<p>About me: I'm an African American female, rising senior living in South Carolina. I'm the 6th child out of seven. My mom is a single parent, my dad is not a citizen of the US anymore; he lives in his native Jamaica.
I know that college is a huge investment, but my mom cannot contribute to my education, being that her salary is about $35K yearly; I've been working since my sophomore year of high school, about 20 hours a week at minimum wage.
My GPA for my 9-11th grade years is about a 3.6. I'm involved in about five extra curricular activites, where I hold leadership positions. I've taken three AP classes so far and passed all the exams, my senior year I should be taking six APs (depending on how my scheduling works out). My SAT scores aren't that great..
-->My question is when deciding on a college, should I automatically rule out private expensive colleges and stick with instate colleges?</p>
<p>Any suggestions on how to receive more aid?</p>
<p>The cost of college shouldn’t deter you from going there. If you want to go to a private school, you’ll just have to figure out more ways to recieve money. FIll out as many scholarships as you can, big ones, small ones, and have an idea of what schools you think might give you the best aid. Also, fill out your FAFSA as soon as it is available, and have your applications in by that time, so you are elligible for the most aid.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should automatically rule out private schools, but you may want to check your instate aid before deciding to apply to many OOS. I believe SC offers decent grants to both public and private instate schools, don’t they? It would be helpful to know what majors and colleges you’re considering and what your scores were - folks could then let you know what their merit/FA experiences were. I’m assuming you’ll be Pell eligible.</p>
<p>The single best thing you can do to increase your aid at this point is probably to increase your SAT/ACT scores. Merit aid is almost universally based on GPA and test scores.</p>
<p>It’s strange but true that private schools CAN be more affordable than public schools, despite a higher cost of attendance. They have more flexibility to give aid, and more money to give. There’s a sticky in this forum about schools known for generosity – check it out.</p>
<p>I disagree that that the cost of college shouldn’t deter you from going somewhere. Money doesn’t materialize out of thin air. Either you pay it now, or you pay it later.</p>
<p>In any case, you need to do careful research in your options. Check out your state’s public universities (like University of South Carolina) and see if they fit your needs. Look at public universities that will give scholarships waiving the OOS tuition to students fitting your profile. Find out at which schools you are in the top 10-25% of applicants, where you are more likely to get merit-based aid. And see if you can calcuate your family’s EFC, to see what kind of need-based aid you’d receive at some of these places.</p>
<p>I was in a situation in which my parents were middle-class enough to have a $20,000 EFC, but not rich enough to actually be able to afford that. I did unfortunately have to rule out schools that met 100% of need but gave no merit aid, and turned my attentions to schools that were matches and safeties that gave out substantial merit awards. I ended up going to an expensive private school that gave me a full merit award because I was one of their very top applicants (and got similar offers from other schools at which I was also a top applicant).</p>
<p>You have to do your research carefully. Will you have to rule out places like Brown and Columbia? Possibly. But depending on your stats, Duke and Emory may not be out of your reach because they give merit aid. (Although if your SAT scores aren’t that great, you may want to work on that.)</p>
<p>In general this could not be more incorrect. You are right to consider money before you make a college list. Most people can not afford many colleges.</p>
<p>For most private colleges, they will want your father to contribute as well as your mother, no matter where he lives. If either is remarried they will want financial info from the new spouses too.</p>
<p>You need to use a calculator such as the one on this site or College Board to get an idea of what your family will be expected to pay. That will allow you to see which kinds of colleges you should focus on.</p>
<p>As others said, private colleges, f they meet 100% of need, can be less expensive than state schools for low income students.</p>
<p>As julliet said, you would ideally want to be in the top 25% to have the best shot at merit aid. At USC, for example, that would be SAT scores of 630 CR, 650 Math, or an ACT of 28, a gpa of 3.75, and a class rank in the top 10%.</p>
<p>You should definitely apply anyway, since you’re instate, but you really can’t wait til winter to retake those SAT’s. USC’s early action deadline is 10/1 and their priority deadline is 12/1. You should spend some time every day this summer brushing up your math and CR skills - follow an organized method, do plenty of practice exams, etc.- and retake the SAT in October. You should also consider taking the ACT - some kids find they do better on that - the next test is in September. Boston U also requires subject tests for admissions (and isn’t known for great FA either btw).</p>
<p>Make sure you pay attention to all deadlines - admissions and financial aid!</p>
<p>Agreed…work hard on the retake of those SATs. Agreed…you might also want to consider the ACT. </p>
<p>BU is mighty expensive. Merit aid is offered only to the top of its accepted students. Right now, your SAT score would not be in that group. In fact, you might be accepted. BU does not meet full need so your financial aid may not fill the gap between your EFC (what your family can contribute) and the cost of attending.</p>
<p>Agreed…apply to USC…great school. </p>
<p>Have you discussed your college ideas with a college counselor at your school? What are they suggesting?</p>
<p>BU has terrible aid if you have a low or average SAT since they base their university grant on your SAT and your Income. You qualify for the highest grant on the income side, but its probably not nearly enough to fit your need if you don’t get an SAT score of 1250 or something (middle bracket).</p>
<p>From a recent blog post: How to identify the anticipated financial awards…</p>
<p>First of all, you need to estimate your expected family contribution (EFC). There is a calculator at Collegeboard.com that works fairly well.</p>
<p>Now we need the cost of attendance (COA) from the schools you are interested in. Each school will have a different cost of attendance. This can be found at the colleges websites, Collegeboard.com, Kiplinger, or a dozen or more other websites.</p>
<p>Subtract the EFC from the COA to find out what your financial need (FN) is at each of the schools. The formula looks like this </p>
<p>COA - EFC = FN</p>
<p>Now multiply the financial need at each school by the schools financial track records: % of need met; % of gift aid; % of self help. This will provide you with how much money the school is likely going to give you, and consequently, how much you are likely to pay at that college.</p>
<p>And Voila! You now have a fairly accurate estimation of your out of pocket costs and at each of the colleges. You can now see which schools are generous and which are not. Youll be surprised. You are probably going to find out that some of the schools that look cheaper in the beginning will actually wind up costing the most in the end.</p>