<p>I'm an upcoming senior and already I am stressed out about financial aid and college. I have no idea if what I'm feeling is normal or not. What makes me feel worse is that my parents want me to go to a community college or potentially Clark University for free, despite me being capable of going to schools that I desire.</p>
<p>My family is not what I call well off. I'm not sure how much money I will receive if I were to apply to colleges such as BU, Amherst, UCLA, and NYU.</p>
<p>My number one choice by far is NYU followed by BU.</p>
<p>I live in a family of 7. My dad is a contractor who makes good money on completion of his houses. My mom works as a solder who earns approx. 500 a week. I have one older sister, age 20, who is going to a local community college, who also earns money from her job but only paid at the end of the month. I have three younger sister, one in 5th grade, and one in 8th and 9th. </p>
<p>You may all think this is good enough for me to go to college but the fact is, my parents suffer immensely frm debts. Debts they have to owe for loans they took out of other people's market. I don't remember how many times my dad has been taken to court for failure of paying someone back. It is extremely painful for me to watch them like but I know at the back of my head, that I am better off than I assume. I just hate seeing my parents in tears, for not being able to pay off what they owe. They're good people, just bad handling with money. </p>
<p>With all these problems, is there still a chance for me to get enough money, to avoid giving them more money on their debt?</p>
<p>
[quote]
My number one choice by far is NYU followed by BU.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I shudder when I read that sentence, not because it's impossible or anything, but because I counseled one of my friends through her first-choice-NYU-second-choice-BU dreams just this year. She was accepted at NYU and waitlisted at BU. NYU a horrific reputation of gapping aid - she didn't get enough aid, and couldn't go. BU's fin aid varies depending on the strength of your application (your stats, ec's, etc), and given that she was waitlisted, she wasn't going to get golden money later.</p>
<p>Gphoenix gave you some excellent advice as I too shuddered when I read NYU and BU both schools which have reputations for not giving good aid and gapping. As an out of state student, attending UCLA will be the equivalent of attending a private school with very little aid coming your way.</p>
<p>Since money really is an issue, you have to put together some financial safeties, where if accepted you will be happy to attend and it will be affordable to your family.</p>
<p>I know that MA, not at a loss for colleges, but does your state offer agreements for in-state tuition with other north east states?</p>
<p>Based on your previous post it seems that Clark is going to be a financial safety for you if you fulfill requirements in this program while at UPCS. Your parents have given you good advice about considering it, I would strongly suggest you do so as it would definitely be a financial safety for you.</p>
<p>Also based on your other posts, I don't think you have an academic safety for the schools which you are looking to attend because your SATs are below the 25% of the admitted student range for Tufts (1250-1420), NYU (1210-1410) and BU( 1220-1380) even with tip factors; being a first generation student of Vietnamese descent they are not matches/safeties. Amherst is going to be a major reach for you.</p>
<p>Will you be considered an international student in this process? (If yes, that your chances will be even stiffer because there are only a hand ful of schools that are need blind to international students).</p>
<p>We as parents have said this time and time again, you really need to build your list up from the bottom up listing school that you can realistically be accepted to. You probably need to come down a tier (you definitely do not have the scores for the top 50 national universities), look at some of the LACs and some of the SAT optional schools where they will not be assessing your scores. IF you have an online edition of the US news do a sort and begin researching schools where you realistically fall into their admitted student range. SInce the northeast is heavily populated with applicants from NY, MA and CA, being an asian from the north east, if you would consider looking at schools in the midwest and south, you could get a boost fro geographical diversity and in addition you would definitely get a boost for being a URM.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advices sybbie and phoenix. I truly appreciate it.</p>
<p>I am what everyone calls, the "average person." I was hoping the influence of my supposedly "prestigeous" school could get me some recognition and with a good GPA and steady grades, I was hoping to earn money for scholarships. I didn't necessarily think BU was a reach for me or hard for me to get into. In fact, it was one of my safeties lol. The only reason I say this is because my teachers, during my tribunal, boosted my confidence too high, saying I could make it easily but I don't think they told me how much money I would receive. I will prepare for the SATs more than ever. Thank you !</p>
<p>If I had to guess your parents are afraid of the college expense. When you begin to know the process yourself you can do your best to present the options in a non threatening way. Firstly you may get much more money from another school and thus make community college less attractive. Is there perhaps some other reason they want you at home???? Are you contributing money to the household???</p>
<p>BU is pretty straight up about thier financial aid policies</p>
