<p>I'm a rising senior and I was thinking about getting most of my college apps done by the end of August, but my parents and I don't seem to agree. They're a little stubborn and don't understand how rankings don't matter. I tried to explain it to them, but they wouldn't listen. Colleges like Occidental and Barnard are the same as William and Mary or UVA to me. Maybe the average person wouldn't know these names, but I'm assuming employers or grad schools know them well. Also, I don't want to stay near home for college. I'd like to be able to go out with friends and have fun once in a while, but I wouldn't be able to do that if I stay home. They keep telling me to stay in-state because it's cheaper. I understand money is an issue, but I'll be paying the tuition and I'm fine with getting a loan. I have a huge headache now and I'm not sure what to do. >.<</p>
<p>but I’ll be paying the tuition and I’m fine with getting a loan</p>
<p>YOU can’t borrow much. YOU can only borrow $5500 as a frosh. That won’t come close to paying for those schools.</p>
<p>To borrow more (not a good idea) you would need qualified cosigners each year. Since your parents don’t want you to go to those schools, they’re not likely going to cosign. Plus, they’d be responsible for those loans if you don’t pay.</p>
<p>If you have high stats, then you might be able to get big merit scholarships somewhere.</p>
<p>Are you saying that your parents won’t pay anything towards college? Are you low income? What are your stats?</p>
<p>“I understand money is an issue, but I’ll be paying the tuition and I’m fine with getting a loan.”</p>
<p>Just exactly how much money do you have available to pay for tuition?</p>
<p>I you can cover the tuition, what about the housing and meals if you go to a sleep-away college/university? Who will cover those items?</p>
<p>If tuition, fees, meals, and housing are fully covered, what about books, materials, personal expenses, travel, etc., etc.? How will those be paid for?</p>
<p>If you are a US citizen, legal permanent resident, or fall into one of the other immigration categories that are eligible to file the FAFSA, you can borrow $5,500 for your freshman year. More than that requires a qualified co-signer. </p>
<p>Sit down with your parents, and run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of the colleges and universities on your list and their list. Find out which (if any) are affordable, and then work from there.</p>
<p>“Asian with a 3.5 UW as of the summer before senior year, 2200+ SAT,”</p>
<p>What state are you in? VA?</p>
<p>Are you a likely NMF? what was your PSAT?</p>
<p>What is your rank at your school? What is your career goal?</p>
<p>I’m didn’t mean to imply that my parents wouldn’t pay for college. They most likely will as best as they can, but we are low income. I wouldn’t want them to pay for my college and be in debt either. My stats aren’t that good, so I don’t think I would get any scholarships. 3.5 UW, 2200+ SAT, 700+ Math II and physics, one EC I’m really dedicated to and I can speak five languages fluently.</p>
<p>William & Mary and UVA are both ranked fairly high, and are both very well regarded outside of Virginia.</p>
<p>My parents would most likely cosign me for a loan if they can’t afford it. I’m from Virginia and my PSAT score was terrible. I would like to become either a physicist or an aerospace engineer. I’m not sure what my class rank is, but I should be in the top 10-25%.</p>
<p>Get comfortable with the idea of going to Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>It’s time to sit down with your parents, their financial information and your college list. Go through each college’s Net Price Calculator so that you and your parents understand the likely financial expectations.</p>
<p>Run a net price calculator for UVA.</p>
<p>Agree with checking the net price calculator at each school before making up your application list.</p>
<p>If your parents disagree about your college choices to the point that they may withhold the promised money or financial aid form information, you may want to add some of the full ride merit scholarship schools to your application list:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-2.html#post15889078[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-2.html#post15889078</a></p>
<p>For engineering, you can look up schools at [Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx) .</p>
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<p>This is so wrong. Your stats are sufficient to apply and get into schools with good financial aid. I’m not talking merit, I’m talking FinAid. It might end up coming out less expensive than VTech. </p>
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<p>Ok, then you need to attend a school that offers those majors. </p>
<p>I think that you have a great chance to get into Cornell if you apply ED to the engineering school. </p>
<p>Other schools are
Notre Dame
USC
RPI</p>
<p>I think you will get into RPI no problem, and they will make it affordable. </p>
<p>All of the other schools with serious Aero/Astro are either public, which means that you are unlikely to get full need met, or too reachy (MIT/Stanford).</p>
<p>*My parents would most likely cosign me for a loan if they can’t afford it. *</p>
<p>Your parents are low income…they’re not going to qualify to cosign loans. Or WORSE…they might qualify for freshman year, but not qualify for the next year. Disaster!! you’d have to leave your school and then commute to a local school to finish!</p>
<p>Banks will look at your parents’ income to determine if THEY could make the huge loan payments in case you can’t (that’s the point of cosigning). Since they’re low income, the banks would determine that your parents won’t be able to afford those large payments since their income is needed for basic living expenses.</p>
