Cumo just passed a bill so that all NY residents with an income under 125k attend a SUNY for free and this seems unsustanable to me. The scholarships he is recieving from Bethel come largely from willing doners not tax payers forced to pay for others education and are based on academics and sport participation not just an automatic give to all.
She will not be cheerleading in college she will be on an Acro team and while ACRO is not an NCAA or NAIA sport it is sanctioned by the NCATA which gives them far more leverage and funding for scholarship than cheer which is simply considered a club sport.
My daughter got into Auburn as well, but she received the Presidential scholarship as she did well on her ACT. Even with that, after calculating (which we really need to do a real one this weekend ), it may still be out of range. It’s not the tuition, it’s the room and board, books, food plan that adds up which they don’t usually add in when they say you’ll get in no problem with scholarships. This weekend we are calculating all costs throughly. There’s probably deadlines and many are smaller one time payments. Good luck!
You might consider off campus housing. The dorms are super pricey. A nice apartment with a roommate or two might run $400-500/month.
@AprylJD4 Look into Southern Union, it’s a community college in Opelika (literally 5 mins from Auburn). I’ve been told students can attend school there and then transfer to Auburn as in state after a year. I hope you’re able to make it work, Auburn is a fantastic school!
SUNYs are not free.
Families who earn $125k/year pay taxes too, so they’re helping to fund the Excelsior grant. They also help fund the roads you drive on and a lot of other services you probably take for granted.
It’s great your kid loves his college. Not everyone can afford their dream school. For many New Yorkers, commuting to the local 4-year SUNY or starting at a cc is the best they can do. If your son considers that “settling,” maybe that’s not something he wants to share with his peers.
I just read through the thread–congrats to your S for finding a way to make this work. Sounds like he’s got a great choice for his needs.
I have to say, I was surprised by some of the dismissive comments here. It was plain to me from the start that you weren’t talking about just hanging around a lake to while away the day, and for someone to conflate lake and ocean fishing and say what’s the difference? You don’t see anyone here saying “well, okay, none of the schools here have an orchestra, but couldn’t your violin-playing daughter just go to this place and join the marching band?”
It was clear from your posts that you have a good idea of what he’s capable of, and have found a good path for him. You did this just fine–give yourself a pat on the back!
I hope your D also finds the right place–best wishes to your family!
Congrats to your son! Learning about pro fishing was very new to me. No reason not to follow his dream at this point.
Thank you @garland and @mom2and it’s a bit of an unconventional path but I’m glad he stuck to his guns, didn’t get discouraged and found a way to make it work 
SUNY Plattsburgh has a competitive fishing team and is located right on Lake Champlain. Here is a link,
http://web.plattsburgh.edu/studentlife/recsports/clubs/fishing.php
From your comments, @AprylJD4 , you might be from the area. SUNY’s are not schools that people have to settle for.
^It’s pretty obvious she would know about that. And I’m going to guess that the club sport there is not nearly the level that her son is at. And besides, he already found a very satisfactory school.
She never said that one has to “settle” for a SUNY. She said he wanted to be on a team at his level. No one here ever questions when parents of elite, more “acceptable” sports want to play, and get scholarships, at the level they are at. Just because the sport exists ( in club form) at the school, doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for THIS student.
I have a new colleague whose son is a HS sophomore. He is a ranked high school fisherman in Tennessee and has already been contacted by Bethel to attend there with scholarship money. Until this thread, I didn’t know fishing was a college sport or that Bethel College existed. And now have heard of it twice in a month. Amazing. Good luck to your son.