Even if your parents are not willing to help with any college costs, you may not be considered low enough income to qualify for Pell Grant and others. That is why doing the FAFSA can help you find out what you are eligible for.
It sounds like you may need to take the max on student loans that you are eligible for (amount is different for fr, so, jr, sr).
At many schools, room and board cost as much as tuition.
If your GPA and ACT/SAT make you eligible for Presidential Scholarship and full Engineering scholarship at UA, that is full tuition for 8 semesters plus an extra $2500/yr scholarship.
What state are you in? You can look at other schools to see what merit, financial aid, etc. Sounds like you need to go somewhere that is ‘budget friendly’ for your circumstances.
If you know you want to study engineering, perhaps you are already taking AP or duel enrollment with a community college or local college. You want to focus on ‘finishing in 4’ so it may mean taking a summer class in your home state for example.
You don’t indicate what state you are in, what your stats are, and if you have an area of engineering that you want to study (or if you have more than one area you are thinking about). CC community can be more helpful with more detail.
You do want to go to a ABET accredited school (engineering accredited for your engineering major).
If Alabama is too expensive for you even with full tuition scholarship, you might do better at an ivy, depending on your stats. If you can get in, most will meet 100% of your need.
My mother and stepfather have an income of roughly 55k-65k combined(including income from assisstance programs). I live in Missouri, am interested in chemical engineering(more specifically materials science/engineering, although its more likely I’ll just select courses relevant to it within another engineering major), and have an ACT score of 34, and a comparable SAT score, forgot the exact #, maybe 1480?? GPA is barely a 3.7.
Is your mom/stepfather supportive of you going OOS? Your stats are great, congrats!
Love to see you at UA.
You are a rising HS senior? Be sure to make all the deadlines. You will also want to apply to honor’s college - you get class priority and some great HC opportunities.
UA is a great place for engineering - my DD is beginning her sophomore year and loves it.
Since you are in Missouri, I would also apply to Mizzou. You never know if you need to go to school closer to home…
Yeah I actually live here in Columbia so Mizzou has a big draw. Money is the largest, but obviously not only, factor for me. All things being equal, I’d most likely want to go oos for college, but Mizzou is still high on my list. My parents don’t really care about location, its really a non-factor.
I know I kinda said I was done but was talking w/ my parents and was wondering if you all thought this was roughly accurate. Ik costs can vary wildly depending on the person but for someone making a concerted effort to cut outside costs(when possible), could they expect a # reasonably close to this?
As you can see some dorms are much cheaper especially if you choose a double or triple room. The meal plan is mandatory only for freshman year, after this you can save money by cooking for yourself. Living off campus after the freshman year can also be cheaper depending on what you choose in the way of a shared house or apartment. Here’s a link so you can see some of the options.
Unless you are planning to bring a car you won’t have to pay for the parking decal and the Dining Dollars roll over to the next semester/year if you don’t use them.
The book amount shown seems high. I know engineering books can be expensive, but there are usually ways to buy used books and/or rent them.
You will of course have to factor in cost of transport from MO to AL.
So, in regards to a Pell Grant, are those affected by the scholarships a student has or simply efc and some other things? Could I count on receiving one even if it will serve as a way to pay other costs(and not tuition)?
Sorry for my ignorance w/ a lot of this, since its still summer I can’t really use any counselors or advisors from my school yet, and family isn’t too interested in the topic right now.
@bdnation5 Actually, the Cost of Attendance link listed above in your post #25 references the COA for Fall 2014/Spring 2015
This is more current information:
COST OF ATTENDANCE
The table below shows in-state and out-of-state tuition and fees for the 2015-2016 academic year. These amounts reflect the estimated costs for a full-time dependent undergraduate student. For additional information, visit cost.ua.edu.
In-State Description Out-of-State
Direct Cost Direct Cost
$10,970 Tuition and Fees $26,750
$8,800 Room $8,800
$4,080 Board $4,080
$23,850 Total Direct Cost $39,630
Indirect Cost Indirect Cost
$1,200 Books $1,200
$1,806 Transportation $3,020
$2,366 Miscellaneous $2,366
$70 Loan Fee Estimate $70
$5,442 Total Indirect Cost $6,656
$29,292 TOTAL (Direct + Indirect) $46,286
As another said, at UA you will want the lower cost dorm, it will save $3,000 (that is the traditional style dorm; the suite style has been $4400/semester versus the $2800 per semester). Costs may be up a little but general idea. I know this year the all you can eat (unlimited swipes) meal plan that all freshman on campus are under went up a bit. That drives up freshman year. After that can pay less with cooking and planning. Housing deposit Oct 1 will give you electronic access to selecting housing when that becomes available. Housing deposit before a particular date is 100% refundable.
I see that you are from the Columbia, MO area. My son looked very, very closely at Mizzou. Great place, but it was out of the $$ range since we are not in MO. He really loved both schools and I believe would have been happy at either. Good luck to you!!! There were around 100 freshman from Missouri who started at UA last fall.
You should look at University of Missouri Science and Technology in Rolla. Very good engineering school and with your stats and aid requirements you may get really good money.
^^ My son also looked closely at S&T. Fantastic engineering school. Much smaller than UA and Mizzou of course. Student body approx 75% male. (LOL… that was one thing my son didn’t like about it!)
Overall undergraduate population is smaller than UA and Mizzou because it is really only an engineering school. The Undergraduate engineering enrollment at UA is about the same as enrollment at UM S&T.
Student body being so highly male is not surprising since it is an engineering school. That is where UA has it all over UM S&T. :))