<p>Do many students have restrictions that can result in no 4-year safeties?</p>
<p>For example, suppose a student from a low income family in the northeast is under parental restriction to go to school within a few hours drive from home, and lives in a state where the in-state public universities are not affordable on need-based aid, and no school within the parental distance restriction has a large enough automatic merit scholarship. (There may be reach/match schools with enough financial aid, or reach/match competitive merit scholarships, but they would not be safeties.)</p>
<p>Is a situation like this where there are no 4-year safety schools common?</p>
<p>You’re really obsessed with “do other people find themselves in situations where they declare there are no safeties.” There’s not a single person who couldn’t go to a comm college if need be.</p>
<p>I think your premise is flawed. The northeast has hundreds of colleges, and the states are mostly small. Even our small (northeast) city, pop. ~30k, has 3 college options. Plus, most state universities have several satellite campuses where you can go for 2 years and transfer–this is in addition to community colleges, which are also a valid choice. If someone is determined to go to college, they can find a way.</p>
<p>A driving-distance restriction has everything to do with the family’s values, not the colleges’ willingness to take the student. Plenty of kids at all income levels have parents who don’t want them to go far away from home. In some households, higher education is regarded with suspicion–girls are supposed to stay with their parents until they get married (we had a Hmong babysitter who was dealing with this in her family–she defied them and went to college but her younger sister was already married by age 16).</p>
<p>As Pizzagirl says, community college is a local and viable option for most people, but that doesn’t necessarily mean after the first two years the parents will be any more supportive of their kid completing a four-year degree.</p>
<p>I think this question is weird, but if the answer were “no” I guess I’d find that interesting. I mentioned in the other thread that my parents wouldn’t pay for college, and my efc was around 36k so that left me to be full pay by myself for all our state schools. If there was a four year school that I could have somehow paid for without 25k+/yr in debt that would have been amazing. But so far as I know, there wasn’t one. </p>
<p>I wish I’d known the PSAT wasn’t just practice for the SAT. With a little prep I’d probably have done really well. Our counselors told us it was just SAT practice and if you were planning to stay in state there was no need to take the SAT over the ACT, so no reason to take PSAT. Ugh. I think if I’d been aware of the opportunities I would have (and those I would lack) going into high school, there might have been a 4 year school even for me.</p>
<p>I am reading your statement as the student should be able to go away to college. NO student has the “right” to go away to college. While it is a nice concept, the reality (not the CC reality) is that the majority of the collegestudents school with in one hour of their home, commutes to school and lives at home (as pizzamom stated, this may even mean starting at the local community college).</p>
<p>I live in NYC, where there are 19 CUNY colleges (all which are accessible by mass transit). while it may not be the ideal situation for someone who want to have the “going away” to college experience, once can still attend college.</p>
<p>I think positing this about the northeast is odd. The restrictions, such as they are, are far more onerous for the poor kid from Wyoming or Montana who doesn’t have tons of nearby colleges to choose from.</p>
<p>Suppose a student decided he wanted to attend only schools where the mascot was a tiger. Could he find himself in a position of having no safeties?</p>
<p>The question says: has to be local, can’t afford local.</p>
<p>I think it’s oddly phrased-
We’ve got plenty of various ages who go to the inexpensive local cc. For the affordability, staying near family, helping, maybe continuing their jobs or job connections, same church, activities, using a known transpo system, etc. It’s not usually described as a hardship. More like an opportunity. </p>
<p>If they can’t afford full time, they go part time or gap it between semesters. It’s "how the other half lives’ when they prioritize the education.</p>
<p>And agree, why the Northeast? Think more families here constrain their thinking or are poorer? Or somehow not as visionary?</p>
<p>Yes, I do believe there are cases for a non-financial safety although I cannot speak to NE, but in VA – I know of several families where even community college is unaffordable. It’s a very tough situation to be in. There’s a couple of state HBCUs that a “non-traditional” student could likely receive aid, but you have to be willing to go this route. The HBCUs are the least expensive 4-yr state institutions we have. There are a lot of expenses in sending a student far from home, even with “good” aid…</p>
<p>Sorry, but if one has geographic access to a CC/ Technical school, I find it hard to believe they can’t swing it. I worked and went to school at the same time and got scholarships. Of course it’s not ideal, but it can be done.</p>
<p>Actually, one of my friends did the same thing, took two years off from college after getting his associates, stayed home with mom and dad, worked his butt off, saved all his money and paid cash to transfer to a four year.</p>
