Need to help niece 3.3 GPA needs FA

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi there CC,
I have been lurking and reading for a long time and have learned so much. Thanks to all of your posts my daughter has a wonderful list of schools and we are very hopeful this admission season! Thank you.</p>

<p>I am posting this hoping you all can give me some direct advice or direct me to other useful threads. My niece (a senior) really wants to go to college. Her parents have always told her she would have to go to a community college and pay for it herself because they couldn't afford to help (despite having a fairly good middle class income). I spoke with her recently and if it is at all possible she would like to try and find a way to go to a 4-year school anyway.</p>

<p>About her: California Public School; 3.2 UW 3.3W; two AP's
top 25% rank
SAT - never took but there is still time and I can tutor her. I think I can get her to a 1500 fingers crossed
Hispanic
no clubs/no leadership
played basketball for 9, 10, 11
Choir 11, 12
Involved in church (her parents don't attend she goes by herself)
Volunteered as a middle school basketball coach and volleyball coach for two years at her church's school.
volunteered at church youth baseball as scorekeeper last 4 years
works at a pretzel shop 15 hours a week.
probably some other things I cant remember</p>

<p>She brought me her parents taxes and I estimated their EFC @ $18,107
They are currently willing to pay for local community college which is about $1,500 a year. I think we could talk them into paying twice that if she gets in somewhere.</p>

<p>I KNOW she can get in to lots of schools, my question is can she get aid (enough aid) to make it reasonable for her to attend? She is willing to work all summer to save and while enrolled.</p>

<p>I don't want to get her hopes up if there is no hope!
Does anyone have advice? Is there hope or should she just go to community college and transfer?</p>

<p>Thank you so much!</p>

2

<p>She needs to take the SAT or ACT very very soon!</p>

3

<p>Look into public states schools in the state she lives in because that will be cheeper</p>

4

<p>December 7th!</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>The state is named in the first post: California.</p>

<p>While California public universities are good at meeting need for California residents, that need is defined using FAFSA EFC. If the OP is accurate in estimating that at about $18,000, while the parents are only willing to pay $1,500 (plus perhaps whatever food and utilities the student would consume living at home), then that leads to the following problem (based on net price calculator runs – the student and family should do their own to get more specific estimates):</p>

<ul>
<li>UC net price will likely be about $27,000, assuming EFC + student contribution of direct loan and work earnings.</li>
<li>CSU net price will likely be about $24,000 on-campus.</li>
<li>CSU net price will likely be about $16,000 as a commuter, but that includes an estimate of about $7,000 for room, board, and misc costs (food, utilities, transportation, etc. that the parents provide to the student). Without the latter costs, the net price would be about $9,000 for tuition, fees, and books.</li>
<li>CC would be about $1,500 for tuition and fees plus $1,000 for books, for a total of $2,500. If we assume the same parent subsidy of food, utilities, transportation, etc. for $7,000, that makes the total cost $9,500.</li>
</ul>

<p>Note that the CSU and CC prices are list price.</p>

<p>If the parents will subsidize food, utilities, transportation, etc. for the student living at home and commuting, a local CSU barely falls within the affordability range if the student takes direct loans and works. However, the student may still choose to start at CC and transfer to such a CSU in order to save money by not being at the financial edge. A non-local CSU or UC would be too expensive in the absence of large merit scholarships (not very common, and probably not likely at a 3.2-3.3 GPA if they do exist at a given campus).</p>

<p>For more alternatives, the search would have to be schools that will give very large merit scholarships for her stats. Without SAT or ACT scores, it is impossible to tell, although there are some targets to aim for in the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html#post16451378[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html#post16451378&lt;/a&gt; (e.g. get a 1400 SAT CR+M or 32 ACT and Louisiana Tech is a full ride). <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918&lt;/a&gt; can give some non-safety ideas.</p>

<p>Has the student checked to see whether the local CSUs have the intended major, and whether the local CCs have course offering that cover the major prerequisites at the local CSUs (see [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) )?</p>

<p>She may want to take both the SAT and ACT, in order to have two chances at a good score (since some students do better on one than the other).</p>

6

<p>my question is can she get aid (enough aid) to make it reasonable for her to attend</p>

<p>FA isn’t really the issue. Schools will still use that $18k EFC and work TOWARDS that. They aren’t going to cover that with need based aid. That’s what “generous” schools do. They take the COA, then they SUBTRACT the EFC, and then they come up with “need”. Then they try to cover the “need”. They leave the EFC (and often some of the need) for the family to pay. </p>

<p>A school isn’t going to say, “Well, her parents are supposed to pay $18k, but they won’t. She’s a nice girl so we’ll pay nearly all the costs for her.” It just doesn’t work that way. </p>

<p>She’ll likely find that her local Cal State will be her affordable option.</p>

<p>Yes, she can work over the summer and work part-time over the school year, but once she deducts gasoline and personal expenses from her earnings, she won’t have much to put towards college costs. Students working over the summer are lucky to save $2k to put towards college. </p>

