<p>My EFC is zero I think, neither of my parents work, own a house, or even a car. We’re poor. Anyway, I applied to:
Husson Univeristy, Rhode Island college, cazenovia college, roger williams, hartford univeristy, and rider university. </p>
<p>So far I got a letter of acceptance from Rider and Cazenovia, rider gave me 18k in merit, and cazenovia gave me 20k in merit. So right now Cazenovia looks like the cheapest, but there’s still 25k left even after the merit scholarship.</p>
<p>I only applied to those schools because they were the few schools in the northeast that had a web design program. And I applied to my state’s college (we only have two publics in RI) simply because it was affordable. </p>
<p>My stats are not high at all and I’m obviously a senior in high school. I have a 3.18 unweighted, a 1600 on the sat 1120 on critical reading and math. Besides that, I’ve done tons of community service, around 50 hours. I am involved in multiple after school clubs as well. I’m in the national honors society because my weighted gpa is a 3.5. </p>
<p>I’m also black, so I am a URM…does anyone know if I’d be able to afford any of these schools besides rhode island college? Or is CC my only option?</p>
<p>None of the schools on your list guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. Right now, you have your merit awards, but not any need based awards. It’s hard to say what your final net cost will be.</p>
<p>You say that the public universities in RI are affordable? does RI have grant aid for low income students like you? And if so, what amounts are covered? </p>
<p>You will need to complete the FAFSA when it becomes available. If your incime is really $0, you will definitely get $5730 in Pell Grant money and a $5500 Direct Loan. These would be in addition to the merit money you currently have from these schools, I believe. You would need to check to be sure. So…you would have $11,000 or so in federally funded need based aid. </p>
<p>What would the RI schools cost you…in total?</p>
<p>Each college website has a net price calculator. You should do that for each school. </p>
<p>How does your family pay for housing, food, clothing, etc? There is no question that the colleges will ask this question.</p>
<p>The one public I applied to in RI costs a little less than 8k in tuition and about 8k a year when I used their net price calculator yet not once did they ask my grades. </p>
<p>Rhode Island has 2 grants that I should be able to get just by completing the FASFA, in total they would give me 3,000 a year for 4 years. </p>
<p>Roger williams, the other college in RI I applied to (although it is expensive and private) costs me a lot more when I ran the NPC through college board, more than 20k. </p>
<p>I am adopted and live with my grandmother and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend owns a house (in his name). Apparently she gets money from the government but only about 700 a month, she called it adoption sub or something like that. She helps him pay the bills and in return he gives us a place to stay. </p>
<p>When I ran the NPC for Cazenovia college the result was about 11k but my merit scholarship was larger than they estimated, by 500 dollars. I also plan to save money by purchasing the blue meal plan at Caz because if I do, I can save up to 500 dollars each year, just by skipping 2 meals a week. </p>
<p>Were you in foster care at all before your grandmother adopted you? If so, you will qualify as independent for FAFSA, which will allow you to take slightly larger federal loans.</p>
<p>Yes, I just asked my grandmother and she told me I was a ward of the court because of severe neglect from my mother. I was 3-4 when I was officially adopted. </p>
<p>Edit: @thumper1 I call them my parents but I was just talking about my grandmother and her boyfriend. My real parents live in different cities and are separated. </p>
<p>Well, if you were a ward of the state…you would be considered independent for financial aid, I believe. This would increase your Direct Loan to $9000. </p>
<p>Just because you can get a larger loan doesn’t mean you should if you have a lower cost option, because you do have to pay it back and that can make life tough? I don’t know about web design major, if it is just design and not front end dev then you can’t rely on a good income like with cs degree. Also just because a college doesn’t have web design major doesn’t mean the don’t have classes useful to you combined with another major. Just some thoughts for you.</p>
<p>OP states that he was adopted at age 3, he is not a ward of the state (all of this would have had to happen at after age 13). Since OP was adopted, he is not in legal guardianship. Since he was adopted at age 3, legal guardianship questions are moot.</p>
<p>Your grandmother’s boyfriend information is not on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>None of the schools on your list meet 100% demonstrated need. Take all of the schools that are unaffordable to you and your family out of consideration because you will not be able to attend.</p>
<p>If you have a 0 EFC, you will receive ~ 5700 in Pell. With your $3000 state grant and a $5500 loan, you will be able to attend college in your home state. You may have to live at home, but you will be able to attend college.</p>
<p>Disrrgard my post number 8…Sybbie is correct.</p>
<p>But if your income is really $0, you will have to make sure you can document how you are meeting basic living expenses. Often $0 income students are selected for verification. You will need to show how you can pay living expenses on no income.</p>
<p>It says a ward of the court can have a legal guardian and in this case my grandmother was the one appointed to be my legal guardian.</p>
<p>thumper1: my income is not really 0, but I know my efc is, my family gets adoption sub but that’s only 700 something a month. </p>
<p>“A student can also qualify as an independent student if the student is in a court-ordered legal guardianship, or was in a court-ordered legal guardianship prior to reaching the age of majority. The legal guardianship must have been determined by a court of competent jurisdiction in the student’s state of legal residence.” </p>
<p>In this case I am currently in a court ordered legal guardianship. </p>
<p>If you have been adopted (and you state that you were adopted at age 3), you are no longer in legal guardianship because your grandmother is now your legal parent.</p>
<p>the question on the FAFSA is very specific.</p>
<p>it states:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You state that you were adopted by your grandmother (this happened before you turned 13. Talk to your grandmother, look at the court papers and confirm if
you were adopted by your grandmother</p>
<p>or </p>
<ol>
<li>you are a ward of the court in court appointed legal guardianship where your grandmother is your legal guardian.</li>
</ol>
<p>Okay I will have to do that. I was thinking long and hard about all of this, and I figure that I can create my own major at my state’s college. They have a program with student designed majors, and a few web design classes. I’m still crossing my fingers hoping that rider or cazenovia give out good need based aid though. </p>
<p>My state’s college costs 20k a year to go to without financial aid so it is not nearly as expensive as the others, and the net price calculator shows it would cost me 8k in loans, which isn’t ideal, but bearable I guess. </p>
<p>I’m not good at math so being a CS major just isn’t for me. Maybe I should just be patient and wait for the results of my financial aid package to come in after I file the FASFA. </p>