<p>You’re wrong that your stats aren’t high enough for merit at a number of good schools. There are schools that would give you free tuition or more for your stats.</p>
<p>If you major in AeroE, Alabama would FOR SURE give you free tuition plus 2500 per year. That’s over $100k in merit!!! The app is live now, it’s super easy to apply (no essays, no LORs), and you’d have a financial safety in no time.</p>
<p>BTW…I’ve seen that you’re looking at LACs…most don’t have eng’g.</p>
<p>Have your parents run some NPCs on various schools’ websites. Your GPA might keep you out of the TOP schools that give the best aid, but as CRD mentions, a school like RPI might work since they would want more girls. </p>
<p>Would you mind a school like RPI that is “boy heavy” and is a “techie school”???</p>
<p>Barnard is a need-blind college that claims to meet 100% of demonstrated need. Barnard is affiliated with Columbia University, an Ivy League school. Your diploma would have a “Columbia” seal on it. Plenty prestigious.</p>
<p>A 3.5 would be a little low for Barnard, but if they admit you, should have no bearing on the amount of need-based aid you get. 3.5UW/2200+/5 languages makes you competitive for many private LACs that offer decent need-based aid for incomes up to $100K or higher. Depending on your family circumstances, net costs at these schools could be competitive with (or even lower than) some Virginia state schools. You’d have to decide if you want an engineering option, though (because most LACs don’t offer that). </p>
<p>Money is money, whether it’s labeled “merit” or “need-based”. Most OOS public universities won’t cover your costs with n-b aid. The ones that offer big merit awards to students with your stats may or may not net out to a lower cost than UVa, W&M, Virginia Tech … or some of the private alternatives. UVa’s cost after average n-b aid (in state) is less than $6K, according to Kiplinger’s.</p>
<p>Consider applying to a mix of these schools, then compare your offers in the spring. Your parents may suddenly become more open-minded after seeing the bottom lines. Or not (if the VA schools really come through, in which case you could do a lot worse than UVa, WM, or VaTech).</p>
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<p>Even Cornell wants more girl engineers. They publish stats (at least they used to). About two years ago, Cornell’s overall admit rate was about 15% but for female engineers it was about 33%. Add a boost from an ED applicant with 700% Math II and Physics and a perfectly fine SAT score, and it becomes a match. </p>
<p>The other reason to apply to engineering is the deep prerequisite tree. You really start off by taking the same classes as Physics majors and then sophomore year you take some engineering classes. If you don’t like it, you can easily switch to science. It’s hard to go the other way because if you get out of sync, it’s really hard to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>*Cornell’s overall admit rate was about 15% but for female engineers it was about 33%. Add a boost from an ED applicant with 700% Math II and Physics and a perfectly fine SAT score, and it becomes a match. *</p>
<p>Sounds good. RPI and Cornell should be on her list as Matches or in Cornell’s case, a low reach due to GPA. </p>
<p>The student needs a good mix of schools that will get her funded. Occidental doesn’t meet need, so she could get gapped a lot and her parents won’t qualify to co-sign…plus they may refuse anyway because they don’t want her to go that far away.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think low income kids should go toooo far away unless they get funded by an Ivy type of school that really provides for the full COA sans loans. It can be very difficult for a low income student to pay for the travel cost involved with flying cross country (COA rarely includes a realistic estimate for travel costs!). It’s not just airfare (which can be nasty at peak times), but also shuttle costs to and from campus to airports. </p>
<p>The student reports wanting to go away to school to have some freedom to be with friends at times. That freedom can be had without going 2000 miles away. 
Even in her own state, if she chooses a college that is an hour plus away and must live on campus, she’ll have that freedom. </p>
<p>A student whose parents want the child to “come home” on weekends can always come up with a host of reasons why a home visit isn’t possible for various weekends…study group, group project, project work in the lab, too much homework, need school’s library resources, part-time job, community service project, etc. Heck, a STEM major can come up with a whole bunch of reasons to need to stay on campus (and not come home often).</p>
<p>Thank you do much for your advice. I feel a lot better about this than yesterday and finally have hope. The thing is that my lowest grades have been in math which pulled down my gpa by a lot. C+ in geometry honors freshman year and C in precalc honore junior year. I don’t think I’d get into a good engineering school with those grades.</p>
<p>MANY schools will give you a full ride for your stats. AND you can live out of state.</p>
<p>@teskeyben Could you give some suggestions please?</p>
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<p>I still think you’ll get into RPI based on the 700+ math II. I mean it’s the same subject matter as precalc. If I were on the committee, I would assume that you had a harsh teacher but the 700+ demonstrates that you learned the material well enough to do engineering. Geometry is not as relevant, to be honest. </p>
<p>I think Cornell ED is more difficult with this new information, but I think I’d still apply.</p>