And evidently, HPU does have tuition-waiver scholarships: https://hpu.edu/HPU/value/financial-aid.html
Mom’s slush fund ranges somewhere between 50-60k. I have no idea how much my dad has saved up, if any, because he doesn’t talk about finances with us at all, didn’t mention anything even when we applied- hence why I didn’t really consider this when applying for colleges
Me: Hey Dad I’m making an appeal to Rochester to see if we can get better financial aid. What is our annual net income, after bills and food and all that? And by the way does the yellow ribbon program apply to us?
Dad texted back: I would need to figure out our net income - when I get back…as far as the yellow ribbon program - what is that??
Ask him if he or any of his other dependents have ever used the GI Bill.
I’m pretty sure he used it to fund my two step brothers if not himself (he attended the Air Force academy) but I’ll ask to be sure
AFA would have been free for him (and everyone else there). No GI Bill needed.
Just got off the phone with Dad, I asked about GI bill. He says he thinks he doesn’t have benefits from that because his retirement timing was wrong. He retired in 2007, said that he doesn’t get the same benefits as the current service members or recent retirees but he will check into it to be sure
Apparently he hasn’t heard of the Yellow Ribbon, but I sent him a link to more info on it
Our D went to Kapiolani CC for 3 semesters and then transferred to USoCal. All but 1 of her courses were accepted for credit toward her USC degree. (The course she didn’t get credit for was the one online course she took at KCC.) She commuted from home and paid practically nothing for tuition and about $500-1000/term for books. It helped that she was able to get most of her General Ed requirements out of the way. It also allowed her the freedom to dabble in different fields to decide what major she really wanted. All her instructors also taught at UH Manoa, mostly in much larger classes. She also took 12 weeks summer school at UH of German that was also accepted at USC for credit.
She did not get any merit or FAid awards, but it cut down the length of time she was at USC and we were paying for that U.
To get merit awards, it is much better to be an entering freshman, rather than a transfer student. Our S got nice merit as an entering freshman at USC. The nice thing about getting in as a transfer is that you can get the pre-requisites out of the way and still get your degree at the “name brand” U if you and your family don’t want U of HI.
@HImom: May I ask what college your D transferred in to at USC, with what GPA, and how many years ago?
My understanding is that Dornsife is easier to transfer into than other USC colleges. And of course, USC has become steadily harder to enter (though they still take a ton of transfers; a high GPA of 3.7 or more would put you in good stead).
CC may be an option, then? Though if you go to HPU (on a full-tuition scholarship while living at home), you keep some more options open. You could always transfer from HPU as well.
BTW, yes, typically freshmen get more merit, but at colleges the caliber of USC, getting enough merit to knock off 50% of COA or more is very tough, while if you transfer in with 2 years of cost left, you’ve essentially done the same thing (so long as your previous institution cost almost nothing).
I’m sorry–it really concerns me that you and your twin and family are contemplating taking on such massive debt, especially as your step-dad is already 62 and working 2 jobs and has a huge mortgage. Even if he’s willing to work until age 70, his health or the economy may make that impossible.
I’d strongly urge you to really look into the honors program at U of HI. The validictorian of Iolani in 2006 went to U of HI honors program in 2006 because all the many mainland schools she was accepted at were unaffordable, even with merit aid. She got a Regents scholarship so U of HI was free plus she got funding to do study abroad. She graduated and stayed an extra year doing medical research before applying and going to med school in Rochester! She is now doing her internship and residency in San Diego.
Yes I heard about the regents scholarship, my good friend (high stats and good ec involvement, though not as high as mine) applied for UH regents, he was waitlisted though. He thinks I could have gotten it if I applied, however it’s much too late for that as the awardees are being announced this month. If I attend UH I will definitely be taking the honors program and pushing my curriculum to be as challenging as possible, being I’m assuming that the academics there would be easy to handle compared to Cal per say
To be clear, Dad is working his second job, not two jobs at once- he retired from military service ten years ago and is currently working civilian job on Air Force base, so his job isn’t particularly dependent on the economy, however I am coneverned with his near retirement age as well.
If I were to transfer to USC for undergrad it’ll be for Viterbi school of engineering, and that’s pretty tough
Ask him if he or any of his other dependents have ever used the GI Bill. >>
He retired before service members were allowed to transfer GI Bill benefits, which started in 2009. It is not retroactive.
It doesn’t have to be just one thing that helps @jql2017. Please understand that I’m not saying ‘do not go to UH’ but rather ‘Look at everything’ because it seems to me like it’s the least good choice for OP.
