Does the state of New York have a program where community college classes are free for high school students? If so, your sisters can take those classes for free, attend a 4-yr but graduate earlier. As someone else mentioned, transfer do not get as much aid as incoming freshman.
It definitely is a viable route, and itâs an okay route, and itâs a 0 cost route, but I donât think itâs, âthe best they could do,â (in terms of prestige, campus life, networking, etc) even if that âbetter optionâ would end up costing more money. So there are different trade offs.
@peash00ts NY does not have a program (to my knowledge) where CC classes are free for high school students, itâs about 80-100 dollars per credit which would be completely unaffordable for us as of right now.
Although this is a forum-conventional-wisdom type of saying, it really depends on the situation. Often, merit scholarships are fewer for transfers, but need-based aid (including in state university programs for low income students based on the CC â transfer pathway) may be available on a similar basis as for those who started as frosh. Of course, it is best not to generalize, but look up what the specific universityâs practices are in this respect. It appears that the OP has already checked on the cost aspect for the specific CC â transfer pathway in question and found it to be within the very limited budget.
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aww ok. I did a quick google search and seems that high schools provide a program called College Now. That is the same program that is used in CA. Usually, the community college has a K-12 form that must be signed by a school official. Their high school and/or various community colleges should have answers about that. Many classes are online and provide free textbooks as well! I do not know where in New York you are, but I would definitely recommend looking into it as a possible avenue. Sorry I do not have any advice about other financial avenues. Best of luck!
sorry I spoke in generalities and did not know forum-conventional-wisdom. I will mention what is proven then
Public colleges and universities are tuition free for state residents in New York who have family incomes less than $125,000 per year, so why not go to a 4-year college?
The program is relatively new (2017) , so they are still working out the bugs, so file early, stay on top of the paper work, and find help to understand how the program works and what you have to do to get through all the bureaucracy. There have been some problems.
There are very good colleges in the NY state and New York City systems, and thereâs at least one that is commutable from almost anywhere in the state. So if youâre going to save cost somewhere, it could be on room & board.
Hereâs a list of scholarships available to New Yorkers:
https://hesc.ny.gov/pay-for-college/financial-aid/types-of-financial-aid.html#horizontalTab2
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Because, even if no R&B, books, gas, etc. would still have to be covered.
Weâre not sure if the family can commute to a 4-year. Itâs possible they could get money attending a 4-year NYS public (like they would going the CC route) but the family would have to look in to that.
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College Now is specific only to NYC, we are not in NYC. Also, itâs not the same as regular dual enrollment and definitely wonât help you get a year ahead except in very specific situations. They count stuff like âalgebra,â ,âintroduction to computers,â and or just gen ed classes as college classes, which would probably help with a general degree, but since they want to go into compsci, theyâd need to take a lot more specific classes. It also seems to be more specific to CUNY. I donât know a whole lot about it though. Thank you very much for the suggestion though!
@Bill_Marsh, I just wanna say that @PurpleTitan is 100 percent correct. The money left over in our pockets that I mentioned with CC was taken into account subtracting all the money needed for transportation, textbooks, etc, and SCHOOL FEES. Direct costs include tuition, but also a LOT of fees that can cost like 50% of tuition.
If I look at my bill this semester, it was 3.5k for tuition and around 1.7k for various fees. Because of going through the transfer route with my specific academic and financial profile, I have 100 percent of that covered and more but I would be getting less money if I went directly to the 4 year. Excelsior/TAP only covers tuition, not fees.
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Iâve talked to them some more to them about it, and I definitely get the impression that theyâre a lot mature and understanding than I likely was at that time. It took me really long to register for classes and reconcile the fact that Iâd have to go to a ComMUnItY CoLegE instead of a typical 4 year university, but they seem to be perfectly fine with it and think itâs a fine route.
If they change their mind and become more open to studying more for the SAT and applying to more popular, âtypical,â schools, then Iâll definitely support them and help them do that. For now, however, Iâm going to consider their choice final and help them navigate going to CC. Weâve started researching different pros of the program and CC together and theyâre overall looking forward to it.
Even if Iâm currently feeling a bit resentful of my situation, I canât deny that CC was a good experience and helped me with being surrounded by lots of academically motivated people with a lot of different life experiences.
I have little doubt that theyâll succeed in their ambitions and life goals regardless of where they end up. Iâll do my best to give them the best advice I can.
Also, @ucbalumnus, I fully agree with what youâre saying, that weâre incredibly lucky we live near resources to make college accessible for us. Our question is not whether we can go to college, but what college to go to. I hope programs like this expand in more states and majors so that more people can access these programs without having to take out ridiculous amounts of private loans that drown their entire lives.
Thank you to everyone who commented in this thread and gave me advice. Itâs truly much appreciated.
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@rJason:
Your sisters would be perfect candidates for Questbridge (full ride to top schools). Even if they had to take $3,500 in loans freshman year theyd make twice that over their summer internships as women in CS from a top college and it only goes up from there. Lower income, first gen or immigrant kids are those who benefit most (ina a life changing way) from attending a top college and thus benefiting from all its resources and influence.
The great difficulty is seeing further when financial circumstances outside your control keep you stuck in the present and drowning. Its very very hard because thereâs urgent need in your family. So its on you and your parents to assure them you WANT TO invest in them - in part because you guys KNOW that investment will pay off, not just for them but for the entire family, in part because you WILL manage without them for 4 years.
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Books, gas, etc or R&B would still have to be covered if the student were to go to CC. Thatâs a wash. Besides, if the income is as low as reported, these 2 students will likely be eligible for enough financial aid to cover that cost.
oh ok! Sorry about that. The college now program in CA allows high school students to take classes at any community college and are not bound to the classes in the program. I agree that the college now program classes are dippy hehe. I know many who have taken advantage of those free classes and began college with junior standing. Any student within the state is allowed to participate. Compsci majors still have to completed general breadth. They are very lucky to have such a caring brother!
