NEED YOUR ADVICE (Combined)

University of Tulsa’s tuition is 36K, give or take. Even with your scholarship (11k), Pell (5,800), and lower-income state grant at best you’d have to find 12K if you commute. (Generally, students who live within 25miles of the university are allowed to commute, especially if the university’s unaffordable otherwise).
Are the federal loans (5.5) also called “Stafford” included in the 24.6K?
If not, the ONLY way you can afford the 12K for tuition are 5.5K in federal loans + work earnings (current work, full time summer work, and part time work during the school year, max 8-10 hours/week freshman year)… and even that is pushing it. However, by commuting, you make TU barely possible.

U Oklahoma = 23.7K - 12.4 = 11.3 => again, if you want to attend college, you’ll need to work and take on the federal loan. You can live on campus and, to make the large university small, join a Living Learning Community.

Oklahoma State would be about 9K => you could take only the subsidized part of the federal grant as well as work (now+ full time summer + part time school year).

You can’t go to a 4-year college if you don’t take on the Federal Loans. There’s simply no way. However, while you may hear horror stories of abominable debt situations, this is not possible with the Federal Loans. Those are based on how much a college graduate can reasonably pay back in 10 years. DO NOT however go above those limits.

Right now your choice isn’t whether to live on campus at TU or not… it’s whether you’ll be able to attend a 4-year college or will have to start at a community college.

@MYOS1634 Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I currently have a job in Tulsa that pays 10.5/hr as a start and it would increase to about 15/hr after graduation in may. I currently have + or - 3K from working since my freshman year and another 2K that was loaned to a family member. I have mentioned taking out loans and using my own money to pay for college but my parents are pressuring me that this is not a good idea. They tell me that I should be able to find various scholarships and financial aid. I have been actively looking for scholarships for some time now but I’ve only applied to one so far, Gates Millennium Scholarship because it was so extensive (8 essays). I’m just not sure if this would be the correct approach. I am a first generation college student and am just looking for the correct advice for paying for college.

@MYOS1634 Also, community college is not option for various reasons, don’t mean to seem picky.

@ThomasRipley does TU have a Trio-SSS program? And if so, do they offer scholarships or grants through that program and would you be eligible? Trio-SSS is for low income and/or first gen students so if you fit one or both categories, you might also check to see if the larger schools have programs as well. Trio can help you have the personal touch feeling of a small school at a larger campus. Their sole purpose is to increase your chances of continuing to the next year and graduating.

At some point, something may have to give. While you feel you’d do better on the smaller campus and your parents feel you should not take out loans, you are going to have to prioritize what is most important and what makes the most financial sense. You may not be able to accommodate everything on both your and your parents’ “wishlists”. While TU may be your dream school, I think it’s important not to build it up to be larger than life. Don’t sabotage your success and happiness if you can’t find a way to make TU work for you. If you work hard and seek help when you need it, you can succeed at many schools. In adulthood there often isn’t one perfect path, but several equally good options (or equally bad depending on perspective LOL). We rarely can have everything we want so committing to one option means giving up on some things and making peace with that. Good luck!

Good advice from prairiejane. My daughter thought she’d like a small college, maybe about 2000 students. Didn’t want anything to do with a big school. We found an OOS flagship she could attend (and afford) and 10,000 students seemed overwhelming to her. In the end decided that of the choices she had, she’d get used to the school being 5x the size she wanted.

Now she can’t imagine being at a school with at least as many offerings as her has. She’s already changed majors and one reason was that her original major and department was too small, too much of the same people every day in every class. The class she liked the most had 200 students, but discussion groups of 40. She knew about 30 of the 200 on the first day, and she was a freshman (people from her dorm, her other classes, her hockey team).

At this point you may only be able to afford OSU or OU. Find the things you like about them. Find the opportunities. You want to live on campus, so that fact that TU is in your hometown is irrelevant as you won’t be living at home anyway. If you want a smaller campus, there are other state colleges or universities that are smaller than OU, or find a community at the big schools where you’ll feel included - a special interest program, a dorm interest group, a church group. Just like at a large 2000 student high school, you tend to see the same 50 people over and over and the other 1950 not so often.

If you’re willing to leave Oklahoma, there may be some residential colleges in the Midwest that would be interested in your profile. Not sure if they’d be cheaper than OSU/OU but if you’re interested you should hurry since applications are often due on Feb 15. Many are “free to apply”.
www.commonapp.org
Look at Gustavus Adolphus (MN), Juniata, Elizabethtown (both in PA), St Michel’s (in Vermont); Wabash, St JOhn’s MN, Goucher (if you’re a boy); Saint Benedict’s/MN, Agnes Scott College (if you’re a girl); NC A&T, NCCU, Prairie View A&M (those are HBCU’s but you can apply regardless of race or ethnic background). If you’re interested I can look into it a bit more for colleges with applications still accepted and good financial aid for students with your profile.
All in all, while those may be similar to UTulsa and may be less expensive (since they’ll be residential which TU can’t be), you may like it better at OU, which is a strong university. In fact, if you do well at OU, you could join the Honors College: you’ll need to get a minimum of a 3.4 GPA your first semester and you’ll be admitted, which will tak you to small classes with many National Merit Finalists, and in the meanwhile select a LLC to make the large university feel smaller (Scholastic and Global Community would be very good, the first one if you’re serious about getting good grades and succeeding in college, the second one if you’re curious about the rest of the world)
@Whenhen may be able to tell you her story and how she chose OU. :slight_smile:
IN the meanwhile, you can read all this: http://www.ou.edu/publicaffairs/oufacts.html

The TRIO suggestion was very good, too - ask about it.

Other than that, you have to reconcile yourself with the idea you can’t have everything. So your choices are:

  • attend OU or OSU, take loans, live on campus
  • attend TU, take loans, commute
  • attend community college, no loans, commute

Residential experience, no loans, isn’t possible right now.
Your savings allow you, if divided up into 8 semesters, to make room&board+ books + incidentals doable without excessive work hours during the year. (Congratulations on working so hard. Did you put that on your applications under EC? On the CommonApp, work is considered a “strong EC” because it develops resilience, adult responsibility, etc.)

I agree that community college is by far the worst choice because for lower income students, starting at a 4-year college is the best option to guarantee you’ll actually graduate from a 4-year college (starting at a 2-year college as a lower income student lowers your odds dramatically so I don’t think it’s the right solution, especially since your results definitely indicate you have what it takes to succeed at a 4-year college – if you know to ask for help immediately - if you’re offered a “bridge” program, take it; but in case you’re not, know that the ONE element that’ll make a difference is knowing right away where the learning center is, its hours, how you get a tutor, and use it even if it’s to get from B to B+ , and not hesitate to ask for help, go to office hours, etc, etc, those resources are there because ‘asking for help’ is a proof of maturity in a challenging setting, vs. high school.)
So, since community college is not recommended or acceptable, it means you’ll have to take loans. (There will not be any magic scholarship fairy - many parents and students think money will “appear” if it’s really needed. It doesn’t. Even if you’re right to hope and apply, have a good contingency plan - which I understand you thread is about.)