Merit/Scholarship/Grant Potential: Can you get more money, and when...

I am really sorry to hear of all your troubles. Your D is clearly a wonderful student. Unfortunately, you have to face the truth. Without her and you going into a lot of debt, your options are limited. I know your child has worked hard and deserves a great college experience, but the idealized vision might not be possible.

I think you need to consider a gap year seriously. It will give her enough time to apply to the automatic full tuition colleges. She can spend a year working and saving, because it seems likely she will have to have at least some student loans. She also should consider community college. What med schools want to see are high grades and high MCAT scores. Most seasoned posters will tell you that undergrad doesn’t matter too much for med school. It’s getting high grades that is important.

I attended CC, and many people do. I enjoyed my college years, even if I didn’t have a traditional college experience. I think your daughter should visit the local CC. She may be pleasantly surprised by the range of classes offered. Some CC are quite collegiate in atmosphere. There are clubs, opportunties to do sports, and of course she will meet new people.

She might want to consider taking the ACT the again to get an even higher score. Maybe she can get a full ride if her score is higher. There aren’t that many full ride scholarships around, so she might have to wait a year and reapply.

I haven’t seen @mom2collegekids here yet, but she is the guru on these matters. Maybe she can weigh in. I think you might want to have a frank discussion with your D about the possibility that college may not happen this year. Best wishes going forward.