Thanks so much, ucbalumnus. I actually am familiar with all of this. I’m looking for schools that would be appropriate for my students. I’d love to hear if you know of any. As I mentioned in my initial post, Whittier and University of Redlands, along with CSUs are where many of last year’s students will be attending. I’m looking to add to the list.
Years ago, I was part of an effort to form a new hs program in my area for the most motivated kids from tough backgrounds The encouraging thing is how many, despite hardships and challenges, are truly trying to move forward. Now I’m a bit on the other end, seeing the results of programs like yours.
One of the challenges is making sure that you (any effort) not just focus on getting an admit, but also the steps to get them truly ready for the major differences in a college environment. And that the colleges not just have outreach, interest in these kids, and funding, but also solid programs to track them through college, keep helping those who need guidance.
Best wishes.
For each of the schools added to the list, try a net price calculator experiment for a low income/wealth family to see what kind of net price is estimates ($10,000 per year is probably the maximum that a student can do without any parent contribution – $5,500 federal direct loan plus $4,500 in work earnings). Also check whether it needs CSS Profile (which can complicate matters, particularly for students with divorced parents).
I tried that with Whittier, and it gave a net price of $25,336 after federal and state grants and a merit scholarship. It did ask for GPA and ACT or SAT score (which I gave as 3.0 and 26), it appears that affordability or lack thereof there is mainly based on merit scholarships at various stat levels. Redlands’ net price calculator appears to be not working.
If out-of-state applications are required, perhaps go through the lists of automatic and competitive full tuition to full ride merit scholarships to see which ones they will get (among the automatic ones – a few of them are awarded at 3.0 HS GPA, though with a test score requirement) and which ones they have a chance of getting (for the competitive ones).
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html
It is possible that students can be awarded a larger merit than is shown on a NPC calculator when they get the actual package. I also ran a NPC for a student for Saint Mary’s College of California and it showed a very good merit award for a student with good grades but just an average 1500 or slightly below SAT. They also met all need for the student (not low income though) after basic student loans according to the calculator. Some 7th day Adventist colleges show 50 pct Pell grant students so they must be awarding enough aid to attend, although the grad rate is higher than CSU it is not high for a private school so I wonder if students have to leave for lack of funds: Pacific Union in Nor Cal and La Sierra in So Ca. Be aware that PU is vegetarian, not sure La Sierra. PU seems to have a strong intramural sports program if you have any sporty students, they are also NAIA and recruit. U of Redlands is a very good college. Know less about Whittier.
I think it will be hard to go out of state and lose the Cal Grant paying their UC or CSU tuition. Even in CA you have something like 9k can go to a private. So WUE is nice to know about but it will be doubtful they will get the aid there. Worth looking for sure.
sorry double posted
If these are low income families, I would think any loan at that level would be crippling for life! They are pretty crippling for middle income students. You don’t set policy of course. But if there is a culture in the program that discourages community college and encourages loans for the sake of attending other (more highly regarded?) schools and this is a low income population, I would question the philosophy and worry it was more focused on what schools the program reps can say kids got into (for funding perhaps) than the future of the kids.
http://www.venturescholar.org/hs/index.html
Ventures Scholars is for first-generation high schoolers/undergrads. Need a 3.0 to join and membership is free. Have a consortium of schools that are members. They do provide assistance and supporting members colleges provide app fee waivers.
http://www.nacacnet.org/studentinfo/feewaiver/pages/default.aspx
download the form for app fee waivers
They also reference being Upward Bound participants for fee waivers (Trio program).
http://www.nacacnet.org/studentinfo/feewaiver/Documents/ApplicationFeeWaiver.pdf
The Upward Bound programs as mentioned above are run at many of the CA unis, listed below and they too provide assistance year-long and summer programs both daily commuter and summer residence programs.
Upward Bound
Stanford University
University of San Francisco
University of California, Davis
University of California, San Diego
University of California, Santa Barbara
California State University, Chico
California State University, East Bay
California State University, Fresno
California State University, Long Beach
California State University, Monterey Bay
California State University, San Bernardino
California State University, San Marcos
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
College of the Siskiyous, Weed
West Hills College Coalinga
Feather River College
Fresno City College
Palomar College
Pasadena City College
Reedley College
Riverside Community College Norco Campus
Santa Ana College
Sonoma State University
Yuba Community College District
The Upward Bound summer residence programs are held all over the US and they provide transportation to and from. So a student interested in aviation can apply to Embry Riddle in AZ, there is another in TN, again many all over the country. And you do not necessarily need to reside in that area of the country. For grades 9-12. And they also help with fee waivers, depending on the schools.
As far as OOS schools UNM offers an Amigo scholarship for OOS students. NCSU offers the Pack promise meeting full need for OOS students and UNC-Chapel Hill offers the Carolina Covenant, again meeting full need for OOS students.
Hope this helps. Will get back to you with more later.
Kat
http://financialaid.ncsu.edu/pack-promise/ says that the Pack Promise is for NC residents.
Of course the net price after “meeting full need” depends a lot on how “need” is defined and what the expected student contribution is.
