Well, if you could get into Harvey Mudd, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, or Amherst, you’d get a full ride (need based).
Your dad might relax his criteria if you get a better financial offer, but you’ll need to be flexible with your criteria.
Oos private universities actually often offer preferential packaging to stunts who come from more than 400miles away.
So, you have three types of strategies :
- Big merit scholarships
- instate public universities (or private)
- oos private universities
Good that you are starting to think about this now.
My free advice…while you think you know your college major…this could change. It could change while you are in HS, and it could change while you are in college. So…keep you options open.
And you heard it right…no state funded or college funded need based aid for OOS students attending public universities in CA starting this admissions round. If you are eligible for a Pell grant, you would still get that…but really $5800 a year isn’t going to be a lot of help towards OOS CA public costs.
Wow. I just feel kind of disappointed that I can’t go to UC Santa Barbara, because I was already watching youtube videos about life on the campus. But I’ll get over it. I would surely not want to bring all that debt on. And I don’t think that the university you went to is such a big deal in the job world.
Princeton (that’s actually my dream school) Stanford, Columbia and Harvard are on my list. But… yeah I don’t think I’ll get accepted.
I am still considering my college major, I have interest in a lot of different things. Medicine, technology even animation. But I particularly like what engineers do for our world, and I want to make a change and help provide the world with cleaner energy and so on.
OP it is a mistake IMHO to just take SAT. My kids were able to move the ACT score. I had them do a baseline of both at end of sophomore year. They both did take a second SAT, but were able to improve ACT score. It meant a difference in our state with scholarships to in-state.
Tell your mom that with an engineering or physics degree, you will not be ‘stuck’ in TX. Most any degree if you are motivated for a particular region of the country, and especially if you have family/friends there - you can make it work.
You have to assess what it will take to be a great student applicant in TX for various in-state programs. $65K is not a strong household income. Do they expect you to take out the max for student loans? (a freshman student loan will not cover room and board, so they do have to help if you are going to college away from home)
Does your HS offer any dual enrollment, AP?
You do need to be smart enough to see the big picture - you goal is to graduate with an UG degree ‘finish in four’. You need to get on the various school NPC to see what they estimate the costs to attend are. Then you can have a strategy. There is no shame to start at community college, esp if it means getting through UG degree with less debt.
This information might be helpful. It is a list of schools that offer generous merit-based scholarships according to GPA/test scores.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Given that your family is low income, it might be cheaper to attend a private school that is generous with its need-based aid than a public in-state university. So Rice could be an option. Or Southwestern, if you are willing to consider an LAC. If your GPA/test scores are competitive, you could aspire to Rice or any of the schools that @MYOS1634 suggested.
I would spend a lot of time on PSAT prep for next year because National Merit could open a lot of doors for you.
If you end up with a full ride based on your own academic merits, then what mom or dad wants becomes a bit less relevant. You might be able to advocate more for what YOU want, if they aren’t footing the bill.
CC to 4 year is not always the cheapest path as merit scholarships often are limited to incoming freshmen and transfer students have much more limited options regarding aid.
Also ask your guidance counselor if you are eligible to participate in programs like questbridge based on your family’s income. If you are a URM (underrepresented minority) or first-generation college student, that will also give you an advantage with respect to admissions to some of the more competitive private schools that are eager to have a more diverse student population.
I don’t mean to derail this thread, but I think the following point/question is kind of related to OP’s concern…
Am I wrong to feel that any university that receives Federal money has an obligation to give at least some out of state financial aid?
For instance, in this case, UC received $7.9 billion (BILLION) dollars in Federal support in 2011-2012. Last time I checked, the biggest deduction from my paycheck came from the Federal government. So isn’t it true that I am indirectly supporting UC (and every university that takes Federal money) even though I’m from NY?
Page 67… http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/nov12/f1attach3.pdf
The state of CA or any other place for that matter…is NOT obligated to give their money to OOS students.
The student would receive the Pell Grant which is a federal entitlement, if eligible. And the Direct Loan.
Do you really want to be explicitly out of the state of TX? Or do you just want to experience the adverture of being away from home? TX is a big place…
I think Texas A&M has the ‘Aggie Promise’. Definitely keep that in the back of your mind for when it’s time to apply. I think the income limit is $60k now, but they might increase it or your family’s income change by then.
On that list of reactor schools there are merit opportunities, Missouri, Kansas, Idaho, etc.
But like others said your interest/focus might change. More important is an engineering school that is ABET accredited and has good research opportunities.
It’s good that you are asking now. For OOS public schools you will primarily be looking for merit.
