please help me answer my question about this (fin aid)

<p>My family (especially my older sister in grad school) always tells me not to worry to much about paying for it.</p>

<p>I may be wrong, but didn’t you say in another thread that your mom makes about $50-65k or so? Why wouldn’t you have to worry about money?</p>

<p>I don’t know what your sister’s grades/stats were like, but I think you’ve mentioned that you’ve gotten some bad grades. Please understand that schools consider a student’s stats when handing out aid. So, if your stats aren’t high for Howard, they may give you a lousy FA package.</p>

<p>It really is unwise not be concerned about money unless you have an assured source for money. There are many threads here on CC from very sad students and parents who didn’t give money a concern and now can’t afford their choices.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>It is spring and my office and CC is full of students with this same stupid mindset. THey have been accepted into schools that they cannot possibly afford to pay for. In september the conversation was “don’t worry, my parents will pay whatever it cost.” If I only had a $1 for everytime I read or heard this…</p>

<p>Your sister is in grad school which means she is able to borrow much more money through the stafford loan program and she is also in a postition to borrow her full cost of attendance through a direct lender in her own name.</p>

<p>However, you on the other hand are a fool if you think that you don’t have to worry about how to pay for college. The maximum amount that you can borrow through the stafford loan program as a freshman is 5500. No one is going to loan you any money outside of the stafford loan program. Howard’s cost of attendance is ~ $34,475.00</p>

<p>[Cost</a> of Attendance - Howard University](<a href=“http://www.howard.edu/studentfinancialservices/accounts/tutionandfee.htm]Cost”>http://www.howard.edu/studentfinancialservices/accounts/tutionandfee.htm)</p>

<p>Even if you were in a postition to obtain a full tuition scholarship of $15,270.00 (because not every one who is eligible receives a scholarship), you will still have to come up with ~ 20,000 a year to make this happen (ok, $14,500 if you borrow the stafford max).</p>

<p>I think we told you before to sit with your mom and run your numbers through a financial aid calculator. Use can use the fafsa4caster</p>

<p>[FAFSA4caster</a> - Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf]FAFSA4caster”>http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf)</p>

<p>and it will tell you how much your EFC is going to be. When you get your EFC use this calculation :</p>

<p>Cost of attendance- EFC = demonstrated need.</p>

<p>Let’s say your mom is 45 years old, makes ~ 60k with no other assets, according to the college board your EFC would be $7678 (you would not be pell grant eligible)</p>

<p>$34,475.00 -7678 = $26,797</p>

<p>If you were to receive a full tuition scholarship (don’t count this chicken before it hatches) there is 11,527 remaining.</p>

<p>lets say you take out the maximum stafford loan 5500. that leaves $6027. How are you going to pay this.</p>

<p>Will your mother be able to pay the EFC (7678)?<br>
Is your mother amenable to borrowing $ to pay for your education.</p>

<p>On the off chance that you do not get a tuition scholarship, and your demonstrated need is $26,797. If you borrow $5500 in stafford loans, where is the other $21,297 coming from? Will your mother be comfortable borrowing this money if she cannot pay it.</p>

<p>Howard is a FAFSA only school, so they do not give institutional aid. As Northstar mom stated, they reserve their scholarship aid for the top of the applicant pool. I know for a fact from having students attend Howard, that there is no phase in with their merit $$. IF you do not meet the gpa requirement, the $$ is gone.</p>

<p>Have a realistic money talk with your mom now! Find out how much she is willing to borrow or pay for Howard given the best and worse case scenarios. Do away with the wishful thinking, there are not any college fairies that will magically bring $$.</p>

<p>^ Thank you to mom2collegekids & especially to sybie719 for the insightful information…you have no idea how much i appreciate it :)</p>

<p>and yup, you’re right…my mom (im kind of scared to sit down and talk w/ her LMAO)( she’s 48 yrs old btw,haha) makes around 50-60K (would you consider this as somewhat a lower income bracket?) but I will also talk to my dad if he will be able to pay for it as well (and my sister if she could chip in).</p>

<p>now i’m worried :frowning: so do you think transferring would be more realistic?</p>

