<p>i know. generally you’re supposed to apply to between 6 and ten schools.</p>
<p>i am in the top 8 and i will be admitted to UT automatically so should I waste my money and apply to other schools anyway?</p>
<p>If UT is your first choice, you do not have to apply anywhere else, but I would advise you to apply to, at least, one safety.</p>
<p>Yes, get a saftey just in case, the unexpected may happen.</p>
<p>So i shouldn’t apply to like 6 schools or anything right? just UT 
and my safety school?</p>
<p>Since money is a big issue for you, then you should apply to at least 3 financial safety schools.</p>
<p>BTW…since you’re low income, you can get fee waivers for college apps.</p>
<p>Okay but can grants, scholarships, and loans cover my college tuition- at least for the first year?</p>
<p>thanks mom2collegekids- you’re a great help</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, they can. But you have to be competitive to get grants and scholarships. </p>
<p>At UTA the 75% for SATs is:
CR 660
MA 700
WR 660
And the ACT Composite at the 75% is 30.</p>
<p>Are you significantly above those? </p>
<p>I highly recommend you don’t take on total loans over 4 years greater than your expected first year of salary (say $40K).</p>
<p>You cannot count of grants and loans to cover your costs at UT. By the time you’d be going, the CoA is going to be about $27k. There will likely be a gap in your coverage, and your family may not be able or willing to help you borrow the rest that you’d need. A student can’t borrow the excess (beyond the fed loans) by himself. You can’t qualify by yourself.</p>
<p>That’s why you have to also apply to some financial safety schools. Just in case. you don’t want to be one of those students who next year is posting that you can’t afford to go to college because you have a big gap that your family can’t help you cover.</p>
<p>Besides, the federal loans are the max any student should borrow. Any more than that will be too hard to ever pay back.</p>
<p>So are you saying that it isn’t possible for me to attend UT without the finances i need. There’s no more help? i wont be able to contribute much- if anything- so i just can’t go? This is really depressing :(</p>
<p>I’m not saying that it’s impossible that you’ll get the funding that you’ll need. I’m saying that there’s a good chance you won’t. So, in such a case, it’s impossible for students to attend their favorite schools without the finances that they’ll need.</p>
<p>You have to have a back up plan for “just in case.” </p>
<p>Many, many kids don’t get to go to their first choice schools because of money. There is no “money fairy” out there. Sometimes a student can “get lucky” and it all works out financial-aid wise. But, when you need full aid, as you do…it can be a crapshoot.</p>
<p>:( wow, that really sucks. Well what if i go to some school and save money for a year and transfer to UT later?</p>
<p>^I think attending a community college for two years and then transferring is a great option, and one incredibly undervalued by high school kids (and their parents). You can save an enormous amount of money, get your basic credits taken care of (honestly, the difference between English 101 at a decent CC and a state school can be negligible), and then transfer. You will have to keep your GPA up to transfer, but financially, it may be the savviest way to make UT a possibility.</p>
<p>Of course, the trade-off is the “college experience,” which many will say is tied to dorm life.</p>
<p>the “college experience” is a euphemism for 19 year old kids having 3-4 hours of partying every night, in a huge hotel (dorms) on their parents’ dime.</p>
<p>There are many other ways of building lifelong friendships in college without living in the overpriced dorms.</p>
<p>What an enlightened point of view.</p>