@thumper1 that is how much I can pay put of pocket without going into debt. It is made up of my personal savings and Florida prepaid that I would get back if I go out of state.
@gatorwithdreams Alabama won’t be a lot cooler. You could study abroad in the summer or intern up north. I would major in mechanical engineering rather than aero so you don’t box yourself in. Look at the payment plan for 27k of debt. Make sure you really want that as an option. You might be able to accelerate your graduation date with AP or summer classes.
Will you be commuting from home if you attend Florida? Because if not…$8000 won’t cover the over $20,000 cost to attend.
Or would your bright futures make up the difference?
$8000 won’t cover even the cost of room and board at the vast majority of colleges. You would need to take the Direct Loan to cover or come close to covering those costs. And you would need a FULL TUITION scholarship as well.
@thumper1 Bright Futures gives me a full ride. The 8,000 a year is what I would have left over If I go to a Florida school. If I don’t go to a Florida school, the 8,000 is what I could afford to pay after any aid and scholarships that would be required without going into debt. UF is my safety school, and it wouldn’t cost me anything to go there.
Maybe you can clarify this for me…
I thought Bright Futures gave a per credit award for tuition. Does it also cover room and board?
So if you go to a Florida school, you will have 32k profit. If you go somewhere else, you would have 27k debt. The cost difference is 60k. You could study abroad every winter J term and summer term for that price. In engineering, you are going to be going to class or lab, studying in your AC room on your computer and sleeping. Rinse and repeat.
*Study abroad for 8k a year. So three months of your year, including the summer could be elsewhere. That would be living the life. @gatorwithdreams
@MYOS1634 --agreed. This student would definitely be in the playing field for a diversity scholarship at Pitt. The student would need to major in MechE though because Pitt does not offer aerospace.
For THIS year only, BF for the highest level paid full tuition (about $6500) and a $600 book stipend. At this time, it is expected to return to the old $103 per credit, or about $3100 per year unless the Florida legislature changes it. That’s about 1/2 tuition. Room and board at most Florida public schools is pretty reasonable and I know at UF that a meal plan isn’t required. If the OP is a NMF, then everything would be covered by another program. There are also a lot of scholarship at UCF in engineering that stack with BF.
Florida prepaid is similar to a 529 plan if you use it out of state or at a private school. There is a balance that is available, tax free, per year but the guarantee is to pay Florida tuition so if your balance is lower than tuition at USF or UF, it’s covered (although there are fees, and only the older plans cover those and they are starting to expire). Some people also bought a housing plan, but it is limited to certain dorms at the big schools.
OP seems to know his Florida options and how to finance them. As to his original question, $8000 from Florida pre-paid will not make a dent in OOS tuition at CU or Perdue. Even with those very good stats, Ga Tech is a reach and probably not affordable.
@thumper1 That’s spot on what @twoinanddone said. The 8,000 would only cover a fraction of the approximately 50,000 average OOS for Purdue and Boulder. That’s why my only chance of attending OOS Public schools would be if I had huge financial aid and/or scholarship money.
NASA Glenn Research Center is in Cleveland near Case Western which offers AE, are you considering any private research schools that may be able to offer large merit aid?
If you do not qualify for massive aid, just go to UF and take summer internships out of state. You do not want to try to work and loan your way through college when there’s a great opportunity to go to school for free.
Truly.
If you qualify for Questbridge, then you are low income enough to get large amounts of aid at the private schools we are mentioning. Each college is required to have a net price calculator on its website. RUN IT BEFORE APPLYING ANYWHERE.
If you are not very low income, UAH Huntsville is a great school for aerospace that gives large aid packages for high GPA and test scores. Check their scholarship chart.
Good luck.
Florida is a big, long state, so getting out of your area of the state would be the same as going OOS
<<<I am a senior in Florida. I have a 3.8 GPA, 800 SAT math, 680 English, 34 ACT (with perfect on math and science section). I am also Cuban and both my parents are teachers. My biggest fear is that I will not be able to attend a college that I want because it will cost too much. The only way I can go out of state is if 90% of the cost is payed for. I want to go into STEM, specifically aerospace engineering, but all the top schools for that are public and out of state. What can I expect as far as academic scholarships? The schools I am applying to are Colorado Boulder, Purdue, Georgia Tech, and also the University of Florida, but that’s in my home town and I can actually make money by going there. I know that this sounds ungrateful, but I have lived here all my life and desperately want to get out.
I also have applied through QuestBridge for Stanford and MIT, but they are an all or nothing
<<<
With both parents as teachers, how would you qualify for QB???
You need a better list if your parents will only pay for UF minus any BF/merit/prepaid you’d get. You can only borrow 5500 as a freshman so your list won’t work since merit would be small or none
Are you also a NMSF
<<<alabama won’t="" be="" a="" lot="" cooler.="">>>
Sure it will. during the school year, Alabama is a lot cooler than Florida, particularly south florida.
@mom2collegekids OP is in Gainesville if I read that correctly. Already in northern Florida.
http://www.bestplaces.net/compare-cities/gainesville_fl/huntsville_al/climate
@gearmom @mom2collegekids Its not as much about simply getting away from home. UF is the superior school in Florida and it’s a blessing and a curse to grow up here. Had I lived somewhere else in FL, I would gladly go to UF. Its more the want to be alone in a new place with a fresh start. I want to make more connections and not be tethered down by my previous friends and family that I live around
Count your blessings. You have an amazing in state option. And you’ve done really well to have the stats you have. So many do not have either.
Trust me, going away will happen soon enough. Do it with money in the bank, not debt. You can be proud of a UF education.
@gatorwithdreams I completely understand. 99% of the kids going to college feel the same way. My experience going with a nearby college is that it will be completely different from your high school experience. What is your percentage of out of state students? 30 or 40%? But you’re going for an engineering degree. You will forget your disappointment being not away the way if you stub your toe, you forget about it after you slam your hand in the car door. Engineering should be a sufficiently challenging distraction from your location.
For study aboard, you could leverage your money by applying for scholarships in addition to the 8k a year for maximum fun. It is hard to study aboard during the school year for engineering so what you could do is the month winter term and summer. You’d have September to December Florida. Winter term somewhere cool. February to May Florida. Two months somewhere cool. As you get further in your education, mix in internships up north.
95% percent of the kids trying to get to college want your problem. And I know you are not ungrateful. You sound like an excellent student who will go far in life. And I’m also sure, your smart parents already understand this. You have 75 years or more of your life ahead of you. This is just a short 36 months. Just doesn’t seem financially practical to get in unnecessary debt.
UF is a HUGE school. There are plenty of people there beside the ones you know from your town or HS. In addition, if you live ON campus, it can be five miles away or five hundred miles away. You don’t have to go home on weekends or see your family every weekend.
I know you are weighing these options…but the ability to graduate debt free is something most students can not even imagine.
@thumper1 More like half a mile haha. I live in a neighborhood that is 70% rented out by students living off campus, but I get the point you’re making. I am just afraid that I will be tempted to retreat back to the people I am comfortable with and not separate myself from them in the same way that I believe I would at a school in a new location. High school has kinda sucked for me as far as social life and that is why I want to start fresh with a totally new setting.
@gatorwithdreams Put up a poster with your next study aboard travel location. Your number one priority as things get going in your major will be sleep. There won’t be the social life that non engineering majors have anyway. It is just hard to overlook the 60k opportunity cost of going elsewhere. How long would it take your parents to save that much.