<p>I think that it will be very hard for you to afford Howard because you’re not likely to get the aid that you need to go there. It may require you to take out large loans – loans that would be very difficult to repay. </p>

<p>If you transfer, you’d probably have even less chance of getting financial aid because usually colleges that can’t afford to give much financial aid give more to entering freshmen than to upperclassmembers and transfers.</p>

<p>If you rely on your mom’s saying you shouldn’t consider finances when you apply to college, you’re likely to be very disappointed next year when you can’t afford to go to your first choices of college.</p>

<p>Fine to apply for outside scholarships, but realize that the bulk of scholarship funds come from the colleges themselves. Other scholarships are either extremely competitive (particularly true of the largest scholarships, those that accept applications nationally) or are too small to make much of a dent in your costs.</p>

<p>Do apply to some colleges that you definitely know you can afford and definitely will be accepted to. For many if not most students, that’s a local community or 4-year public college that they can commute to.</p>

<p>Having a $60 k a year isn’t considered impoverished. However, that doesn’t mean that your mom can afford to send you to Howard or to any other college that can’t meet your financial need.</p>

<p>If you can get SAT scores totaling to 1900, you might be able to qualify for good merit aid at Howard.</p>

<p>So…is there any way that I will be able to go to Howard? (or any other colleges of my choice) The U of M is nice…but I don’t think i’d really like it (considering that it’s ridiculously HUGE and in MN :frowning: )</p>

<p>So going to the college of my choice…even if it’s not now will be impossible? :(</p>

<p>I will sit down and have a talk with my parents…and i’ll keep you guys updated :)</p>

<p>oh even though it might seem impossible…my goal is to get at least a 2100 :slight_smile: but 1900 sounds more realistic :slight_smile: but idk if i can keep my gpa to a 3.0 (i really messed up ) (only to a 2.9 :frowning: ) but we’ll see…</p>

<p>I hate myself now…i wish i could go back in time …haha…</p>

<p>Plus, i was thinking about going to st.cloud state for a year (if all fails) (and i think i might like it) then transfer elsewhere (: </p>

<ul>
<li>I’m VERY social so I definitely want to go somewhere where i can be happy :]</li>
</ul>

<p>In looking at your previous posts, I see that you have gotten some F grades, even junior year. Even if finances weren’t a concern, I think that Howard and some of the other schools you’re considering would be longshots. I also am surprised that given your grades your mom would even consider sending you far away to school. </p>

<p>Someone who has gotten F grades in high school junior year doesn’t sound as if they have the maturity to handle college far from home. Saying this as the mom of one son who squeaked through high school with about a 2.9 average, and then flunked out of college due to too much partying freshman year. </p>

<p>Younger son’s grades dropped senior year, though he didn’t flunk anything. As a result, his dad and I refused to pay anything for his college until he went for a year on his own dime and got acceptable grades. S too a gap year after high school – working as an Americorps Volunteer – then used his Americorps $, savings, and scholarships (due to his Americorps experience and his high SAT scores he got some merit aid) and big loans to pay for his first year of college. He is a junior who has been on dean’s list throughout college.</p>

<p>Anyway, I think you’re being very unrealistic about your college choices. You don’t have the grades to get into colleges like Howard. Colleges that will accept you are likely to have even less need-based scholarship aid than Howard has. It would be more realistic for you to plan to commute to your local community college, get your AA with great grades and then transfer. </p>

<p>If you do extraordinarily well in community college, you may be able to transfer to a college where you’d be very happy. Because Howard probably doesn’t have a lot of need-based aid for transfer students (and probably has 0 merit aid for transfers), I doubt you’d be able to go there for undergrad, but maybe you could go there for grad school.</p>

<p>The thing is that i mentioned going to a CC to my Mom and she got a bit upset about it i don’t think she wants me staying at home LOL…and i don’t think studying at home would provide a very going atmosphere for me to study in :(…so i could go to an in state university and then transfer (since i can stay on campus and what not).</p>

<p>I don’t know what happened to me…i’ve had issues last year…then continued to this year…went for being an A- student…to this :frowning: I think i’m going to be a failure aaaaaah</p>

