Go to a community college. You’ll get over it. Here’s a real-life story of someone I am very impressed with, and it might even be relevant to your career. I am a journalist. A young freelance writer whom I’ve hired from time to time is from Texas. I’ve seen her resume. She’s from a low-income background and is a URM. She started at a community college, then transferred to UT Austin. Then she got a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She’s doing very well for herself. I recently saw her byline in the Washington Post.
There is certainly no shame is going the CC route, I did that myself. It doesn’t look like your test scores are high enough for any of the automatic full scholarships… unless anyone here has suggestions for schools still accepting applications.
<<<
I can’t help but feel jealous when all my friends are going to 4 year universities and prestigious colleges with their tuition payed for by their parents when I can’t even go to a small college because of money issues t
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Since you live by UT, and presumably your friends do as well, then likely all of them didn’t get into UT. At this point, who knows how many of their parents are going to want to pay for their child to go elsewhere? Right now, their parents may be thinking that their child will get need-based aid to help with the “going away school” cost…and come March, they may find out that they didn’t get the aid expected.
Maybe some of your friends’ parents are divorced, and they’ll find out that one parent now won’t pay. This happens all the time. And sometimes, even over the summer, students find out that they can’t go where they thought they could go.
Right now, you don’t need to say where you will or will not be going when your friends are all talking about this at the lunch tables. Simply say that you don’t yet know where you’ll be going.
BTW…the word is PAID…not payed.
@mom2collegekids My parents can’t help now because they don’t want to.
@brantly That’s pretty cool! Thanks! I might get into journalism
@suzy100 I was told to post in the financial aid and scholarships section
Why did you say this a few months ago when people asked you if you could afford the OOS schools you were looking at??
<<<<
Yeah, I can afford the OOS schools
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
People ASK you questions like that so that they can give you the correct advice and REDIRECT you at the RIGHT time if you can’t afford your list of schools.
[QUOTE=""]
Unweighted GPA: 3.3(possibly a 3.4- won't know till august)
[/QUOTE]
-Weighted GPA: 4.3(possible higher again)
:-# of AP classes: 8: World history, APUSH, euro history, lang, lit, government, enviro, bio, possibly stats
-class rank: 159/470
-SAT Scores: (new SAT: out of 1600) 1270: 560 on math, 710 on read/write
-AP scores: 4 on World, 4 on APUSH, 4 on Euro, 4 on Lang, havent taken the others yet
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
@mom2collegekids Yes, I was under the impression that my parents would be helping pay for college. They did not tell me they weren’t until a few months ago. I also had no clue about my parents financial issues that would prevent me from taking out loans until literally 3 weeks ago.
Several months ago your parents said that they would pay $45k+ per year for an OOS school?
What is your weighted GPA now?
Frankly, financial credit issues or not, they should have also told you that borrowing a bunch for undergrad would be a horrible idea. Your future career doesn’t pay enough to pay back big loans.
@mom2collegekids I was under the impression that my parents would be helping pay for college. They did not tell me they werent until a few months ago. I also had no clue that my parent’s financial past would prevent me from taking out loans. I learned this three weeks ago. If I had known about this, I would not be asking for help. This is all new information, which is why i’m looking for advice.
@mom2collegekids My parents said they would be helping and I was planning on taking out some loans. I don’t know my exact weighted GPA as of right now because my school hasn’t published it yet, but it should be 4.4-5 range
Well, you don’t really have any choices at this point except to go to a CC. When starting at Ground Zero with only Direct Loans and a small amount of savings, and it’s late in the application season, there really aren’t a lot of choices.
Maybe if you retested and brought up your Math score, there may be a school that will award merit late…but, likely it wouldn’t be enough.
If you had posted a few months ago when you learned that your parents wouldn’t be paying for college, then maybe we could have found some school somewhere that would give you large merit for your stats. The problem is that it’s mid-January and many deadlines have past.
Thinking that you could just borrow your way thru (even if parents’ credit was good), was a horrible idea and your parents should have told you months ago that that idea would drown you in debt.
I hope that younger students who are reading this thread will take note. Don’t assume your parents will pay for college, ask them specifically and use real numbers. Don’t assume that you can borrow your way thru college…too much debt is a horrible idea AND most parents won’t cosign those loans anyway.
Well, I’m sorry that your parents weren’t forthcoming with the fact that they’d be paying nothing. We see this every year…parents vague about how much they’ll contribute…and then later saying they’ll pay little or nothing.
Here on CC, when we hear that parents are vague, we tend to tell kids to expect those parents to pay very little or nothing.
You really have no choice but to start at a nearby community college and then transfer to UTx because you can commute there.
In the meantime, work/save to help supplement the future costs of UTx.
Seriously, since you live by UT and your friends do, too, chances are some won’t get into UT and their parents won’t pay for them to go away either.
BTW…the word is PASSED…not past.
@mom2collegekids Thank you so much for all your help
^^
Lol…yes, and I know that!
As frustrating as this all is, hopefully it will only be for two years. Do your best at the local CC and then transfer to UTx.
And look at it this way…when you commute from home, your parents will be helping with college costs because providing a place to live and food to eat is somewhat like a $10k+ per year college contribution.
And, really, the truth is most American college kids do not get to go away to college. Most parents do not have $25k+ per year to pay for college.
@mom2collegekids Yes, i’m trying to look at is as sort of a blessing in disguise. I get to save a ton of money and a degree from UT is worth more than from any of the other schools I applied to.
^^thats the RIGHT attitude!! :-bd
OP I can certainly understand your disappointment, You have worked so hard and it is not turning out as you had hoped. Most 17-year olds are inexperienced when it comes to planning college – which can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. If your parents don’t have the foresight to look ahead and have the “money talk” early on, it falls on the student, and unfortunately it didn’t happen in time for you to develop a strategy that would fit your stats and situation.
This said…you are just at the beginning. Wise decisions NOW can save you more heartache later.
Our kids’ friends have been in the following situations:
-
Thrilled to go to a private college, parents proud but clueless, they take out tons of loans but student still has to drop out after first year. Worst of it was that he had an outstanding bill and thus could not get transcript sent = no transfer. This student worked for 2 years to pay off loans then joined the military. Has matured, has a future, has goals…never blamed anyone for his predicament, is making the most of his life and will do well.
-
Another friend had free tuition deal at a private, flunked out (partying), tried community college, dropped out, now is back at community college. Another mutual friend started at state school, dropped out, started community college, left and is now transferring to another state school. Unfinished stories. If a student is unmotivated OR the school is financially not feasible, it is better NOT to start at a four year with “magical thinking.”
3)Third scenario : Rec’d highest merit award from private art school (dream school, the best nationally) but still could not afford to go without $20 K a year loans. He decided to decline the scholarship and started off at community college. Last year he transferred to an art school in the City to finish his four years and will graduate with very little debt – important for a working artist! Has no regrets.
You can receive a lot of help on this website. I hope you keep coming back to let us know how it is going.
When your friends talk about their college acceptances it must be hard, but in six months it won’t matter so much. And once you are in a new setting, taking classes and thriving, even less so! In a couple years you may even realize that things worked out best for you by taking this route. Sending best wishes!