Match Me for Africana Studies! Florida Resident, 3.8 UW, Test optional, lack of spike

You have a very serious issue. Your parents won’t pay for college, and the maximum federal loan that you can take without them cosigning, is still going to leave you 14k to 27K/yr short, if the NPC is correct.

Your stats are nice, but so are many other students’, and it’s looking as if schools are looking with disfavor upon test-optional, this far out from the pandemic. Maybe you should see what you can do about a standardized test score.

Have you considered the HBCUs?

If you cannot close the gap with private scholarships, you may need to consider the “dash through community college from home with transfer to nearest public 4 yr college for the last two years, or to UFlorida for the last two years” plan. Here’s how it works:

You get a part time job, now, and continue working part time all the way through school. Save like crazy.

You take all the APs, and dual enrollments that you can, along with all the CLEP classes that your community college will accept. Look at modernstates.org for free online lectures/classes and free vouchers for CLEP exams. The goal is to enter the community college with a ton of credit, maybe even as much as two years’ worth.

You start community college in the summer of '24, taking the 5500 federal loan for the '23-'24 year. You take another 5500 for the '24-25 year. You take as many classes as you can handle, summer, fall, spring, summer. You now have likely got your associates, and transfer to the 4 yr college via the transfer agreement to start as a junior there in fall of '25.

You borrow 7500/yr for the next two years at U Florida, working a small part time job, much longer hours during winter/spring break, and summer break. You graduate in May '27 with your degree and 27K in federal loans; less if you were able to live at home and commute to a FL public 4 yr college.

Unless your parents are willing to cosign loans for you, you really are not going to have any other options, unless you can get massive private scholarship money. The issue is that they make enough that colleges expect you to pay 80-120K for your education, but your parents have told you that they will not pay, and the most that you can borrow in your own name is 27K, total over 4 yrs.

The rest of it is all pie in the sky, because no matter where you get in, if your parents won’t help you pay or cosign loans, you don’t have the money to go.