Hello. Who knows the cheapest college ? My family cant pay for my education so i try to find the good one. Will be happy if someone will helping me. No matter in which city.
Your local community college.
The “cheapest college” depends on the student. What makes a school expensive for you may make it cheapmfor someone else, or vice versa.
For starters, most states have colleges that are expensive for out of state students but with discounts for state residency. Some schools have great scholarships for national merit semifinalists and/or top grades and test scores. Some schools have great financial aid if you come from an impoverished family. Many cities have good community colleges with very affordable tuition.
@Marinnnna - Where do you live? What do you want to study in college? What are your grades? Have you taken the ACT or SAT exam yet? Are you an international student, or still learning English? If so, have you taken the TOEFL?
As noted above, cost very often depends on the particular student and the particular school. For example, some of the wealthiest, most competitive schools will meet full financial need. So students only pay what they can afford. For example, a few of the Ivies don’t even require students to pay if their income/wealth is below a certain level. Or, a student might have a very strong application (transcripts, test scores, etc.) and receive merit aid from a school. Your state’s public universities may offer generous financial aid (or maybe not). Or, you could start at their local community college, which might also provide aid. Here are some options:
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Google “colleges that meet full financial need”–you will find lists of schools that claim to meet full financial need. Many are extremely competitive (like Harvard, etc.); some are “only” very competitive. Note that they might be “need aware” and consider financial need in the admissions decision. So it might be more challenging to gain admission if an applicant needs a lot of aid. Also, they might not actually meet full financial need, calculating your family can pay more than it can actually pay. Generally an applicant has to be a strong student to make this work.
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If your grades/test scores are very strong. You can google “colleges that offer generous merit aid.” For example Miami of Ohio offers generous merit aid to students with very high scores/grades.
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You can look at “work colleges.” Berea College is an example. It is a great LAC. It is FREE for all students, who agree to work a certain number of hours per week. Here are links to Berea and to a website for all the work colleges. Note that you must interview at Berea, and the deadline is early (financial aid deadlines are often early at other schools as well).
- Apply to several public colleges/universities in your state and apply for financial aid. What state do you live in?
You can run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for any college that looks like it might be a possibility. You can google this and the school name to find it for a particular school. You enter your info and receive an estimate for what that college will cost you. For example, say you live in Illinois. You think Southern Illinois University (a public university) might work. You can run the NPC for SIU to see what you’d be expected to pay. If you live in New Mexico, you could do the same for the University of New Mexico or New Mexico State. You can also do this for private universities. Good luck!
When you look at colleges, you can see the “list price”.
But you may not have to pay the list price…like others say, there is:
- Need based financial aid - some colleges will meet full need …that is, based on your family’s finances they may pay for anything you family cannot afford. Some college will pay part of your family’s need.
How to find out how much the college’s think you can pay? Start off by going to your State U’s Net Price Calculator to get an idea. (google that)
- Merit Based FInancial Aid…this is a scholarship that you are given because you have good grades/GPA
There are other programs to look at…like if your state pays for Community College if are in the top 10% of your class
or Questbridge which helps high GPA/low income students pay for colleges.