Need help finding colleges.

College Search & Selection
1

What’s up CC?

I’m a junior in high school beginning my college search. My parents make above $125k but they’re not willing to help pay for college. So no need based aid or parent help. Oh well. I did some NPCs on college board and my best match was Notre Dame, which is nice, but possibly a small reach.

So I go to one of the best high schools in the country, I have a 3.8 UW (although that will probably drop slightly), and my ACT is 33. My requirements are ABET engineering, at least a minor in Arabic, and lots of merit aid. Also, east of the Mississippi and ample study abroad would be preferable. I’m not trying to go Ivy League, but top 100 or near there doesn’t seem out of reach at all. I know it’s pretty specific but you guys seem to be the experts. Can you help me out?

P.S. - I’m unfamiliar with CC and this is my first post. Feel free to roast me.

2

You actually would get a good deal of aid from a lot of private schools given your middle class household income, but if a school asked you to pay $15000 per annum, could you do it?

3

They aren’t willing to pay for college, but are they willing to help you complete a FAFSA so you can access student loans or a CSS profile which many private and some state schools require for OOS students?
https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatingInstitutions.aspx

4

prezbucky id definitely pay 15000 for a top school, but I can get near full price in state so it would need to be top 50 I think. Buckeye yes my parents are doing the Fafsa I think

5

Without filing the CSS, the participating schools like Notre Dame aren’t going to provide need based aid. Will they file a CSS, too?

6

Buckeye I’m not super familiar with the CSS but I would definitely assume so.

7

Just to be clear, my parents are willing to do a lot to help me find colleges and get aid, but they want me to pay for it because I can go to a smaller college for free. This is valid I suppose but I just want to explore my options, because who doesn’t want to go to a great school for cheap? Sorry if that doesn’t make sense that’s the best way I can explain it.

8

This Forbes article has a good overview of FAFSA, CSS and the ways assets and income are generally viewed by colleges to calculate your family’s EFC (Estimated Family Contribution).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/troyonink/2017/01/08/2017-guide-to-college-financial-aid-the-fafsa-and-css-profile/

Your challenge without parental support is that you will not have access to student loans without filing a FAFSA and your parent’s cooperation because there is a parent signature portion you will be required to have them fill out.

They may not be aware, but simply not supporting you does not make you an independent student and no one is going to close the EFC gap that is calculated based on their income and assets, except for you.

Loans above $5,500 your freshman year will need to be co-signed by parents. Are they willing to co-sign loans for you?

9

Probably. Like I said they’re willing to do anything as long as I pay for tuition and fees.

10

A few strategies you can use to close the gap:
Pick a school with a CoA below EFC
Start at Community College and live at home
Win a merit scholarship that reduces net cost below EFC (see auto merit and full tuition/ride threads)
Delay school until you are 24 and can file an independent FAFSA

I’m sure others have additional suggestions/strategies.

11

You can take out $5500 in loans and you might net $4000 at a summer job. You might get $3000 from work-study and a part-time job during the school year – 20 hrs per week – might get you another $5000 or so. You would be extremely busy, but that would get you to $17500. Maybe you could bump it up to $20000.

So look at:

  • schools with large automatic scholarships like U of Alabama and U of Mississippi. You could probably almost consider these safeties if the finances work out. A true safety would be your flagship or another branch of your state school system, or lessselective private schools (if affordable...).
  • Schools that give lots of need-based aid. These tend to be highly selective, but if the NPC indicates your cost would be about $15000 or less, you might make them work. These are private top-25ish universities and LACs. (google the US News national U and LAC rankings for an idea. Also google "colleges that meet 100% of need".
  • Less selective private schools that give out large scholarships.

Start with Google to find the schools giving out large scholarships. Also google schools that claim to meet 100% of need – these are mostly highly selective, but having some reaches on your app list is ok.