<p>btw, what does AA stand for (not African -American? )</p>

<p>AA=Affirmative Action</p>

<p>@ Northstarmom – thanks for the info and the reality check, haha :)</p>

<p>well, i hope AA will help…</p>

<p>do you think it would be a bad idea for me to go to a CC in VA?</p>

<p>And also, if you check out the howard board there are transfers that have gotten a lot of aid or a full ride. [transfer scholarships].</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/howard-university/614325-acceptance.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/howard-university/614325-acceptance.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I can’t think of any good reason to go to an out of state or even out of your area community college. You’d be paying out of state/region fees, which would waste money that you could use to help pay for attending a 4-year college after finishing getting your associates degree.</p>

<p>Would you mind telling me a little bit more about Americorps?</p>

<p>hmmmm I totally wouldn’t mind going to howard for grad school but i don’t think it would be the same as going to howard for undergrad :confused: (in terms of experience).</p>

<p>If i do excel in CC/state school/wherever i will end up (which i plan on doing (: ) i think i’ll transfer to either GW, gtown or howard</p>

<p>but of course i have my heart set on howard <3…so far.</p>

<p>I’m not into going to HYPS like i did in the past…but do you know any other schools that i might like…if i get the chance to transfer at? :slight_smile: (to help me keep motivated!)</p>

<p>You are right: Howard does offer some fantastic merit aid to outstanding transfer students. So, if you get a 4.0 and also have outstanding ECs in college, you may be able to transfer to Howard with an excellent scholarship</p>

<p>I suggest calling Howard to find out more details about the accomplishments of students who got that scholarship. Also find out how many such scholarships are offered. That will help you know what to achieve in college so you can transfer to your dream school.</p>

<p>"The Howard University Transfer Scholarship Program is designed to provide financial assistance to prospective transfer applicants who have demonstrated exceptional academic achievement while attending an accredited community college or other post-secondary institution and wish to complete their undergraduate studies at Howard University.</p>

<p>To be eligible for consideration, prospective transfer applicants must have at least 30 transferable credit hours and at least a 3.25 grade point average from their transferring institution.</p>

<p>The Transfer scholarship covers full tuition and mandatory fees. The scholarship is renewable for maximum of three years of undergraduate study."
[Grants</a>, Scholarships & Fellowships - Howard University](<a href=“http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Transfer]Grants”>http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Transfer)</p>

<p>Yaay!!! I will start working hard now…and maybe take classes at a CC in the summer (or the next) to rack up credit hours.</p>

<p>So, should i not bother at all applying to howard next year? (i just figured out thati kinda have legacy which they ask on the app. plus i have a very diverse background=good essay?, good ECs etc.)</p>

<p>oh and will 1 year in a CC/college= to 30 credit hours?</p>

<p>Below is a link to info about Americorps, which provides its participants with a small stipend to live on, and also provides them with $4,700 that they can use to help pay for a college. Some colleges also match what Americorps gives.</p>

<p>Americorps can be an excellent option for smart, but unfocused students who may have underperformed in high school, but otherwise are responsible people who enjoy helping others. Americorps gives its participants considerable responsibility. For instance, at 18, my son was head of youth programs for about a 4-county area. He also supervised volunteers much older than he was.</p>

<p>There are colleges that give scholarships based on community service experience, and that would probably give virtually full rides to applicants who have served with Americorps. </p>

<p>I think that Wofford in S.C. may be one such college. I met an African American student who had such a scholarship there, and was getting some amazing opportunities including being funded to do community service abroad.</p>

<p>[Bonner</a> Scholars - Wofford College](<a href=“http://www.wofford.edu/bonnerScholars/]Bonner”>Wofford College | Bonner Scholars Program)</p>

<p>Info on Americorps: [url=<a href=“http://www.americorps.gov/]AmeriCorps[/url”>http://www.americorps.gov/]AmeriCorps[/url</a>]</p>

<p>You have nothing to lose by applying to Howard next year. Just don’t pin all of your hopes on getting into it and being able to afford it yet. Also apply to back-ups.</p>

<p>Thank you Northstarmom!!! You’re THE bestest (:</p>

<p>I believe the AA that Northstarmom was referring to in post #26 was an Associates in Arts degree that you would receive after completing two years of community college.</p>

<p>^ thanks for clearing that up :)</p>