Did LSU give you merit money, or just the $3550 and $3844? With the $5500 student loan that gets you to $12894 which will cover your tuition and books for LSU. Is it in driving distance of your home? Could your parents be persuaded to let you live at home or cover just room and board?
The $3550 is the merit money. $3844 is an in state scholarship, so that is all the scholarships total I would get. Unfortunately, it’s an hour away from my home as of right now and my family is actually moving this summer so it would then be two hours away from their home, not to mention that I don’t have a car. Can one take out loans to buy a car? Though I’m guessing that wouldn’t be wise even if it was possible.
Sit down with your parents. When they see you have $12,894 covered through scholarships and loans maybe they’ll be more amenable to helping pay the room and board. I mean we’re talking about $8,874 a year-ish. Even less if you can earn some money from a summer job or something. Most parents would be thrilled to only be on the hook for $9,000 a year, it’s a very reasonable sum of money. Get all of your information lined up and make an impassioned plea. Best of luck.
if your parents won’t budge, then you are kind of in a fix as far as starting school in Fall 2017. these are the options that might still be available for a full-ride, starting Fall 2017:
http://www.famu.edu/
http://www.famu.edu/Scholarships/New_Scholarship%20Criteria%20Flyer_2015-2016%201.pdf
http://www.tuskegee.edu/scholarships/freshman_scholarships.aspx
http://www.pvamu.edu/faid/home/types-of-aid/scholarships/university-scholarships/
http://ecatalog.nccu.edu/content.php?catoid=3&navoid=871
i got these from the list:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
so unless you can swing one of those options or LSU, you might have to reboot the process this summer and fall and target schools that will give you big $$$ for your stats.
whatever you do … DO NOT TAKE ANY COMMUNITY COLLEGE CLASSES AFTER YOU GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL. you will lose your freshman eligibility for big scholarships.
can you live with your parents for another year while you work, save up some money, and reapply to a fresh set of schools this summer / fall?
if they agree to this, then apply to Louisiana - Monroe:
http://www.ulm.edu/scholarships/freshmen.html
the cost of attendance looks to be about $15K-16K per year. with that big $12K/year scholarship plus your $5500 yearly loan, you can swing that.
if you are still physically capable after your accident, you could try Coast Guard Academy:
http://www.cga.edu/about/
free tuition, room and board and they even pay you on top of that.
if you raise your ACT score just a bit you could unlock even more scholarship $$$
Maybe this example will help your parents to understand how much college costs have increased. WAY more than the cost of living:
current COA at LSU for instate - $32,000
1984 COA at LSU for instate - ~$3,000 (when I started)
It’s just not even close to the same situation. It’s time they learned the new landscape of college costs.
Also, be careful about your merit money - part of that may actually be work-study, so look at the wording carefully. work-study will not help you pay for the direct costs, it means you ‘might’ get a job which will pay you money to pay for incidental expenses.
@lz57c4 where are you getting 32k per year? I just want to make sure I’m not quoting this student inaccurate info, I’m finding 21k here https://sites01.lsu.edu/wp/financialaid/undergraduate-cost-of-attendance/
@socalmom007 , their numbers are certainly confusing. i happened to notice it on one of the tabs here - https://sites01.lsu.edu/wp/financialaid/entering-freshman-scholarships/
I also see the 21k number you cite - in addition to the 32k number - both on page you linked - the 21k is under ‘Estimated Yearly Cost’, 32k is under ‘Cost of Attendance’.
Here’s their breakdown of the $32,174 COA:
So they are loading the high COA number with almost 6k of transportation and personal expenses, definitely an infalted number. And the housing/food is probably the highest possible number.
OP, talk to your folks. LSU is still very reasonable for a public flagship (11k tuition plus extras). Hopefully they’ll come around.
@oconnorer So it looks like you have close to 7500 in scholarship aid. The federal student loan will add 5500. That should cover tuition and books at LSU. Look into renting a shared apartment near campus and preparing your own food. That will be a LOT cheaper than 15K room and board costs. If you are frugal, you might be able to live on half of that.
You should also check out the links provided by @Wien2NC
I know a couple of people who went to Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond and had a great experience. The campus is pleasant. Both got jobs right after graduation.
Check out these scholarship awards. For your stats, it would cost you about 5300 per year after scholarships are applied to live on campus. That would be covered by your federal student loan or you could cover a lot of it with a part time job and summer work.
http://www.southeastern.edu/admin/fin_aid/scholarships/30plus_grid.pdf
I think this student needs to sit with parents with the FACTS and see what they say. They may get more reasonsable when they see that their thinking won’t fly.
I’m a Louisiana resident also, and I have a personal friend whose daughter has a 30 on her ACT. She is going to ULM basically free. CALL TOMORROW! Good luck
@wien2NC -
So let me understand something that has confused me. YOU mentioned DON’T go to CC you will loose big freshman scholarships. Can I read that to mean - IF a student finds they are in a financial bind-, parent job loss, excessive medical bills, Family misunderstanding as in the OP case, etc, - this late in the application process (applied and accepted at schools), can they just decline every thing and take a gap year and start over? And just try it all again next year? using all of the stats and the HS transcript with a 2017 graduation. and still be eligible for Full Ride status at a school they declined this year? Or would they have to try at different schools the next time? It seems that a school would wonder what happened and that you were gaming the system.
