Should I be so worried about paying for college?

Paying for College
1

<p>Before you ask, stats:
-White male, Tennessee
-32 ACT
-3.4 GPA
-Never taken anything lower than honors classes when they were available
-2 APs so far (5 on the APUSH, 4 on the APELAC), 2 this year (Stats and Bio)</p>

<p>ECs (including this year):
-Marching band: 4 years (would it help me if we were successful? We won state in class AAAA the 2 years I was DM)
-Drum major of marching band: 2 years
-National Honors Society
-Students for a Free Tibet: 2 years
-Swing (dancing) Club: 2 years
-Model UN: 3 years
-Symphonic Band: 3 years
-Jazz Band: 3 years</p>

<p>If I forgot any other stats that you guys would want, tell me.</p>

<p>Okay, now on to my question. Should I be worried about paying for college? My parents keep telling me that they can't afford even some of the in-state public schools. They want me to commute to Middle Tennessee State. I want to go out on my own. I'd enjoy some of the large public universities in the state (UT-K, Memphis), and at the tip-top of my list are, well the ones at the top of everybody's list.</p>

<p>I can't tell you how much I'd love to go to Sewanee. I've been 3 times and every time I've grown to love it more. It's just fantastic. I'm going to apply no matter what, just to know that I could've gone there (mychances says I should get in, but who knows). But if my parents are telling me that they won't pay for me to go to UT, how the heck could I expect to go to Sewanee? That's ~40k a year. I wouldn't mind loans, but my parents probably wouldn't cosign. Do I have any hope of going places where I please, rather than commuting to Boring U?</p>

2

<p>It will depend on your parent’s income and assets. If you tell us an income range, we can give more meaningful comments.</p>

3

<p>If your parents cannot pay for college, you should be trying to find schools that either will provide you with sufficient need based aid and/or merit aid to cover the amount your parents cannot pay. It is very important to listen to what your parents are telling you. If they have a top dollar limit on college costs, you will need to go to a school that doesn’t cost THEM more than that.</p>

<p>As noted above, much depends on your family income and assets. If your family has an annual income of $100,000 or greater (including both parents)…their expected contribution would be in the $25,000 to $33,000 range PER YEAR depending on their assets. FAFSA EFC is typically about 1/4 to 1/3 of your family’s gross income per year.</p>

4

<p>The only way to know is to apply. When you get your acceptance letters back you’ll get a financial aid offer that will break down the amounts available in grants, loans, workstudy, etc.</p>

<p>One way to negotiate with your parents is to come up a figure that it would cost for you to commute and go to Middle Tennessee. Include tuition, fees, books, supplies, car costs (gas, maintenance, potential repairs, insurance), food budget for eating on campus and also at home, utilities associated with you living at home. Everything you can think of that adds to the family budget. (This may involve you giving up your car --if you have one-- if you live away from home, but it may be worth it if you want to go away that much.)</p>

<p>That total figure is what it will cost them if you stay home, and hopefully they will agree to contributing at least that much to your college costs wherever you go since they would be spending it anyway.</p>

<p>Like hmom5 said, any need-based aid you’re offered will be based on their and your income and assets. You may however get some merit based aid which will be based on grades/scores/talents. Whether or not merit aid is part of your offer depends on the school’s own policies.</p>

<p>So, anyway, once you and your parents can agree about what they’re willing to contribute (the colleges may expect them to contribute much more, but at least you’ll have some figure you can count on from them), and after you’ve gotten your financial aid awards, then you can see if there’s a way to make it work.</p>

<p>You’ll have Middle Tennessee as a back-up, so you can focus your college app work on trying to expand your options.</p>

<p>It is possible that this isn’t really so much about money for your parents, but it’s about not wanting you to leave home. Be sensitive to that, but approach it by cooperatively and politely trying to work out the money issue. They’ll see how dedicated you are to the idea of experiencing a bit more independence and maybe they’ll soften to the idea. Also, once you have real options in front of you, they may also get more excited about them.</p>

5

<p>You need to find out how much your parents are willing to contribute each you toward your college education, then apply accordingly. Also run your family’s financial info through a financial aid calculator.</p>

<p>As far as I know, only 2 public universities promise to meet the full demonstrated financial need of all accepted students: UNC and U Va. </p>

<p>Before bothering to apply anywhere check the school’s financial aid web page to see what kind of need-based and merit aid they offer. You may qualify for some good merit aid at some colleges, particularly 2nd tier LACs since LACs have a hard time attracting males. Look at Sewanee’s site to see if they offer merit aid that you might qualify for.</p>

6

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<p>This doesn’t need to be the case although it is for many.</p>

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<p>Doing this should give you a very close idea of where you stand. There are calculators on this site, College Board’s site and many colleges have their own on their web sites. You can also call the colleges with questions specific to your situation.</p>

<p>These are the first things kids in need of any aid at all should do before beginning to formulate a list of colleges.</p>

7

<p>What is your family’s income? Ours is fairly low due to unemployment, and we encouraged our daughter to apply to schools that met full need. She got in to one, and it was a better deal than our local public universities (she’s now a freshman). She also applied through Questbridge (but wasn’t a finalist). So if your parents can’t afford an in-state public school because of their income, you may have options if you apply to a school that meets full need.</p>

8

<p>The answer to this question largely depends on your family’s financial situation, and no one on the board can adequately answer it. However, unless you are independently wealthy and your parents can afford to throw down the cash money to cover all four years (which I assume they don’t), then the answer is almost universally yes.</p>

<p>You have about an average GPA and above average test scores, an average load of APs, and average extra-curricular students. You seem like you may be able to competently compete for merit-based money at Sewanee.</p>

<p>The best thing that you can is talk to your parents about how much they are willing and able to pay for your college education, including if they are willing to take out federal PLUS loans or co-sign on private loans for you to cover any gaps. Get it all laid out on the table - too many students assume what their parents will and won’t do and get themselves stuck in odd situations. It’s better to ask these questions at the front end so that you can apply intelligently.</p>

<p>The thing is, a lot of parents assume that they will have to pay the “sticker price” at any school their child attends, and that often scares them and they will persuade their children from applying to those schools simply based on expense. A lot of parents don’t realize that the majority of middle-class parents (especially those on the lower end of the middle class) won’t ever pay “sticker price” for the school. How far do you live from Sewanee? Maybe you and your parents can drive down and talk to a financial aid counselor, or conference call with one if you live too far.</p>

9

<p>I had the money talk with Happykid last year (11th grade). She knows which places are affordable for us, and which ones aren’t. If she decides to apply to one of the unaffordable places, and the aid doesn’t magically make the price fall down to the price of the affordable ones, she knows that she won’t be going there.</p>

<p>I think that it is very important for you to tell your parents that it is OK with you to commute to the affordable local school, but that you would prefer to try your luck at other places as well. Get that application in ASAP to the place they like so that you are in line for any goodies (preferred class selection, unadvertised scholarships, better choice of work-study job, etc., etc.) that may be on offer. Then you will be able to compare something more like apples and apples when your final financial aid offers come next spring. If your parents are concerned about the cost of all the additional applications, find out how to get the application fees waived.</p>

<p>Here are links to threads on finding scholarship money. Maybe something will be useful for you. Good luck!</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/63770-best-schools-give-most-merit-based-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/63770-best-schools-give-most-merit-based-aid.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;