Aside from any additional travel cost you may need that is over the estimate in the COA you may also need to factor in the health insurance fee you will be charged if you don’t have comprehensive coverage that will allow you to get a waiver. This is not included in the COA for most colleges. It will cost 1 to 3k per year.
You state that your family only makes 30k. Are there any unusual circumstances; step parents,mom custodial parents real estate outside of your primary residence, parent (s) who are either self employed or own their own businesses?
UNC-CH is giving us very good FA- it is a school that meets full need. We would not get aid at a school that does not meet need.
@mommdc I did not include possible merit scholarships in my NPC calculation because they are not guaranteed. I’m not sure how to place myself because it seems quite subjective, especially for the EC part. I would need the 12k one or above to afford U Rochester though.
Thank you very much for all those suggestions. But would it be somewhat unwise to assume an NMF award before NMSF notifications are even out yet?
And we do not own a house.
@BrownParent Oh, I certainly need to do that then. Thanks for the tip!
@sybbie719 None of those. I don’t think I have anything unusual.
Suggest relaxing the geographic limit, since big merit scholarships are more common in some other regions.
Unless you are accepted through HEOP, Fordham and U of Rochester does not meet 100% demonstrated need.
I agree with Ucbalumnus since you need money to make this happen you need to geographically open up. Right now you don’t have any financial safeties. Even with a 0 efc and the total $5,500 loan unless you can get merit ( Acker scholarship at UB, possibilities scholarship at Oswego, Potsdam mt Emmons scholatship, etc) 100% of your need will not be met
Something I hope you’re aware of is that in order to become a National Merit Finalist, you need to have taken the SATS and have received something close to a 2000 on them - have you taken them? If not, I believe you would have to take them before Dec.
How does your family afford to live in NYC on $30k per year?
Just trying to understand your family situation in the context of financial need for college. Do you wirh relatives rent-free?
For the SAT get a fee waiver from guidance counselor. Check to see if you qualify for free/reduced lunch at school. That would qualify you for SAT/ACT fee waiver, application fee waivers, common app fee waiver.
I assume if you’re applying for Gates, that you are either a URM or Asian American. A number of schools offer free visits for qualified diversity candidates. For example, here’s one for Brandeis http://www.brandeis.edu/admissions/seed/ (deadline for application is Sept. 8), here’s another for University of Rochester http://enrollment.rochester.edu/mvp/ (deadline is Oct. 9th), here’s Bucknell http://www.bucknell.edu/journeytobucknell (not sure of the deadline) and there are numerous others. And in terms of generally showing interest, register on a college’s website, try and attend if admissions representatives visit your school, go to a college fair (there’s one at the Javits Center in NYC on Oct. 27th) and follow a school on Facebook or twitter.
@ucbalumnus @sybbie719 My parents have said that they definitely don’t want me going anywhere >5 hours away, and I personally would really prefer to say in the Northeast area as well. So I don’t know if I can do that…
@midatlmom Yes, I got a 2230 on the SAT. As for the fly-in programs, I am aware of them and will apply to any offered by the schools I’m interested in. And thanks! I’ll try to do those things.
@Madison85 No, we rent a small apartment. We’ve been living here for many years and my parents were smart enough to sign a contract with the landlord in the beginning saying that the rent wouldn’t change, so that’s been very nice for us.
@mommdc Yes, I know! 
To everyone:
Thank you so much for all of the advice you've provided. Regarding my original question, would it be worth it to consider applying to schools I would only be able to go to if given a competitive merit scholarship? This is for private colleges like Bucknell, Northeastern, Trinity, American University, U Rochester, etc. Quite a few people have said that the risk is not worth it-- would that be the general consensus?The median household income in NYC is about the same as the median household income in the US, so there should definitely be households in NYC living on the 30th percentile household income.
What would they say if, in April, no college within your geographic restriction is affordable?
Temple with automatic full tuition scholarship would still be a financial stretch – you would need to use a Pell grant and federal direct loan and several thousand dollars of work earnings to cover the remaining costs (living expenses, books, misc. and travel expenses). You probably want a safety that is an automatic full ride, leaving only books, misc., and travel expenses that could probably be covered by a Pell grant alone.
In http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ , the closest full ride school is Howard in DC (but it is private, so it will count against your 7 private school applications). The next closest is NC Central in NC. If you have NMF status, then http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/ shows that NJIT in NJ has a full ride for you.
