<p>I am planning on going to a public college in state next year, but I'm concerned about paying for college. I know I'll have to take out loans, but I was wondering about what federal aid and other kinds of financial aid I could get besides loans.</p>
<p>My older sister is currently in her 2nd year of college and has been struggling because her school's financial aid package wasn't too great, so I'm afraid my financial aid won't turn out great either. Especially since I may end up attending the same school as her.</p>
<p>Our family is a family of 4, and only my Dad works. This year, my sister's EFC was a little less than $2500. Does this mean it'll remain the same for me since our income won't be changing drastically anytime soon?</p>
<p>It is likely that each of you will have an EFC of about $1300 each. That means that you’ll each get a decent amount of Pell Grants…about $4300 each in Pell Grants.</p>
<p>Are you asking about Virginia Tech? The tuition, fees, room, board, books and misc costs about $20k per year. If you get about $4300 in Pell, about $2500 in work-study, and $5500 in student loans. </p>
<p>Can your parents pay for your and your sister’s EFCs? </p>
<p>Unless you get a merit scholarship or some other grant from your school, you’ll have a gap.</p>
<p>edit to add…I found this on another thread…</p>
<p>*My info:
-Virginia Resident
-Asian
-GPA: 3.5 - 3.7 (Don’t know what my weighted GPA will be…my grades are As & Bs)
-Rank: 90/484
-1880 SAT (620 M & 630 CR) - Plan on retaking at least once more.
-Full IB Diploma Candidate</p>
<p>Virginia Tech
George Mason University
James Madison University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Boston University</p>
<p>My parents weren’t able to pay my sister’s EFC for the past two years, I doubt that will change. </p>
<p>I don’t work now, but I am trying to get a job for the 2 months I will have for the summer after I graduate so I can try to have money to pay for school. I don’t think my stats are high enough for a scholarship?</p>
<p>I think there’s another grant that was given in my sister’s financial aid package, but I’m pretty sure she had a large gap even with working. What are other ways to fill this gap?</p>
<p>I see that you’re retesting? In October? If so, also sign up for November SAT.</p>
<p>Your sister may have had a Pell grant, an ACG grant (which is being discontinued this school year) and/or a SMART grant (which is also being discontinued).</p>
<p>Since your parents can’t pay your EFC, then I can see why you and your sis will have trouble covering costs.</p>
<p>I think you need to wait to see what your new scores are, and then choose some schools that might give you a lot of merit for your stats. </p>
<p>I think some/all of your current schools are going to gap you a lot. You need to add some real financial safeties.</p>
<p>One of the grants she did get was the Academic Grant for her GPA. Another is a grant for being a resident of VA and having over a 2.5 GPA. Her gap for the year is about $5,000. I don’t know what exactly she’s coming up short with, but she says money is tight for her.</p>
<p>I’m would only go to BU and RPI if I got really good scholarships. The only reason I applied is because my IB Counselor encouraged me to do so since people with stats similar to mine got full ride scholarships. RPI also has a few unique majors I am interested in, but I doubt it’s possible to go there next year.</p>
<p>GMU is my financial safety school. I would be a commuter student.</p>
<p>I’m planning on majoring in Computer Engineering if accepted to engineering programs. I will find out on Nov. 6th about Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>*
GPA: 3.5 - 3.7 (Don’t know what my weighted GPA will be…my grades are As & Bs)
-Rank: 90/484
-1880 SAT (620 M & 630 CR) - Plan on retaking at least once more.
-Full IB Diploma Candidate</p>
<p>I’m would only go to BU and RPI if I got really good scholarships.<br>
The only reason I applied is because my IB Counselor encouraged me to do so since people with stats similar to mine got full ride scholarships. *</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Others can correct me if I’m wrong, but I really doubt those schools have been giving full rides to students with your GPA and SAT. Are you sure that you didn’t misunderstand your counselor?</p>
<p>*One of the grants she did get was the Academic Grant for her GPA. Another is a grant for being a resident of VA and having over a 2.5 GPA. *</p>
<p>Well, this is the last year for the Academic Competitive Grant. </p>
<p>Her gap for the year is about $5,000. I don’t know what exactly she’s coming up short with, but she says money is tight for her.</p>
<p>??? What do you mean that you don’t know exactly why she’s coming up short. You say that her gap is $5,000. That is why money is tight for her. She is finding it difficult to cover that $5000 gap.</p>
<p>You need to sit down with your guidance counselor and be straight with that person about the fact that you essentially will need a full-ride because of your parents’ financial situation. He/she should know which colleges/universities have admitted students from your IB program, and which of those institutions have been very generous about the money.</p>
<p>In addition, you should thoroughly investigate the Virginia community colleges that you can commute to. If you complete your AA at one of them, you will be guaranteed an automatic transfer into at least one of the public universities in Virginia. Find out how much credit the community college will give you for your IB work. You might only need to be there for one year.</p>
<p>Since you are interested in George Mason, you should take a look at [My</a> College Options - PrepTalk](<a href=“Encourage - Welcome to myOptions”>Encourage - Welcome to myOptions) The author of this blog is Andrew Flagel, Dean of Admissions at George Mason.</p>
<p>I talked to my counselor again today. There are many that get full rides to ODU, and full tuition to Mason. For ODU scholarships, the minimum GPA is 3.4 and SAT is 1200. GPA for Mason ends up at around 3.8-3.9. After seeing my transcript, my UW GPA is 3.742. My grades are really good as of first quarter though (All As & 1 B). I guess I’m not exactly a shoe in for scholarships at either, but I have a chance.</p>