<p>I live in the northeast. There are TONS of colleges in this area that could be affordable and safety admissions for students. I live in CT where even the direction CT state universities can be costly if you are a resident student. BUT our community college system is terrific, and they add new programs and facilities every year. And they all have articulation agreements with many four year colleges.</p>
<p>And UConn has a number of regional campuses as well.</p>
<p>The state isn’t exactly huge!</p>
<p>Where in the northeast would someone live where there is NO affordable option? Where?</p>
<p>has shown scholastic aptitude in high school, and done reasonably well on their SATs they can find a school, if they must attend a local college. This is a product of having a lot of old private colleges, and some truly fantastic opportunities for students who have succeeded in at the community colleges in local 4 year institutions, public and private.</p>
<p>If a student stumbled in hs, and tests poorly there are fewer options, and they cost.</p>
<p>In many cases the best option for a student is to alternate working full time with attending school full time.</p>
<p>Horacio, I don’t know what it’s like in your state, but here if a student graduates from hs or has a ged, they can go to any public CC in the state.</p>
<p>Maybe this hypothetical student could have a short Kaffee Klatsch with the one from the other thread who had no safeties due to extraordinary intellectual talents. They would make a sad couple indeed.</p>
<p>At the state school and private school I work at in the NE, there are many low income students. PELL plus the NJ TAG grant plus workstudy plus Stafford will cover most; the private also adds its own grants. they might have to commute, as dorm costs may not be covered, but certainly low income students can find commutable four year colleges, without merit scholarships.</p>
<p>What would be tougher is a student with a moderate EFC whose family can’t meet it. I know lots of those–they do go to school, but again, most commute and take loans, work quite a bit, to fill the gap.</p>
<p>One of my apartmentmates didn’t have a safety. He’s from an extremely rural part of Oklahoma where there are no community colleges within driving distance and his parents couldn’t afford to pay. He enlisted in the military, served oversea, and after coming back moved to the OKC metro area to take classes at the local community college. </p>
<p>Had he stayed to work on his family’s farm, he couldn’t have gone to college. </p>
<p>Also there are VERY few students who qualify for enough merit aid to afford college solely on that principle. I hate when people bring out, oh they can qualify for merit aid. Generally speaking the substantial merit aid is reserved for those in the top 14% or above of SAT/ACT scores. Since SAT scores correspond so heavily with wealth, it’s not a viable option for most people that truly cannot afford even their directional state school.</p>
<p>If you stack up a few parental restrictions, there might be no safety, or even any college at all–i.e., it has to be a single-sex evangelical Christian college within driving distance of home. There also might not be any safeties for people who are interested in particular fields of study that are only offered at a few institutions.</p>
<p>But all this means is that people of this kind need to have a Plan B that may be different from the idea of a “safety.” For example, the person whenhen described–going into the military was his Plan B. For others, it might be working for a number of years, or going into a field they don’t really want.</p>
<p>Many students all over the country have no financially safe 4-year options simply because the commuting distance is excessive. I think that we all know that.</p>
<p>Likewise, we also all know that yes, there are places where the commute to a CC would be excessive. Or, if the commuting distance itself is not outrageous, the cost of getting a car, insuring it, paying for gas and maintenance, etc. would be more than the student could afford. Years ago I picked up a hitch-hiker at the exit of a CC parking lot, and learned that she was hitching to and from that campus on a daily basis because of lack of transport between her town and the CC’s location 20 miles away. Her studies were fully covered by a grant, but there was no magic source of money for a vehicle.</p>
<p>All this said, however, most instances of students reporting “no safeties” here at CC are cases of whiners (there I said it) who don’t want to have to attend the local CC or public U even when it is clear that one of those is their only viable option.</p>
<p>First, as others have stated, there is community college. </p>
<p>Further, many state colleges are low cost and many would be in commuting distance if a student could not afford room/board. On top of that, your hypothesis is that the family is low-income, and so that would likely mean the student would receive SOME need based aid. </p>
<p>For example, since you bring up the Northeast, I live in Vermont. Besides Community College of Vermont, there are state colleges. Take Johnson State. The tuition is about $9300. If the student is to room and board, it is about another $9000. However, this state college, like others in the state, is in commuting distance for many towns in the region. But a low income student would get some aid to boot. The college acceptance rate is 95% and so would be an academic safety for the majority of students. Is it free? No, but most colleges are not. But it is a typical affordable alternative and an academic safety, and with financial aid, or even commuting, would be fairly low cost.</p>