I’m a mom of 4, this is my first one going off to college. He applied to about 12 schools, 4 out of state. 3-4 of them are private. He will be a junior with 63 units and an A.A-T in History along with an A.S -T in Administration of Justice. 3.67 GPA.
So far he’s been accepted into U of A and TCU.
Uof A offered him a Phi theta Kappa scholorship of 12,000 for the year. ( $6000 each semester) renewable up to 2 years. And TCU is tcu scholarship of 13k year for 6 semesters. (6500 each sem)
We have no idea how much financial aid we will get for in state or out of state aid. Its always so confusing. Our efc is 003556. We will not be able to help him at all moneywise. I am going to try to get him some other scholorships but who knows what he will get. How rare are these scholarships and how hard is it to get into these schools with 3.67 w/ phi theta kappa membership. No sat/act tests taken.
Will state schools offer similar scholorships? We also are waiting on NAU, Boise State, UCSB, UCLA, USC, SDSU, UCSM, CAL POLY & Pepperdine, Stanford ( for fun). His major is History as we hear its easier to get into but he wants to double major in history and criminal justice.
Transfer scholarships are tricky. I think those are good. You can ask the schools about need based aid as it is hard to get the NPC to work for transfers (unless they are set up that way and let you choose transfer as an option). He should get some Pell grant money at every school.
It doesn’t matter so much what he gets but how much he has to pay. In state is usually cheaper than OOS public. Private schools are all over the place.
Frankly, his app list should have been a lot better. He should have applied to more UCs and none of those others.
Did you run the net price calculators on those web sites? Warning, if they don’t ask if he’s a transfer student, the aid may not be estimated correctly…transfers usually get worse aid…except at UCs for instate students.
Search for a school on the college board big future website. Click on paying to see the total cost of attendance. Be sure to click the out of state tab where appropriate. Take the total cost of attendance, subtract your financial aid. That is what is left to pay or get loans.
A federal student loan for a junior is 7500. Anything more than that the parent must consign and be equally responsible with the child for paying back. Many schools include parent PLUS loans in their packages which are also the parent responsibility. With three more kids, I would suggest you avoid parent PLUS or cosigning.
For each college, once you’ve received the financial aid package, you must add tuition, fees, room, board. Then subtract scholarships and grants from that total. If the results is higher than $10,000 then it’s not affordable.
Note that to work in law or federal law enforcement he’s better off with a criminology degree (or just history, but with strong background either in languages or in tech, or both).
We won’t be paying anything for his college.Maybe $500 to get him settled in? Nor will we be able to take out any loans. We have 3 Kids behind him who will be entering college in 2019, 2021, 2024. We live on one income so we’ve told kids of they need to get good grades if they want to go to good college.
There wasn’t any other UCs that he wanted to attend that offered both majors. Cal poly, UCSB, UCLA none offer Both history and criminal justice but they were good schools so he applied there. I’m hoping for San Diego State as it offers both majors which is about an hour+ from home. But he kinda wanted a bit farther away. tbh We are conservative and so is he, so we like the liberal CA colleges less than the 4 outside the state, and found no conservative UC college really. The private christian colleges are all at top of his list. He doesn’t want a party school.
He wants to be an FBI agent. But can’t get military background (adhd) and has no interest in being a cop right now. Therefore criminal justice… His history degree will be because his love is history… He eats sleeps amd breathes it. because fbi agent isn’t something you walk out of college into…He wants a history degree so he can be a teacher before or after fbi or to fall back on if fbi thing doesn’t ever come to fruition.
He doesn’t need to major in criminal justice to work for the FBI- they hire accountants and foreign language majors (especially “strategic languages” like Arabic, Farsi, Korean), they hire people with degrees in psychology.
He should spend time on the FBI website- especially the careers section- before concluding that he needs a criminal justice degree.
And when you say “cop”- there are LOTS of different forms of policing. There is ATF, which is heavily investigative and similar to the FBI. There are roles at the TSA which look very similar to (and work closely with) the FBI. There are border patrol, US marshall jobs, etc.
If he gets into a UC, we qualify for Blue and gold program which is anyone whose parents earn under 80k get tuition and fees paid. So I’m assuming we would just have to come up with housing … So would CA or federal aid help pay that additional 10-15k.? Or merit/phi theta kappa scholorships ? They would pay for just for housing ? Basically whatever isn’t paid for by aid/ scholrships he will need to do work study at college and apply for student loans.
The students with $200,000 in debt either borrowed that in the past when it was easier for students to borrow a lot, or they have parents/grandparents/friends who (foolishly) co-signed the loans, or the loans are for grad school. Right now your son can only borrow the federal loans ($7,500 junior year, $7,500 senior year).
Yes, he can use a federal loan to pay for housing.
Money is a huge issue for your son. He can’t be picky about where he finishes up his degree. History you can get pretty much anywhere, and criminal justice is pretty common too.
Who is going to pay room, board, books, transportation, and personal expenses for your kids if he goes to a college and lives in the dorms? IIRC, the Calgrant will pay tuition and fees…but that is it.
I would say…that you need to count on paying some costs for this kiddo…either that or you need to rethink your list.
If your kiddo gets all tuition and fees covered…then you need to find a college within commuting distance.
I’m a little confused about your finances…you say you won’t pay anything for this kid to go to college…but that might NOT be what is expected from the schools.
Financial aid grants (which vary significantly by school)
Loans where the parent is the borrower or cosigner
The reason so many “old hands” on this board are shocked by your college list is that it doesn’t seem to have been made with costs firmly in mind
Your in-state publics will have a lower starting price tag, but they may not have the best financial aid on top of that low price tag. Private schools that have generous financial aid policies can sometimes beat the in-state publics for lower income families.
The ProPublica site I referenced shows the average cost after financial aid for different income levels. It’s only a rough guide, but if a school is asking families who make 30,000 per year to pay 18,000 per year, it’s obviously stuffing the financial aid package with PLUS or private student loans beyond the federal student loan program.
It is only the federal direst student loan program that is limited to 7500. It’s also the loan with the best interest rate and fees and the most flexible repayment and forgiveness plans. If you need loans, it should always be the first loan you take.
tbh We are conservative and so is he, so we like the liberal CA colleges less than the 4 outside the state, and found no conservative UC college really. The private christian colleges are all at top of his list. He doesn’t want a party school.