UIUC and Penn State are not very generous either.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be picky, but before you study for the PSAT, or write your essays, you may want to look at some grammar books to improve your sentence productions. It will help.
So you are a sophomore in high school and have not taken the PSAT, ACT, SAT or any AP exams? What is your GPA?
UIUC isn’t going to give you aid, either.
@STEMFamily
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Am I wrong to feel that any university that receives Federal money has an obligation to give at least some out of state financial aid?
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??? an obligation to give OOS students institutional aid? or Fed aid???
If a student qualifies for fed aid, he get (just) that aid.
As far as institutional aid…why would a school have ANY obligation to give an OOS student any institutional aid just because there is fed aid???
How does Fed aid magically allow an OOS public enough money to give OOS aid? That would be like saying if a doctor gets paid with medicare dollars then he needs to discount out-of-network patients.
‘Aiming’ to get to, and actually being able to get there with student stats is critical.
W/O GPA, and ACT/SAT it is all speculation. And getting the NM stat on PSAT - one can be a smart student, and even a very smart student and not hit that mark.
Even getting a significant SAT/ACT for various scholarship consideration.
@SOSConcern My highschool offers duel enrollement and AP courses. I am taking two for my junior year. I’m going to take the PSAT, and I’m studying hard so I can get qualified for the National Merit scholarship. I might prep for the ACT as well after the PSAT, but I feel as if the SAT fits me better and mostly, I want to not divide my study time to study for both.
@mommdc Thanks for the links. I might not keep UIUC. I feel as if I should just stick to UT at Austin and Texas A&M at College Station for public colleges.
@mamaedefamilia Thanks for your advice! I’m studying hard. I have straight A’s now (but I won’t be ranked for GPA and class rank until 11th grade) and I am self studying over the summer. I’ll aim for a merit scholarship, and try to get into the top 10% of my class. I am hispanic, native american, and african american so I would be considered under represented at a lot of schools. I’ve heard of questbrigde before I will check it out again.
@GMTplus7 I mean I want to get out of the state, not like forever. but I wanted to go to school in the east or west coast for different climate and vibe and beaches . I have family in California. Honestly, it isnt like really big deal I know after college my job will allow to possible move about, I don’t even really want to stay in America, that’s why I want to study abroad.
@Madison85
My school doesn’t rank GPA until 11th grade. I know it’s dumb. I haven’t took the PSAT because it was only offered to 11th graders, but I could have taken the SAT 10, I know but I wasn’t prepping so I didn’t want to make a bad grade. I didn’t take AP U.S. History or AP world geography, because I’m taking geography currently and I haven’t took U.S. History yet so I felt I should take the AP versions of those courses once I finished the regular courses. Those are the only AP courses available for 10th graders at my school,
@“aunt bea” My grammar is not perfect or sentence structure…or whatever… but that’s because I am typing fast so I’m not paying so much attention to it. Sorry! I promise I’ve written tons of essays in school and I’ve gotten As on them.
Once you take the PSAT - then you will see where you stand. Many students do not move the needle on the SAT. You always will have time later junior year and first semester senior year to do the ACT and test prep - if you look at the testing and do the proper prep.
National Merit is a really high thing - either a student has the score or they don’t. I don’t know if there is the National Achievement and how you might qualify for that classification.
DD1 ‘liked’ the SAT but on her 2nd time didn’t move the needle. She raised her scholarship level going up one point on ACT, which she was able to do with ACT. I have seen many students raise their ACT scores; not as much with SAT. DD2 raised her score to Presidential level which was a difficult thing - had to raise low scores and also working on high scores moving them higher - the strategy and all the work was effective - practice tests, tutoring, ACT test courses.
Maybe @mom2collegekids can see your recent posts and chime in.
I have seen both situations - students with high standardized test scores but lowish GPA, and students with high GPA but lowish standardized test scores. Never know if high GPA is with inflated grades at a particular HS.
Keep focusing on your studies. Based on your stats, financial position etc, then you can see where you should be aiming.
Engineering and Physics are difficult college majors. Don’t spend all your energy to get into a particular school, and either run out of funds or not meet the grades required for merit.
Just because a very fine school is nearby, does not mean that school won’t work for you. However you may do better at a smaller school. TAMU has a lot of smart Eng and Physics students.
IMHO, if you need to get grounded with two years of Community College, that is not a bad thing. Calculus at TAMU is tough (I needed that as a pre-req for my MBA and I had done it before moving to College Station; I know students who did it at Blinn Community College because they were not getting a passing grade and withdrew).
@mom2collegekids re post #34
I didn’t make that comment in post #25. It was @STEM2017