<p>Full rides based on merit are not easy to get. You generally need to be in the top few percent of the school’s admit pool to earn them.</p>
<p>You can get full tuition at any Georgia public college with your stats via the Zell Miller Scholarship, but getting the room and board paid for will be tougher.</p>
<p>It’s probably too late to take the SAT again. I think that is what kept your from getting the Georgia Southern scholarship. Keep in mind that a lot of colleges disregard the writing portion and only look at CR/M.</p>
<p>I would not consider SCAD–certainly not for writing, anyway.</p>
<p>If you want to be a writer, you need to go somewhere you can write. The name of the college is less important than what you do there, especially in your case. This is why I suggested Knox–it has a great literary magazine on campus and you could potentially get your work published while you are an undergrad. Kenyon is well-known for its writing program, but it is in a very small town and I am not sure what kind of aid you will get. In any case, there are probably many other colleges with similar programs, closer to you. I would cast a pretty wide net–including some “reach” schools as well as others that have been suggested–and see where you wind up on the merit/financial aid side. There’s really no way to know until you do it.</p>
<p>If your family has an income of ~$120K and 7 children, then with your stats (4.0, 2060) you should qualify for need-based aid at many fairly selective private colleges. The question then becomes whether the aid will be enough. What is your college budget? How much of your Expected Family Contribution is your family able and willing to cover?</p>
<p>The following table shows mean need-based aid by family income for Trinity College (Hartford), a small, private, well-regarded LAC where your stats should make you a competitive applicant:
<a href=“http://www.trincoll.edu/AboutTrinity/offices/InstitutionalResearchPlanning/Documents/financialAid.pdf[/url]”>http://www.trincoll.edu/AboutTrinity/offices/InstitutionalResearchPlanning/Documents/financialAid.pdf</a></p>
<p>For families in the $90K-$119,999 range, mean n-b aid (for those who get it) at Trinity is about $40K. It might be significantly more than that for a family with 7 children. Total COA for this school is $58K, so your net EFC - before any adjustment for 7 kids - would be ~$18K. Again, how much of that could your family cover?</p>
<p>Getting adequate n-b aid from a fairly selective private school like Trinity may leave you with lower net costs than you’d have after a merit scholarship from a less selective school. If grant aid leaves you with net costs much below $15K or so, then you may be in a range where some combination of family contribution plus “self help” (work-study, summer employment & student loans) is enough.</p>
<p>As I see it, you have two issues: the math score, and your desire to start college somewhere in the fall of 2014. Go to the Parents Forum, and read through the threads on Gap Years. This is something that you should really consider. </p>
<p>If you plan now to take a year off, you will be able to more thoroughly research your options, and you will be able to cast a wider net so that you get the aid that you need. Many of the best merit scholarships have application cut-offs of December 1 or even earlier, which means that you have missed a whole bunch of them. A gap year will also give you time to take the ACT at least once, and to work on your math score for the SAT if you decide to go that route. Last and not least, it would give you time to do the sort of research discussed in <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/148852-what-ive-learned-about-full-ride-scholarships.html</a> and <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/291483-update-what-i-learned-about-free-ride-scholarships.html</a> If that mom could find money for both of her boys, you can find money for yourself.</p>
<p>I agree with happymomof1 about taking a gap year and researching if a full-tuition scholarship or close to it is necessary. I’m still curious what the OP’s parents are able to pay. The OP’s concern about full scholarships makes me think financing is a huge concern. Having said that, the OP might be in line for good merit at schools like Rhodes, Centre, the above-mentioned Knox (which has several writing awards), Birmingham-Southern and on and on among good LACs.</p>
<p>My parents haven’t given me any set budget, but they have these ridiculously high expectations for me getting all these scholarships. Right now they’re paying about $10,000 a year for my brother, though.
Since I have zell miller, though, I wonder if it would be a good idea to just do the honors program at uga- except I don’t exactly like the giant classes there.</p>
<p>You might find that the honors college at UGA provides opportunities for some small classes. Ask around. You and your parents should research together. The full-scholarship idea might work but these do not fall off trees. Your parents have faith in you, which is great, but they need to understand what is realistic and not put undue pressure on you.</p>
<p>Yes, you seem like more of a liberal-arts college person. You have time to apply to a few more schools–just do it and see what happens, but keep UGA honors as your fallback. If you do have to go there, you’ll start getting smaller classes after the first year or two, in any case. Good luck.</p>
<p>The overwhelming majority of college students go part time and work as well and are in their mid to late 20s. They get their degree bit by bit, paying as they can, borrowing and most of them still live with parents. The whole sleep away college thing is truly that of privilege and luxury. Those few students who have a lot of need and who are accepted at full need met school, or who get big ,erit awards are rare. You see more of them on these boards, because these are the schools that attract a lot of attention since the process is so selective.</p>
<p>My son applied to a local catholic school and was amazed with his modest profile to get a full tuition scholarship there Had he stayed home, he could have commuted there, kept his car, had extra money, and as it turns out be in good company with a heck of a lot of his friends and acquaintances. When the dust has cleared and you start looking at the forest rather than select trees, you realize that more people than you would think are commuting and staying local. Even going away to a state U is a big expense that has to be paid. It’s difficult keeping perspective when you are looking at specialty boards like this one and/or are with a crowd of kids looking at going away to college.</p>
<p>Absweetmarie- money is pretty much their only concern in this whole process. My mom didn’t go to college and my dad worked all throughout high school so he could afford GA Tech, so they really don’t see past the price tag. I don’t know how, if I were to apply to all the schools mentioned on here (which I have looked in to and really want to), I would even get their permission. They’ll see it as throwing away money on application fees. They were a bit wary of my applying to Emory in the first place, And even though I already got a $20000 initial scholarship to Mercer, they want me to wait and see if I get anything from their scholarship weekend before I can actually go there.</p>
<p>OP, regarding your original comments, I will tell you what I tell everyone that I give the CC website info to – stay off the Ivy league forum! 
You sound like you have some options identified. Apply to UGA honors, and add a few liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>That sounds like a good idea to me. 
I don’t even know why I threw UGA out there- I actually don’t really want to go there. Maybe if I visited I might feel differently, but I honestly hate football and I don’t even like the fact that my AP bio class has about 30 kids in it.
I guess I need to find a way to be happy with wherever I go- honestly, I really liked the people and professors I met when I went to Georgia Southern, and I would probably be happy if I attended there. I just have this weird thing where I feel entitled to go someplace better, and that may only be a pride thing. I guess in the spirit of Christmas (I have no idea what I’m doing surfing CC on Christmas Eve, for God’s sake) I’ll be thankful for what I have!</p>
<p>It is absolutely, positively possible to go to a big football school and love the heck out of the school even if you couldn’t care less about football. Really. I did it. I went to Nebraska and UT Austin and went to exactly one football game. Don’t go where you won’t be happy, but don’t discount UGA without exploring it. Big state schools are big and have niches for everyone!</p>
<p>Might look at Holy Cross(don’t have to be religious)-very good liberal arts school near Boston. Holy Cross is SAT optional and need-blind for admissions-pretty good financial aid. The HC website is very informative and Holy Cross has January15th application due date.</p>
<p>What about middlebury? They’re supposedly need-blind and full-need, and it’s a great school if you want to be a writer. I was also considering loyola Maryland because they don’t require SAT scores (and their campus is amazing), but their financial aid page on their website makes me wonder if I should apply. They are definitely not full-need, although it is conceivable that I could possibly get some sort of scholarship from there.</p>