Your advice is appreciated

Paying for College
1

<p>I am a single mom making $77,00 on my full time job. I also have a part-time job that I made $5,000 last year.</p>

<p>I have not had a raise in 3 years due to the economy. My child is currently in private school, with the help of scholarship money. Has never met the father (he spent the first 14 yrs of my childs life in jail). I am doing everything on my own 100% no child support.</p>

<p>My child will be a senior this year and now Im freaking out because I have no savings, no extra money. I will need to rely on the schools for financial aid.
My child is a solid B student, SAT W-600, M-640, CR-610, ACT-26.
My child has done sports every season since freshman year. Starting sophmore year, has been on varsity teams. </p>

<p>The private school does not rank or calculate GPA--is this good or bad?</p>

<p>I have encouraged only public state schools. But where we are, they are considered public ivies and very selective. Even if my child gets in, what about financial aid. Do you think we will get any being my income is close to $85K</p>

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<p>First, to answer your direct question, it is typical for private schools to not rank or calculate GPA. The classes are typically smaller and more competitive than most public schools and thus ranking would help one student’s application (valedictorian) and hurt every other student. Publishing GPA allows “back door” ranking. Instead they typically provide information on the transcript to put the academic record in perspective - something along the lines of 100% of graduates attend four-year universities; X number of NMSF; average SAT scores, etc.</p>

<p>In Virginia you certainly have some excellent publics (UVa, W&M, Va Tech), but they have mixed track records for financial aid. While it is commendable for your son to look at selective schools, he should realize that he is unlikely to qualify for merit aid at these schools. Based on an income of $85k, your family EFC will probably be in the $15-20k range. Every university is required by law to include a Net Price Calculator on their admissions web site. You can use this to determine how much need-based aid you might get.</p>

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<p>You should still get some financial aid - also look into schools with merit aid -
Rice, USC, etc.</p>

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<p>Rice and USC are not going to give merit aid in this case. Admission would be fortunate.</p>

<p>Merit aid is possible, but less popular schools would be the place to look.</p>

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<p>thanks for your insight @rmldad</p>

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<p>@ BoB</p>

<p>this is my only child and I have no clue what schools to look at, you suggest less popular schools. What schools would those be? Ive been reading and learning but I honestly don’t know what schools would be good. We have been visiting… Uof Richmond this past weekend. I liked the school, but private school tuition is tres expensive.</p>

<p>Just based on my childs stats,do you think they would gain admission to the public ivies in my state?</p>

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<p>Oh, also I want to add, my child has no idea what they want to major in. talked about engineering- but not 100% sure. If that makes a difference.</p>

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<p>@ Bob. do you think my best best will be scholarships or are the stats too low as well?</p>

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<p>The state of Virginia has many wonderful public universities. Yes, admission to UVA or William and Mary would be highly competitive (and Virginia Tech to a lesser degree) but there are MANY other instate choices. You need to look at some of those. What about Old Dominion, University of Mary Washington, Radford, George Mason, Christopher Newport? These are great schools which are instate public universities with less competitive admissions and possible merit aid in VA.</p>

<p>Read those websites and see if your child might qualify for merit aid at any of those.</p>

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<p>Take a look at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg.</p>

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<p>The state of Virginia has many wonderful public universities. Yes, admission to UVA or William and Mary would be highly competitive (and Virginia Tech to a lesser degree) but there are MANY other instate choices. You need to look at some of those. What about Old Dominion, University of Mary Washington, Radford, George Mason, Christopher Newport? These are great schools which are instate public universities with less competitive admissions and possible merit aid in VA.</p>

<p>Read those websites and see if your child might qualify for merit aid at any of those. </p>

<p>^^^
i don’t know how to reply with quote in text.</p>

<p>I think george mason is a good choice, they didn’t like ODU. I will check out mary washington!!</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Admittance into privates that give the best aid is unlikely without higher stats.</p>

<p>instate publics may be the best options, HOWEVER, your EFC will likely be high. </p>

<p>It sounds like you’re a family of 2 people…1 adult, 1 child…so with your income, your EFC will be quite high…probably as high as the COA of an instate public. That could mean that all your child would get is a $5500 unsub loan.</p>

<p>What are all the publics in your state that have engineering? </p>

<p>Be sure to also have your child apply to a school that he could commute to if necessary. </p>

<p>Try the Net Price Calculator at schools like George Mason, Virginia Tech, etc.</p>

<p>Also, have your child practice and test again. Better scores may result in some merit awards.</p>

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<p>How much can you pay for college each year? </p>

<p>Can you pay as much or more than what you’re paying for his private high school?</p>

<p>I put in the following at VT to give you an idea of what you can expect…</p>

<p>Financial aid Yes
Age 18
Residency Eligible for in-state tuition
Marital Status No
Children No
Number in Family Two
Number in College One child
Household Income Between $80,000 - $89,999</p>

