Will your parents pay for transportation in addition to the $20,000 a year for school? Or does transportation need to be included in that cost?
Well, I do have a car, but I have to pay for gas myself. Also, they do give me allowance of $15/week and they said they’ll keep giving it to me as long as I’m legally not able to get a job (aka as long as we don’t get our green card). Not sure if that’s gonna be enough though. That’s only like $780/year. Also food and ■■■■… I really don’t know how I’m gonna be able to afford life.
One step at a time.
First get an education.
But that’s why we are naming the schools we are.
College is no different than life.
If you can only afford a used Kia, you don’t buy a new BMW or Ferrari, no matter how much you want one.
Or no matter how good a burger 5 guys is, you go to McDonalds if that’s all you can afford.
Nothing wrong with that.
You will find winners and non winners from each and every school out there.
But treat college as any other consumer product - a car, store, meal etc. you go where you can without hurting your situation.
So don’t worry about life. That’s a bit away and you already have some stuff in process to make it better.
Step one is getting ready for applications to definite and possible schools from a $ and cents POV.
You’ve got this.
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Thank you. I do have a bit over 4k saved up (from babysitting, money I got on my birthday, Christmas, etc), so I guess I should be fine for the first couple of months? I’m sure my parents would give me more money if I asked, but I don’t like being needy. Thank you again.
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If you hope to have your parents help you with your schooling…let them help you with medical school…should you get there. You will need all the financial help you can get…otherwise…it’s loans loans and more loans.
True. After reading all the answers to my post, I’ll go to the uni that’s the cheapest.
Go to a university that meets your price point. It might not be the rock bottom price of your acceptances…but go someplace affordable.
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I always hear about UoSC Honors College being the top but I just read this the other day and was surprised that their top is actually Georgia:
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Ha ha - good info.
There’s so many “rankings” out there of various things - and that’s what I was trying to tell OP up top.
Money Magazine has a top 34. Berea College is one - along with Ga Tech, MIT, etc.
The WSJ rates NJIT and RHIT as top 20 - you won’t see that on US News top national schools OP is looking. It rates U Chicago 55, UCLA 76, UNC 83.
What beats those - Utah, Cal State Northridge, La Verne, Marquette.
There’s just so many great schools - there are far more than50 top 50 schools. It just depends who you ask and what methodology they use. But the one that’s most important, the top ranked - is where the student ends up and has a fantabulous experience.
PS - glad to see my daughter’s Honors College make the cut.
I’m sure just like there’s many great colleges, there are Honors too. And OP - Ohio State, Miami, and Ohio U are all on that Honors list!!!
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You should go to the best affordable university, not necessarily the cheapest. Think in terms of best value for you.
The commonapp has 20 slots so that’s the maximum.
Typically students would have 2 safeties, 3-5 matches, and as many reaches as they can write the application for (applications for reaches are more elaborate and take more time) and can afford (some applications are free, some require a fee; the fee can be waived for different reasons, some financial so a GC can check that students meet criteria - you won’t- or for visiting,or other reasons.)
You’ll have to ask 2 teachers, 1 in math or science, one in English, history, or foreign language, to write you a letter of recommendation. To help them, you give them a badly named item called a “bragsheet” - some examples can be found online and if you wish I can give you questions that it needs to address.
All applications will require a personal essay (a story about yourself that shows positive characteristics you want the college to know about). Honors colleges will have another essay. Private colleges typically have one or 2 essays each.
As a result, you should look at the essay topics and start brainstorming (on draft paper - CommonApp will pause at the end of July and will reopen Aug 1. Typically if you open an account and fill out basics like name, address, etc, this rolls over, but essays will need to be entered after August 1. So you have a month to write, edit, rewrite… the topics are already up in Commonapp, you can look and choose 2 topics, see which one works best.
Have you run NPCs with your parents ? This should open their eyes to the cost of college, because it sounds like they’re not unwilling to pay but think 20k is plenty. And if they come from a country where tuition is $250 or even $2,000 a year it probably feels enormous.
You will notice that the costs are divided into direct costs: tuition, fees, room, board - an indirect costs: books, transportation…
Direct costs are paid to the college. Indirect costs are what you pay as you use whatever.
Room is on campus housing and board is food (a meal plan).