<p>*Because we want to recognize academic excellence, Boston University considers academic performance when awarding University need-based grant and offers a wide variety of merit awards, some of which cover full tuition. *</p>
<p>So basically if you are not one of their best admitted students, the money is not coming.</p>
<p>When you file for FA, they do not take into consideration your debt unless it has been used to pay for catastrohic medical expenses or educational expenses for other children in the family.</p>
<p>So your parents having all of this debt and it turning in to bad debt is definitely going to hurt you as they may not be eligible to take out PLUS )parents loans).</p>
<p>They don't really mind where I go but they are sort of putting some influence on schools that could help the family out financially. They are proud of me no matter where I go. I just want to help them out and not be a burden. I also get turned off by their proposal of me going to a community school and then transferring. They say it will save money.</p>
<p>Does Clark offer anything you want? The free tuition $28,000 is a nice incentive to attend. When you apply there, apply to live on campus. If the school gives you some need based aid to cover your room and board, it would be the best of both worlds, you would be close enough to comne home to visit, and far enough to have your own life. You should definitely apply especially since you willbe able to go pretty much for free.</p>
<p>Living in Worcester for 15 years, the thought of attending college in town is just too much lol. Even though I love my family to death, I wnat to get away from them as there is too much chaos in the family. I constantly have to worry about my parent's lives suffering frm debt all the time and my sisters havign to deal with it. I am somewhat of a coward trying to leave frm home while my other sisters have to suffer through it but its tough. Clark is just too close period and the money factor, as desirable as it may be, doesn't really attract me.</p>
<p>If there was another college I could go to, I would most likely choose Umass Amherst. It's a party school, not actually my type, but its an hour away and I am capable of getting there.</p>
<p>I highly recommend College Holy Cross (despite the fact that it right in your back yard.) Among educated folks, grad school admission committee and employers, they highly regard a good students from College of Holy Cross. Despite their small size they cover up to 100% demonstrate need, Clark only do 98% (however, you get better chance of winning merit money at Clark). Another school i recommend you to look at is Boston College (where i'm currently at.) their financial aid in my opinion is top notch. They very understanding and would increase aids if your family have problems. I got a full ride here, and one of my friend who was admitted waitlist in late june (a time period where money dry up) still get $30k financial aid and only folk $5k of her own moneys to attend. Please consider BC, good luck</p>
<p>lol, i think you misunderstand the political climate of BC (i dont now about Holy Cross so no comment there). Yes the school is Jesuit institution but many students who attend this school is highly liberal. I consider myself a Moderate/Liberal and I find ALOT of liberals here. In fact there was a school wide protest in favor of gay rights last year with full support of faculties and majority of the student body. Check the fact of thes school you interest in, dont rely on word of mouth.</p>
<p>BC doesn't have a non-discrimination policity against certain things and to take a theology course is not my cup of tea lol. This is one of those moments where I am capable of attending a prestigious school but instead choose to go to BU, which is of less standards etc</p>
<p>BC added in the non-discrimination clause after the students protest. You can get the theology course credit if you do a philosophy course call Perspective which is more plato and aristotle than anything else. But I completely understand that you want to go to a school that your comfortable and it definitly dont have to be BC. I suggest it to you on the basis of its financial aid strength. I would not advocate BU to you due to a certain little known fact that BU cut your financial DRAMATICALLY each year. By the time Senior year come you only have half of your initial financial of freshmen year (regarding of family situation). Other school i think you should consider might be Brandeis, UConn, UNH and GWU</p>
<p>I have heard rumors of fin aid being cut every year. But I've also been told that if you're a star applicant (good stats) and that you maintain your academic wonderfulness throughout college, and maintain good relations with profs and fin aid staff (smile to them every now and then), then your numbers stay on top. But I think this holds for any college... you could call BU fin aid to double check. (And document the date and time, person you talked to, so as to hold it against them if you do get a reduced aid award, if you want to be a legal freak. ^_^!)</p>
<p>BC really isn't as... politically/religious conservative as its reputation makes it out to be. (Jesuit institutions i.e. Georgetown BC on the whole tend to be more welcoming these days, and have a lot of 'diversity' in numbers. Basically, while you won't be surrounded by extra-liberal lesbians who attend wican weddings on their weekends (nothing wrong with these, now...), you won't be discriminated against either in class or at parties.) Their party-hard reputation (something about football... supposedly ice hockey too, but we all know BU trumps BC on that ;-)) seems to be true, though. This is just personal experience backing me up here - a short six-week stint at BU that allowed me night-time access to BC, so take it for whatever it's worth.</p>