 15K/year (don’t know how much this leaves to pay but don’t think its too much) for SAT over 2140. No GPA requirement I don’t think. There is an honors college there although academics are not too tough. Could consider transfer after a couple of years. There’s worse things than living in Bozeman, MT.</p>
<p>Seriously, you don’t need to lower yourself and only consider going to no-name schools that cost $5. Loans are not the devil, most people have them. Plus going to a school like that is going to make it pretty impossible to get into grad school. Take out the loans, go to a decent school and you’ll have a chance at getting a good job and repaying those loans.</p>
<p>Since no one’s suggested it yet, there’s also the community college option. Spend two years at your local CC, then transfer to a four year institution to finish up. You might still end up with debt, but not as much.</p>
<p>Unless you have subsidized loans, interest on any loans you do take out will start compounding immediately. When the time does come to pay back the loans, the amount you’ll need to pay will have grown. There’ve been plenty of articles over the past year or two about people finishing at excellent schools with $40,000 or more in loans, and not being able to find jobs that pay enough to pay back those loans. Remember that bankruptcy does not erase student loans–these loans ARE the devil if you aren’t careful.</p>
<p>People get into grad school coming from all kinds of undergrad schools, including starting at CCs.</p>
<p>What state do you live in? Often in-state schools have very low-priced tuition for residents, even the flagship university. You could attend there for a year or two & then transfer (if you’d rather do that than attend community college).</p>
<p>Many states also have agreements with other Us to offer in-state or slightly above in-state tuition for neighboring states. Your college counselor or local state university should be able to give you more info or if you post the state you live in, someone here likely can suggest the name of the program that would include your state. For those living in the West, it’s called Western Undergraduate Exchange Program. </p>
<p>You are wise NOT to plan on taking on BIG DEBT for an undergrad degree, especially if you’re interested in grad school. The grad school is what employers look at rather than the undergrad school anyway.</p>
<p>I live in Texas and i would like to go to medical school. </p>
<p>I don’t really want to go to my CC, since it isn’t really challenging, and i think I would develop more as a person if I went somewhere else. </p>
<p>The main reason i’m trying to look for nearly a full ride is because I don’t want to burden my family too much with paying for my education. They certainly would make all the sacrifices, however i don’t want them to.</p>
<p>Is there a public 4-year college near your home, so you could go to a four-year school without having to pay room and board? If so, I would say live on campus the first year and then live at home after that (and be a helpful adult member of the household) to save a lot of money.</p>
<p>With that 2210, I think you can get a full tuition scholarship if you are willing to search, especially if the GPA that is printed on your transcript says 3.5 or higher.</p>
<p>(If you go to a less-highly-ranked school, you may have more of an opportunity to shine, to win awards like “Top junior biology major”- this will be good for med school admissions.)</p>
<p>If you are a junior and your weighted GPA is over 3.5 you’d get free tuition at Bama (since your M+CR is over 1400).</p>
<p>If you major in engineering or computer science, Bama will give you an additional $2500 per year. That $2500 scholarship, plus the tuition scholarship, plus your parents contribution pretty much covers it all.</p>
<p>I suggest you look into the University of Dallas, a small Catholic LAC in Irving, Texas. [University</a> of Dallas - Home](<a href=“http://www.udallas.edu/]University”>http://www.udallas.edu/) They have a very strong pre-med program, a classic core curriculum, and a great semester abroad program at their Rome, Italy campus. They offer numerous merit scholarships at various levels - guidelines are listed if you click on the links to each([University</a> of Dallas - Scholarships & Awards](<a href=“http://www.udallas.edu/futurestudents/admiss/scholarships]University”>http://www.udallas.edu/futurestudents/admiss/scholarships) ). Graduates of the pre-med program have very high rates of acceptance into medical schools.</p>
<p>It’s pretty tough to qualify for financial aid unless parents are willing to complete significant paperwork (FAFSA) & you are shown to qualify. Unless you’re married or military, you are presumed to be a dependent until you age out (24) or have gotten your undergrad degree.</p>