<p>I am very concerned that we will now not be able to send our son to college as planned. We had $50,000 in a 529 plan until we found it necessary to pull the money out due to the economic downturn. We also had to file bankruptcy and I'm curious how a bankruptcy will affect my son's chances for financial aid or loans. Our family income is $72,000 annually and we could contribute maybe $3000 or $4000 a year. </p>
<p>My son is not a scholar but he is an ok student with a 3.4 GPA, AP world history credits, an ACT composite score of 27 (26 English, 25 Math, 25 Reading and 32 Science), has taken all advanced classes and will possibly graduate early. (He will have all his credits but is not sure if he wants to miss out on his senior year.) He's not into sports nor does he have a lot of extra curricular activities but he does play several instruments, writes music and is a member of a band (who has played in local establishments and has professionally recorded some of their music.) He is also employed.</p>
<p>Is he going to test again? Is he going to also take the SAT?</p>
<p>What is his weighted GPA?</p>
<p>To have more options that will provide more money (merit or FA), he may need to get higher scores. If his weighted GPA is higher, then that will also help.</p>
<p>We live in the Detroit metro area and his school doesn’t offer the SAT’s. I was going to look into having him take it elsewhere. He wasn’t planning on retaking the ACT but would if it might help him get into something other than cc. I do think the 3.4 is the weighted GPA (Advanced Chemistry was pretty tough on him and did some damage.)</p>
<p>My school didn’t offer the SAT either. I took it on my own (except it was ultimately moot, as I ended up doing far better after retaking my ACT).</p>
<p>I’m not an expert on public colleges in Michigan, but with those stats and your financial situation, he might qualify for some kind of aid at one of the so-called “lesser” publics, and as a commuter it might not be that much more expensive than a CC. But it might also be a better choice to go to a CC, finances aside, depending on what he wants to study and the quality of the CC (they tend to vary widely in quality). Before you make that call, check out the transfer statistics of your local CC to the upper-level state universities (and nearby privates). That information is available somewhere on the web.</p>
<p>Those stats are low for MSU (I mean it won’t qualify for any merit aid) and with that income you’re going to get very little aid here. </p>
<p>What district are you in? If you’re in Schoolcraft’s district then go there for two years and transfer. We’re lucky to have a good CC for most of Wayne county.</p>
<p>Are you saying his stats are too low to get into any college other than the “lesser” ones like community college? I’m surprised. I would have thought he would have at least been able to get accepted at a decent school. Maybe he should have taken the easy route in high school just so he could have gotten a better GPA. I thought they took into consideration how difficult the class load was. Our district must stink because my son’s ranking is 18th out of a class of 364. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed him to take that darn advanced chemistry class and should have let him drop it like he wanted to. Oh well, maybe we just send him to technical school.</p>
<p>He will get ACCEPTED, but he’s not likely to get much aid is what we’re saying, and with the cost of college in Michigan $3k-$4k just won’t cut it at anything other than a CC without merit aid. He will probably get accepted to everywhere but U of M and perhaps MSU. They DO take into account the strength of the course load.</p>
<p>You might want to look into Albion. I think I remember getting information from them about scholarships for students with a 3.4 GPA. I can’t remember the specifics though.</p>
<p>There’s any number of schools he’d get into - but your budget simply won’t cover the costs and his stats are not high enough to get any sort of merit aid.</p>
<p>I would look into attending a CC or your local commuter state school (Wayne State?) for the first two years. Bank as much as you can, to help him out maybe a little more for junior and senior years, so that he can perhaps transfer to MSU, Western, etc. One of my previous co-workers was a Western Michigan grad and said she had a great experience.</p>
<p>I am not familiar with Michigan publics , but I would guess that a 3.40 and 27 ACT and top 10% in his graduating class would gain entrance to many in state 4 year colleges. I guess that mid 2s gpa and low 20s ACT could find a spot in state with a little research.</p>
<p>A quick look at Michigan State common data set would indicate that your son can be a competitive applicant</p>
<p>MSU average freshman GPA is 3.60 and 27 ACT is in the 75%ile. 70 percent of applicant are admitted. If the instate tuition is a burden , have a discussion with financial aid officers as soon as possible to determine the availability of need based aid.</p>