<p>My family makes less than $20,000 a year. I will end up having around a 93 GPA for high school with a fairly rigorous regimen. SAT score 1780, may take again. Not a lot of ECs or community service, however. What do you think the chances are of me getting close to a free ride at a 2nd tier type of college?</p>
<p>Try going to collegeboard.com and filling out the EFC calculator (how much your family is expected to contribute to college). Most schools will pay off the rest of the tuition using need-based aid money. Your chances are pretty good with a salary of <20 k a year…</p>
<p>It is not true that most colleges will give you the amount of money that you need after your family contribution is subtracted from the cost of college. Most colleges don’t have the financial resources to be able to do that, particularly for very needy students like you. Some colleges may meet your need ,but may do it by allowing you to take out extremely large loans, something that isn’t a good idea.</p>
<p>Your best bet may be to go to community college for 2 years while living at home, and then to transfer to a four-year public university in your state. Some such universities may even have merit aid for in state transfer students with excellent academic records.</p>
<p>Also see if you can raise your SAT scores, something that also may help you.</p>
<p>Do check the financial aid website of all colleges that interest you. That will give you a good idea of what kind of aid the college is able to award.</p>
<p>Make sure, too, that you apply to at least one financial safety: A college you know you’ll gain entrance to and definitely can afford.</p>
<p>if you can improve your SAT score you may be able to get into a college that pays for most of your tuition (in conjunction with state and federal aid). If not, public school is your option.</p>
<p>If your EFC is zero, you may still have need fulfilled with half or more loans- for instance the UCs do approx that</p>
<p>You can look at schools like Baylor and Whitworth with merit aid, too, but you are likely going to see loans as a large component of your package and you need to be cautious not to over commit yourself on loans, just because finaid depts think that is okay as aid does not mean you want to be stuck paying them back!</p>
<p>What are the chances of getting a lot of aid in an out of state school?</p>
<p>If it’s an out of state public, the chances are very low as very few OOS publics give much aid to out of state students. Very few public universities have the resources to even meet 100% of demonstrated financial need of their in-state students. Typically, even instate students also have to take out lots of loans.</p>
<p>If it’s an out of state private, whether you get aid would depend on the school’s resources and how much the school desires you as a student. </p>
<p>In regard to your original question, your chances for a virtually full ride anywhere are very low. Your best chances for decent aid or low costs are your local community college and the lower ranked 4-year public universities in your state.</p>
<p>If you say what state you live in, we could give more useful advice.</p>
<p>The most selective schools, Ivies and their peers will give you a great FA award if you are admitted. However, you’ll need a significantly higher SAT to even be in the running for admission to these schools. What’s more important is that very few schools outside the most selective will meet all of your demonstrated need if you’re admitted. In addition, a lot of schools are need-aware, which means when they see your need they’ll probably freak out and not want to admit you. If you have a public school in your state that you’d be willing to attend you may be in luck.</p>
<p>It might be helpful to apply to your instate public school and try to fill the gaps with outside scholarships that are geared for need based aid. There are tons of them but you need to be diligent and persistent. You should consider doing more EC and some community service. Also dependent upon what state you are from, there are programs (funded by the state) in place for economically disadvantaged kids. There is significant scholarships and stipends for the students that qualify. I know NYS has such programs.</p>
<p>If you raise your stats a little more, you’d have more options. I’ve been thinking about doing the CC to 4-year to save money since my family only makes about 4,000 dollars more -.-</p>
<p>CCers have pointed me to Questbridge, Millennium Gates Scholarship, and considering 3rd/4th tier schools that really financially help competitive students. Look into those. Good luck.</p>
<p>You should definitely check out QuestBridge.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/508411-official-2008-questbridge-national-college-match-discussion-help.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/508411-official-2008-questbridge-national-college-match-discussion-help.html</a></p>
<p>I would also ask what does not a lot of ECs or community service mean?
As your family has little income, are you working as your EC? That is taken seriously by colleges, especially it contributes to the household, not just new lipstick and Cds.</p>
<p>Look at Berea College in Kentucky. It’s a very well respected school–with no tuition. [Berea</a> College](<a href=“http://www.berea.edu/]Berea”>http://www.berea.edu/)</p>
<p>Are you part of a community of faith? Some religious denominations are strongly dedicated to education and have wonderful, solid colleges. Some are very interested in maintaining a presence of their adherents and will offer you aid that others will not be offered, to encourage you to attend. See if your denominations supports any colleges. And do not worry–there are religious colleges and there are religious colleges–not all of them will cramp your style. Visit and see–you can visit after applying and being accepted, you don’t have to do it all now.</p>
<p>And, when the USNews Rankings come out, check out the LACs in the 50–100 rank. There are some fabulous schools there, that would be eager to accept someone like you and offer you solid financial support. (And do retake the SAT, but work on internet research to lengthen your list, now).</p>
<p>You should also look at schools that are SAT optional and offer generous need based FA. At some schools you may have to sumit a graded paper or even interview. At others you may have to submit SAT scores.</p>
<p>[Optional</a> List | FairTest](<a href=“http://fairtest.org/univ/optional.htm]Optional”>http://fairtest.org/univ/optional.htm)</p>
<p>schools like Bowdoin, Holy Cross, Bard all give generous need based FA.</p>
<p>If you are a NYS resident, you should definitely look at schools that ofer HEOP as you will meet the academic threshold. Make sure some of them are also on your lsit</p>
<p>If you can get in through HEOP, Columbia, Fordham, NYU, Cornell the SUNYs could all be affordable options for you. You will have to do the leg work to see what the HEOP requirements are for each school to see if you meet the guidelines. You should definitely have your SUNY applications done ASAP so that you can be in the first round of applicants as there are a very limited number of HEOP spots on the SUNY Level.</p>
<p>2007 SUNY Admissions Summary (this should give you some sort of guideline)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.suny.edu/student/downloads/Pdf/2007_Admissions_QF_StateOp.pdf[/url]”>http://www.suny.edu/student/downloads/Pdf/2007_Admissions_QF_StateOp.pdf</a></p>
<p>Hope this helps</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/pdf/HEOPWebBrochure2008.pdf[/url]”>http://www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/pdf/HEOPWebBrochure2008.pdf</a></p>
<p>You you will really have to do a lot of research and cast a wide net</p>
<p>So, the CC folks will tell you it’s very rare, but my son had somewhat better stats and about the same income, and got multiple full ride offers. The fact is that more and more schools are offering extra grants in place of loans and family contribution, at the lowest EFC levels. My son has no work study, no loans, no family/student contribution, and gets money each semester to help with other expenses like books and travel. </p>
<p>My advice is to make sure that you apply to a range of schools, and that you particularly target strong matches. My son’s aid awards varied <em>really</em> widely – some schools gapped him, others had full rides, etc. He had 10 apps, and that really helped. We also took advantage of a lot of schools willingness to waive application fees.</p>
<p>I would definitely look at Questbridge as others have said. It’s a lot of paperwork, but they do a lot to help you out even if you’re not one of the top winners.</p>