Location a factor for financial aid?

mom2collegekids
Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:21:16 +0000

OK…Now you know how much you can get from your parents…$10k.

At this point, EFC is rather irrelevant, so all strategies need to assume that…

1) You’ll have $10k from parents, $5500 from student loans, and maybe $2k from work-study or a part-time job.

2) Many/most privates will be unlikely unless you can get your test scores up to a point where one would offer a free tuition scholarship (not many do).

3) With your current ACT score, some schools would give you some merit money. If you could increase your score, there would be more opportunities for better merit scholarships.

4) Don’t bother with schools that would only give you a smallish merit scholarship. At a school that costs $30k-50k per year, getting a $10k per year merit scholarship isn’t going to cover enough of your costs.

5) With your financial situation, finding some schools that will give you merit scholarships that would cover all of tuition should be a goal. That would leave you with your parents money, a student loan, and a part-time job earnings to cover your room, board, books, etc.

6) Some schools give ASSURED merit scholarships for stats (if you have the req’d stats and you apply on time then you get the listed scholarship.). However, some schools have competitive scholarships (a few students are awarded scholarships out of a pool of top applicants). It’s ok to apply to some schools that have competitive scholarships, but to protect yourself, you should also apply to a couple of schools that will give you assured scholarships for stats.

5) Definitely apply to a couple of state schools that you wouldn’t mind attending.

6) Look over this thread of ASSURED SCHOLARSHIPS…$$$ CC Important links to Merit Scholarships given for stats…