That is a great question @5redheads
OP, good luck…hope you can convince your parents to contribute or cosign loans.
Yes, look ULM and Louisiana Tech…both may give you a lot more.
5redheads. No, wouldn’t not look like gaming the system…not at all.
Southeastern is worth a look too.
http://www.southeastern.edu/admin/fin_aid/scholarships/30plus_grid.pdf
One cost-saving thing there is that their textbooks are pretty much all rentals and you pay a small fee per class and get your books.
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So let me understand something that has confused me. YOU mentioned DON'T go to CC you will loose big freshman scholarships. Can I read that to mean - IF a student finds they are in a financial bind-, parent job loss, excessive medical bills, Family misunderstanding as in the OP case, etc, - this late in the application process (applied and accepted at schools), can they just decline every thing and take a gap year and start over? And just try it all again next year? using all of the stats and the HS transcript with a 2017 graduation. <<
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yeah. that’s exactly what i’m saying.
in this case OP cannot afford the schools he’s been accepted to, so he can decline all of them, take a gap year, get a job to save up some money, and try again with a different set of schools next application cycle – ones that will give him enough merit $$$ so that he can afford to attend without parental assistance.
LSU might be the one exception since it is the one place he’s been accepted that might be on the edge of affordability. I don’t know it if he should necessarily decline or ask for a one-year deferral of his admission / attendance.
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and still be eligible for Full Ride status at a school they declined this year? <<
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he has not applied to any schools yet that offer him a full ride, so he will not be declining any such schools. if he DID apply to any, I would congratulate him on his savvy navigation of the college admission process and offer him best wishes as a Fall 2017 freshman. but as far as I know, he did not, and that’s why he started this thread.
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Or would they have to try at different schools the next time? It seems that a school would wonder what happened and that you were gaming the system. <<
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he has to try different schools next year because he did not apply to any affordable schools for 2017-2018. and no, it does not look like he’s gaming the system. with regard to freshman admission, there is no system to game. there’s no law that says you have to go to college right after high school and if you do not, you’re gaming the system. lots of students take gap years, it’s not that uncommon at all. if you have graduated high school and have not taken any college classes anywhere after graduation, then you have freshman status whether you apply for admission right after high school or take a gap year.
however there is no guarantee that the schools will offer the same merit scholarships for 2018-2019, that they are offering now. that is why I think @oconnorer really should look into the full-ride options he has on the table right now and not delay. for example, he should call Louisiana -Monroe ASAP and explain his situation and see if their $12K per year scholarship is still available to him f he applies right away. their COA is about $15K-$16K per year for La residents. if he can add whatever this TOPS thing is, then that’s his full-ride. he might not even have to take out any loans, or just maybe the first-year loan of $5500 for initial expenses, then get a PT job summers and school years. I really think a no-loans degree from ULM beginning this Fall is within reach but he needs to move on it now.
for lots of kids who do not have the GPA/SAT/ACT to earn big $$ merit scholarships, community college is a great option to minimize expenses toward a 4-year degree. but not for OP because has possesses two very valuable commodities – freshman status, and the stats that can be monetized into a full-ride at a 4-year university. he should not even think about CC because if he takes just one class after high school, he loses his freshman status and has to kiss his full-ride merit award good-bye
“LSU might be the one exception since it is the one place he’s been accepted that might be on the edge of affordability. I don’t know it if he should necessarily decline or ask for a one-year deferral of his admission / attendance.”
I don’t think LSU offers official deferrals. But it doesn’t matter because LSU has auto-admit critera that the OP easily meets. And auto-scholarships as well, although those may change a bit.
For TOPS, I think you only have one year to defer–but I think you do have that year. So the OP could wait a year to go to college but would lose TOPS after that. But please don’t take my word for that. If you decide to defer, verify that TOPS will still be availble.
I will definitely apply to ULM and the other schools that could potentially offer me full tuition scholarships. I know I should have done this a lot earlier, but I honestly did not know I wouldn’t qualify for any financial aid.
I know that you can only take out 5500 in loans each year, but I was reading about the parent PLUS loan. Can you take out more as long as your parents just sign for it? How does that work? I think they’ll sign for it as long as they don’t have to pay for it in the end.
I know my parents will get mad, but I will definitely schedule an appointment with my guidance counselor and them. Maybe once they hear the facts from her instead of me they’ll believe that I really cannot do this on my own. I know it probably won’t change their minds, but at this point I’m pretty desperate so it won’t hurt to try…
Louisiana is tough right now. My daughter is a senior and I know the state is playing games with Tops still so you can’t count on that money. My advice to you is to look at cheaper in state schools. Tech is much cheaper and has better merit based scholarships . The only problem with that is you are past app deadlines for the university scholarships deadlines. But I would call them you never know. With there aid loans and if Tops got fixed you would have a chance.
But really all the kids in the state need to get on there State reps phones about Tops.
It is a bit late now, but many less compeitive colleges would give you merit money, you do have good grades and ACT. NYC has CUNY which is only about 6000/yr and has scholarships that can make it free.
Problem is cost of living in NYC. 6000 is tuition only. Housing is crazy there.
You have to get your parents to go in and meet with a finaid staff person to give them a dose of reality.
They are giving you no viable options to start college now.
Only option is get a job, a cheap apartment and commute part time.