How to get stipends to pay for living expenses

Paying for College
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@Brown1311917, the first thing you need to do is find out how the colleges you apply to determine high school equivalency. If you apply to a NYS school you’ll be required to show that you met PA standards if that’s where you currently live. Other states may differ.

Who’s running your homeschool program now? We had to provide lots of documentation for our homeschooled son’s college apps [proof of high school equivalency, report cards, standardized test scores from GR 9-12, teacher recommendations, a guidance counselor letter (which generally comes from the parent or guardian), and SAT/ACT scores]. Do you have someone helping you do all this?

The [PA regs](http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/laws_and_regulations/20314/general_laws_and_regulations/975030) graduation requirements include 4 years of Eng, 3 of social studies, science, & math, and 2 of arts & humanities. But the age of compulsory education only goes up to 17. Did you report in FL at all?

42

Occasionally stipends are given to incoming freshman as a form of merit, but being a nontraditional student may make you ineligible for many freshman scholarships like that – not sure. And, in any case, gotta have high stats and interesting (merit-related, usually) hooks for that sort of thing.

43

U can take a loan. But don’t be afraid of it so much. U just need to read much about it .When I was a student I was in debts but in 10 years with a stable job I get rid of it and now can enjoy life=)

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@austinmshauri My high school program now is an accredited program in the US and abroad. It teaches AP classes and holds certification. My diploma is accepted at all the schools I am currently applying to, my counselor and I called each of them. I actually have a really close relationship with some of my teachers, some of them have taught me for several courses in a row. It’s not a typical online school, my graduating class is 8 people and the average AP score is a 5. When I was in Florida it was over the summer and I did not take in any courses.

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^^Interesting, is it free?

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@Madison85 It is free but highly selective, they require students to maintain an a average to stay in the program

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If an AP ‘average’ is 5, that means everyone gets 5’s on the test, as that’s the highest score. If all 8 students didn’t get a 5 on the AP test, the average would quickly drop. I find it hard to accept that you had no schooling at all until age 16, but yet got a 29 on the ACT at age 13 or 14, and we didn’t read about it in the New York Times.

You need to keep your story straight. If you don’t want to share, don’t, but don’t put out ‘facts’ that are inconsistent. Colleges don’t like to be mislead.

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@twoinanddone I don’t have to explain my lack of formal education to you, I did not have no education, I simply had no credits to transfer and no listing of courses and in that system I had no hope of graduating with anything but a GED at best. The New York times reports on wunderkinds that do massive research, invent water purifies and get accepted into all 8 ivies. I am none of those things and even so, I do not allow my picture or information to be publicized in any media because there are people that I can’t allow in my life.
Yes the AP average is a five for all the tests I took this year. I think the overall school average is 4.5 but this is counting every AP test from every year since the school began. The average student graduates haven taken 15 exams, my school administers it’s own international diploma and the APID diploma so basically all courses are either AP or prep for AP courses. All of our AP courses are taught by test writers or graders so for us an AP exam is not difficult or we are simply not recommended to take it.
Our lowest average for any one exam is AP Japanese with a 4.12, Human Geography, Art History, European History, Spanish, Stats, French, and Latin all have a perfect average of 5. All SAT 2 subject tests have averages that clear 700 except for Math 1 which is 680. Average SAT is 2111.

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If your full need is met, they will budget travel in COA, and it does not sound like you would be travelling to a home base? Perhaps that will allow you more room budget wise. You may need to take out a small subsidized loan to get through. As long as you keep it low, it will be worth it.

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I think there is less potential for harm here if we simply assume that the OP is telling the truth about his situation and proceed accordingly. If some believe that the OP is not being completely truthful, that’s fine, but the least harmful thing to do would be not comment - because if we’re wrong, then we’re hurting a 20-year-old young adult who desperately wants some information about going to college from a very difficult situation. Let’s keep that in mind.

That said, OP, I don’t know of too many scholarships that give undergraduates living stipends, but I also think you are mostly incorrect about colleges that don’t allow you to work while in school. Most colleges will allow you to work while in school - really, as much as you want to, although keeping it to 10-15 hours a week is probably wise. 10-15 hours is enough hours to make money to buy incidentals while not interfering with your college experience. Since you are an orphan and an independent student, you will probably be eligible for work-study - so you can work a work-study job. There are also lots of non-work-study jobs at most colleges and universities, and then if you are in a city or college town there will be lots of off-campus opportunities as well (especially if you have line cook experience, although you might not want to do that anymore).