Once you have a (hopefully long) list of schools you can afford – make sure you have at least one safety – choose the schools to which you apply by measuring them by fit variables that are important to you, like:

  • Academics: majors offered, type of curriculum/distribution requirements, class sizes, academic calendar, etc.
  • Social vibe: Party/Greek scene, things to do around campus and town, sports scene, clubs, etc.
  • Environment: Campus look and convenience/logistics, weather, location, town/city/rural surroundings.
  • Study abroad opportunities and cost
  • Other costs that might eat up your budget, like traveling home, cost of getting around campus or town/city, cost of living, etc.
  • Obviously, cost to attend. For a good estimate of that, run each school's NPC.

Here are some schools that say they meet 100% of need or virtually 100% and are east of the Mississippi (or on it…). Many of these are reaches or low reaches for you – but again, it’s ok to apply to some if they fit you and the NPC indicates affordability:

Universities:
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, UChicago, Columbia, UPenn, Caltech, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Emory, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Washington U in St. Louis, Wake Forest, Boston College, Tufts, U of Rochester, Lehigh, Northeastern, Case Western

LACs: Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Carleton, Haverford, Vassar, Hamilton, Colby, Washington & Lee, Davidson, Wesleyan, Colgate, Bates, Oberlin, Kenyon, Macalester, U of Richmond, Lafayette, Holy Cross, Trinity College, Connecticut College, St. Olaf, Gettysburg, Union, Franklin & Marshall, Skidmore

Women’s colleges (you didn’t indicate sex): Wellesley, Smith, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke

12

Thanks buckeye but since I have a couple decent instate options I can go for cheap, I’m not really sure community college is something I’m interested in. By the time I graduate I’ll have a lot of dualcredit classes too. I’m willing to go instate but I was just trying to explore some top level options.

13

Thanks prezbucky. Btw I’m male.

14

With no help from you parents,except filling out forms, and a household income that colleges will expect significant help, your choices become limited. Your total cost can’t exceed about $7k/ year. Even a full tuition scholarship will leave you $5-8k short per year. Full cost of attendance awards are few and far between.

15

Basically you need a full tuition to full ride scholarship so you’re going to be very limited. Colleges such as Notre Dame are totally impossible if your parents won’t help. Run the NPC just in case but I don’t think it’ll be possible.
Retake th act. If you can score a 34 you may have more choices.
How do your parents expect you to go to college? Do they want you to go? Is that something you have been aware of or is it a surprise? Might they reconsider?
When you say more than 125k do you mean 130k (= lots of aid from tippy tops) or 250k (= no aid)?
ABET Engineering+ Arabic + full tuition is going to be rough.
Run NPC’s on Trinity Connecticut, Northeastern, ualabama Huntsville… Not sure they have enough arabic though.
You may try and see whether you can get the Jefferson at UVA, Robertson at UNC, one of the merit scholarships at Vanderbilt. Not sure if Georgia tech, Pitt, UMD CP might work in terms of scholarships.
What’s your state flagship? What university can you go to for free?

16

I ran the npc for Notre Dame and got 9000, which is probably doable. My parents want me to go to college but due to certain circumstances I can go instate free, so they don’t think they should have to pay for me to go big. As for their income it’s much closer to 125k than 250k.

17

Will your parents help if you get into Notre Dame?
Note that there’s free and there’s value. The cheapest car isn’t necessarily the best value, the cheapest backpack isn’t necessarily the best value, the cheapest house isn’t necessarily the best value…
So, you shouldn’t pay more for something of equivalent value but if the college you get into adds something (better alumni network, better industry contacts in the field you’re interested in, better teaching and learning with smaller classes and more prepared peers… and especially if free takes you into a ditch* v. cheap takes you where you want to go) it’s worth investing reasonably into yourself.

  • Your state flagship is fine and typically a good value but free at a college with 700 students and 8 majors not including yours, or where advanced math students start in precalculus whereas you completed BC in high school... Isn't a good value.
18

When you wrote in post #15 the net price was $9,000 were looking at the bottom number on the net price results page labeled “Estimated Remaining Cost” or the “Estimated Net Price” a few rows up?

19

It was estimate net price

20

MYOS this is where I believe my parents and I don’t see eye to eye. However, as I understand it, if there was a small amount left to be paid on fees and such they would help me out.