There are very few schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need without loans.
Right. I was trying to say that if the 14K meets need package already includes the maximum borrowing amount for a freshman then the OP will not be able to borrow beyond that max. And if the 14K package does not already include loans then the OP will be able to borrow if they choose. But if the cost of attendance is already covered by 14K+grants then the OP will not be able to take out subsidized loans, just unsubsidized ones. Or at least that was my understanding when the issue came up for my daughter becuase her no loan package met our official need but the expected parent contribution was more than I could afford.
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Going by your username, I am going to assume that you are interested in a physics major. Below are some schools in order from guaranteed least expensive to most expensive. With some of the most expensive options, I think you would be competitive for the full ride scholarships, but there is no guarantee of getting one.
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U. of Louisiana – Lafayette: About 13k undergrads here. You would get a waiver of out-of-stat tuition fees, room & board, a campus work-study job, and an additional $3k/year towards the remain tuition fees as you would receive the Live Oak scholarship (source). That would leave you with about $7500 to pay.
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U. of Southern Mississippi: About 10k undergrads here. You would get a full tuition scholarship here (source) and you would get a free double room your first year, too. If you’re accepted to the honors college there are additional scholarships available, too, including some full rides (source). Room & board is about $11,500 for years 2-4, and whatever the board portion would be for year 1.
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Louisiana Tech: About 10k undergrads attend. You would qualify for a waiver of out-of-state fees (the Bulldog award) as well as a $9500/year scholarship (Presidential) (source). This would leave your costs at around $10k.
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Minot State (ND): About 2500 undergrads attend. Sticker price is low ($16k for tuition, room & board) and if you keep your GPA at a 3.8 or above, you’d get an additional $3k/year. If you don’t, then it’d be $12k/year (source). So this school would run you $13-14k/year.
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South Dakota State: About 10k undergrads at this school. You would receive at least $4k/year in scholarships (source) which would have tuition around $8300 and $8100 for room & board, bringing costs to about $16,500.
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Youngstown State (OH): About 8800 undergrads here. You would receive at least $4k/year here, and if you’re accepted to the honors program you’d be considered for additional scholarships ($1-3k/year for tuition, and $1-3k/year for housing for the first two years) (source). Students accepted to the honors college are also considered for the full ride scholarships. Tuition after the guaranteed $4k/year would be about $7k/year and room & board would be an additional $10k. So costs of $17k, and could well be less depending on what kind of scholarships you receive from the honors college.
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South Dakota Mines: About 2200 undergrads and this school has a good reputation for producing solid outcomes. With your current SAT score you would get $4k/year, and if you are able to bump your score up 20 points, you would get $5k/year (source). That would leave tuition at around $10-11k and room and board around $8k for a total of $18-19k.
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Southern Illinois-Edwardsville: About 9300 undergrads attend. You would receive $3500 in merit and could compete for a full ride (source). This school would probably be about $19,500/year if you did not receive the full ride.
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Southern Illinois-Carbondale: About 8k undergrads attend this school. You would receive at least $5500 in merit aid and would be able to compete for the Chancellor’s (full ride). That would make tuition about $10k and room & board is about $10,600, so you’re looking at around $20,600 if you don’t get the Chancellor’s.
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Thank you so much for this. For the last two specifically – I’m on the IL side of the St. Louis metro area so I’m quite close to SIUE, and I didn’t know they offered full ride scholarships. I will definitely be looking into this.
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Yes, great points!
One issue is that “meeting 100% needs” is defined differently by different institutions. And then to add to the variability, I have found that the biggest difference among schools is their treatment of home equity as an asset in their calculations.
I read it as your second sentence being exactly the limitation the OP was referring to.
Would you be able to get the same full ride at UNM?
You’re correct.
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No, she had a 4.0 and I have a 3.8. The minimum GPA for that scholarship is a 3.9.
I think the $19,500/year COA quoted for SIUE was for living on campus. If you’re close enough to live at home and commute, you’d be looking at around 13K/year tuition & fees, before any merit (plus transportation costs and any other living expenses your parents wouldn’t cover). Based on the info here Financial Aid - Scholarships, Awards and Grants | SIUE, it looks to me as if you’d be pretty likely to get enough aid to bring this into range, even if you didn’t score a full ride. As you note, with the relative difficulty of getting significant merit as a transfer, even a partial scholarship could make commuting to SIUE a better deal than going to CC and then potentially paying more for the last two years than all four years at SIUE would cost you.
While commuting throughout college may not be your first choice, without any cash contribution from your parents, a “free room and board” contribution from them may be what makes things add up. Sorry you’re in this position; you’re really in the “short end of the stick” zone in terms of college affordability.
In terms of strong physics schools that either meet need, or meet a majority of need and are likely to bridge any gap with merit, try running NPC’s for Lawrence U, St. Olaf, Beloit, and Grinnell. Do any of these yield a doable out-of-pocket?
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Yeah, SIUE seems like a good choice financially. I’ve had Lawrence, St. Olaf and Grinnell on my radar for several months now. I just re-ran the NPCs for all of them, not including my sibling in college and adding in a rough estimate of the amount I’ll have in savings, and St. Olaf, Lawrence, and Beloit were all above $20,000/year. I know that St. Olaf is very generous with merit aid, but I don’t know if it stacks with need-based aid so I’m not sure if that would make a difference.
Grinnell, on the other hand, was ~$15,000/year. Which is obviously awesome. But I’m not at all confident that I’d be able to get in with such a low acceptance rate (11%), even with the boost from applying early decision (52%).
