<p>Long story short - my grandmother has decided to pay for my college education herself. She insists that she does so. And I’m so grateful for her and yeah. It’s great. But if I don’t need financial aid, does that mean I won’t be getting any scholarships? Because I’m guaranteed a $5,000 scholarship from the state for my GPA/ACT score combination. I’d really like to get that still just to help her out to cut down the costs…</p>
<p>Can anyone help me?
Should I still do a FAFSA or no?
I’m sort of confused, tbh.</p>
<p>I’ll be going to my grandma to talk to her about what exactly she’s going to do/offer/want to help me~parents with.</p>
<p>There is no reason not to take the scholarship and have your grandmother pay the balance directly to the school. Congrats on your scholarship and grandma’s generosity!</p>
<p>You should do a FAFSA and see what you are offered in terms of need and/or merit scholarships. No need to mention that grannie is planning to help out. Once you know what the net costs will be, then you can tell her what you need for help. Also, she may not realize how much college costs these days.</p>
<p>There are many scholarships that you can get without having any need.</p>
<p>If your state gives one for grades and scores, you’ll still get that.</p>
<p>Also, if your school gives merit scholarships for stats, you’ll still get those.</p>
<p>What are your stats? Where are you applying?</p>
<p>(P.S. Does grandma know that college costs a lot these days? I only ask because a couple of years ago, someone posted a similar story only to later find out that granny didn’t realize how much colleges costs these days. Does granny know that some schools cost $50k per year?)</p>
<p>I’ll be laying out the totals amount when I see her next. So we’ll see how it goes.</p>
<p>As for my stats:
GPA is 4.6/4.7 unweighted or a 3.65/3.7 (private school so its iffy) weighted.
ACT: 26.5 and a 27.
Class rank: 4/6 (small class. I don’t count ranks important for me, because we’re all very competitive. I’m only 1-3 points behind the valedictorian.)
College applying to: College of Charleston in Charleston, SC (in-state). </p>
<p>Cost total will be about ~$15,000 per year with my $5,000 scholarship.
So it’d be an estimate of $60,000 for all four years. She may just decide to pay for the tuition which is less than $10,000 per year. So we’ll see.</p>