Your best option is will be to have her start at a CC and save that $15k each year so that she can attend a 4-year for the last two years and get that campus experience. You will unlikely find a college within that budget given her stats.
The directional colleges in CT do give some merit…but not a lot.
Eastern, for example, has a $26,000 or so yearly cost of attendance. $12,000 for a commuter.
They do give merit aid. I don’t know if this student would get it or not…apply and see!
http://www.easternct.edu/admissions/about-eastern/tuition-fees/
This next link discusses the types of aid…but not the requirements for getting these awards.
Community colleges in Connecticut are about $5k per year in tuition. Then add books, commuting costs, and live-at-home costs (any additional food and utilities consumed by the student), and that leave significantly less than $15k to be saved for four year school costs for the last two years. However, if there is a public university within commuting distance ($12k tuition and fees, then add books, commuting costs, and live-at-home costs), that savings could be enough to make two years there affordable.
ECSU tuition and fees are about $12k – does not include books, commuting costs, and live-at-home costs.
What are her ACT sub scores, and this was just the one ACT?
I think she needs to rank what is most important to her. Some of the schools may have one thing but not another and you may eliminate some good options if she/you are fixed on the size.
For me, first (and non negotiable) factor was cost. We set that at the instate flagship rate ($15000) and went from there.
Wish list:
$15000 budget
size of 3000
majors (engineering for one, theater for one)
living on campus
location
for one, sports team
Well, the first thing to go was that 3000 size. One ended up at ~10,000, the other at 3500 on campus but the school has a large online presence so it is reported at 9500. Not a big deal. Classes are still small and they had friends from classes and other activities.
Both were open to location and ended up at schools 2000 miles apart (so when I say open, I mean OPEN!)
I think your first priority has to be cost. To stay at $15k, you need to be looking at the CT schools that aren’t the flagship. If she doesn’t want to stay in CT, then she needs to look south or west. There are a lot of smaller private schools in the Carolinas that could give nice merit awards, but they are going to be small (2000 students). Look at Queens, Limestone, Presbyterian, Wingate, Wofford. Some of the better deals in the west are at state universities, so usually a little bigger than 6000 students.
@ucbalumnus A student attending a CC should have a decent part time job - at least 20 hours per week during the school year - full time during the summers, and self fund so that the parent can save the full amount for the last 2 years away.
UCBalumnus as mentioned AAMU in a few threads lately. Not sure why that school has come up on the radar, other than having merit money for lower stats kids.
I don’t know @ucbalumnus ’ reasons and I don’t presume to speak for him/her, but IMO, that merit-money is reason enough to mention AAMU. U of Alabama gets mentioned a lot on CC for its focus on merit money for OOS applicants. CC has several threads that focus on options for students who aren’t necessarily at the top of the GPA/TEST list. AAMU seems to be a viable option for fulfilling that search.
I think it’s great that AAMU provides a significant scholarship for these types of students. Not every parent will have an automatic negative reaction to the possibility of sending their student to an HBCU.
@EconPop - was simply making an observation that UCBalumnus has mentioned it a few times lately. Nothing more. Who said there was an automatic negative reaction? That said, several posters asked the OP if this school would be a good fit and the response was no. Sometimes christian schools are mentioned to families of other religions and they get a similar response that its not a good fit.
I apologize if I misunderstood your question.
@ucbalumnus is a very active poster on CC and has mentioned several universities repeatedly. I wondered what it was about AAMU that made you ask why AAMU was mentioned more than once.
I guess I’ll leave it to UCBAlumnus to answer the question you asked.
@EconPop - If you reread my post, you’ll note that I didn’t ask a question, so it does not need an answer. I simply made an observation. Please don’t twist my words. Have a nice day.
As an aside, a quick search shows that the school has been mentioned by ucb several times over the years. Just hadn’t noticed until recently when he mentioned it in a few different threads so it caught my eye.
Here is your previous thread about the same topic. Did you look at any of the suggestions in that thread?
In that one, I suggested Flagler in Florida. Your DD might get merit aid there, and that with the Direct Loan might bring it to your price point.
York in PA was also mentioned as were several other colleges. If you haven’t checked those out, do.
I suggested Eastern Connecticut State University in that other thread. It’s very possible this could be affordable. She won’t know unless she applies.
Because, for some students (including this one), the scholarship opportunities are better than the usual forum favorites UAH and UA(T).
The funny thing is that most posters who respond to “looking for big merit scholarship” threads mention only the HWCUs like UAH and UA(T) but ignore the HBCUs like AAMU and Tuskegee as if they do not exist. Regarding fit, it seems that this appears to be questioned much more with HBCUs than with HWCUs.
The reality is, if $$ is the primary drivig force, “fit” may be a luxury that the student can’t “afford”. That said, if a student is unlikely to enjoy their campus experience, they may be less inc,lined to stick with it.
In theory, wouldn’t a student able to work 20 hours per week during college be able to do so at any college, not just a community college? If so, then such working could help pay for school while the student attends a four year school as well.
@ucbalumnus I think the point is…a community college costs less to self fund. Having a job, and saving money for the last two years would be more likely if the first two years were less costly.
In this case…a CT community college is almost half the tuition cost of say Eastern Ct State University.
This parent had $15,000. The kid can take the $5500 Direct Loan. Plus maybe $2000 from school year and summer earnings before college starts. So that’s $22,500. If the kid gets a $5000 merit award from Eastern, the costs to attend there including the dorm would be covered.
And some community colleges offer night classes to attract non-traditional students. This might make daytime job opportunities more available to the student.
However, research shows that working more than 15 hours a week significantly impacts grades. (No impact for 8-12 hours/week). 20 hours a week + FT college doesn’t seem doable.
Is she recruitable (ie., Could get a partial athletic scholarship at a D2)?