Northeastern, American and URochester do not meet 100% demonstrated need. This means that these schools could be unaffordable to you. If you only have 7 options, I would not recommend them on your list.
Find out from your GC if SUNY (4 schools) count as one application and if CUNY (6 schools) count as one application. you need some definite financial safeties.
I get the only applying to 7/8 schools, because those guidelines were imposed on my daughter when she applied to college (but then, kids did not apply to as many schools as they do now). The advice that I gave her was to apply to schools that if that was the only school she was accepted to when the dust settled, that she would be happy to attend (I had done all of the financial aid research to make sure that every school she applied to was affordable to our family). She had gotten accepted to every school that she applied to. Even though all of the schools met 100% demonstrated need there was more than a 10K difference per year range in financial aid packages, when you factored in EFC, loans, and work study obligations.
From the packages, I have seen UofR can also very loan heavy even though they do meet 100% demonstrated need. For a low income student she will get the max loans that they can give.
As you know, even at schools that meet 100% demonstrated need the student contribution, loan obligations, work study and misc cost (adequate health insurance, travel expenses, etc) can make a school unaffordable.
Op should cast a wide net and try to look for schools that have low income initiatives (no loans in the package) and sprinkle a few in her list.
It is incorrect to say Northeastern does not meet full demonstrated need - they now do, beginning with the freshman class entering in fall 2014.
I guess with your geographical restrictions I would apply to some Suny that give merit or you could commute to and cuny as safeties. Is it correct to assume that those would be affordable with TAP, Pell, direct loan?
Also other publics with merit opportunities as many as you want in the < 5 hr area.
Then pick the 7 private schools you like best and have a chance at high merit and need based aid. Especially the ones mentioned that meet need and give big merit for NMF. Or the HEOP schools Sybbie mentioned.
I would visit all that you can and go from there. U Rochester encourages an interview so I would schedule one while there for your visit.
If you don’t mind asking, what URM are you?
Assuming that public universities do not count in the 7 school limit, OP should definitely apply to Macauley Honors program- as a NYC resident, he/she would receive full tuition, a laptop, study abroad support and even possibly housing assistance- a completely affordable option and the OP’s stats seem to be well above average for admitted students (the application deadline is Dec. 1). OP could also apply to some SUNY schools (maybe include Buffalo because OP would be a candidate for full-ride Presidential Scholarship), Temple and I would also throw in one or two more competitive public universities, maybe UVA, UNC, Pittsburgh (although I recognize they are outside the preferred geographical region) and UMD, because the OP seems to be a very attractive candidate (at least in terms of statistics).
In terms of private schools, Northeastern should give at least $30,000 for NMF and possibly need-based aid on top of that http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/cost-financial-aid/scholarships/ and also offers the possibility of a full ride as a University Scholar, so if it is a school of interest, I think an application would be worthwhile.
I also think Rochester, for a variety of reasons, might be a good fit and might award significant money.
I would look into Brandeis, which is always looking to increase diversity and has offered full financial aid to several students I know.
After that, I would consider several of the schools that meet full need. Smaller LACs (it appears that the OP likes smaller schools) that would fit might include Hamilton, Richmond, Barnard, Colgate, Bates, Haverford, Vassar and Smith, but there are others.
Finally, I might consider applying to a school that meets full need that is a reach for everyone - Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell or Johns Hopkins, because once again, on stats alone, the OP has a chance.
The discussion about whether colleges “meet full demonstrated need” can mislead. The OP needs to run the net price calculator on each school rather than assuming that a claim or lack of claim to “meet full demonstrated need” means anything, since colleges define what “need” is. If the net price is still too high at the given college, then the OP would be aiming for large-enough merit scholarships, not merely admission, if s/he applies there.
If you get 7 private schools and (unlimited? instate only?) public schools, you should be fine. Apply to the publics (with merit, TAP, etc) in your area. For the private schools, select 2 that you know you’ll be admitted to that meet full need, apply to 1 that is an absolute reach, and the use the others for schools that are probably good matches but where the FA might be a little more complicated. Every student who needs financial aid, at some point has to apply to see if he gets in and if aid is high enough. You have to try, but you have to pick at least 5-6 of your private schools carefully, and just go for it on 1 or 2 of them
With such a low family income, if you get into a school that meets full need it is likely you’ll get everything you really do need to attend. The ones who are shocked by the ‘meets need’ schools are those families that make $100k and are asked to pay $25k, not those who are really low income (although you might still need to come up with the student contribution, usually about $3000)