I am extremely confused about the entire college financial aid application process. I hope someone can shed some light on this.
My information is as follows:
3/4 Caucasian, 1/4 Hispanic (Mexican Origin)
Live in a family of 3 with an annual income of $19,000 to $22,000
Rising senior in high school
218 on PSAT (though I doubt that matters), 2040 on SAT (while I had the flu - I’m retaking it soon along with an ACT)
AP Scores are: Human Geography 4, Biology 3, Psychology 4, World History 3, US History 4, EngLang 5, Physics 2
Top 3% in my class of roughly 660 students
Low low low low GPA. 3.5 to 3.7 if I’m lucky - I haven’t checked, last time I did I felt sick. A’s, B’s and C’s in core classes though they are all honors and have been since freshman year
Would be the first in my family to go to college
2nd year student at a local radio station with a great relationship with the owner, choir officer (section leader of sopranos), superintendent scholar, over 100 hours of community service (mostly at the library though), involved in musicals, chamber choir, student directed plays, destination imagination, and will graduate on the Distinguished Academic Achievement Program
I also have kidney disease and am constantly tired due to it, plus depression, if that matters any. Was a TASP alternate.
I don’t know where to start. Without a scholarship, I just can’t afford go to college. It’s that simple. My older sister is in the military but I can’t go that route due to asthma and kidney disease. I am discouraged because I do not think my stats are good enough to get a kind of scholarship that wouldn’t put me in mountains of debt. I will likely get hardly any family help with expenses. I am unable to get a job on top of school right now because my parents are against me working myself that hard with everything I’m involved in on top of medical problems.
Are there any holy grail type scholarships I have at least a small chance of making? What chance do I have of getting hefty or do-able financial aid? I just really need to know what to do at this point. I’ll do it.
Low income students can qualify for ‘need based’ aid if available from where you are accepted. You may be EFC, or expected family contribution of 0 so you would qualify for a lot of aid but not all schools can give it, you have to select carefully. Merit based aid is also available and sometimes combined with need aid. That is usually based on gpa and test scores. So you really can’t afford to be a drama queen about your grades. Calculate your gpa so people can tell you what you qualify for. What is the breakdown of CR, M, W? Usually scholarships look at CR+M.
It seems you will get some automatic admissions at Texas schools. Not sure if they give enough aid for you to afford. But there are some schools in Texas that you might get enough from. Are you well enough to go away or do you have to say where you are?
Also as a student you can borrow, these amounts. The first is for dependent students like yourself, but if you have to and your parents can’t take a federal Parent Plus Loan then you can borrow the second amount.
Dependent/Independent
freshman 5,500 / 9,500
sophomore 6,500 / 10,500
jr 7,500 / 12,500
sr 7,500 12,500
For NMSF you either make it or not. Was 218 cutoff for last cycle, yes? If you make NMSF hopefully you make finalist, 14,000 out of 15,000 do after you fill in the data and they look at your grades and your SAT. That would open up some good packages. What about NHS?
Yes, I’m in NHS. SAT breakdown is 750 CR, 660 M, 650 W. 1410 CR+M. Yes, I’d be fine to get away from my house - my condition is taxing but not not life-threatening at least. I do hope I make NMSF or NMF because I know OU has a good package for finalists.
Oh I mean the NHRP. You have a good chance either NMSF will be 218 again hopefully. Many colleges have good packages for finaists. Look for a list in the threads pinned to the top of forum.
1400 M+CR +3.5 gpa can get you full tuition U of Alabama. Also other schools. There is a thread for automatic awards in the threads pinned to the top.
I would say you should apply for Questbridge National College Match. It is for low income hardship situation student to bring them to the attention of selective schools and to bring selective schools to your attention, especially LAC’s. Please read the questbridge.com website. I think the application should be just opening. It is lengthy but it is an addendum to you college application to partner schools. If you are named a finalist it is an award/honor to list on your application. But also you may try the college match, which is like choosing 8 schools to ED with. Or you can skip that. The partner schools are very selective. Some you may not get into, like MIT, but others like Pomona are excellent tippy top LAC and take a lot of questbridge partners. Yale just significantly upped the amount of questbridge students they take starting last year. However C’s on your transcript are going to hurt with selective school admissions, although the will look holistically. There might be some partners that will look at your potential. Be realistic though.
All those schools are 'meets full need; schools so they will pay most all of your costs. There is also a questbridge forum here, a sub forum of this forum.
With the illness, are you looking to stay close to home or are you OK being away from your regular doctors and such?
