hello everyone,
My daughter is currently a high school sophomore who will be taking her SAT soon. She will be applying to college next year but I am not quite sure how the process works. She said that she is ranked about 10-12 out of 300 students in her graduating class. She told me that she is not very good at math or science but are good at writing essays, and english related subjects. We are NJ resident but she has made it clear that she would like to go to NY, boston or pennsylvania for college (fordham, marist, penn state were the names she mentioned). Realistically speaking, how much grants/scholarship/financial aid can she get at these OOS school? Do you feel that she could get a full ride at Rutgers New brunswick? I know that she wants to go out of state but how much money can she get from the out of state schools I mentioned above? Also she since she is good at english/essay writing, she is thinking of doing political science. However I am not sure what she can do with that degree. I am single parent and can’t afford to send her to very expensive schools but I don’t want to see her be engulfed in debt.
Wait…your daughter is a HS sophomore NOW and will be applying to college next year? Why? Is she graduating early? Most students apply to college in their senior year of HS, not their junior year.
Fordham, Penn State, Marist and Rutgers do not guarantee to meet full need for accepted students. In addition, your kiddo would be an OOS student at Penn State. Their obligation is to provide aid to their instate students, not OOS ones. Your costs would be very high at that schools. A full totally free ride at Rutgers? I’m going to say…I doubt it.
Until she has her SAT results, all of this is punting. You need her SAT or ACT scores…and her GPA, not her class rank. When you have those, you will be able to get much better information about college options for her.
At this point as a HS sophomore, she should be working on doing the best she can in her courses. She should plan to take the PSAT in fall of her junior year. That is the test that is the basis for national merit qualification. She wants to prep for that.
I apologize. She is actually a junior now and I believe her GPA is over 4. Not exactly sure what it is. Do you have an estimate as to how much the cost of attendance is at those OOS schools AFTER all scholarships/financial aids per year?
There is no way to predict scholarships at those schools for you…without her SAT score. None. Also, so far as I know, none of those schools have guaranteed merit scholarships. None. And they don’t meet full need.
And there is no way to predict your need based aid award either. We don’t know your income and assets…and the schools don’t meet full need…so anything goes in terms of aid.
The current cost of attendance OOS at Penn State is about $48,000 a year. Marist is about the same. Fordham is over $60,000 a year.
Hi! If she’s a sophomore now, she won’t apply next year, it will be the year after. Good for you both for starting to think and plan this early!
Need-based aid will depend on your income and assets and in some cases, also that of her father (I’m assuming she lives with you and you haven’t remarried), and the school itself - some promise to meet need, some don’t, some cost more to start with, etc.
Possibilities for merit scholarships, those based on grades and test scores and such, can be either guaranteed or competitively awarded.
So there’s not enough info here to make suggestions for you, though your D’s list looks like a good start.
Fordham awards some merit aid and need-based too, as does Marist, though I don’t think either promise to meet need and both are private so not cheap to start with. Penn State really doesn’t, especially for out of state students, so that one may be too $$.
Have you begun visiting schools at all to get a sense of what she likes? Has she seen these or done research or is she going with schools she’s heard of from others or…?
What is her GPA? It’s kind of hard to know without stats? I know you don’t have test scores yet. A full ride to Rutgers seems unlikely, unless she has super duper high stats. You say she has some C’s in math, which would make that unlikely. You should go on the website for schools you are interested in and run the net price calculator. Although you don’t have test scores, you can run it fairly accurately with GPA (for those that ask, some don’t) and your income. From these you can also see what they estimate your EFC to be. You can also run a “pretend” FAFSA to see your predicted EFC. It is a real eye opener. My family’s EFC is unaffordable, It is about $35,000, but my parents can only pay $20000 to $25000. I have realized I need to to only consider either instate, like Rutgers, or schools that offer good merit for my stats, like Temple. I got into Fordham and Drexel, too, but will not be able to attend because we cannot afford it.
Penn State gives very little merit or need-based aid, even for instate students. I am also a single parent with a daughter who would like to go to Penn State, but even though we are PA residents, I told her that only by winning the lottery could we afford to pay for Penn State. After your daughter has SAT or ACT scores, you may want to check the pinned threads above regarding schools that offer automatic and competitive merit aid and do some research about schools that meet 100% of need (as they determine it).
Colleges will have NPCs (net price calculators) which you can input your child’s test scores/GPA and your financial info to get a rough idea of how much you might pay. It will only be an estimate, however. CC and College Board websites have college matching apps you could use to get some ideas, there are others. Once you have test scores, you can look for colleges where your child’s stats are higher than the average range where she might get merit$. There are also threads here on CC for colleges which offer granted merit for various stats, competitive scholarships, lower cost colleges, and more. Start researching the process now, there is a lot of good info. here on CC. You should also visit the fafsa.gov website and run the fafsa 4 caster. It will give you s rough idea of what federal aid you might qualify for, although many colleges will not meet full need. Each college does things differently, you need to research the financial aid info for all of them, some colleges offer merit, some do not. Some offer big merit, some do not. Try and visit schools this spring when in session, summer visits are fine, but campuses will be quieter. It is difficult to do a lot of visiting during fall of senior year since your child will be busy working on college apps and many colleges have earlier deadlines if you wish to be considered for merit scholarships, some as early as October.
