Yep, I was
I feel your pain because I am in a similar boat as you and I was hoping to find additional schools to apply to in this thread.
PA really does a piss poor job of supporting their own. The cost of attending a state flagship university is so much cheaper in the neighboring states.
I think the only way to get your college costs close to $22k is to attend one of the PA State System schools. But only West Chester and Slippery Rock are worth the cost. The rest are party schools.
How about Cook Honors College at IUP? (Requires a separate application in addition to the general one.)
I’m considering either applying to IUP or Slippery Rock as super safety. It’s just not what I want at the end of the day, though. I want a good financial option I’ll be happy at, if that makes sense. I know I sound picky, I just want something a little better. It doesn’t have to be an ivy or top one hundred, but just a good school.
Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC is another school that comes to mind.
I’m so mad because our neighboring states are all a part of a program where you can get in-state tuition in another state. We’re the only one that isn’t. It’s terrible. WVU will be 13,000 for me yearly. Dorms I’m unaware of the cost, but I think they’'ll be in range. Honestly, I don’t have a budget. I just want a school that I can get good merit aid at. That’s all I care about because I know I can get the costs down a bit.
How are you planning on coming up with $22k/year by yourself? Will your parents take loans out for you?
I would take out the loans I guess. That’s 22k a year AFTER scholarships because I have a good feeling I’ll get a decent bit
We are in NJ, same issue, but at least at northeast public schools, and some private schools (Scranton, quinnipiac), generous merit only brought the cost down into the mid-$30,000’s (other privates were not so generous like lehigh or Villanova). Even though schools can be TO, I’d imagine test scores are helpful with deciding merit. My kids pretty much applied to all safeties because they needed merit, even being in the top 10 students in their classes and top 1% test scores.
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Room and board is usually between $12,000 and $15,000 a year on top of tuition. You won’t be able to take loans without a co-signer on top of the federal loans. NJ has no tuition programs with any other state either.
You as a student can only take out a total of $27K for 4 years of Federal student loans: $5500 Freshman, $6500 Sophomore, $7500 Junior/Senior year. Anything beyond this amount will be up to your Parents through Parent Plus Loans, Savings etc…
I didn’t know the specifics of the whole state reciprocation thing. I just knew that MOST states have it, and that’s all that matters. I think WVU’s room and board is only around $6,000. I legit don’t care at this point. I just need 1 or 2 more safeties and a few matches where I have a CHANCE at a scholarship.
Well, I guess I’d have to talk to them. I just know they aren’t paying a dime. I’m paying for everything upfront. I personally want a dependency override because my parents aren’t good parents if you’re catching my drift, but that’s not the point of this thread. I just need one or two more safeties and a few matches where I have a chance at a scholarship.
I’m not looking at anything super crazy like Villanova. I just want good schools that may be known, but are insanely difficult to get into if that makes sense
I totally understand. Self pay is just a tough road, especially in a state like PA, so I’m trying to think of the best possible financial safeties, which the main campuses of PSU and Pitt are not. (2+2 would save $ but not ideal either.)
Take a close look at Truman State in MO. It’s Missouri’s public honors college - fewer than 5000 undergrads. OOS “sticker price” is under $27K/year, and automatic merit for your stats would be $7K/year ($8K if you can get the SAT over 1300). So that’s a guaranteed under-$20K price tag for an experience that’s not unlike many mid-sized privates, and it attracts a lot of strong students like you who are looking for a good value.
Definitely apply to more expensive schools where you have a chance at big merit awards. It’s just good to have at least one financial safety that you wouldn’t mind attending and where you won’t be in suspense about the cost.
I agree with College of Charleston as a good possibility - great setting and potentially affordable.
I don’t see how your reaches will be financially possible if you do manage to get in, unfortunately.
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The better known more selective schools will give you less merit. For example, I have a daughter at the university of Delaware honors program, she got into Villanova honors but no merit (3.9 gpa, only 1 B, 9 AP classes), UD gave her $17,000 a year because her stats are high for UD. However, tuition and R/B is around $50,000 for OOS students, so we are still paying $33,000 (not really, with fees it’s definitely over $35,000). Almost every single merit offer landing her in the same ballpark. When you need merit, and don’t qualify for FA, you need to lower your standards (btw she absolutely loves UD and SAT’s she’s glad Villanova wasn’t an option). Her sister with the same stats got a really good offer from Saint Joe’s in Philadelphia bringing costs down to $20,000 a year.
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Adding Dayton to the list of good suggestions so far.
Note that by far the most scholarships will come from the colleges themselves. Regarding outside scholarships, some schools will stack them, some won’t. Stacking means they allow you to keep the value of the external scholarship in addition to the financial aid package the school already gave you. Schools that don’t stack may reduce your financial aid package for the value of the external scholarship…leaving you in the same place as where you started. Research these policies on each school’s website.
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Of course, this is not the same as accepting a lower-quality college experience, or being stuck in a place where you cannot find/obtain a good college education. (I mention this for the OP’s consideration.)
I totally agree, I’ve had kids in 4 universities, all public, and so far have 2 graduates with great jobs who loved their college experience. My kids didn’t apply to t50 schools because they couldn’t afford them even if they would’ve been admitted.
Schools that are a reach are not going to provide much in terms of financial assistance. You want to target schools that provide generous non-need based aid and where you sit in the top of the student profile. Look into the common date sets for the schools you are researching and see how much they award in non-need based aid.
One possibility is looking at some of the SUNY schools. They were generous with random scholarships to try and attract more out of state students.
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