Thanks for fixing that UCB! We are spoiled living here in NC. Since tuition and COA is so low to begin with my kiddos packages from NCSU and UNC which met our full need with a 0 EFC there were no loan components or student contributions. Which was not true from others that offered to meet “full need.” The difference from the other 30+ school packages varied up to $15,000 per year. And of course after matriculation the packages changed again. In son’s freshman year he received over 10 revision for that year alone. He received the last revision after his sophomore FA package was sent out.
Kat
edit: maybe I was confusing it with the Park Scholars which is available to OOS students, just need to be a US citizen. It is however more competitive and not just need-based.
Following up on Post #21 and Post #25 : it’s really important that the students have a strong enough background to handle a college workload. I teach freshmen level math courses, and each semester I receive a list of students who are in a variety of special programs intended for low SES students. While they have access to extra tutoring and more advising, they still have to keep up with the demands of the course. Many are simply not prepared for college level work, and the retention rate from freshman to sophomore year for this set of students is not as high as we would like.
OTOH, the programs have helped many students obtain a degree which would have otherwise been out of reach.
So, I think these programs can be beneficial, but it’s important to look at the students’ level of prep. If the GPA’s from a lower performing school district is 2.8-3.2, that signals “iffyness” in content prep and study skills. If it’s a magnet school, or something of that sort, maybe it’s okay - I do not know the context of the GPA.
Another big issue is family finances and students’ family obligations. Going away to college is not practical for many of these students b/c they are caretakers for their siblings, and/or have to help with elderly family members and/or accompany parent(s) to some agency or another b/c the parents lack language skills. First-gen families do not understand the amount of work required in a college course outside of class. And students in these types of programs have trouble meeting expenses such as textbooks etc., because the program only can cover so much.
Not meaning to be a Debbie Downer here, but I thought I would share a perspective that is often not a part of the college admission conversation.
^ Mathpof, one of the markers we look for is the student’s ability and willingness to ask for help. It does come through, sometimes in the GC or teacher recs, sometimes in the way a kid tells his or her story. If collage’s kids are voluntarily joining, that may be a good sign. But you make a solid point: even support at college can consume critical time.
And, sometimes, for kids who have built both good local support (some mentors, sometimes a teacher at the hs,) and spread their wings with some interesting and challenging community work, sometimes the best place is local- not all the newness, the distance to travel OOS, some new social context to navigate, etc.
You may want to Add La Verne to your list of possible private colleges in CA. Also for out of state don’t overlook New Mexico schools. For large school there is the University of New Mexico, a good small school is Eastern New Mexico, and a GREAT school for STEM is New Mexico Tech. Tech has a record of placing student in grad school. All three are WUE schools so there is an option for lowered tuition. NM schools are already less expensive.
If you don’t know much about the WUE system you should really take some time to look at the schools on the list. Most of these schools will accept student with lower GPAs. Many are looking to increase student numbers, which is why they allow WUE students.
Also for CA public schools take a look at Merced. It is a newer UC and quite small.
^ Agree with lookingforward and mathprof63 above.
I know of one 1st generation to college female who graduated from a local HS STEM program. I don’t know her stats, but she applied only to the local mid-tier UC, not the 50-mile away CSU. She wasn’t willing to move out of town because of family responsibilities. She wasn’t accepted to the local UC, and the STEM program was shocked that one of its grads didn’t have a 4-year acceptance. The STEM program was able to use its connections to get an agreement from the UC that she could transfer to the UC after only one year at the local community college instead of 2 years if she look transferable courses and had a good GPA.
HBCUs
http://hbcuconnect.com/colleges/
Native American Tuition waiver schools
http://nativeyouth2college.org/resources/u-s-colleges-and-universities-offering-in-state-tuition-and-tuition-waivers-for-native-american-students/
Even if your students don’t fit into these racial groups, these schools will be accustomed to serving students with stats like your students and will offer financial aid and services accordingly.
Don’t forget the separate/additional EOP application, which needs to be submitted in conjunction with the CSU application. It requires at east one recommendation. The EOP program can provide tremendous academic and $$ support for low-income California students, which may allow them to attend CSU’s outside of their immediate service area.
Other solid out of state WUE schools to consider are Southern Oregon U, Portland State and Western Washington U.
I suggest you contact two organizations in San Diego that have been doing something similar to your organization for a while: Barrio Logan College Institute, and the College Apps Academy at Reality Changers (assuming neither one is the organization you are working with…). Hopefully, someone at each could take a little time to reply to an email or chat on the phone briefly to give some specific suggestions based on their experience. http://blci.org and http://collegeappsacademy.org.
Once again, thank you for all the suggestions. I meet with 3 of my students for the second time tomorrow and am in heavy research mode. Oddly, the cal grant website was down yesterday and is still inaccessible this morning. I’m trying to find out if cal grants can be used at WUE schools. Does anyone happen to know? Some of the WUE schools could be good fits and would be even better if financial aid were optimized.
I cant imagine that a grant given by the state to encourage residents to attend university in state, would be transferable out of state. That would defeat the purpose.
That wasnt our experience. We forfeited state awards, when D1 went out of state.
I assumed as much, EK but I wanted to confirm.
Cal Grants are not transferable to out-of-state schools and can only be used within California.