<p>Depending on her SAT, she would have to look at schools that give HUGE merit. That’s the only way for her to combat that unaffordable EFC is she hopes to go away. </p>

<p>1500 is the goal for the SAT? Is that for ALL 3 sections? If so, then her chances for any very large awards is very unlikely.</p>

7

<p>Basically, she is looking for money to pay for her sleep away experience . That’s not going to be easy to find, as the EFC is generally the LEAST a family will pay. That’s what she would pay if a school met full need for her, and I don’t think the state schools in CA guarantee to do just that. </p>

<p>If she can find a school that has generous merit money, near full rides, then it could be doable, but she would need test scores at the very top of the school’s applicant pool, and the school has to have some full ride awards for that to happen.</p>

8

<p>Is the SAT projection based on PSAT results? Did she take it in Jr year and if so, what was her score? There are some full rides for National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars but she would need a minimum GPA of 3.5 plus qualifying PSAT scores. I agree her best bet seems to be CC or local CSU.</p>

<p>I would post at the Hispanic forum and see if anybody there has better suggestions.</p>

9

<p>Thank you everyone for the advice and suggestions. I just really felt bad that her parents won’t help out and I wanted to help her. She has decided to apply to our local CSU, live at home and try and make that work. I looked into the Automatic Full Rides and I’m not confident she will be able to attain the necessary scores. </p>

<p>Cptofthehouse makes a valid point about looking for $$ to pay for the sleep away experience. </p>

<p>Also, I was thinking about my own daughter who worked extremely hard, achieved competitive stats, and we will still have to pay our EFC which is almost the exact same, so it makes sense.</p>

<p>Thanks again everyone. Now that I’m almost through this agonizing process with D1, I will actually feel comfortable contributing once in a while as I prepare to help D2 and D3!</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>UCs actually do meet full need for CA residents, though with an $8,500 or so student contribution (note that “meet full need” schools do have a student contribution, typically ranging from $4,000 to $10,000, that is added to EFC to get the net price). But when need is defined by FAFSA EFC, and the parents are unwilling to contribute anything close to that (as is the case for the student in question), a “meet full need” school will not produce a low enough net price.</p>

<p>Beyond the local CC and the barely-affordable local CSU (if the parents continue to subsidize room, board, and misc expenses), the student would need to look for really big merit scholarships. But that depends on very high SAT or ACT scores.</p>

11

<p>She’ll need you to help her “do the math” to see if she’ll have all costs covered if she commutes to a local CSU. </p>

<p>A $5500 loan, $1500 from parents, and a couple thousand saved from summer may only cover tuition, fees, and books. If her parents will also cover gas, car expenses, and a bit more, she might have her costs covered for a local CSU.</p>

<p>The truth is that “going away to college” is really a luxury experience. Most can’t afford it. Most students commute to their local public uni or CC.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>“A bit more” would likely have to include food and utilities of the student living at home (typical estimate is $4,000 to $5,000 per year). That is a real cost of a commuter student living in the parents’ home, but one that is often overlooked (or more willingly subsidized by the parents), since the costs are “hidden” in other categories of household expenses instead of being a clearly labeled bill like other college expenses are.</p>

13

<p>We will go over the actual budget very carefully. Right now we can only use estimates based off 2012 tax info. Once she has applied and completed the Fafsa we will have more accurate information. Her parents are willing to cover her normal living expenses (whatever they’re providing while she is in High School) plus the community college costs. If it looks like she won’t have enough to cover CSU then she’ll go to CC. </p>

<p>In terms of going away to college being a luxury, I can see your point. I just know that for my own daughter that “experience” is exactly what I want her to have and the reason we have all worked so hard. But my family is willing to pay for that experience, whereas my niece’s is not and I suppose that is really the bottom line.</p>

14

<p>would likely have to include food and utilities of the student living at home (typical estimate is $4,000 to $5,000 per year)</p>

<p>I was assuming that when the parents said that they would pay the $1500 to commute to a CC, that they intended on paying for her food and the household utility bills while she’s home…and likely her cell phone bill and probably car insurance, healthcare costs, and maybe the gas for her car when used for school. </p>

<p>If her parents pay for the above, PLUS give her $1500, then she would have to cover tuition, books, fees, and some misc costs. She wouldn’t have to include the $4k-5k for home expenses.</p>

<p>I do agree that even if her parents pay for her “home expenses”, then she may still have some “campus food” expenses. </p>

<p>Unless a family is low income, parents generally don’t charge their kids for food and the utilities while they’re commuting to the local college.</p>

15

<p>Will she do both the SAT and ACT for two chances at a better score?</p>

16

<p>SAT only, from what I saw CSU requires one test or the other and because she is a resident and above a 3.0 there is no minimum score.</p>

17

<p>Doing both SAT and ACT gives two tries to hit the thresholds for some of the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html#post16451378[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-20.html#post16451378&lt;/a&gt; . It also gives two tries for a higher score that may help if she applies to an impacted CSU campus or major.</p>

18

<p>Thank you for the helpful advice! I spoke with her this morning. She will prepare for and take both exams!</p>