Hello I’m and incoming sernior, meaning I’ve got to start deciding which colleges I plan to attend.
Coming from a very low income family I know my parents won’t be able to chip in on any of my college expenses. Which is a stressful thing for me, as it pushes me further to make myself a great candidate for colleges to accept me, hopefully a full ride but those chances themselves are still low. With that in mind, I still want to live on campus, as a means to get to know myself without the constraints of my strich parents, adding even more to those expenses. I’m here because I really need help on what to do, I’m a diligent student on competition to becoming my schools valedictorian. Yet I have to go to college, getting there may not be the issue but staying and paying is. I know for certain I will be supporting myself throughout the whole process, but there’s only so much I can do and it’s really draining me.
I need advice on anything from scholarships and grants that might really help me to possiblities of me recieving a full ride from some colleges. Senior year is only a couple months away, college apps almost the same amount, and I still don’t know what to do. (Pardon some grammatical errors, I typed this on my phone in a rush)
The best aid comes directly from colleges. If you truly are low income you should focus on colleges that meet full need (Just Google for a list). You should also start looking at major scholarships aimed at low income students like Gates Millenium and Questbridge.
@planner03 - FYI Gates Millenium ended this year with the class of 2016 scholars. They will not have any scholarship offering in 2017 and Gates will start a new scholarship for the class of 2018.
OP - are you a minority? There are minority specific scholarships as well. I agree that the best money comes from the schools themselves, especially if you put yourself at a college where you are a “big fish” (i.e. more highly qualified that the general population of students). More experienced posters here will offer you good advice too - if you listen and follow it, you will likely realize your desire to go to college and live on campus. Please realize though that there are many ways to accomplish this, and one of those paths is thru Community College and living at home for a few more years. Doing this allows you to avoid student loan debt, and while it does require you to stay at home, you will then be able to move away from home after you graduate and find a job, instead of having to return and live at home after accumulating a lot of debt.
Finally, please don’t focus on a “dream school” (you do not seem to be doing this but many students here do). You want a “dream life” which is a good education at a good price - you can find that at many places, so don’t get your heart set on just one school name 
Best of luck, you are already ahead of the game by starting to research now!
Last - post your test scores, GPA, location and likely major and people will try to help you with specific school recommendations.
You will need full aid since you’re low income, so you need to:
- Apply to schools that promise to “meet need”.
- Apply to schools that give HUGE merit scholarships …HUGE
- Apply to huge scholarships, like GatesMS (are you a URM?)
- Since you’re probably on free lunch at school, you need to ask your GC for fee waivers for college applications. You can also qualify for fee waivers to take the SAT and ACT. And fee waivers to submit CSS Profile.
Folks! How does he get the fees waived for SAT and ACT?
@mom2collegekids The young scholar we helped was free lunch/low income and he asked his guidance counsellor for the SAT/ACT waivers - somehow it was set up thru CollegeBoard (via the GC efforts). It was not entirely free, I think it still cost him some money, but much less than the usual fee. There were only so many free waivers on college application fee thru Common Ap, and only so many free sends of his scores for SAT/ACT, so you would need to target the schools you are applying for who meet your criteria above for need and /or merit.
My scholar won the Gates Millennium in 2015, and as I said above, that program has now ended. Gates is retooling it, but there is no GM scholarship for the class of 2016. (Sad, I know.)
OP - you may want to look at Horatio Alger Scholarship - based on overcoming adversity and low income, not race. HSF was also a great organization, although I read some bad reviews here about this year’s application, my scholar won money from them and they were just terrific.
SAT? ACT? Minority? Family income?
I’ve taken the sat but the scores haven’t been released, my act is about a 26 I’m planning to bring it up to a 30 at the minimum. I’m Somali if that helps. My families income is less that 30k a year
Definitely need to get your ACT up. I recomend taking the report from your last exam or using a practice test and taking to a math teacher about specific areas you struggled in. What were your individual scores?
OP given your family income if you target “meet full need” schools any scholarship will just be icing on the cake, as the COA will be covered with the exception of your student contribution. Run some NPCs and you will see what I mean. It varies by the school but the student contribution can consist of a summer earnings contribution, work study and a loan, but no parent contribution. My advice is so put your energy toward getting into one of those schools rather than chasing scholarships.
@NJRoadie Thanks, I didn’t know about GM. Just an fyi regarding the CA fee waiver, it covers every school on the CA which can mean up to 20 schools. The College Board provides their own waivers(8?) and those are only useful/needed for non CA schools. Additionally most colleges will provide a low income student an application waiver on request. There is no reason for OP to incur any applications fees regardless of how many applications are submitted.
@mom2collegekids You ask the GC for the waivers. They have forms from CB/ACT that have a unique code that the student inputs when they register for testing. They are automatically provided upon request if the student has free/reduced lunch but can also be provided at the GCs discretion for special circumstances.
You can get a full ride to Alabama State with a 26. It is the easiest full ride I know of.
@galleriaikea - are you an American citizen/green card holder? I believe (and more experienced posters can confirm) that the schools don’t give scholarships to non-citizens/green cards. It is definitely something to check with your family on, there is a poster here on CC where the poor kid has basically no options because of his immigration status, and he didn’t realize that until recently 
And you definitely need to get your scores up. No matter what “need based” aid a school offers, you still need to get accepted there first to get that aid! Best of luck, and way to go to start this early. I look forward to reading your success stories next spring!
Schools give scholarships all the time to students who aren’t citizens and don’t have green cards.
Thanks @BelknapPoint - I must have mixed up two things - not being here legally with not being allowed to enroll (the poster I was referring to is in that situation) vs. not being a citizen but otherwise in good standing.
Yes, I am a citizen born and raised in California. In light of my ACT I’m not so sure about the individual scores but it was primarily the math that brought me down.
I’ve taken to taking a bunch of AP classes, for college and as a challenge to myself. Even going as far as to do some self-study for some of the AP Exams too. (Got a 3 for AP bio when I self-studied the year before)
I wanted to add Prairie View A & M as another school that will give a full ride for a 26.
Most of the full need colleges would be reaches even with a couple of extra act points. The exceptions would be Thomas Aquinas and Salem College. Thomas Aquinas is in CA so lower travel cost but the packages include loans.