<p>So I am in a bit if a pickle. I'm going into my senior year of high school soon and have been thinking a lot about what's to come next. I want to go to college when I'm done but I slacked off a bit my first two years of high school so my Gpa is only at a 3.0. I also come from a single parent house hold that makes only about 30,000 a year. going to school in state is NOT an option would much rather not go to school and just move if I must I hate the state I live in. I want more than anything to be the first member of my family to go to college but I have no clue how to pay for it. any suggestions?</p>
<p>community college then transfer</p>
<p>Almost all out of state public schools charge extra tuition for out of state students. In addition to the regular fee everyone else pays, you have to pay more. Out of state public colleges don’t often give any money to oos students, but there are some exceptions. Private colleges cost even more. Where will you get the money from is a good question. Your grades are not quite enough to get you a lot of options where people will pay for you. What is your SAT score? You might have a few options, but you will have to be flexible about living somewhere you might otherwise not want–you should reconsider ruling out your best affordable instate options. See the last post on the list of automatic merit full tuition scholarships pinned to the top of the forum.</p>
<p>It seems it is hard for most teenagers to give up instant gratification of doing what they want for a better choice for their future. This kind of thinking especially is hard on low income kids to get out of the poverty cycle. Think about it. If you go to another state, you will probably get a minimum wage job and that will make it hard to pay for your housing and food. You might get to use some aid to take classes a few community college classes at a time. If you have an affordable instate option, you will get the luxury of being a full time student. What state are you in?</p>
<p>If you are eligible for the full Pell Grant, which seems like, you can get</p>
<p>5,730 Pell Grant + 5,500 Federal Student Loan = 11,230 for your first year full time student</p>
<p>In some case you can get an additional 4,000 loan, but to pile on an additional loan should try to be avoided as it will make your life difficult.</p>
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going to school in state is NOT an option would much rather not go to school and just move if I must I hate the state I live in. </p>
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<p>why is that? what state do you live in? why do you dislike the colleges there/?</p>
<p>Frankly, going OOS wont likely be an affordable option. Your residency will be based on where your mom lives. so you will get charged high OOS rates at other publics.</p>
<p>you dont have the stats to get into the privates that would give you enough aid.</p>
<p>You may get STATE aid if you stay instate.</p>
<p>You may have a 0 EFC, but that only entitles you to a pell grant of about 5700 and a 5500 student loan…not enough to pay for college…but your state may have aid if you stay instate.</p>
<p>Dont be stubborn with this “not an option” declaration…that attitude will just keep you down and uneducated. Get your education and then move…you have your whole life to live elsewhere.</p>
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Recently I fell in love with Miami University in Ohio but I live in Arizona and don’t have the money a
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<p>Miami O is not an option. As an OOS student it costs about 40k, and you wouldnt get any money from them except that amounts that I listed above.</p>
<p>harshness alert…
do yourself a favor…Get your head out of the clouds and think with a strategy that will work.</p>
<p>Not enough information. Grades are just part of the story. If you have something compelling, that could get you into a school that meets financial need. If you could get into Harvard, it would be virtually free.</p>
<p>Being a first person in your family to go to college is a plus. You still need a “hook”.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
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<p>this doesnt sound compelling. all it says is that the student didnt take school seriously for two years, and then during the 3rd year decided to buckle down a bit to bring grades up to a 3.0.</p>
<p>Unless this student is withholding important info such as he was homeless during the first two years, it is doubtful that any full-need school would consider him/her.</p>
<p>Either way, a school like Miami-O isnt going to care either way…aid isnt coming.</p>
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I’m looking for a school that some would consider “preppy” preferably up north near New England but not an Ivy
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<p>i can tell you this…living and dressing the preppy lifestyle is quite expensive. My kids undergrad has a segment of the student body that dresses very preppy…those clothes are very expensive.</p>
<p>You are going to be fighting to get enough money just to pay for college…preppy clothing wont be anywhere in the budget.</p>
<p>Champagne taste with a beer wallet, we often say. You can look for “discounts”. Look at the costs of some low cost OOS schools. IF your get a zero EFC, that’s $5700 in PELL and you can borrow up to $5500 and as a freshman. If you can find an OOS school that is affordable to you, and/or make up the gap working the difference or other ways to pay it, good for you. Possible, but not easy, and as my kids have learned through actual experience, things happen that cost money, unexpected things that quash ones plans totally if one didn’t leave some room financially.</p>
<p>OP, your post is very contradictory.
" I want to go to college" - but you did not want it really bad because you " I slacked off a bit my first two years of high school so my Gpa is only at a 3.0" . “I must I hate the state I live in.” - but you msut be aware that in-state schools are cheaper.