<p>I’m doing research on Community Colleges now. I have until after all the admission decisions and financial aid packages come in to decide on that.</p>
<p>BU and RPI are high reach schools for me. Since I doubt I could even get in, I wasn’t expecting on going there. Just wanted to try because I really liked the programs at the school =)</p>
<p>I am signed up for both the October and November SAT. I didn’t study for the first test at all, which was a mistake but I was caught up in AP & IB Exams. I’ve been studying for the tests for awhile now. I’m anticipating breaking 2000 this time around. Don’t know if that helps too much. </p>
<p>About my sister, she does not have any scholarship at her school, and ended up with a $5,000 gap this year. This is the first year she was “short” with financial aid. The other years, I’m assuming she had a gap too since my parents don’t pay our EFC but she never had issues paying for anything. Her financial aid this year covered tuition, books, fees, a meal plan, and most of housing paid for. She also works a work study job on campus.</p>
<p>I was planning on relying more on financial aid than a merit scholarship to get through school…bad plan, I’m assuming. My sister was doing it for her first two years and she seemed to be fine. Is the full “cost of attendance” actually how much one must pay to go to the school?</p>
<p>The COA is just a guess at what it might be. It includes an average room and board which can vary based on what you select. It also includes costs for travel, books, etc which vary.</p>
<p>If you don’t expect to get in, how do you know people with stats similar to yours that did get in WITH full rides? Or were you talking about full rides to George Mason and ODU? I’m confused.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t know if Community College would be a good choice for an AP/IB Student. I don’t know how your CC would award IB/AP credit but the CC near me would have given me tons of AP Credit for just passing. I could have finished in a year, but would’ve had to waste money taking elective classes that wouldn’t transfer and/or don’t really help with gen eds. The people at my CC also have a terrible rep of not taking school seriously. Just my personal opinion, though!</p>
<p>Also, I go to Virginia Tech. I don’t have a gap in terms of FinAid, but I struggled financially before I got a job because of bills, my apartment, and just my personal expenses. Your sister may be struggling because of the same. The cell phone and cable/internet bills a Virginia Tech is doable with a gap…it all depends on what you need to pay for besides tuition/fees/books/etc. And where you live, of course. If you have anymore questions related to VT, just ask through a PM. I’ll be happy to help.</p>
<p>hey, thanks financiallylost. i sent you a message with a few questions.</p>
<p>Also, I guess I wasn’t really clear in my scholarship statements at all. sorry! the people who went to Boston from my high school are from the Class of '08 and '09. The GPA and rankings at my school were much less competitive then (it’s just these past two years things got way more intense), so those who did get scholarships were similar to me in terms of GPA. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure not SAT wise for what I have as of now…but I really don’t think that score reflects my true ability. My math score was also alot lower than I expected. I’m pretty certain that I can get 650+ for math. </p>
<p>Regardless, I don’t know if that will make any difference. I was never really planning on receiving a huge merit scholarship. I know for sure I’ll be getting at least a few of those small first year scholarships, and I’d be trying for a few renewable ones that are more need based than merit based. </p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone could really answer this but…how large would my gap be in terms of financial aid? Would it be significant enough that I would end up having to pay for tuition or housing next August?</p>
<p>*how large would my gap be in terms of financial aid? Would it be significant enough that I would end up having to pay for tuition or housing next August? *</p>
<p>*Virginia Tech? The tuition, fees, room, board, books and misc costs about $20k per year. If you get about $4300 in Pell, about $2500 in work-study, and $5500 in student loans. *</p>
<p>The amounts above are split by semester. So, if you’re awarded $4300 in Pell, you’d get 2150 for the first semester…other aid would get split also by semester.</p>
<p>You won’t get ACG since that is discontinued. What other grants does your sis get?</p>
<p>Since work-study money can’t really go towards tuition and room and board since the money won’t yet be earned, you will be gapped.</p>
<p>Costs for the current year…**next year and following years will be higher.
**
Tuition…$7,309</p>
<p>Fees…$2,150</p>
<p>Room & Board…$6,290</p>
<p>Books…$1000</p>
<p>So, when next fall starts, you’ll be expected to have at least $8500 in school costs, yet your grants and loans for one semester will be about $5000. </p>
<p>It looks like each semester you’ll be short about $3500…so about $7k per year (plus personal expenses).</p>
<p>Here is the financial aid you would more than likely get from Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>$4300 - Pell Grant
$2700 - Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program
$130 - Federal ARRA Tuition Grant
$900 - Safety Net Grant
This will get you $8030 in grants for the year.</p>
<p>And as stated above, loans will be $5500.
Work study will be $2000 for the year. </p>
<p>I feel like I may be missing something. After your freshman year, you will also be able to get the “Funds for the Future” which is around another $1000.</p>
<p>When you don’t count work study, your gap will be about $2235. Your gap may be lower or higher depending on if you end up in the couple of dorms that are cheaper/more expensive than the freshman dorms and which meal plan you choose.</p>
<p>Also since the OP is an AP/IB Student…there’s a possibility she might come in as a sophomore (or junior!). Would this increase how much she could get in loans?</p>