Need Help Determining Financial Safety Options

Applying to College
1

<p>I was torn between posting this in fin aid or college admissions, but decided on CA.
Anyway, I was wondering if someone could explain to me how to find schools which would be a viable option finance-wise (the value of a degree is directly related to its cost, imo). My parents make around $90,000 a year, and we can afford to pay up to 20% of that in the form of regular, monthly payments. </p>

<p>Here are some basic stats
-1910 SAT
-3.4 GPA (3.7 w/o 9th grade, and the HS counselor told me I took the most rigorous course load available)</p>

<p>I've been ranked in the state levels for Speech & Debate, I've won a regional Guitar Center drumoff, I've had a few jobs since I've been in high school, and some other minor extracurriculars. As a heads up, I'm also African American (I heard it changes things)</p>

<p>The reason I include my stats is because a financial safety would be a school at which I have good chances of acceptance. </p>

<p>Since I live in NJ, I was definitely looking into Rutgers, but their economic program (intended major) is pretty weak, seeing as most of their reputable econ PHDs actually work in the business school as opposed to the economics department. This is what I've heard from current econ students at Rutgers. </p>

<p>I'm also currently taking a summer class there, and I am just very uncomfortable with the impersonal atmosphere. When you have to travel 8 miles to get from the Student Accounting Office to your class, you know your school is too big. </p>

<p>Other options would be TCNJ, but honestly, the entire school is fairly new, and the economic department is grossly underdeveloped (as are many other departments there).</p>

<p>Other schools I am applying to are all reaches, GWU, Colgate, Reed College and UVA. I honestly don't think I have a good chance at any of these schools, and their tuition is not a realistic option for me. </p>

<p>So as you can see, I'm having a bit of trouble finding cheap schools that fit what I need. I don't want to rely on one of my reaches granting me good aid, because that is an unlikely scenario. So any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm sure others have gone through this.</p>

<p>Thank you for your time</p>

2

<p>Is 18k what your parents can pay, or does that also include your student loan and your own earnings from summer jobs and part-time work during the school year?</p>

3

<p>18k per year is what we can afford to pay out-of-pocket. The rest will have to come in the form of loans, work study programs or financial aid packages. So if I went to say, Rutgers, we would be able to pay full tuition without financial aid, although I will probably still apply for it anyway.</p>

4

<p>NVM, you are from New Jersey</p>

5

<p>@davidthefat</p>

<p>Yes, I’m from NJ, does that change anything?</p>

6

<p>Inflation, there are some web sites available that will estimate your financial aid from different colleges once you enter your information. We used collegedata.com. Just remember that these are estimates and your actual financial aid packages will vary. Out of the 5 schools that my son was accepted to, 4 of the packages actually gave more merit and grant aid than the calculator and one school gave less. The differences were do to the fact that he received more merit scholarships than the average and one school did not give financial aid and only talent merit for his program of study(music). Once you’ve identified some safety schools than delve into their websites to find out the parameters on scholarships, diversity merit aid, etc and you should get a good handle on what will be available to you.</p>

7

<p>18k from your parents + 5.5k from a freshman year Stafford Loan + 3k from summer and school year jobs = 26.5k</p>

<p>How close does that come to covering the Cost of Attendance (COA) of your in-state public universities? They are likely to be financial safeties for you.</p>

<p>If none of them are admissions safeties, you should take a look at the community colleges that you can commute to.</p>

<p>Most of the college-matching search engines will let you limit your searches based on tuition and fees, but they don’t account for housing, meals, etc. If you limit your searches to institutions with tuition and fees of $15,000, you will come up with some that will be affordable for you. The CollegeBoard’s CollegeMatchmaker finds 658 four-year institutions with out-of-state tuition and fees less than $15,000. Here is the link [College</a> MatchMaker: Results](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board) You can start there, and use other criteria to further limit the search.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

8

<p>Definitely apply to GWU. It is worth a shot given your stats. Also, check out Catholic U and American U. They are not as good for Econ as GWU, but they give good merit aid. Good luck, Londondad</p>