<p>i recently got accepted to penn state, univ of minnesota-twin cities and am on the alternate list of case western reserve univ.</p>
<p>im a dependent student and my family annual income is $ 25000. with this income, can i expect to get into any of these colleges and graduate with debt that i’ll be able to repay? my efc on the fafsa was 0. i’m an all rounder,get good grades etc.</p>
<p>Chimera – I am guessing that you are aware that none of the universities you have mentioned provide 100% of need? With an EFC of 0 you will have to come up with the money to meet the Cost of Attendance (tuition, fees, room & board, travel, books and personal expenses) from grants, scholarships, work-study and loans. </p>
<p>I would guess that you will be eligible for a Pell grant, Stafford loan and work study, and your parents can apply for a PLUS loan. </p>
<p>Two big unknowns right now are: 1) do you expect to receive any merit or need-based scholarships or grants; 2) are your parents willing/able to help you out by taking out a loan? </p>
<p>It would also be helpful if we knew whether or not you are a resident of Pennsylvania or Minnesota, since in-state tuition & fees are significantly less than that paid by out-of-state students.</p>
<p>hi hudsonvalley,thanks for the reply. i live in india and am a us citizen. My parents are however, Indian citizens. yes,i’m aware that they don’t provide 100% need. and from the fafsa, i’m eligible for pell grants and stafford loans.
yes, i do expect to get merit scholarships. i got 2280 on sat2(PHY-770,CHEM-770,BIOL(m)-740) and got 1840 on sat1. i was in the top 5% of my class,always got the top 5 positions in class, got the 2nd highest marks in the biology exam nationwide,got the 702nd position in a biotech olympiad in india,got the environmental education and english prize for academic excellence in the 11th and 12th grade respectively. in extracurriculars, i was the school swimming captain in my senior year, won the silver and bronze medals in swimming at the national games. i also helped a domestic help’s dyslexic son with his studies and he passed his grades after i started teaching him.</p>
<p>lastly, my residence in india makes me an out state resident. but i have one ques here. acc to the law, you have to live in a state for 12 consecutive months before you apply for residency. so can’t i just apply for residency after a year in that state?</p>
<p>No, you can’t gain residency after a year. While states vary somewhat on their residency requirements, I haven’t seen any that will let you gain residency WHILE ATTENDING school in the state.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about merit scholarships at these two colleges, but their mid-50% SAT scores (M+V) for accepted students are 1080-1280 (Penn State) and 1120-1360 (UMinn). With your SAT of 1840, I’d estimate your M+V at about 1230. General academic scholarships seem unlikely, however, perhaps you know of some specific merit scholarships that you qualify for.</p>
<p>chimera - for most states residency requirements require that you have lived in the State for a year before you start college - living there because you are attending college does not qualify you for residency (because then every out of state student would do that and there would not really be any out of state students). Additionally residency is usually based on the State your parents live in.</p>
<p>Schools like Penn State will likely not provide much in the way of institutional aid. (ie grants from the school as opposed to federal grants). State universities do not have large amounts of money to give in financial aid.</p>