<p>Ok heres my situation: My parents make over 200k, but they have a lot of other expenses (I have 3 siblings, and my parents support my grandparents). So I don't think I qualify for any need-based financial aid (please correct me if I'm wrong). I'm going to be entering college in 2010 and my grades/ SAT scores are average.</p>
<p>So I'm wondering if anyone knows of decently good colleges that are not too expensive--they offer good merit aid to average students and/or have a low tuition cost. Basically the goal is not to go to some random college who's tuition is 50k a year and offers 20k merit aid because that is still 30k a year. I'd much rather go to somewhere whose tuition was 20k a year and offered no merit aid. In otherwords I need to keep the costs as low as possible, whether through merit aid or through going to a low-tuition college.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>What state do you live in?</p>
<p>I live in CT, so obviously my state college is gonna be a prime choice, but I’m looking for other options.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying!</p>
<p>What do you want to study? Curtis Institute of Music in PA offers free tuition to everyone, but your only choice is a music major.</p>
<p>The SUNY’s are fairly inexpensive even for OOS kids and do give merit aid. What do you think you’d like to major in?</p>
<p>Search for threads from MomfromTexas. She found great financial aid for her kiddos.</p>
<p>I would help if you would define “average”. That word means different things to different people. I belive you would get a more targeted response if you give a bit more to work with. And I agree with thumper1, the Momfrom Texas threads were extremely helpful.</p>
<p>Do your parents claim your grandparents on their taxes? If your parents have 6 dependents you may qualify for some need based aid. Maybe.</p>
<p>You can use the CollegeBoard College Matchmaker search engine to help find affordable institutions: [College</a> MatchMaker - Type of School](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board) It will let you search by given costs in Tuition & Fees. Just remember to give yourself a bit of allowance for room and board. I found a list of 750 four year colleges and universities with out-of-state or private tuition and fees of 15k or less: [College</a> MatchMaker: Results](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>Some of these might serve you well.</p>
<h2>So I don’t think I qualify for any need-based financial aid (please correct me if I’m wrong). </h2>
<p>You may qualify for some (<5k probably) for colleges that meet 100% demonstrated need.</p>
<p>From what I can tell the cheapest private colleges are Christian. Grove City College comes to mind as a cheap, but very excellent LAC academically. I would consider it in the 2 or 3 Christian colleges academically, but if you’re not a Christian, I wouldn’t recommned going there (Its tuition is 18k a year if I remember correctly.)</p>
<p>With 4 kids and grandparents to support you may indeed qualify for some financial aid. Don’t hesitate to apply.
depending on your grades and SAT’s there are lots and lots of colleges that have good merit aid scholarship.</p>
<p>As said above - think about what you want to study and the type of school you are looking for.
For Merit aid scholarships, look at small regional colleges and universities. The vast majority of Catholic colleges merit scholarships to top students. Look at the lesser known ones, not BC, ND or Georgetown.</p>
<p>Hey guys, thanks a lot for all the replies!</p>
<p>Since some people asked for specific stats:
~3.3 gpa unweighted
2230 SAT</p>
<p>For anyone new that is just looking at this thread, I’m looking for a decent college that has either a low tuition cost or offers some great merit aid to average students such as myself.</p>
<p>As for whether I’ll be getting need-based aid or not, I don’t think my parents file my grandparents as dependents on their tax reports.
Oh yeah and I want to major in science (probably biology related, maybe chemistry).</p>
<p>TY!</p>
<p>Search</p>
<p>If you are willing to try another part of the country, with your stats you qualify for the Golden Oaks full tuition scholarship at LSU. My daughter will be heading to Baton Rouge from NJ with a scholarship that waives the OOS tuition.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying Paladin. I have been searching its just that most of the scholarships I come across are impossible for me to get. I’m simply asking if anyone knows of an “easy-to-get” scholarship. And thanks for mentioning the LSU scholarship.</p>
<p>Check out BYU as well. It’s a good school, beautiful area, and inexpensive. They also have some scholarships available if you get your grades up a little bit.</p>
<p>Your SAT score puts you in the “range” for the scholarships at U of South Carolina as well. The McKissick and Cooper scholarships ($2K and $4K awards) also come with a reduction to instate tuition rates. Also, the McNair Scholarship is a full ride to the school. I would guess that your SAT scores are well within the range for that…don’t know about your GPA as you don’t mention the “rigor” of your courses and that could make a difference.</p>
<p>NOW…you also mention “easy-to-get” scholarships…I have to tell you…the most generous awards involve an application process and sometimes an interview. For a full ride or close to it in merit aid, you should expect to have to do some work. It’s probably not going to be “easy to get”.</p>
<p>Now having said that…there are some schools that award scholarhips based on a combination of SAT/GPAs. You can just google scholarships SAT 2010, GPA 3.4 and see what you get. I will say that these awards that do not use a separate application process are either smaller awards OR are very limited in number (in other words some schools do offer merit awards based on the application alone…but only a few and only to the very top applicants).</p>
<h2>Now having said that…there are some schools that award scholarhips based on a combination of SAT/GPAs</h2>
<p>Yeah Asbury does that and so does Taylor. Taylor has a scholarship based on test scores alone that increases for every additional 50 points you earn on the math and verbal combined all the way up to a 1600 which is like 12500 a year or something in scholarships.</p>