i would love some help solidifying my college list (im looking for a few more options). so far my top school is syracuse university. i love that the school is big but not too overwhelming and i love the campus itself (i adore old architecture, a big priority for me is the campus itself).
i’m pretty open about size, however i would prefer at least 3,000 undergrad
i would prefer if the school is a yellow ribbon school but its ok if its not, keep in mind tho my parents are not helping pay so im relying on scholarships and such.
i would also love it if its near both nature and a big city(within like 1 hour drive)
i’ve been looking into a few diff programs, environmental sustainability, forensics and criminology, jewelry and metalsmithing, as well as psychology (obviously the colleges don’t have to have all of those programs)
What scholarship is going to make Syracuse affordable? I’m not being snarky-- I’m wondering if you’ve taken the time to research how people pay for college.
I am impressed that you are going to finance college without family help. But Syracuse is not the place to start that exploration, unless you live in commuting distance and plan to live at home and have significant college savings.
syracuse is a yellow ribbon school and will cover all of the tuition for the 4 years! that leaves me with the rest of the fees however i can apply for financial aid as well. the total cost of attendance is around 91,000 but without the tuition it’s around 27,000.
Your parents income and assets will determine if you are eligible for aid…even if they aren’t paying for your schooling. You should run the net price calculator on the Syracuse website to see if you are going to get any funding.
i have a couple small ones but i’ve been working on some more past few months. SAT is about 1200 and my gpa is at 3.6 right now. and yes i do know that syracuse is a bit more restrictive but as of right now it’s my reach school.
im mixed, black, white and hawaiian. I live in oregon
I’m curious if the NPC takes the yellow ribbon tuition into consideration. I genuinely don’t know. This may be a circumstance where it makes sense to schedule a call with a financial aid officer. If possible, ask a parent to join as well.
Define Yellow Ribbon - it was defined by @vwlizard but not sure that agrees with what you wrote here.
Are you saying SU will cover all your tuition but you need to cover room and board?
But then you say total cost is $91K but without tuition $27K - so if they are paying tuition, why would your total cost be $91K?
Or are you saying each year full pay is $91K, which is what their cost of attendance is.
So your family can, with inflation, afford $375K?
I’m very confused with what you are saying.
But if you want schools like Syracuse, which is a reach for you, Ithaca comes to mind as a similar but less “reachy” school although not a similar campus - if you want to be East Coast.
Given you want to be within an hour drive of nature, why not U of Oregon?
If you want environmental sustainability, you might look at SUNY ESF - which adjoins Syracuse, uses Syracuse’s clubs/facilities, dining halls, etc. - at a fraction of the cost. It’s an easier way into the SU experience.
If you want forensic psychology, U of North Dakota is on the WUE - so tuition is $13,856.
If you want forensics, it’s a limited school field.
You need to understand the budget. Just because your parents aren’t paying doesn’t mean you can get scholarships to cover. In fact, you may need to start at a local community college.
I hope you can better explain the budget please. College isn’t free and for most people, scholarships are near impossible to get unless given by the school itself.
This thread seems a lot more confusing than necessary.
OP, can you please run the Net Price Calculator for Syracuse and tell us what your out-of-pocket would be with their normal need-based aid? Net Price Calculator
The only way need-based aid is going to give you additional money after the yellow ribbon $ is if your net cost is lower than the costs that are left over after the full tuition scholarship. (And if that’s the case, you’d have gotten that much aid even without yellow ribbon - the only difference is that SU might be more inclined to accept you, since they’re need-aware and the VA funding would relieve them of paying a big chunk of your aid.)
You have some good in-state schools in Oregon. Do you have a favorite that would be attainable and affordable? Is there a school you could commute to from home?
What actual financial resources do you have? The guaranteed loans you can take on your own will cover only an average of $6750/year. What do you estimate that you could pay per year?
He is saying that his costs for Syracuse once Yellow Ribbon is applied is $27,000 a year. Perhaps he can clarify, but that is what was written.
I agree with @Blossom. I think this student needs to look at all of their resources and figure out exactly how much they can fund themselves for college. Syracuse is a costly university…and might just be out of reach financially.
In my opinion, the first college every student needs to find is one they like, would be happy to attend, have a very strong chance of acceptance, and is affordable. Then build the list up from there.
There are lots of universities similar in size to Syracuse, with beautiful campuses that might be more affordable.
If you don’t want to live at home and commute to college, then it appears to me that you need a college with very low cost of living, plus automatic merit for your stats.
Most of the schools on USNews’ top 10 “cheap room and board” list are fairly obscure, but #10 is Utah State, which is both a WUE reciprocity school and a Yellow Ribbon school. On-campus room and board at the Logan main campus (25K undergrads) is only $9,076 for the entire year. (Contrast this with Syracuse, where average room and board is over 19K/year, not to mention how expensive it is to get to from Oregon.) If your unweighted GPA is a 3.6, your GPA+SAT would qualify you for $15K/year in merit money (per this calculator), which could potentially cover all of your post-yellow-ribbon costs without even taking loans; but the loan option is there if you need more financial buffer for costs that aren’t billed directly by the school. The university has programs in many of your areas of interest, and it’s an attractive campus (the oldest in Utah, so parts of it have older architecture, while other parts are more modern) in a small city (less than 90 minutes from a large city - SLC) with fabulous nearby “nature” and outdoor recreation.
This, in my opinion, is the kind of school you need to be looking for. It probably isn’t the only one where your auto-merit would exceed your costs after yellow ribbon covers tuition, but it’s good proof of concept.
Another Yellow Ribbon school you may want to consider is Temple in Philadelphia. It’s in a big city and has a noted jewelry/metalsmith program.
U. of Massachusetts - Amherst is another possibility. It’s in a college town that’s got good access to nature and is also part of a consortium with smaller private colleges like Amherst, Mount Holyoke, and Smith to help expand its offerings.
Some other options include:
U. of Vermont
U. of Montana
Montana State
Baylor
U. of Missouri
All of the above schools provide the maximum funding to all eligible students, per the VA source above.
I’d be careful with Montana State. Off campus housing is very expensive and there is no guarantee for on-campus housing. Perhaps yellow ribbon benefits guarantee on campus housing, but I would definitely check.
Yes, this is a concern at a number of schools, even if the off-campus housing is affordable. For example, Boise State is a yellow ribbon school and could be a good fit academically. (I even know a student who majored in forensic science there and has a great career in the field, that she is loving.) And the automatic merit would cancel out the cost of on-campus housing. But on-campus housing isn’t guaranteed, and I don’t know if there’s any way to “redeem” that merit money and apply it to off-campus expenses. This could even be a concern at Utah State, although they seem to have a lot more housing available than Boise State has. I’m wondering, in general, if you get merit in addition to the yellow ribbon funding, and have to move off campus, will schools hand over that money to pay your expenses? I think sometimes they do, but I’m not sure it’s guaranteed so I would definitely ask.