<p>I have been obsessing over the issue of out of state tuition for probably about six months now. It is my dream to attend the University of Alabama, but my parents will only let me attend if I am able to obtain enough scholarship money to make it the same price as an in state school. Right now the difference in tuition would be approximately $10,000 a year. My parents keep insisting that I will not be able to make it happen. They say I won't be able to do it. After all $10,000 a year is a hefty chunk of change. Every time they say that however, it only fuels my sedulous desire to make it happen! That said, I have officially embarked on the quest to cover the difference of out of state tuition. </p>
<p>Recently I have stumbled upon the following road blocks. I was wondering if I could get any advice or guidance to make my dreams of going out of state a reality.</p>
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<li><p>I probably won't receive any significant amount of scholarship money from the university itself because my ACT score is pretty low (25.) Even if they granted me $2,000 a year I would still have to come up with $8,000 more through various other means. </p></li>
<li><p>A majority of the scholarships affiliated with the university are for in state students only.</p></li>
<li><p>I have been rigorously researching and applying to private scholarships but they are often well advertised so my chances of getting one are slim. In addition, many of these scholarships (including local scholarships) are announced near the end of the school year. Since my college decision is dependent on whether or not I am able to secure a large percentage of these private scholarships I will need to know well before May 1st. </p></li>
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<p>I truly appreciate any help or advice! I'm starting to think my dream is unrealistic but I have to at least try.</p>
<p>An out-of-state first-time freshman student who meets the December 1st scholarship priority deadline, has a 32-36 ACT or 1400-1600 SAT score [critical reading and math scores only] and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive the value of out-of-state tuition for four years.</p>
<p>That is from the Bama website. So my suggestion would be 1) try the SAT- some people do much better on one or the other and 2) TEST PREP! These are tests that can be studied for. There are expensive classes, but with the kind of motivation that full tuition offers, I would think you could spend the next couple of weeks studying as hard as you can and get the scores up substantially. Buy test prep books or get them from the library. There are “tricks” that can boost your score substantially. I am not talking about cheating, I am talking about test strategy. While going from a 25 to a 32 is going to be difficult, it is not impossible- but test prep is the key.</p>
<p>External scholarships are virtually always a single year award, so you would need $40,000 worth of those to make up the difference.</p>
<p>It’s tough to get merit aid with a 25 ACT. Have you taken the SAT? Most students have similar scores on the two tests, but some students perform better on one than the other.</p>
<p>I don’t know what so special about Alabama, but it’s totally foolish to be obsessing over a single school. Put your time into researching affordable alternatives instead looking at outside scholarships that will never amount to enough or daydreaming about a visit from the tuition fairy–she’s not coming.</p>
<p>What is necessarily better about Alabama over the in-state public universities in Michigan? To get the big scholarships at Alabama, you need to raise your ACT or SAT CR+M score.</p>
<p>^Going to second MamaJ. Bama has some pretty large institutional scholarships to attract OOS talent, but you have to have very high test scores to get them. A 25 is a good solid ACT score, but not in the range that they are looking for. The lowest you can get to even be considered is a 28 for their University Fellows Experience, and you have to be nominated by a school official (the real lower limit is a 32.) A 28 will also get you $3,500 per year, but you need at least a 30 for 2/3 OOS tuition. You can try to get your ACT score up to at least a 30 for some big money from them. But that’s like raising an SAT score from an 1150 to a 1340 - possible, but difficult.</p>
<p>Where are you in-state? There are many large public universities that are similar to Alabama.</p>
<p>Take the November SAT…that’s the last test acceptable for scholarships. It’s probably too late to sign up for the Oct exams, but if you have, then great.</p>
<p>Have you applied to the school and submitted the scholarship app? Do so, even though you have to test again. To get scholarship money, the apps need to be submitted by Dec 1.</p>
<p>Get a SAT practice book. Bama only uses the Math + CR sections of the SAT, so if you can get a 1330, then your cost would be the same or below a MI instate school. </p>
<p>If you get a 1250 M+CR SAT, then you’d only get $3500 per year, but if you added a $5500 student loan, you’d only be $1k short of your $10k goal. You could easily make that with a summer job. </p>
<p>That said, you need to come up with some safety schools since getting the scores needed for scholarships can be hard.</p>
<p>A 25 ACT won’t get you into the University of Michigan but it might get you into Michigan State, which is as good or better a school than Alabama. So why the obsession with Alabama? I can understand people going there for the big National Merit Scholarships, but you’re not going to get those.</p>
<p>I agree that this student should not attempt significant debt or some half-baked scheme to go to any particular school. That’s nutty. </p>
<h2>However, if the student does take the Oct ACT and/or the Nov SAT and scores high enough to get enough merit then no problem. </h2>
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<p>You may be surprised to know that most OOS students who attend Bama are paying full price…they’re not on scholarship. Over 3000 fall frosh were from OOS this year (over half the frosh class), and only about 200 had NMF scholarships and about 400 had Presidential or other large scholarships. An overwhelming number are paying full or near full price OOS (hopefully not with big loans…yikes). In a very short time, Bama has gone from getting about 8,000 frosh apps per year to over 25,000 apps per year…which is a lot for a public in a state with a low population.</p>
<p>That said, again, this student should not seriously attempt to attend this school unless he has his financial ducks in a row…scholarship, parents money, small student loan, and small amount of summer contribution. No school is worth risking your financial health.</p>
<p>If your home state is Michigan, I agree that aiming for Alabama doesn’t make much sense. Are you opposed to Michigan State because it is too close to home, or too many of your HS classmates will be going there? What’s the in-state tuition you need to find a way to match?</p>
<p>DO you need to match the in-state tuition, or the cost of attendance? If you are eligible for need based aid, you should run the Net Price Calculator for each of the schools you’re considering, and compare those, NOT the actual tuition. The tuition figure is meaningless unless your family income is high enough to not qualify for any aid. True, many schools don’t meet need, but it’s at least a more accurate stating point.</p>
<p>I grew up in East Lansing which is where Michigan State is located so one can see why it’s not exactly on my list. In state schools here run around 13.5k a year for tuition. I am fully aware that there is no “tuition fairy” but I don’t see any harm in trying. And I applied to four other schools so my “eggs aren’t all in the same basket”</p>