If you are looking for suggestions, I hope that you are not looking strictly for the ones that will please you (according to the above, it might be the case though). Here is my suggestion which is not trying to please you - forget being choosy, you did NOT work hard enough to put yourself into position of being choosy. Start checking your in-state schools to find which one might give you some scholarship, Merit or need based. My D. who graduated #1 from private HS did NOT even apply to schools that would not give her a good financial package. She ended up on full tuition Merit at public in-state and never looked back. In addition to Merit, you may qualify for need based. So, choose the ones that would award you the largest FA. The difference in FA from various in-state schools that accepted my D. was huge. So, why choose expansive option, when you most likely can go for free (might not be your first choice though, sorry, you have to forget “preferably” if your goal is to go to college). This is NOT PLEASING THRUTH, it is just simple truth.</p>
<p>When you list a bunch of stipulations for something, it’s always possible to come up with a big fat zero on your list. Happens to me all of the time. It means that what I want does not exist and some compromise has to be made. Want a brand new car for $5K? Not likely at all. So you start looking at what is on the list when the important parts of the equation are kept constant. If you cannot pay more than $X and you cannot raise more than that, the money constraints will define your list. You certainly can try to get more money in financial aid and merit wards, but if you don’t get the money, you can’t go to the schools that cost over what you can afford.</p>
<p>If going to a school in state is not an option for you, and it turns out you cannot find any OOS school that you can afford, then you don’t go to college for now. </p>
<p>There are some extremely low cost universities on one of the pinned threads at the top of this forum. Look that over. For instance Bemidji State would be $16K/year. <a href=“Tuition & Aid | Admissions | Bemidji State University”>http://www.bemidjistate.edu/admissions/undergrad/explore/costs/tuition/</a> A Direct loan and Pell grant would cover most of that. A summer job and work study might get you the rest of the way. But don’t just dismiss in-state schools out of hand. Once you graduate you can always move.</p>
<p>How about Minot State in North Dakota, if you can tolerate very cold weather. With a full Pell Grant, maximum Direct loan, part-time work (possibly work-study) during the school year, and full-time work during the summer, you can probably afford this school. There are also some scholarships available based on GPA and test scores. Not the northeast, and most likely not preppy, but definitely out of state. Some of the Louisiana and Minnesota state universities have out-of-state tuition waivers available, bringing the cost down to relatively low in-state costs. In general, the better “deals” for average students are in-state or far north (not northeast or northwest) or deep south schools.</p>
<p>^Oops. Crossposted with Erin’s Dad. Pretty much the same kind of info.</p>
<p>don’t get me wrong i am applying for the colleges in my state i have seen what they have to offer me and its not bad the environment just does not fit me personality wise. i said i wanted to go to a “preppy” school because that is how most would consider my fashion sense and personality not because of how much money my family makes and if thats not an options then hey so be it i “slacked” off my first two years not because i did not care about high school and college but because i went through an extreme bout of depression in which i attempted to take my own life i just took my SAT’s a few week ago and have yet to receive my scores for it i also plan to retake them in the fall and take my ACT’s the same time if Miami-O isn’t an option what are some other schools with a similar atmosphere that i can look in to. Thank you for all of your help its much appreciated. : )</p>
<p>So sorry to hear about your difficulties with depression. I hope that you got some good help and are feeling better. There is a recent post talking about whether to disclose mental illness on applications, so I won’t discuss that. Having lived in both Ohio and Arizona, I’m wondering if you’ve looked at NAU. Temperature and environment in Flagstaff are similar to Ohio. It’s a smaller school, more oriented to undergrad. Tuition is fixed at freshman rates and it’s easy to do study overseas. I’ve known physicians, engineers etc who loved undergrad there. My son liked it better than the other state schools and a daughter of a friend is moving from ASU Barrett to attend NAU this fall. I wish you the best.</p>
<p>What is it you don’t like in Arizona? The heat? Dry air gives you allergies? You find your town too conservative/too liberal/too religious/not religious enough?
With a 3.0, the highest your SAT/ACT, the easier for you to get financial aid.
Beside the “cheap public schools” (look at the list pinned on top of this forum - in New England, there are two in Maine that seem pretty good, and Maine Farmington may give you merit if you score well on the ACT/SAT) and your in-state possibilities, there are quite a few private schools that may be interested in a serious student from out of state bringing “geographical diversity”, such as Carroll Montana (in Montana’s capital and about as different from AZ as you can get), Butler, Augsburg, Susquehanna, Allegheny, Hiram, aforementioned Maine Farmington, perhaps Truman State, etc.
Run the net price calculator on each of those to see whether any of those would be affordable.
Are you a boy or a girl? If a boy, Wabash - If a girl, Simmons would be accessible to a 3.0 student who wants preppy and away from the Southwest.
Preppy schools that may be accessible would include Hobart and William Smith or Birmingham-Southern, for instance. But without SAT/ACT score it’s a bit difficult to suggest matches/reaches, so for now look into the suggestions above, run the NPCs, and come back to discuss what you’ve found, etc.</p>
<p>Look at NAU…very different than the rest of Az.</p>