Another alternative is a work college. Most work colleges eliminate or drastically reduce your need to pay for tuition in return for you working something like 10-20 hours a week. You usually get a job that’s a bit higher-level than a work-study job on other campuses (although not always - it depends). Examples of work colleges are Berea College and College of the Ozarks; I do think you get small hourly wages to pay for incidentals in addition to it contributing towards other costs. Another option is Deep Springs College - it’s a very small two-year college for men in the Southwest, but it is very prestigious, and its students transfer to colleges like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, et al., all the time. Those schools meet full financial need. Deep Springs not only covers your tuition but also your room and board.

51

OP, your goal should be attending a meet-need school. Definitely apply through Questbridge. Based on your financials, your expected contribution will be small enough so that it’s only for personal expenses/you don’t have to pay any billable costs out of pocket.

Although I have a gut-feeling that you’ll be accepted into one of these colleges, you need to have back-up plans, since most are reaches for everyone. In order to have backups, study really hard for the SAT/ACT (focus on the one you’re best at), get a top score, and apply to colleges that will give you at least full tuition for those test scores. With your income, you’ll qualify for a full pell grant, as well as a $9,500 direct loan as an independent student. Since these schools are usually located in the south/midwest, then housing should be cheaper, so $5,600 in pell + $9,500 in stafford loans should be plenty for room&board + books + etc.

Many people would’ve given up in your situation. It’s truly admirable the way you’re fighting for your education/future. Wish you the best of luck!

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Let me see what I can explain. Colleges claim to cover COA, not everything that you might need to buy. My daughter went to Brown, so I can tell you a bit what it is like there.

2015-16 Cost of Attendance

Direct/Billed Charges

Tuition and fees $49,346
Room and Board (Housing and Meals) $12.700

Subtotal - Direct charges $62,046

Indirect Estimated Expenses

Books $1,450
Personal $1,884
Travel ****

Total Direct and Indirect Charges $65,380

So you will get some travel allowance, let’s say 1,500. All these expenses will be covered with

-Federal Pell
-university grant
-Federal work/study
-student summer work expectation

The grants should cover your Direct charges so you won’t owe anything to the school. When you get your aid letter you will see if there is any grant left after direct charges and if so it will go to your student account and you can access it. But you will need to buy books at the beginning of the semester. that is estimated at 775. So reduce that cost by buying used or renting. My own dd even borrowed from friends in her dept or you can try the library. Any of the estimated expenses your reduce the cost of saves you money or goes in your pocket.

Then you need to find a work/study job that will earn you what your allocation is. But they have many more jobs than students can fill there, so you can likely find a job that will give you extra hours on non work/study, or just get a second low hours job. There are jobs listed on campus and off campus. On campus includes everything from Dining Services (BUDS, you get extra meals each shift and free drinks anytime), to jobs with professors, tech support, library positions, and things that sometimes pays more like calling alumni for donations was a good job she had once that paid extra well and had convenient evening hours. A friend had a steady library job all 4 years that allowed for studying almost the whole time. Off campus includes businesses but a freshman should stick to campus jobs. Other off campus are casual jobs such as babysitting, and tutoring for faculty or neighborhood children. You can look here:
https://studentemployment.brown.edu/JobX_FindAJob.aspx

Interesting trivia, one student at Brown named Suzanne Goin got a job at the nearby famous restaurant Al Forno. She studied History but is now a very successful celebrity chef with cookbooks and multiple restaurants in LA. Most students work on campus, though.

So you will get a paycheck every couple weeks to cover personal expenses. You should be able to buy some clothing with that if you are frugal.

The Goodwill is a good tip and I will add that stores near better neighborhoods have better stuff. Also you have to go frequently because they get stuff every day. The store near me gets donations from a wealthy gated community and gets name brands and they put out 14 new racks a day. Also get on the email list because they have occasional weekends with everything $3.00 for the first few hours of the day.

Now Jr year my daughter moved off campus and shared housing, but it wasn’t any further than some of the dorms. She still got the same room and board allocation but she was paying less so she got to keep the rest.

During breaks when she couldn’t travel home she stayed with the International students in a designated dorm. Some summers she stayed at school and got jobs and housing on campus, or a research grant. The school was generous about giving extra grants for summer classes. Also study abroad packages are generous–you get some aid. Apply for a Gilman Grant from the govt for airfare etc.

Now here is the kicker and you will find this at any school. You will need to purchase health insurance. I have never seen it in a COA except at UC in CA.

“you are required to be covered by a health insurance plan while attending Brown. If you opt for the University’s health insurance plan, your Cost of Attendance will include an additional component for this charge, which for the academic year 2015-2016 is $3,487”

So when you make that visit to the aid office and find out if you can get the COA increased be sure to talk about the health insurance charge. Then hopefully you can take a student loan for a small amount, maybe just the subsidized part. Once you get through the first year you will have it all figured out how to work it.

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@BrownParent Thanks, this was literally one of the most helpful posts I have seen !