I do apologize for saying virtually all strong students leave, I should have said virtually all strong students try to avoid UH in ways that are different from kids who try to avoid their flagship on the mainland.
Some if these ways turn out to be unsustainable and I’m not advocating leaving at all cost.
If UH ends up being the only choice because OP will have preferred it to a gap year, it’ll have been OP 's choice. I think all of us want to make sure OP has affordable choices.
She has already applied to UH and will get in + honors so that’s a back up.
HPU + transfer to usc is a better back up because the transfer to Engineering is almost guaranteed.
URochester may still come through, I’d have imagined the applications would have been flagged as twins but maybe not.
Some WUE schools are still accepting applications… U Utah? Montana State? WWU? Washington State?
That means OP and her sister will have a college at which to deposit and perhaps even choices.
The Nacac list does have colleges that offer merit to bring costs down to 20-25k but I’ve not seen to 10k; still, it’s worth trying. The trick is to apply within the first couple of days the college appears on the list. At that point it’s a matter of speed. The 'why college X " essay needs to be done quickly. I’m assuming the rest of commonapp is done and good.
That’s another possibility. It doesn’t cancel out anything else, it’s in addition to.
The parameters could be " I got into UH, can colleges on that list get me admitted to any affordable college that’s better than UH?" If not, then there’s UH or gap year. If it does though, it gives more choices to OP.
Finally, there’s a gap year. This would likely yield the best results for OP and her sister.
It’s okay, I know everyone is just trying to help me figure out the best path to take financially as well as academically, and taking everyone’s different experiences and experiences with their kids, people will undoubtedly come up with different solutions to this tricky situation that I got myself into. Thank you all for your time
It is very true that most strong applicants try to avoid UH as much as possible. People who score 25+ on the ACT will apply to UH as a safety usually and head to somewhere on the mainland, so I definitely feel that dynamic in influencing me and MYOS is not wrong in that respect.
We have been flagged as twins in URochester’s application, I remember it was the only school that had an option for “twins” in the siblinings applying to the same school section.
I am waiting for my dad to come back on Friday so he can help with this more. Idk right now when I call him he talks about how cold it is in Alaska and seeing a moose or something. I’m still trying to research the Yellow Ribbon program more. I read something about how all public institutions would charge in state tuition, which would drastically lower COA for Berkeley and UW, not sure how much for Rochester but I know they are part of the program as well. The online info I found is a bit confusing, if someone could help me understand if I would qualify, that would be great.
My dad served in the Air Force for 35ish years and retired in 2007. If more info is needed let me know, thank you!
As of right now I’m just going to study as much as I can for my IB exams to make sure I get the diploma and score well in HL classes especially. If I somehow end up at UW or even UH, I’d be entering credit wise as a sophomore probably. I know someone mentioned earlier that this is not a good idea if I want to go to grad school because it’s hard to do substantial research in three years, maybe I could graduate in 3.5 years or I will just work extra hard. Difficult is not impossible and I’m willing to try 
If you’re looking to get a management grad degree, you don’t need to do research.
@PurpleTitan I am debating between MBA and masters in marketing or international business. Of course nothing is written in stone, and I might minor/double major in something for undergrad. I need to figure how much of a double major degree is worth. Industrial/Systems engineering major paired with marketing minor sounds like a good combo for me to get started in business but I might be wrong.
None of those require or care about research experience.
I’m sorry, but where did U Rochester cost $390,000 for both twins? I thought it was closer to $30,000 each, after the $5,500 student loan, merit and need based aid. So that would be $60,000 a year total, so $240,000 for four years.
@mommdc I calculated $353,000 with merit and need and work study, but without student loan and including travel costs as well as expected increase COA (provided by rochester’s financial aid portal). Annually after the loan it is $38k for me and $42k for my sister.
@PurpleTitan Oh. I guess that make sense since they’re in business. Someone mentioned research experience earlier in the thread, I guess they meant grad school in general. Work experience then? Or are good grades in undergrad enough?
@mommdc: Rochester COA (COA at all these privates) = $70K/year. Her grants are $25K/year (think sis’s are a little less generous). $140K-$45K= $95K/year. X4 = $380K total.
Compare with 3-2 where the beginning 3 are free (cash flow neutral or even positive):
$70 X2 X2 = $280K total.
Assume in both cases that she and sis can work or borrow to get $50K each. Knock $100K off. The Mommy slush fund is good for $50K.
Dad would have to come up with $230K or $130K.