Hello, so my family is pretty middle class in terms of income (125K) but has very few assets or other money saved up for college. Are there any big scholarships I can apply for given my family’s income? Most of the full ride scholarships go to students whose family makes less than 65K. I really don’t want to go into a whole lot of debt to pay for college, but I also want to go to a quality school. Do any of you guys know of big scholarship websites for middle class people?
The term “scholarship” is usually used when talking about merit aid. So…what is your GPA, and what are your SAT or ACT scores?
Yes, but many of the large merit scholarships are only available to those with smaller incomes.
GPA weighted: 4.35
ACT: 32
Great. You qualify for a number of larger scholarships listed at the above link. Congrats.
EDIT: Wait, what is your unweighted GPA? That is all that matters.
Like what? Questbridge?
The very best scholarships are ones awarded directly by the colleges. So, if you want merit aid…you need to apply to colleges where you have an excellent shot at getting merit aid…or,where its guaranteed for your stats.
I believe you would get full tuition at University of Alabama. @mom2collegekids could you clarify?
When you talk about “full rides for families who earn less than $65,000” you are talking about NEED BASED aid, not merit awards.
So $125k is middle class?
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have been looking at going into business since I was a child, and I have been looking at Stern(NYU) and Wharton(UPenn) for my undergrad. I was wondering how likely I am to get into either of these schools given my credentials. If it’s of any importance, I’m a white male from a middle class family attending a very competitive private college prep school.
Unweighted GPA: 3.95
Weighted GPA: 4.35
ACT: 32 (34 English, 35 Math, 30 reading, 30 science)
AP classes: AP human geography(4), AP BC Calc(3), AP Chemistry (3), APUSH(3), AP Lit(5). I’m thinking I probably won’t submit any of my AP scores.
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Your ACT is probably lowish for UPenn Wharton.
How much will your parents pay for school? UPenn doesn’t give scholarships.
Are you looking for outside awards? If so, not likely going to find them to pay for college.
What are your financial safety schools? Those are schools that you know that you have ALL costs covered AND will accept you.
If you apply to University of Louisiana-Lafayette (http://scholarships.louisiana.edu/prospective-students/out-state-students/incoming-freshmen/additional-offers), you would get a full ride
-Full tuition
-Full room & board
-A laptop
-$1,200 each semester
-Guaranteed a campus job
I don’t know if this school would be “quality” enough for you, but it’s always good to have the option of a free ride in your back pocket. You have some good options for affordable colleges from the link in post #1, since you have really good stats.
Sure. Why not?
$125k is top 5%
Here’s a 2016 income percentile calculator from the WSJ
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/03/02/what-percent-are-you-2/
@sylvan8798, A family who earns $125k/year is in the top 25th percentile of wage earners. By definition that’s not middle income, it’s upper.
This student needs to look for schools,with MERIT aid.
At most schools, the student will be expected to make a family contribution in the $30,000 to $35000 a year range AT LEAST.
It his student were to get acceoted at HYPS, need based aid might be more forthcoming as the schools do provide need based aid to families with incomes in the $125,000 a year range. But…the student would need to be acceoted…and with acceptance rates at about 5%, acceptance is not guaranteed…for anyone.
The average family income in America is 51939 as of 2014. If you plug that number into that calculator, you are put at the 26th percentile. Either that calculator is wrong or it is based on individual income rather than family.
This calculator would place you at the 16th percentile, which is more believable to me. http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/income-rank/
It doesn’t matter…the fact is on a $125,000 income, the family will be exoected to pay AT LEAST $30,000 to $35,000 a year…at least.
Say, my D just graduated; with stats very similar to yours and with a similar financial situation and 2nd kid in college. Last year she looked through a book from our midwest public school district about local (and a few national) scholarships. About 2/3 had a need-based component; most of the others were just not applicable (major, college, race, heritage, sports & interests). It was a disappointing realization.
But most of those scholarships were for one year. They wouldnt have made a dent on her college costs past her freshman year. She ended up with $1800 in outside scholarships. Nice, but almost just a token, and alot of work writing & interviewing for just that.
She applied to 4 colleges; 3 public. And those schools were what made it all possible. All knocked down or waived tuition, and all gave departmental scholarships. She is thrilled to be heading out of state next week to start at a small (unranked) LAC that showed her a lot of love. She’ll look more at ranked publics for her masters, she thinks. My point: if you want merit $, like others have said, look to the schools themselves.
OP, you are considered ‘high stat’ for many schools but not the tippy top.
Our family strategy would be similar to what @bgbg4us did - look at the schools that would provide full tuition scholarship (or if a private, almost full tuition) - and the place where the student would have wonderful opportunities and love going to school there.
@mom2collegekids when she says ‘financial safety’ that means between merit and parents you have the costs covered (I doubt that your parents would consider student loans for UG unless they cannot help with any costs). Although our family income is a little lower than your family, we live in an area with less cost of living/lower taxes than many places - and we had two kids to educate. Some families are bigger, so the money has to stretch to educate more students. Some families had financial hardships along the way and parents may not have much money saved for retirement, or they are paying house payments for quite a while yet.
OP, are you the first kid going to college? Have parents been aware and helping with the college search with current info?
Have you visited enough campuses to know what you like/don’t like? What is your parents’ input?
Certainly apply to the schools that you are interested in and can provide you some merit (there are programs with automatic merit for your stats - for example Univ of Alabama where my DD goes to school).
If you want to stay in your geographic region, look at those schools.
Look at the larger state school honors programs - they may have some unique programs that you can participate with. Some LAC can provide you with a wonderful education and merit award.
Are you a HS junior or HS senior? Have you been on many college campuses yet?
There’s more than one way to define the “middle class”: http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/what-is-middle-class-anyway/
The different definitions don’t negate the fact that OP’s family is upper income. If they can’t pay their EFC (~$30k or whatever), then they need to look for colleges that give good merit aid for their stats.