I did apply to Ball State, but I honestly have horrible grades and zero extracurriculars, so I wasn’t expecting to get accepted anywhere. Grace has really high acceptance rate and low standards. My parents aren’t willing to help whatsoever, but I have some other family members that are. They just want me as far away as possible!
What are your grades and test scores?
How much will family members pay each year for 4 years?
Who wants you to “get away as far as possible” and why?
What is your career path? not asking to be nosy, just trying to give you reasonable path to get there.
Please answer all of those questions above, people want to help you find a school you want and can afford to attend. There are low cost schools and some with automatic merit aid. Knowing gpa, test scores and your budget helps in figuring out what other options you might have.
For example, University of Toledo offers oos applicants with 2.75 gpas and 1030 sat or 20 act score $9,500/year. Even more for better stats. http://www.utoledo.edu/admission/freshman/scholarships/2019/out-of-state.html
West Texas A&M University offers a wildlife biology degree and “$9,803 – Tuition for U.S. students attending West Texas A&M University (12 hours)” http://wtamu.edu/admissions/tuition-rates.aspx
What is your net price for Grace? Their CoA is $33,942, how much was your scholarship offer? Their average net price is about $20,000. https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=grace&s=all&id=150677#expenses Have you deciphered the entire offer to determine if it is all scholarships and grants or does it include some loans?
Have you filed a FAFSA? Do you know your EFC or if you are Pell eligible?
Besides the $5,500 in federal loans you can take, do you have any savings and how much support can you get from extended family? “We’ll help as much as we can” is an offer of moral support. Has anyone given you an actual dollar amount they are willing to pledge.
Ajoy. I have a few thoughts for you. Ive attended a very prestigious liberal arts university and also a few other colleges. I think that your problem is that you are being forced to choose between two bad options. Paying a huge amount for your college degree is not necessary and you could probably get much more value for your money at another institution. Also, attending a university just to go to college and not even study what you are interested in is also pretty pointless.
Why not consider a third option? If getting out of town is your goal, why not attend a community college somewhere? This will let you begin your path towards the major you want and will save you a TON of money. To my shock, I found out that the classes at my local community college were better than the aforementioned liberal arts college. It is also easier to get accepted as a transfer from a community college than straight out of high school.
Here’s another option to put some serious distance between yourself and Indiana:
Weber State U in Utah has a 100% acceptance rate, and a Zoology program: https://www.weber.edu/zoology
Utah offers a one year path to residency for OOS students, so you would only have to pay OOS rates for one year (or even spend a gap year there, working and saving up some money, and start school once you’re a resident - or, as steffenberr says, attend community college there to begin with). The OOS COA at Weber State is about $30K/year minus whatever automatic merit you qualify for https://www.weber.edu/FinancialAid/NRindexchart.html , and the in-state COA is just over 20K/year minus in-state auto-merit https://www.weber.edu/FinancialAid/indexchart.html
So, that’s cheaper than Carbondale in the long run, and farther from home… and a complete change of scenery, with breathtaking outdoor recreation if that appeals. Granted, the Florida gulf coast is lovely too and I can understand the appeal (you’ve been accepted at FSU, yes?), but if cost is a bone of contention, this would be at least 1/3 less than the cost of an FSU degree while still getting you completely out of the Midwest.
I appreciate the willingness to help but I honestly have my heart set on USF, UCF, or UFL. I know they aren’t great schools but I have good family there. (I also really like Florida in general)
Anyway, my GPA is a 3.4,
SAT 1150
ACT 21
And If this matters? - 0 extracurriculars, and I only have about 120 volunteer hours. My school didn’t offer AP classes until this year, and I took one class at Grace.
Talk to your parents to make sure that there is enough money.
Who is going to pay the $35k+ per year for you to attend a Florida school?
Me? I’ve been working 40 hours a week since I was 14 and saving my money.
Along with help from my grandparents and some money left to me from my great-grandparents. Possibly some money from my graduation open houses.
Other posters have offered excellent advice. Do you have at least $150,000 for a 4 yr OOS degree? If your major is zoology, you will need a minimum of a masters degree to achieve any degree of success in the field to make your $150,000 minimum investment pay off. Think of it as a cost/benefit analysis. The advice given on this forum to someone who is a preprofessional student is to spend the least amount on an undergraduate degree as possible.
What other schools have you applied to? Your stats are well below the 50% average for admission to UF, USF and UCF. Lack of rigor in courses and no EC’s place your app further behind for admission. The one factor that is positive is that you are full pay.
If you have access to ~$140k and want to use it all on an OOS college the state of FL will be happy to take it. If you attended college in your home state, how much would you have left (from your savings, grandparents, and great-grandparents) to put toward grad school?
Hi,
If you’re interested in the Florida publics, please review this Florida State University System Admission Matrix:
It includes information on key admission dates, acceptance rates, the middle 50% GPA/SAT scores for Fall and Summer B admits (notice that it’s easier at some schools to be accepted for the Summer B term, than the Fall term), etc.
I suggest applying early as scholarships are competitive and most are awarded early in the admission cycle (with the exception of UF and FSU which don’t do rolling admissions). Your GPA/Test scores will not earn you much of a merit based scholarship at UCF or USF. For example, here is USF lowest level OOS scholarshp
USF Green & Gold Scholars Award
$24,000 (up to $6,000 per year)
3.60+ GPA and
1240+ SAT (Evidence-Based Reading/Writing and Math) or
26+ ACT
You may have better luck at less competitive schools, such as FGCU, FIU, UWF, etc. Also some do offer OOS tuition waivers/scholarships to transfer students (such as FGCU), so attending a local low cost school and then transferring could be an option.
Otherwise, note that some schools, like USF, charge much less for OOS tuition, than other Florida schools, such as UCF Also, USF has three campuses, with admissions being easier at USF Sarasota-Manatee and USF St. Petersburg than to the USF Tampa campus. .
Good Luck!
Your stats are not favorable for admission for UF (average GPA of Freshman class was 4.3) but there is a great option! Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville offers an AA degree in Zoology (there is even a zoo!) and the Florida university system throughout the state offers a direct admission path to UF with an AA and 60 hours of credit. SF and UF work in cooperation on these programs and make the transition successful. Two years at SF wound be much more affordable as well. Here is a link to the SF Zoology info https://www.sfcollege.edu/programs/1058
Here’s a link to establishing residency in Florida for the purposes of in-state tuition. It’s not easy to do, but if your parents are not giving you much support (you can claim to be an “independent person”) and you have family in Florida, it may be an option.
https://www.sfcollege.edu/admissions/discounted-tuition/index
That would mean moving to Florida for a year, working (and saving $ for college) and then enrolling in a local CC (like Sante Fe) or an University.
At Santa Fe CC, In-state tuition is $2,540, while OOS tuition is $9,189. Living and working in Florida for one year (and being independent of your parents) makes Florida MUCH more affordable. Transferring from a CC is also, in many cases, a much easier path into the Universities. For example, at UF:
A 3.0 GPA average is very doable at a CC, and they don’t consider your HS GPA or test scores for transfer admissions. It’s an affordable path into a top 10 public University, but you have to met all of the requirements for in-state residency, or be willing to pay OOS rates. Pay close attention to the requirement for claiming to be an “independent person”.
Good Luck!