Personally, I would have them apply to the CC early for any additional funding opportunities. Then I would have them look into Quest Bridge and some meets needs or big merit 4 year schools that will potentially give them full rides. Cover all the bases and see how it all plays out before closing any doors.
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as a QuestBridge college prep scholar I was going to say this but I wasnât sure if OP was going to be receptive of the idea. according to QB all the sisters would have to do is work study and maybe get a few scholarships to cover some other leftover things.
@rJason I think I am the same age as your sisters? iâm also going to apply to college next year. not sure if youâre familiar with QuestBridge but basically itâs for low income, high achieving students. if you get matched to a school, you have a full ride. all the colleges are top schools and top LACs. the process is much earlier than applying through the common app (it opens mid to late July I think and it closes late September) but what Iâve heard is that it gives a lot more room to explain extenuating circumstances and other hardships that might not be explained on the common app.
the way the process works is basically filling out the application to be selected as a finalist and you rank up to 12 colleges which is like applying to them ED all at once. itâs a matter of completing the supplements and completing the match requirements if youâre selected as a finalist. even if you donât match, you can apply through RD and since all these schools are full need met (I think?) the fin aid packages are still huge.
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- That would depend at lot on how close the closest 2Y college is vs the closest 4Y college.
- Fin aid, even for those that meet full need, may differ because each school gets to define what âmeets full needâ means. Again, for this family, a few hundred dollars is a big difference while a few thousand is an astronomical difference.
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Anyway, Iâm not going to say that the CC path is necessarily the best one. But they would have to want something different. And yes, you would get exposed to more and different worlds at an elite private. Whether that makes a difference later in life for an individual probably does differ case by case.
Tuition at many CCs is about $1500/semester. For low-income families, the Pell Grant is enough to cover full tuition, books, any fees and still have a couple thousand left over in the form of a refund check the student can use for incidentals. If the student lives at home there is no R&B that would be higher than what it was when the student was in high school, meaning the family does not have to increase their budget to accommodate an additional expense.
For many low-income families, there is no affordable option besides CC. Sometimes, even sending a student 300 miles away for full-ride college because the travel expense (2 or 3 times a year) is too much.
We canât assume that any university will cover a Full Ride (tuition+R&B+fees) as well as guarantee the funds to cover books, travel, and other costs associated with attending college. Also, most FinAid packages include the GSL loans for low-income students. For families accustomed to low credit scores because of small debt that became unpayable and who may have never had an auto loan at all or over $3K-$5K, the idea of taking out a GSLs totaling $27K over four years can seem an incredible burden to place on their child.
Considering all that, and knowing their student can attend CC for no oop cost, no loans, and with a couple thousand dollars coming back every year can make for an easy decision.
Oops, i responded before seeing that you had already responded.
Exactly. I know families that would never consider any non-life essential expenditure over $400. Heck, some canât pay that much when their health actually depends on it. The idea of spending $1000 at one time on anything simply isnât given the slightest thought. Itâs as impossible to consider as flapping their arms and taking flight.
I tried to help one boy from a family like this a year ago. He was desperate to attend college, but knew his mother could not afford to give him even $10 to buy school paper, much less $100 for gas to drive him to the other side of the state. Families in this dire a financial situation arenât rare. In the end, that young man ended up starting work at a dead-end job. In his opinion, even if he got some miraculous FinAid offer that cost his mother zero, life experiences had taught him something would happen to necessitate him dropping out for some financial reason. His entire life was merely weeks-long or (if the family was lucky) months-long intervals between the next potentially life-changing financial crisis. So he forgot about his dream of college.
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@econpop: this is a heartbreaking story. Can anything still be done? Perhaps to make commuting to a CC possible? Part time?
(Assuming grades didnt qualify him for full need universities and he lives in a state that doesnât cover much for college.)
@rJason: not all meet need universities offer the same type of package. Some cover money for travel and incidentals in their package.
CC+Honors scholarship can be their safety. Generous full need universities can be their reaches. 
Nothing for now. His grades were good enough to get him into most low-selectivity colleges and he was not picky at all. And heâs in NC, so it would have been as about as affordable as any state. But no public-school deal would have covered anything not directly related to Tuition+R&B. And he had no realistic way to cover the financial gap between T+R&B and the true total cost of attending a 4yr residential university. Not to mention he had siblings at home he felt could benefit from the $20-$50 he might be able to send home every few weeks.
I tried to convince him of the CC-to-4yr path, but he didnât like that and felt his only good options were 4yr immediately or go to work. He decided 4yr immediately was unrealistic so he focused on getting work and getting out of the house.
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@MYOS1634, @Yankee_Belle, and @harrypottereatspie, Iâve told them about it but theyâre not super motivated to do questbridge because
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It would require time writing essays and filling out applications, and theyâd rather spend that time working part time right now and getting us more money.
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Decisions are binding. Theyâre completely unwilling to go to separate schools, but because decisions are binding, itâd be a gamble.
@Bill_Marsh yes, books, gas, etc, would still have to be covered at CC, but they ARE covered with CC, plus extra 2k+. The net amount that theyâd get is 3k per semester per student. Excluding any loans.
Iâve paid about 100-300 per semester for books, around 400 per semester for transportation to CC, and less than 100 dollars a semester on supplies. Basically less than 1000 for everything needed. So around 3100 minus around 1k is 2k, no loans.
@EconPop , when I was in community college, I met a significant number of people who were in that guys position that youâre describing. Even if he doesnât end up going to college this year or next year, he might end up opening up more to community college in even more years.
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