Hmm … I’m not sure we’re on the same page.
If you get a full tuition merit scholarship, your net costs should be much lower than if you only get a $13K need-based grant.
Now, if you’re talking about a big need-based aid grant that leaves you with a net cost of only $13K, then that grant would be worth even more than a full tuition merit scholarship. If your Expected Family Contribution was determined to be only $13K, but a full tuition merit scholarship left you with a net COA of $15K, then you might also get a $2K grant for the balance of “need”. However, the net cost would wind up the same as if you received only need-based aid.
In other words, need-based aid typically covers only the balance that remains after any merit award is deducted from the sticker price. The merit grant reduces “need”.
Ok so whether I get a scholarship or not, I end up with the same final price, unless the merit scholarship leaves me with less costs than my expected family contribution?
Yes, typically that’s how aid would work. A merit scholarship sometimes does result in net costs lower than the EFC. Need-based aid alone generally does not (although different schools apply different formulas, resulting in different determinations of need). Run the online net price calculators for any school that seriously interests you.
At some schools, need-based aid will retun lower costs, whereas at other schools merit aid will return lower costs. You have to do it school by school, NPC by NPC.
A good first step, before going NPC by NPC, is to run the EFC Calculator on the College Board website and compare those numbers (you get two EFC’s back - one for FAFSA and one for Profile) to your family budget.
If you can afford (possibly with reasonable loans) your EFC, you can apply to schools that give everybody either full need or close to it. It doesn’t matter if you are “the best” or “just barely got in” at some schools, everybody gets need met.
If you can no way afford your EFC, you need to apply to schools that “fund their favorites” with merit aid, where you meet the criteria for their “favorites”. You can also apply to schools with low price tags (including the financial safety of community college then transfer).
If you cannot afford your EFC, you need to cross off expensive schools which do not give merit aid from your list.
Wow. So apparently I just had a discussion with my parents and they are refusing to pay anything for whatever college we go to because, apparently, we are “poor” (own a home worth 450k and decked it out with beautiful, expensive furniture). How can I convince them that paying nothing towards my education is a bad idea? They are always telling me that loans are horrible, so basically they are choosing my college for me. I have absolutely fallen in love with Vanderbilt, but because it is too expensive (15k), it is no longer an option.
Wait, so they won’t pay for food and housing even? Are they expecting you to stop eating?
Or do they expect you not to go to college? Being humorous, but if they agreed to pay even for the equivalent of food (perhaps housing) as long as you take care of tuition Vanderbilt may still be possible.
It sounds like you need to hunt for automatic and competitive scholarships.
I hope they will allow me to eat hahaha it’s just that they really want me to go to the local university that my dad works at that would end up extremely inexpensive (2k a year) but I have visited many times and I just don’t see myself there
If your parents can’t (or won’t) cover their Expected Family Contribution, then you’ll probably need to focus on schools that guarantee large merit scholarships to students with your stats (http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/). You can toss Hail Mary passes to the few very selective colleges like Vanderbilt (Duke, USC, and a couple others) that offer big merit scholarships … but even admission to these schools isn’t assured. Another possibility is to minimize costs by commuting to a local public school.
Regardless of whether you “just don’t see yourself” at the local U for 2K per year, that is likely to be your only choice. Even with the schools on the full tuition list linked above, there is still travel, room, and board, which will likely exceed the maximum loan you can get without a cosigner.
It could even be that your dad kept his job at the local U specifically for that tuition benefit that you’re turning your nose up at.
I’m sure Vandy is better (it’s one of the better schools in the country) and local state U is not going to look as exciting in comparison, but try to find something you like about the place.
My husband kept his university job for a specific length of time in large part so our kids could get tuition remission. It doesn’t mean I’m not helping D2 look elsewhere. We just wanted to ensure they had a financially sound route to take if they chose.
Could you perhaps show your parents the list of automatic merit scholarships, point out those you’d qualify for, and ask if they would help make up the difference?
UAlabama-Huntsville, if you get a 34 on a retake, might be inexpensive enough to cover transportation and other costs with Stafford loans. It’s no Vanderbilt, but it’s a smaller national university and you’d have the option to move away from home.
What is your local university (or, if you don’t want to give its name, provide a similarity, or if you already provided it and I forgot, just type in the #)?
What are the conditions for the Honors College/Program wrt ACT score?
(I seem to recall that it just doesn’t match your level, even with the Honors Program).
Ask your father whether that university has Tuition Exchange with other universities.
Will they get the American Opportunity Credit (money given back for college expenses)? If they do, they’re getting it to help pay for your college, and hopefully they won’t pocket it, but will pass it on to you. Will they claim you as a dependent on their tax form, and give you the equivalent for your expenses, considering they get that refund thanks to you?
All in all, though, proceed as though you weren’t to go to Vanderbilt - do apply, but apply to all the universities with competitive and automatic sscholarships you can find, that would be a possible alternative to your university.
It’s very possible you may end up there, but do apply to all full rides that seem acceptable for your future major (ABET accredited if engineering; preferably AACSB for business; preferably well-known in your specialty subject if Humanities/social science and you want to go on to a PHD, or with a “brand” + possibility for applied certificates if you want to use your Humanities degree for work.)
The hardest situation is if you’re hoping to study Humanities or Social Sciences outside of Economics, because whereas you could pretty much aim for any job from a top university you become much more dependent on other factors at directionals (strength of the career center, whether traditionally at this university strong non-stem students choose that major or if it’s a refuge for the weakest students, etc).
Yeah it is Wright State. For honors, I need 27 ACT and 3.25 GPA, which I meet. I’m fairly sure they don’t get any sort of American Opportunity Credits (as far as I can tell, they can cover a good chunk of the 15k for Vandy, but would rather not). I can ask him later, but when I type it in, it seems the 80% off the undergraduate/graduate fee is only at Wright State. When the time comes, I will apply to Vanderbilt and all the other automatic full tuitions as well as Wright State. I plan on majoring in Bio and then doing Med school. The reasoning of why they want me to go to a very inexpensive university is because med school will be expensive enough, but then again, I could go to Mayo or Cleveland clinic med school if I get in because they give large, large scholarships to everyone. I guess I want to go to Vandy so much more than the local university cause it’s going to be a one-time thing; I’m never going to get the chance to do my undergrad ever again, and it’s not like I want to go to USC or some ridiculously expensive place.
They do have a point about premed, given that Mayo and Cleveland clinic both have sub-5% acceptance rates and you can never plan on “just going to [x med school].” And an elite school like Vandy would pretty tough competition. I still think there’s a balance, like Bama or UA-Huntsville or some of the meet-need LACs.
It matters for your experience - especially since most (75-80%) premeds wannabes actually major in something else and thus “undergrad doesn’t matter for med school” doesn’t help much when you realize you’d like to be a forensic anthropologist or a digital humanities specialist or a computational physicist.
Note that I wouldn’t really advise a bio major since you can apply to med school with any major and bio has one of the lowest ROI’s.
Also, what about MD/PHD, is that something you’d be interested in?