Does her high school offer any financial aid nights, college nights, or other info to juniors? If so, go. You’ll learn the basics about applying for federal aid (FAFSA), about some local scholarships, about Naviance and other tools. It’s all pretty confusing, so go to as many as you can. Also some of the college fairs have information about the schools and FA. Schedule a few college tours in your area if you can. Even if your daughter doesn’t want to go to those schools, you can learn about FA and how different colleges handle it.
Being single doesn’t get you much and can hurt you. Your asset allowances are less than half married families, your tax credits max out at half the income level as married couples. Sucks. Your income may be lower than a two worker household, but the levels for full aid are pretty low, so making about $75k doesn’t really help you much, unless your child is going to one of the top level schools like Williams or Princeton that consider anything under $100k low income.
Introduce your daughter to a wide variety of schools, with a wide variety of costs. If she gets her heart set on one of the expensive schools like NYU, she may be disappointed. Set a budget that you think you can handle, with a little wiggle room, and steer her toward those schools. Top schools can be affordable, so don’t rule them out because of sticker shock, but don’t over commit either. If a school costs twice what you can afford, it has to come off the list.
Don’t bother with PSU…you’d be full pay there. PSU rarely gives any merit, and when it does, it gives very little…only about $4k for those in the SHC. PSU also gives little need based aidl
The exception was after the PSU scandal and PSU was scared, so it opened the bank and gave awards to practically every OOS student (or it seemed that way…lol. That was a one time only generosity.
fordham will still have a high net cost unless your child is a NMF. Fordham gives lousy aid. Try their NPC.
Rutgers could be affordable since you’re instate and NJ gives state aid.
Are you low income?
How much CAN you pay each year?
Without test scores, we can’t tell you what she might get at various schools.
TEST SCORES are the BIGGEST consideration for merit…far more than GPA.
Your DD cannot take on big debt UNLESS YOU cosign. So tell her how much you’ll pay, and tell her that she can only borrow $5500 as a frosh. To borrow more would mean that YOU would have to cosign and be responsible if she can’t pay. Tell her you won’t cosign.
You need to make it clear to her how much you’ll spend each year. Tell her now. show her this thread so she can learn about merit scholarships.
Go to Fordham’s and PSU’s websites and put your info into their Net Price Calculators. Show your DD the results and discuss.
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Do you feel that she could get a full ride at Rutgers New brunswick?
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No. Free rides are for tippy top test scores, and you’ve indicated that she’s not strong in math, so sounds like she won’t score well in the math section of the ACT or SAT.
Have her take both the SAT and ACT.
I think you’re thinking that her high rank will mean a free ride. NO. Each school has several high ranking students (obviously…lol). Schools can’t afford to give that many free rides.
This is how merit is decided at the schools that give merit (and not all schools give merit, and some only give a few awards):
There is a HUGE pool of kids with high GPAs (this is due to grade inflation, easier curriculums, etc).
There is a smaller pool of kids with high TEST SCORES.
There is an even smaller pool of kids with BOTH high test scores and high GPAs. These are the kids who typically get the merit awards.
Are you really a single parent or are you divorced or separated from the other parent? Is there another parent in the situation or has there been any financial aid from another parent. Has she always lived only with you? If another biological parent is involved, that person also needs to fill out FASFA and their finances will be considered. Just something to consider.
Rowan University in Southern NJ is pretty generous to IS students and they seem to be investing in new construction, etc. Took my OOS daughter to visit and we were impressed. She applied and was offered a nice merit scholarship, will probably end up being cheaper than our IS flagship U.
You also need to understand that very few OOS publics give need based aid. They charge high OOS rates because you don’t pay taxes there.
It makes little sense for OOS publics to cover their high rates with need based aid. Why would they bother to charge high OOS costs if they then had to reach into their meager FA accounts and cover those OOS costs with need based aid.
Pretty much, only UVA, UNC and UMich give a good bit of need based aid to OOS students, but since those schools expect high stats, their awards have a merit aspect to them.
HOWEVER…there are some OOS publics that will give merit scholarships for high test scores.
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Are you really a single parent or are you divorced or separated from the other parent? Is there another parent in the situation or has there been any financial aid from another parent. Has she always lived only with you? If another biological parent is involved, that person also needs to fill out FASFA and their finances will be considered. Just something to consider.
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No…the other parent does NOT fill out FAFSA. Only custodial parents fill out FAFSA
HOwever, there are schools that require CSS Profile and the ones that give the BEST aid will ask for non custodial parent financial info.
As has been suggested, visit several different college sites and run the Net Price Calculators to get an idea of what need-based aid could be available to you.
Some schools will also calculate potential merit scholarships, but many will not. That’s because merit scholarships at many schools don’t have hard and fast cut-offs - they’re based on being in the top % of the applicant pool, and the strength of the applicant pool can vary from year to year.
To obtain merit aid, the student typically needs to be in the top 10-15% of applicants at that school. Schools may offer token merit aid to a large percentage of applicants to be able to say things like “75% of students receive scholarships”, but substantial awards are going to go to students who help raise the bar, not students who are average at a given school.
Huh? OP states that he/she is a single parent, presumably the custodial parent. Why would “another biological parent,” a non-custodial parent if the presumption is correct, need to fill out FAFSA?