<p>My brother told me that with with financial aid and scholarships, the tuition of a liberal arts college or a private university could cost about the same as that of an in-state public university. Is this true? Can I really shave $30,000 off my tuition? My family income is over $100,000.</p>
<p>You have to look at each school. Not every school offers great merit scholarships, and not every student qualifies.</p>
<p>I don’t know how to post the link, but use the search engine on this site to look for schools that guarantee merit scholarships.</p>
<p>My older kid, average to just above average HS academics went to a public school. Her younger sister - high GPA and great SAT scores did find that it was less expensive for her to go to a private college, after finding a couple that offered her an 80% tuition discount and some need-based aid as well.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/211927-institutional-merit-based-scholarships-full-tuition.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/211927-institutional-merit-based-scholarships-full-tuition.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html</a></p>
<p>Yes this is true but there are a number of factors involved. You should run your FAFSA profile and check what you EFC would be and this would depend on how much over $100,000 your parents’ income is, the no of children in college and how much your parents have in cash and investments. You would also have to qualify for these schools (how good a student you are) and choose wisely, meaning schools that have the large endowments that are in the position to offer you 20-30K of financial aid. My children attend a top LAC and the costs are basically in the range of a state college or even a little less.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses guys. Can tuition of out-of-state public universities be as low as the tuition of in-state public universities too? Or is it a lot harder to get financial aid for out-of-state public universities?</p>
<p>It is possible, but not automatic. If you have the academci profile to get accepted to a school that guarantees to meet full need, with your family income where it is, you are likely to get enough financial aid from such schools so that the cost would be competitive with your state flagship school (some exceeption for those states with very low state school costs. If you apply to schools where you are among the very top applicants in terms of test scores and class rrank/grades, you may get enough financial and/or merit money so that some private schools will cost less than the state schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses guys. Can tuition of out-of-state public universities be as low as the tuition of in-state public universities too? Or is it a lot harder to get financial aid for out-of-state public universities?</p>
<p>I don’t think Cpn’s answer above is for OOS publics in regards to need-based aid. The only OOS publics that give good need based aid to OOS students are UVA and UNC…and those are hard to get accepted to as an OOS student. </p>
<p>Other publics usually don’t have enough aid to give their own instate students, so they don’t give much/any need-based grants to OOS students (beyond fed grants for low income students).</p>
<p>OOS public univ don’t usually give need-based aid to OOS students. They charge high OOS rates for a reason. It wouldn’t make much sense to then cover those high costs with need based aid. Why bother charging high rates. lol</p>
<p>However, SOME OOS publics will give merit scholarships for high stats. Those merit scholarships can bring the costs to below your instate publics.</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>My stats aren’t very high, 3.77 weighted GPA and 2010 single-sitting SAT/2050 superscore SAT. I’m supposing I should just stick to my in-state UCs, LACs, and private universities?</p>
<p>As a general rule, your in state pulblic schools are the lowest cost options, or among them. That was the case for the most part for us. S1 did get one athetic award that was a full ride, but his next lowest cost school was a state school and that was with zero financial or merit aid from them. S2 went in-state amd it was his lowest cost option. He got a nice scholarship that sweetend the in state costs nicely. Though he did get a number of merit awards, none of them were sizeable. S3 did get some nice merit awards, but the best was from his state school–full ride plus, the second least expensive school was another state school when it awarded him merit money. He did not get anything from the one OOS public on his list–got in but full freight, OOS made it just affordable but more expensive than several privates that threw in merit money to cut their costs down to half of the sticker cost. </p>
<p>DS4 is at an OOS public that costs about $15K more than our instate public. His best deal was a full tuition award from a local Catholic school, which is a private option. He did not get a lot of merit money and got none from OOS schools. But several of his friends are at his college, paying far less than they would have paid from their in state flagships. Their instate universities did not have much in the way of merit money, and they got some nice discounts from this particular OOS college. </p>
<p>So it all depends on your choices. U of ALabama has been much discussed because it has some full merit awards that are guaranteed at certain threshold test scores. That could beat out anyone’s instate school unless there the student gets the same full ride offer from them. But instate schools also often have more awards and awards only for instaters. Add that to the instate lower cost, and in most cases, it’s hard to beat.</p>
<p>What is your M+CR from one sitting?</p>
<p>There are some schools that would give you merit, but you’ve missed a lot of Dec 1st deadlines.</p>
<p>My best single-sitting M+CR score is 1350. </p>
<p>And it’s not like I’m tight financially. I’m fine with paying upwards to $15,000-$20,000 in tuition as long as I get the proper educational experience.</p>
<p>Staticroar, you mean in Tuition or total cost? The way I look at it, the bottom line number, the total cost is what matters. There are schools with low tuiton but high room, board and other expenses. Also the other way around </p>
<p>Most OOS Flagship publics will run you more in total cost thatn $20K a year. Our state schools costs with room and board cost that much.</p>
<p>NYS in-state COA for living on campus runs around $23K and going up - going to OOS state college can cost $30-$40K. In-state is generally the most reasonable in costs. OOS colleges are generally for those who don’t qualify for much financial aid and find it a cheaper option than a full price private college and OOS students are a way of bringing in cash. You can only hope to get merit aid from these institutions if you are a top of the line student or you are desireable in some way. The only other option is if you can go to NYC CUNY colleges and commute.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse Can I get aid for total cost too? </p>
<p>@akebias How do I check how much financial aid I qualify for?</p>
<p>Qualifying for aid is different from getting it. Most schools don’t meet need. and, most OOS publics won’t give aid other than the small amounts of fed aid.</p>
<p>Use the Net Price Calculators on various school’s websites. Have your parents help you with the numbers.</p>
<p>And it’s not like I’m tight financially. I’m fine with paying upwards to $15,000-$20,000 in tuition as long as I get the proper educational experience.</p>
<p>Are YOU paying or your parents? If YOU are paying, does that mean you have a good-paying job? If not, how would you pay? </p>
<p>If your parents are paying, then are they saying that they’ll pay $20k?</p>
<p>Your family income is over 100k…that suggests that your EFC may be $30-40k+ per year.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I used the financial aid calculator on Colgate University (a liberal arts college), and the estimated total grant/gift aid summed up to $18,000. That makes tuition there $26,640. How do I get that down to the tuition of an in-state public university, which is around $10,000?</p>
<p>And my parents are going to be mainly for college. I’ll help out a little by getting a part-time job during my time there. And what’s EFC?</p>
<p>Are you talking about tuition or total cost to attend (tuition, room, board, books, etc)?</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a way to get your costs down to $10k. Did you think that I said that you could? </p>
<p>Colgate costs about $58k per year to attend. if you get $18k in aid, then you’d have to pay about $40k.</p>
<p>I’m solely talking about tuition now.</p>
<p>*I’m solely talking about tuition now.
*</p>
<p>Why? Are you going to pitch a tent in the Quad and graze off the lawn? When talking about college costs, financial aid, etc, you really need to talk about tuition, room, board, fees, etc. Otherwise, the discussion won’t be meaningful. </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year for you to go to college (tuition, room, board, etc)? If the answer is $20k, then just talking about tuition is a big nutty.</p>
<p>Mom 2 is right! in a best case scenario - $18K in financial aid would comprise of grants, work study and loans - so the cost would be $40K plus subsidized/unsubsidized loans and that’s only if you admit you. Without high stats, Colgate is a reach.</p>