ETA: The only other college that I’ve filled out the NPC with consideration to the above indicated factors – and which turned out a reasonable cost – was Colgate.
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Yeah, I think it’s unlikely that merit would stack to get you below their calculated family contribution, although you can ask, just to be sure.
Grinnell would be an awesome ED choice. Those are better odds that most schools whose aid is that generous, both in terms of the acceptance rate, and in terms of where you stand stat-wise relative to the accepted pool. Your stats are within spitting distance of median (GPA slightly below, SAT slightly above), so I’d expect your odds as an ED applicant to be pretty close to 50:50. (Perhaps a little less, since those ED percentages include recruited athletes, but still reasonably close to a coin-toss, I’d think.) They’re need-blind as well, so having relatively high need won’t hurt your chances.
Note also that Grinnell has a no-loan aid policy, so that yearly cost is without loans, and you could still elect to take the guaranteed loans.
Colgate also has no-loan aid for students with family incomes under 175K… but they are not need-blind. So, even though median stats are a bit higher at Grinnell, I think the larger ED bump plus the need-blind policy makes Grinnell look slightly better for ED. The good news is that both have ED1 and ED2, so if your first choice of the two doesn’t work out, you still have another ED shot.
Grinnell also considers demonstrated interest. (Colgate does not.) And while an ED application should logically be the ultimate demonstration of interest, I still think it’s even better to get on the admissions radar early. Set up a college-only email address, get on their email list (and those of every other school you’re interested in) and click on every link they send. Colleges that consider demonstrated interest are tracking your level of engagement, so engage at every opportunity. Visit in person if you can, and virtually if you can’t. Make sure to interview, and also to engage with the admissions rep from your geographic region. Of course there are limits (don’t lob questions that you could have answered for yourself by consulting the website, just to engage, for example), but definitely show interest in every way that is reasonable.
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I’ve been opening most of their emails. I actually got this “preliminary application” thing the other day, and am now filling it out because of this conversation. I’ll likely be able to visit this fall as well. Thanks for your help!
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As a STEM major, getting your math subscore up could be a help, as well. Perhaps try an ACT practice test and see whether that test plays to your strengths any more than the SAT.
I honestly think that my education and lack of studying are to fault for my math score. As I mentioned somewhere else upthread, I never had a real geometry class, and that was where most of my issues were on the math section. I plan to work with my calculus teacher on improving my score this coming school year, and retaking the SAT (since it’s the format I’m most familiar with) in October. If I’m able to improve my score by even 50 points I’ll be very satisfied. I was honestly surprised by how much better I did on the reading than math.
I’ll check out the ACT practice tests anyway, but I think I’ll likely stick to the SAT.
I didn’t include my SAT score on the preliminary application that I mentioned for this reason. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to superscore my SAT since the October one will be the DSAT, and I’ve seen it mentioned elsewhere that some institutions might not mix formats for superscore, so I’ll just have to hope I do very well on the October test.
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But OP keeps mentions OOS. Nothing wrong with in state. Yes it still has to be paid for.
But at some point someone has to decide - college or not. Or alternatives to Pat - such as employers who have partnered with ASU on line , etc. or the military. Or some type of loan forgiveness program for certain professions.
Per OP the first two years are free and have no transfer concerns. “I have the option to go to a local CC for free, but I’m concerned about transferring credits. In Illinois (where I live), it’s required that all credits transfer to all in state public universities.”
Look at Troy University Scholar Plus. Looks competitive but your stats qualify - Tuition, Room, and board.
It’s a known name.
Below are two other options you may want to consider:
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U. of Mississippi (Ole Miss): This school has about 17k undergrads. You would essentially get free tuition (set at the cost of tuition your 1st year, so costs could go up slightly each year) and room & board runs about $11,500 (scholarship source).
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Mississippi State: This school has about 18k undergrads. You would qualify for $25k in scholarships which would leave you with about $500 in tuition/fees and $11,000 for room & board, so about $11,500/year here (scholarship source).
It’s been a few years since I ran the numbers, so I’m sure they’re different now, but for my DD’19 I found some good deals in Missouri. Southeast Missouri State would be in your general area and was $10K for DD with merit. Missouri State, Central Missouri under $15K for her after auto merit. Check out their websites and see if they have good merit for your stats, and physics.
She ended up at a school that was about $8K tuition, $10K room and board. I did help her, but not a ton. For freshman year on campus, she got several thousand of local or department scholarships. She had money in savings and she worked. Sophomore year she moved off campus, no dining plan, and saved a few thousand a year. (She also ended up being able to graduate a year early due to DE credits and summer classes and that helped a bunch.)
Basically each semester I paid $2500 tuition and she paid $1500 out of savings. I got the American Opportunity Credit on my taxes at $2500/year, so netted out I only spent $2500/year on tuition. She paid rent (cheap in small college town), utilities, and groceries from earnings. We paid for her car. She didn’t take any loans, but if we didn’t help at all, she could have. All to say it might be doable at a small regional public with merit to cover with federal loan + working + savings.
See if your parents would give you the $2500 they could get back on their taxes. You could potentially get some on your own return, but not likely you would get the full $2500 so it’s better to have the parents claim it. My sister had her kids pay for college (cc + transfer) but she would give them the $2500 from her tax refund.
CC is a decent idea too, my DD’17 did community college (just a 2 year program like your sister), and basically paid no tuition after tax credit and foundation scholarships.
The digital SAT doesn’t start until next year. The PSAT will be digital in October but you won’t be taking that one again.