none of them have my major or will pay for enough
UVA is extremely hard to get into OOS.
You have NO financial safeties on your list.
What is your best ACT from a single sitting?
Don’t restrict yourself to schools that have “neuroscience”. People with that interest can often “create” that major combining Bio and Psych classes.
YOU have a serious money issue, so you can’t afford to be so picky that you could end up with NO affordable schools…then what would you do??
Please make a new thread and make a title like:
Need full-aid schools ~ Low income, NCP won’t pay, Neuroscience, ACT 30/32 (or whatever your single sitting/super score is)
Then in the body of the post give important details like:
Home state: IL
custodial parent mom, very low income.
NCP father, high income but won’t pay anything.
major: Neuroscience
career goal: (fill this in)
GPA weighted
GPA UW
plus any relevant ECs or info
You can check to see if you would get any merit at some of the other public colleges in IL like Eastern IL U or U of IL in Springfield. That with FA you might find those schools viable financially. If your stats would help you enough with some of the area private schools.
If you want to go to a college/university you have to have some affordable schools that you have applied to. If you apply to schools you can’t afford you are shooting yourself in the foot. What will happen is you will either be forced to take a gap year or you will need to commute to an affordable CC.
Go back to reply #7 and start shopping for full ride merit scholarships in the links there. Illinois is not that good with in-state financial aid, and out-of-state publics generally tend to have little or no financial aid (those that do, like UVA, tend to be reachy). Most schools with good financial aid need non-custodial parent information anyway, so your choices on need-based financial aid are few. So you need to look for full ride merit scholarships to find something affordable. There may be some other in-state-only ones at Illinois publics.
Neuroscience is somewhat interdisciplinary, so a school with offerings of interest in biology and psychology may offer what you want to study.
Susquehanna would be a financial safety but they do want the Profile. This poster’s stats may get her a lot of merit there.
@zoosermom Susquehanna does require the ncp profile on it though
Right, but it may not matter for their merit whether your dad will contribute just as long as it’s completed.
OP- don’t get hung up on neuroscience. You could major in five or six different things and end up studying neuro. There is not likely to be an accredited university without a decent program in bio, chem, psych, linguistics, etc. So take this off the table as a criterion.
Second- start at the beginning. Have you had a sit down with your dad to explain to him your college plans? If not, you need to. Because he’s your dad, and because you owe him the courtesy of a conversation. If he tells you to your face not to expect a nickel- well, there’s your answer. If he tells you that he’s prepared to pay for books, lab fees, and incidentals- well, you’re better off than you were before the conversation.
Third- you need to focus on affordability above all else. The cheapest option is to live at home and commute. Have you made a list of all the colleges within commuting range?
I’m going to be blunt. With a 29 ACT score, acceptance to UVA as an out of state student isn’t going to likely happen.
Susquehanna is a great little school…but even with a high merit award, this student will still likely face $20,000 or more a year in costs. Unaffordable if no one is paying.
To the OP…are you retaking the SAT or ACT? Increasing your scores would certainly help you in the merit aid and acceptance arenas for the schools you are listing.
In my opinion, your list is not well balanced. You really have no affordable schools on the list at all…which means you have no safety schools…no sure things.
So what if you sent the ACT to a bunch of schools?
Just make sure you have at least a couple of affordable schools where you have a strong likelihood of acceptance. Look at the public universities in IL…that are NOT UIUC.
ETA?..Indiana, New Hampshire and OSU will likely be unaffordable too.
3.87 HS GPA and 29 ACT would give full rides to:
Tuskegee
Alabama State
Florida A&M
NC Central
Prairie View A&M
Also full tuition (probably need Pell + direct loan + some work earnings to cover the rest) at:
Troy
Arkansas - Monticello
Howard
The above are from http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ .
@mom2coIIegekids @zoosermom @thumper1 @blossom I’m looking for more options… but question. Does the fact that my mom has a brain injury and is disabled and basically can’t think for herself or work and we don’t own a house or anything like that make a difference? will it get me more financial aid?
Does your mom collect untaxed disability insurance? Is that her only income?
Your mom’s income only will go on the FAFSA. It sounds like you would get a Pell Grant, and Direct loan.
But if your school requires financial information from the non custodial parent…this will need to be provided regardless of your mom’s physical and mental health. That doesn’t impact the requirement for your dad to provide financial information if the school requires it.
And yes…at schools where the non custodial parent info is required, it will likely be used to compute your need based aid. Otherwise, why would the school bother to,ask for it?
and also I didn’t realize that even though when my dad is working he makes a lot of money, he hasn’t been working most of the year the past couple years
@thumper1 yes that is her only income and she gets a little child support from my dad
Are you a senior? Your financial,aid will be based on income from the 2015 tax year. How much did your dad earn in 2015?
@thumper1 he just got a job like a month ago so he will have 4 months of his salary on his tax return
Then it is possible his income won’t have a huge impact this year. But you need to think about subsequent years. You will be applying for need based aid annually.
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Does the fact that my mom has a brain injury and is disabled and basically can’t think for herself or work and we don’t own a house or anything like that make a difference? will it get me more financial aid?
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No…because it sounds like the EFC was already 0…there is no such thing as less than 0.
Most schools don’t have much aid to give. OOS publics don’t care if your mother doesn’t have a dime. That may be sad, but that’s the situation.
It sounds like your mom hasn’t been adequately supported by her husband. It may be time for her to get court-ordered support from her legal husband.
@mom2collegekids she never remarried, it’s just me and her