You might check out University of Richmond. They meet full demonstrated need (and if you happen to live in Virginia, your income would qualify you for a free ride-no loans.) They do include a student share and expect that you’ll use a federal student loan to cover that if you don’t have the cash but they also allow you to use any scholarships towards that portion first. Your stats are more in range there than most of the full needs schools. They have a very strong support program for 1st generation students.They’ll even help pay for off-campus enrichment opportunities (like museum passes, concerts, theatre.) Every student gets 1 summer internship of their choice paid for by the school. Campus jobs are pretty easy to get. There are some cool living and learning communities where travel is paid for by the university (even some international.) My D attends. Loves the school. She had high test scores and rigorous schedule but only a 3.6ish uw gpa when she applied. Her non-A grades were clustered in 10th grade and included a couple C’s. She wrote about that year and what she learned in her essay. She had a bunch of wait lists and some rejection at the tippy top schools but Richmond enthusiastically wanted her. They managed to come in under our FAFSA EFC 1st year and now 2nd year. The school is getting more competitive (this year they dropped under 30 percent acceptance) but it’s still rather unknown and a place where a smart kid with some imperfections on their transcript can find a home.
I’ll also say that D’s roommate last year suffers from depression and found the campus counselling program helpful.
Thank you all for the information.
I am not apart of the NHRP, didn’t even know it existed. I will apply for Questbridge. Believe me, I am being realistic - that’s why I’m asking what my chances are in the first place. I don’t expect to make it into an Ivy or anything like that. Rice is a dream, but just that.
The website for automatic tuition is motivating and informative, along with the personal experience that your daughter had, @turtletime . As long as there’s a hospital nearby where I can do my monthly tests I’m fine with moving out of state for education.
Is your GPA weighted or non-weighted? Get a copy of an official and unofficial transcript. Double check to make sure there are no errors, class by class. With such a low annual income you are probably looking at an $0 EFC. Which if you were able to gain admittance to any of the “full need” schools you would have very little if any OOP. Maybe some summer contribution with some federal work study but being Pell and SEOG eligible would put a dent in your COA with the “meet full need” school supplying an institutional grant.
Being from Texas can be an advantage, in some cases. If you applied outside your region you would be providing some geographically diversity along with ethnic diversity. Are you looking at major research unis or perhaps an LAC? Colby and Amherst provided excellent FA packages for my kiddos (also hispanic). WPI has the Chavez scholie, Vandy also has one, has does Georgia Tech, Emory, Wake, Fordham, although not all these are meets full need. UNM offers the Amigo Scholie for OOS students.
Have you thought of a possible major, liberal arts, STEM…? This would also help identify possible schools and outside scholarships. For example the American Chemical society offers a 4 year renewable for chem, and other related discipline majors. Same is true for Physics, and I think there is another for Mathematics. Son won a Gates but since the uni he matriculated to met his full need and then applied all his outside scholarships, he did nut use a penny of the Gates. He had no loans, no summer contribution and the COA was flexible enough for a new laptop, books, and other misc., due to numerous and renewable outside scholies that replaced his F work study, summer contribution.
Son did not do Questbridge for several reasons, but those were personal to him.
Let us know how we can help.
Kat
Also look at the Ventures scholar program, it is free and it’s college partners do provide assistance and fee waivers for apps
GPA is (sadly for me) unweighted at my school. I’m thinking of applying to Gates but is 1/4 enough? And I’m trying to decide between a communication, business, or science major.
Remember that you are judged based on the standard of your school. Your school may not weight grades but the colleges you apply to will see that you are in the top 3 percent. Most schools, a mid 3. grade would land you more in the 25th percentile. That could mean your school has little to no grade inflation as only what, 20 kids are doing better than you? (3 percent of 660 kids is 19.8.) You’d be surprised how high your own gpa would look in a weighted environment. Your gpa is stronger than you give yourself credit for.
@turtletime I’m number 16 currently. Our rank is decided by our accumulated grade points throughout HS, which ARE weighted. So, basically, by getting a C in AP World History I’m getting above the amount of grade points than an A in a normal history class. But GPA itself is still unweighted; it just doesn’t play a factor in graduating. I don’t know how other high schools do their class ranking system but mine is very convenient.
Usually 1/4 is a benchmark considered legitimate to indicate Hispanic. That is what is used for NHRP qualification and yes they will ask.
By trying to major in business you will cut out a lot of schools that might give you a lot of aid. Of the 60 or so schools that will meet full need, very few have a business major, many of them are Liberal Arts Colleges. Not that I am suggesting it necessarily, but just for conversation sake, Harvard and Stanford do not have business majors for undergraduates. Rice doesn’t either, although they do offer a minor. Same with communication some may offer it, some consider it too fluffy of a major. Student who want to go into business often study economics at these schools. Science majors are offered widely at all schools.
Can you list your last year classes and grades so we don’t give you misleading advice?