<p>PS: If you live in North Georgia, you may be in the preferred geographic area for Berea (even if you aren’t you can still apply). It’s not too late to apply there (April 30) and it’s free, and your stats are good for it. You probably already know tuition is free there if your income is within a certain limit. </p>
<p>I’m screwed! I just talked to Hiram for about 15 minutes and after financial aid, we have to pay $15,500! They sent the official letter today. That’s more then Earlham. She suggested parent plus loans, which my parents wouldn’t take out AND my father wouldn’t qualify for it. She did say my EFC is 8k, but they do not meet the need. I am getting really worried. Lawrence U sent my FA package out yesterday, the others won’t come until March. I called 90% of the schools and asked if I was missing anything for financial aid. A lot of them require the W-2 forms and tax return official papers. The Lawrence lady said they do not usually meet ones EFC. I should have applied to schools which met my need. Holy Cross is looking like it’s my only affordable option who meets full need. I just hope I’m accepted. I had CT College on my list (met full need), but FA should have been more of a factor in my search. Ugh. Maybe I should just move to Denmark, lol.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestion, but Berea College would be a terrible fit. It’s in KY which isn’t exactly the most liberal state, no offense to anyone. I’ve actually been to KY and it’s pretty, but not the type of lifestyle I’d like to live in. And the 11k per year for VSU was after the Hope Scholarship.</p>
<p>Now you know, though, and knowing is better than not so you can work on back up plans while you wait for the rest of the informaiton to come. Good job calling.</p>
<p>EC and Ceilidh, I lived in Jacksonville until I was 15, so it may just be the group of people who ended up at Flagler from there that isn’t so great–most of the kids I know that went there did so because they didn’t make it into the school they wanted to, so there’s probably a big geographical bias there.
And EC, I think Armstrong would be a lovely fit for you. I live about half an hour away from it, and am actually going to their open house on Saturday. (It’s my safety.) I’ve also had a few teachers who are/have been professors there as well as many who’ve gone to school there, and they’re wonderful, so while I can’t speak for the whole school, the academic quality certainly can’t be terrible.</p>
<p>The only reason I would have applied to VSU for my safety is because they already have my SAT scores and my transcript. But I can send Armstrong a transcript online for free. I’m going to talk to my counselor (the good one who has known me since freshman year) tomorrow. I need to regroup, but I shouldn’t panic just yet. I am really hoping HC comes through. I really know Armstrong has a lot of students who transfer out. If I stay in-state, I’d prob transfer to UGA after a year or two. West GA would be ideal because they actually have a mass communications major, but I don’t plan on staying at any of these schools anyways. Not many students from my high school go to Armstrong, but they don’t have many major choices.</p>
<p>EC…I believe if you look at past threads about your college search process, it was pointed out to you that the schools (with the exception of HC) do NOT meet full financial need. There were a number of us urging you to look carefully at the financial picture and choose ONE school at least that was affordable.</p>
<p>It’s not too late to do a little “regrouping”. There are affordable options for you. You need to determine which one(s) to apply to, and exactly how much you CAN pay per year.</p>
<p>I applied to GCSU which was affordable. BTW, I forgot to mention that Hiram’s package does not include work study. And I have applied for a job at Olive Garden as mentioned earlier.</p>
<p>KY may not be a liberal state but Berea is an island of progressive-ness, in my opinion. It’s the most racially diverse of all schools my S applied to, the first one in the south to desegregate and the first in the south to go coed.</p>
<p>But it’s a long shot in any case, last year’s accept rate was 13%. I imagine this year will be even tougher.</p>
<p>I was responding to: "There were a number of us urging you to look carefully at the financial picture and choose ONE school at least that was affordable.</p>
<p>I was just staying the fact that I did apply to an affordable school. And I plan on applying to more in-state universities if I don’t get any good fa packages. Housing isn’t an issue. I do have a safety obviously, but I don’t see the need to apply just yet. But I’ve been thinking about it. And my father told me earlier this evening to not apply. He is hoping for Holy Cross.</p>
<p>Don’t even count work-study as money towards paying for college. The amount of work-study money a college offers you in a package is the max amount available to earn and not money they simply hand to you or deduct from your bill. You have to first find an available work-study job (they don’t hand you a job) and second, hope that they even have enough hours available to work to earn that amount which is tucked into the financial package. </p>
<p>It’s well past time for you to open your mind up to what the majority of CC members have been advising to you for years now. Stop being so picky and get a real financial safety college acceptance in your hand. No college is perfect and you seem to have a naive belief that only colleges on the “Colleges that change lives” list are good enough for you.
Every college has the ability to change lives. Every single college has pros and cons. The bottom line is that you will get out of ANY college what you put into it.</p>
<p>I never said Holy Cross was an academic safety. I know there is a good chance I will not get in, but they meet full need and the net price calculator was affordable. Clark’s net price calculator was also affordable. Clark also notes on their website, “If Clark is your first choice college and you have a financial aid award from another academically strong institution, and it appears that the total cost to you and your family will be greater if you attend Clark, we encourage you to share that information with our Financial Assistance staff. Based on circumstances you and your family are facing, our staff can determine whether there are considerations that should be taken into account in the calculation of your need-based financial aid eligibility.”</p>
<p>ec, have you read this? It comes from Muhlenberg College’s office of financial aid and it’s one of the most upfront and concise explanations of financial aid – particularly preferential packaging – I’ve seen.</p>
<h2>Here’s the “bottom line” (journalistic term) from the article:</h2>
<p>What this means to you is: If money is a factor in your college search and it will impact your final choice, you should make sure to apply to colleges where you are clearly in the top third to top quarter of the applicant pool.</p>
<h2>If you are just squeaking in for admission, odds are your financial aid, if it comes, will be mostly aid you give yourself (i.e., loans or work). </h2>
<p>You’ve worked so hard and been so diligent about your search. My heart will break for you if your end result falls short of your dreams. But if that happens, know it is only, at worst, a temporary setback and at best could be the path that fulfills dreams you haven’t even imagined yet. If in June you discover you need to enroll in community college for a year, or take a gap year to work and save funds for tuition, you’ll be in the same boat with tens of thousands of other young people, nearly all of whom will go on to have lives of triumphs and failures, joys and heartaches, just like those who go directly from high school to a favored four-year.</p>
<p>What a great link, alynor. It says everything that people have been trying to explain only better. Thanks for posting.</p>
<p>D was home from visit when I got back from carpool and grocery store and is ensconced in room. I’ll have to wait for the “sharing” about the sorority sleep over. I just like to type that because it’s so ironic ;-)</p>
<p>alynor i liked it so much i started a new thread for it in the FA section. it’s so simple, and so well sums up what it took me lots of research to learn.</p>