In the US, colleges can be commuter (most students live at home or in town) or residential (most students live on campus; usually, the state’s flagship is residential because stusents come from all over the state and top private colleges also since students come from all over the country.) For instance, tOSU requires students to live on campus for 2 years. The main reason is that living on campus (and thus being able to attend study groups or go to the library till 10 or 11pm or midnight… as needed) leads to better academic success and a generally better experience through on campus involvement. ) That’s also because you pay room&board to the college! So, when you look at costs, you need to look at the full net costs, including R&B, unless you commute from home to UCincinnati.
(Federal loans should be removed from the NPC result.)
July 1 is past, so you can look into Ohio public Honors college information.
Go back to the top of this thread, write down all universities mentioned, run the NPC : Which ones are affordable according to the NPC you ran with your parents?
(I’ll add one: Agnes Scott in Atlanta.)
Once we know that information, we can answer your question better.
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You are going to need some spending money, even if you are very frugal. You will want to occasionally go out with friends.
You stated that you saved $4000 from babysitting etc. (that’s great!). That will last you more than just a few months (you indicated that it should last a few months). Your parents are giving you $15 a week in addition to what you saved.
The first step here is finding an affordable school by following the advice given above.
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Given how frequently Alabama and its honors college comes up (and was mentioned multiple times in this thread) I was surprised not to see the school listed in the top 50.
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@not
I’ve been reading the post and have a couple of recommendations that you can take or leave:
-Make a list of 10 schools.
Include your instate schools in Ohio.
Then apply, “for fun”, to 10 other schools that might give you funding. If that includes your list of “ranked” elites include them.
Don’t go over 20 schools because you’re going to have ~20 essays to write. Start pre-writing your essays NOW in the summer. You won’t have time during your academic year to do them, unless your English class will be focused on college essays this term.
When you are admitted, pick the cheapest school that works well for your needs. Then do extremely well at the school.
Strive for perfect grades.
In college the courses go faster and the readings are more intense. Strive for perfect grades. Go to tutoring before you get behind.
Immediately sign up with the pre-health advising team and club on campus.
Start to look for volunteer opportunities that work with the medically indigent populations. Ask your pre-health advising team for suggestions.
If you have your green card, before you finish college, get some work experience working with low income families. If you don’t have your green card, then do some volunteer hours at a community clinic.
The pre-health advising team will give you a range of experiences where their students have been successful in getting into medical school.
Our daughter went in state. She did extremely well at her school. She volunteered thousands of hours at a diabetes clinic with low income farming communities. She took time off to study for a year for her test. She also worked at a local pharmacy to save money.
She got into medical school and actually did well with her applications.
You have to save every penny that you can because medical school is expensive, tough on your body, tough on your financial pocket, and tough on your mental stability. You won’t have time to work another job; your whole life will be in med school -on your feet all day and all night.
Your meals will consist of a water bottle and a protein bar in your lab coat. You’ll have your notation book in one of your lab coat pockets and You must appear presentable, clean, and awake.
Assume about $100,000 a year for med school for four years. All the students are on loans, loans, and more loans. We were fortunate that we saved money when she went in state so we accumulated savings for her medical program.
You won’t start earning an actual livable income until about 10 years out, so plan on paying back your parents in 15 years. Keep the car in good condition because that’s the car you’re going to use for the next 10 to 15 years.
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Even if I were to spend about $100/week on food and gas (basically the only 2 things that I’ll need to pay for from my own money), which I don’t know if it’s possible (?), subtracting the allowance gives me $85/week, so my 4k would last me for like 47 weeks, which isn’t even a year lol
Many schools do not allow freshmen to have cars, and you would be on a meal plan.
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Thank you for all the advice. My car definitely isn’t gonna last the next 10-15 years (it’s from 1998) tho lol
I’ll definitely look into volunteering as soon as I start college. Also, I have a question about med school admissions. So, you know how for undergrad admissions, basically nothing that you did prior to high school counts? Is it the same for med school, but nothing that you did before college counts?
Many universities require freshmen to live on campus and a meal plan, usually around $6000 a year for the plan.
Rightttt, I keep forgetting that schools have meal plans here. I never heard about schools not allowing freshmen to have cars tho…?
It’s somewhat common, I know TCNJ and Montclair state don’t allow freshmen to have cars. Rutgers and UDel do allow it.
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Whether cars are allowed depends on the school.
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