Thank you in advance for reading this and offering suggestions.
I am pretty much wondering if there are resources available to students whose families refuse to support them. My mother has been unemployed for a while and my father makes less than $35,000/year as a mechanic. Regardless of their incomes, however, they refuse to put money towards my education anyway. I am independent and receive no help from them, but not by choice.
I feel very stuck. I have a job of course, but I make minimum wage and have bills so it amounts to very little extra money. I got kicked out of my house at 16 and am technically squatting in my dad’s old house, which is awaiting foreclosure. What is most frustrating is that I consider myself a pretty decent student and I LOVE school. I graduated high school in '14 with around a 3.9 unweighted GPA and a 31 on the ACT (I only took it once. I didn’t even realize how important it was at the time). In the one year of college I’ve completed at a branch campus of Miami University, I got a 3.96 GPA and 32 credits. I know I’m not Ivy League material or anything, but no one ever encouraged me to do well in school or taught me about the intricacies of all this college stuff. It is hard because I want to go to college more than anything.
NYU, Emory and Tufts are my dream schools, though I live in Ohio so schools like Kenyon are appealing possibilities as well. The common denominator is their high tuitions. I want to believe it is possible to overcome tough odds and go to a prestigious school, but anymore it just seems like an impossible battle. Even schools much less expensive than my favorites are far out of my reach.
I have read things about schools that will cover entire tuitions for students whose families make below $60,000, but it mostly appears to be Ivy Leagues that do this. Are there any others? Programs for students like me possibly? Has anyone else ever overcome a similar situation?
Your grades and ACT scores put you in the range for applying to top institutions. Your parents make very little money, so unless there is a small business in the family or a lot of property, their financials should be pretty simple and you would be eligible for significant need-based aid. Your parents would not have to give you one cent, they would just have to be willing to file the FAFSA and the CSS Profile.
So, find out if your parents are willing to do that for you. If they are, pick out some places that state that they do offer good need-based aid for transfer students, and apply to them. NYU doesn’t give good need-based aid, so I’d scratch them right off your list.
I’m not an expert, but I think if you were literally kicked out and have some documentation or someone official to help you prove it, you can apply for financial aid with only your own income. Even if not, 35k isn’t a high income. There are a lot of schools that meet 100% of need – or close to it – and they’re not all ivy. You’d end up with Fed loans and you’d have to have a job, but it sounds as if you’re used to doing that anyway.
NYU is famous for not giving good aid, but look at a bunch of the colleges that change lives, for starters.
Also - particularly if you have no help at all from parents, it can’t be just about the tuition getting covered. You will have to sleep somewhere, and eat, and pay for books and shampoo. Run NPCs and look at the total cost of attendance.
Google gave me this: Colleges that meet 94-100% of need: (note Kenyon, Emory & Tufts are all on this list)
Amherst College (MA)
Barnard College (NY)
Bates College (ME)
Boston College (MA)
Brown University (RI)
Bryn Mawr College (PA)
Bowdoin College (ME)
Bucknell University (PA)
California Institute of Technology
Carleton College (MN)
Claremont McKenna College (CA)
Clark University (MA)
Colby College (ME)
Colgate University (NY)
College of the Holy Cross (MA)
College of Wooster (OH)
Colorado College (CO)
Columbia University (NY)
Connecticut College (CT)
Cornell University (NY)
Davidson College (NC)
Denison University (OH)
Dickinson College (PA)
Duke University (NC)
Dartmouth College (NH)
Emory University (GA)
Franklin and Marshall College (PA)
Franklin W. Olin College
Georgetown University (DC)
Gettysburg College (PA)
Grinnell College (IA)
Hamilton College (NY)
Harvey Mudd College (CA)
Haverford College (PA)
Harvard University (MA)
Johns Hopkins University (MD)
Kenyon College (OH)
Lafayette College (PA)
Lehigh University (PA)
Macalester College (MN)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA)
Middlebury College (VT)
Mount Holyoke College (MA)
Northwestern University (IL)
Oberlin College (OH)
Occidental College (CA)
Pitzer College (CA)
Pomona College (CA)
Princeton University (NJ)
Reed College (OR)
Rice University (TX)
Saint John’s College (NM)
Saint Olaf College (MN)
Scripps College (CA)
Sewanee: The University of the South (TN)
Smith College (MA)
Stanford University (CA)
Swarthmore College (NY)
Thomas Aquinas College (CA)
Trinity College (CT)
Tufts University (MA)
Tulane University (LA)
Union College (NY)
University of Chicago (IL)
University of Notre Dame (IN)
University of Pennsylvania (PA)
University of Richmond (VA)
University of Rochester (NY)
University of Southern California
Vanderbilt University (TN)
Vassar College (NY)
Wabash College (IN)
Wake Forest University (NC)
Washington and Lee University (VA)
Washington University, St. Louis, (MO)
Wellesley College (MA)
Wesleyan University (MA)
Williams College (MA)
Wheaton College (MA)
Yale University (CT)
What is wrong with your current institution? Your opportunity for substantial need and merit is likely quite limited as a transfer student. That ship has pretty much sailed.
Try to get an appointment with the Dean of Admissions at the College of Wooster. Borrow a car and drive over to talk to her in person and get a tour of the campus. She is enormously helpful and knowledgeable.
You probably qualify for full financial aid. If your relationship with your parents is so estranged that they refuse to fill out the form, then you might seek legal aid to help you sue for them to fill out the forms. Otherwise you have to wait until you are 24 or married, whichever comes first.
It does seem like you can file as an Independent being homeless. But that will only guarantee any Pell you are eligible for up to 5,770 and a student loan of about 10k.
Independent if you answer yes to this:
At any time on or after July 1, 2014, were you determined to be an unaccompanied youth who was homeless or were self-supporting and at risk of being homeless, as determined by (a) your high school or district homeless liaison, (b) the director of an emergency shelter or transitional housing program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or (c) the director of a runaway or homeless youth basic center or transitional living program? https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/dependency
Can.you transfer to the Oxford campus and keep aid status? I’d talk to FA about that. With your income level, if they have aid to give, you would get it. But it is a state Uni, so who knows what anoint they cover.
You would be a transfer student as you have completed a year of college already. Some schools award need based aid to transfer students in the same way as incoming freshmen…but many don’t. You also would likely not qualify for the merit aid awards on threads here because, again…those are for incoming freshmen…and you are not one.
How did you pay for your one year of college? How long can you co tinge at the branch campus? Have you spoken to anyone there about potential scholarships at other public universities in Ohio for transfers?
for programs, diversityabroad.com might help you, I used this for my MBA abroad program. they offer a lot of programs and scholarships too. my suggestion is, since you are still studying, why not have an internship based on your course. I believe your job is not related on what you’re studying right now. there are companies that offers internship with salary, you will benefit from the salary and of course, give you learning experience based on your course.