Reasonably priced options for nursing

Cross-post:
If this is the wrong forum, forgive me and please redirect!

Looking for schools that give lots of merit/financial aid.

Background - Up until about 2 years ago, used to be “poor,”- food stamps, medicaid, etc. Although my income is far from astronomical, we’re now closer to middle class but we have no assets, other than a car worth about $5k. Just did the FAFSA forecaster and our EFC is about 5k. My daughter is eligible for a 2k pell grant, too.

Her SAT (super-scored) is a 1570 and GPA will be a little above 3.8 (she attends a competitive, nationally-known public school). Don’t think she’ll make National Merit as her index is a 222 and our state was 223 last year.

Our state’s flagship has a very low acceptance rate for nursing and doesn’t give much aid. NPC says we’d pay about 19k/year.

Does anyone know of other schools we can look into?

Go to community college and get an ADN and then bridge to a BSN (the cost to bridge has gotten so much more affordable, around $10,000 and programs that are about a year long). It is one of the most economical way to become a nurse. If her stats are that good she should be able to get into a competitive CC or tech school nursing program.

I’m not sure what your net price would be but UAB might be a possibility. Great nursing school and those stats would qualify for automatic $15,000/yr scholarship as well as admission to dean’s nursing scholar program which offers path to nursing admission as long as requirements are met. I would run the NPC and see how it comes out.

If she is still Pell eligible, try University of Michigan. They have stepped up need based aid, even out of state. And a second to UPenn

Google nursing schools in your state.

Keep in mind that in future years the FAFSA EFC might go up sharply.

For 2020/21 FAFSA the income from 2018 is used. You already know that.

So she might not qualify for a Pell Grant in the future.

Which state are you in?

Students in our state that have limited income or resources commute to a local school for nursing.

Or they go to a less selective public or private with a good nursing program, where they can get significant merit.

She could get CNA training this summer and start earning some money and get experience.

I would post in the college selection forum with your state and see if posters have good suggestions for you.

The maximum Pell Grant is $6,195 this year, with a $5,000 Pell Grant she would only get about $1,000 in Pell.

The FAFSA forecaster wasn’t that a curate for us.

I used the Collegeboard EFC estimator (federal methodology).

You could try some NPC’s at some full needs schools that have Nursing to see if they are affordable. Georgetown would be an example.

What is her single sitting best score? Merit is often based on single sittings, not superscores.

How much can you pay each year?

What is your home state?

How much can she earn/save over summers?

I would look at:

UA
UAH
UAB
USouth alabama
Ole Miss
If NCSU has a nursing program, look at that…they give both merit and need aid to OOS
UWest Virginia

What kind of colleges does she like?

She could compete for the Tier One scholarship at the University of Houston.

UMass campuses with direct nursing are very popular and since you are in MA they would be great affordable options

UMass Lowell has a strong nursing program. Niece is attending this fall. With similar stats she is in honors college and got free tuition (also a D1 athlete which may have affected that)