<p>Note that the results are based on a past school year’s prices (don’t know why VT hasn’t updated costs)</p>

<p>Academic Year: 2010-11
*
Estimated total cost of attendance: $22,500
a. Estimated tuition and fees $9,500
b. Estimated room and board $7,000
c. Estimated books and supplies $1,100
d. Estimated other expenses
****(Personal expenses, transportation, etc.) $4,900</p>

<p>Estimated total grant aid:
(Includes both merit and need based aid) $2,130
Estimated net cost:
(Cost of attendance minus grant aid) </p>

<p>Estimated net cost:
(Cost of attendance minus grant aid) $20,370</p>

<p>According to the above, all you’d get is maybe a $2,000 grant (and this is an estimate, no guarantee)</p>

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<p>That is what I have been afraid of…thank you mom2collegekids. And 20K a year in loans is 80K in total for an undergrad. I think not!!
Yes, a family of 2 and I don’t pay alot for school now… the school is very generous. I pay $500 month.</p>

<p>Plan C is to go to community college and then transfer into one of the public ivies-guaranteed admission if the GPA is a 3.6. We can save money the first two years at least.</p>

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<p>The GPA is a solid B avg, 3.0. But sports have been a huge componenet throughout high school. They don’t want to play sports in college, even though I think they would have a better chance at getting an athletic scholarship (??) I really don’t know for sure about that either.
But the schools should be able to see that they can juggle varsity sports while maintaining a 3.0 avg. Well as a MOM I guess I thought it was good, but I guess it is not in the bigger scheme of things…</p>

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<p>What are your child’s ACT or SAT scores. That comes into play as well when schools are determining merit aid awards. Old Dominion might be worth a look see for financial reasons…might get some merit aid there.</p>

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<p>^^^^^^
here are the scores:
Scores:SAT W-600, M-640, CR-610, ACT-26.</p>

<p>They will take one more time in the fall.</p>

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<p>Sorry…I didn’t read your OP carefully enough! </p>

<p>Look at some of the lesser known VA instate universities.</p>

<p>Your second plan to have him go to a community college and then transfer is a good money saving one. However, I would have a “plan b” just in case he is not able to attain that 3.6 GPA.</p>

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<p>Not all the Guaranteed Transfer schools in VA require that 3.6. While WM does, UVA and VT are 3.4 (in another source, VT engineering seems to say 3.0)and others are lower. The idea of considering engineering-- you want to be sure the math-sci strengths are strong enough for this to be feaible. If this is a daughter, Sweet Briar, though tiny, has an engineering program and is reputed to start less expensive and offer good aid.</p>

<p>Understand that, for some colleges, it won’t be income alone that determines potential FA need- at some, assets matter, as well. Run the NPCs.</p>

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<p>I wrote this post which is now on page 5 of this board: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1367319-how-families-sometimes-do.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1367319-how-families-sometimes-do.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You are just about in the same situation as my cousin and her sons. You can see how it played out for them. </p>

<p>You are fortunate in that you have some great in-state choices, and also being in a private college prep school, you can get some directed advice on how students with your sons stats fare in terms of admissons and financial/merit aid in the college process. My experience (limited) has been that your state schools do put a large onus on grades, so unless your son’s school has been enjoying some exceptions to this due their reputation and grading scale, it 's going to be a tough go for him to gain admissions to your top state school. </p>

<p>Yes, your son’s sports will be favorably looked upon in terms of his ECs. It shows that he is an active and participating member of his school community, and, will likely be a great user of the college athletic facilities and Intramural programs. It is a thumbs up, but no more so than any student similarly heavily involved in school activities. Where sports is a true “hook”, is when a student is a recruited athlete, in which case his admissions will go through a different process, and depending on the school, sport, need and his ability level, he could get favorable treatment and even money. But the attitude in college, is “what can you do for us?” and if he isn’t going to be on the college team, it’s not going to be a big deal thing in terms of enhancing his admissions chances. He’ll need to have the grades and test scores to make the cuts for admissions, but his heavy duty sports will give him the check for ECs AFTER he makes those cuts.</p>

<p>Your son’s most important choices will be the schools that you know will take him and you know you can afford. Once you have that wrapped up, you can start moving in larger circles and playing the lottery. The higher your son is in a college’s averages, the better his chances are of getting generous financial aid and merit money. In many schools, it will be a combine of both. For schools where he may get a full ride, look in the archives here for a couple of threads that Momfromtexas started on how to get full ride scholarships. Her methodology is sound, and could net some schools where your son has a shot at getting some good awards.</p>

<p>I have found that number of the smaller less known Catholic schools, like the College of Scranton, St Bonaventure and others of this sort–I don’t know southern schools so well, are often seeking male students with your son’s profile. Check out some of them. Good luck.</p>