<p>I ended up applying to Stanford, Brown, and three state colleges. A few weeks ago, I finally received all of the admissions letters. Both Stanford and Brown denied admission, but all three state colleges accepted me.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it turns out that only -one- college in my entire state distributes actual 'grant' money from their own coffers, and it's a high ranking $40k/year private college -- one that I decided not to apply to since it offered little in the majors I am interested in. Websites, such as a petersons, which showed that all of the colleges on my list met 83%-95% of need and provided an average "need-based grant aid" of $6000 were apparently misleading. As a result, my parents and I (though mostly me), will be paying $12,000 a year for me to attend college, even though I had a very large amount of financial need. That $12k in loans was the most generous offer I received. The worst of the three colleges left me with roughly $17,000 a year in loans, $12,000 of which was unsubsidized, forcing me to pay 8.5% interest a year. From this college, i've calculated that i'd owe about $80,000 when I received my bachelors, assuming that I paid it all off immediately when I graduate, since otherwise the interest would keep building up. This is a standard college that admits anyone who applies with an ACT score of 23+.</p>
<p>I only took 6 high school credits, with the rest home schooling, but I had a 4.0 GPA on them. I scored a 34 on the ACT. I'd often heard that with good grades and studying hard, a person might be lucky enough to receive a full ride through college. So much for that notion, though. I don't really know what else I could have done to qualify for a free ride, but i've ended up far, far from it. I'm pretty disappointed about how all of this has turned out.</p>