Yes, her father’s, but according to OP, the account currently names her as the beneficiary.
I wouldn’t waste time with adding an application to RIT. They don’t guarantee to meet full need and are a profile school. They won’t be affordable for you.
? I’m a white female pursuing Engineering/Physics. I’m in the top 2, from a public school in the northeast, with a 32 ACT<<<
There isn’t any point in the reachy schools, what are the safeties? What are the exact offers from these schools? What is the AES COA number at UH for e.g.?
RIT is a FAFSA school and i thought might have merit. However, it’s RD deadline was 1/15.
https://www.rit.edu/admissions/aid
You can check a list of all PROFILE schools here
https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatingInstitutions.aspx
RIT might be a target for grad school.
I am so, so impressed with this OP!
For engineering, go to your most affordable college. Get an engineering degree. Apply to graduate school. Maybe you can get it sponsored!
Don’t be to concerned with the name of the college. If you want to be an engineer then become one… Make it happen.
Find out if any of these schools have a co-op program. Then maybe do them. Some schools have one semester on and one off or several semesters in coop then back to school. Why?! You get paid during the coop periods. It’s real money and usually decent and can be used for your college expenses. Much better then taking out loans, right?
Also if you get internships they are usually paid ones also.
I have no understanding of how a high school student has 70 college credits but that would make you a junior at lots of schools.
So… How many classes can you place out of? Can you actually start as a sophomore? Any semesters/classes you don’t need or have to take will save you money. This might not be ideal for everyone but getting college to be more affordable for you is the key here.
Also your step-dad has a few kids in college. Of course he doesn’t have any money for you. Can’t blame him especially on a military salary.
Any clue what your bio dad makes?
If he saved $50,000 for you for college, you should be thanking him. Hopefully you have a good relationship. It’s a lot of money for one kid. No one, and I mean no one, expected college to be this expensive when you were born… Trust me on this.
I am getting lost with the numbers but it seems you can make this work. Even if you have to commute to college to save money. Remember what your goals is. It’s to become “x”. You might have to give up somethings to make it happen.
There is nothing in law that says you can’t have a heart to heart with your bio dad. Forget what the divorce decree says. It’s meaningless. Maybe if you can get close enough to your college goal maybe he can find away to make it work. If you have all the numbers plus work study or a job plus maybe you taking out the loans plus what your mom can give you… Is grandma still alive?.. Maybe she has some money that can help?
While in college, look into any scholarships especially department ones. Someone has to get them. Might as well be you…right?
Talk to churches etc that you might be part of. Does your dad’s work have student scholarships? Many unions/companies do. Look into those.
See if your high school has any suggestions also.
Again, highly impressed your doing this yourself.
70 college credits<<<<<
The credit part is only relevant to credits that are counted at the 4 yr school. This is a real incentive to be instate but OP really needs to look at the 4 yr progression for engineering, and how helpful those 70 credits are. OOS schools may not look at anything other than the APs and only then at the right score. If OP has a slew of 5s in BC calc, physics C, chem, etc, then these do help. DEs in multiple SS or English etc overlap and are not so helpful. Junior standing might not really mean much when you still have to follow the progression.
@Sybylla I looked at the progression for CCSU and a lot of mine count towards the engineering major. I have DiffEq, Calc III, BC, Physics C, etc. Also, a lot of the reaches I applied to superscored it to a 34. I got a 27 the first time in reading with 35 E, 34 M, 33 Science , but then it went up without studying to a 33 the next one.
I’ve been looking into schools that will accept the credit. It definitely will be easier in-state because a lot is from CCSU, but I also have credits from the University of Hartford which may be easier to transfer.
SMU - 39,000/year. But tuition plus room and board is about 71,000
UHouston - 10,000/year with engineering scholarhsip and in-state waver, so about 9,000 including room and board
CCSU - about 7500/year, so 2,000 and I could commute
For all of them except SMU, I subtracted the scholarship with the tuition.
@knowstuff A lot of my credits should put me in a pretty good place as an engineering major. Esp since I will already have DE, Calc I, Calc II, and Calc III done.
So SMU is unaffordable and out.
I don’t understand total costs at UHouston…are you saying it would be net COA (total COA minus scholarships) of $19K per year?
So for total budget first year do you have $22K?.. $4K ($2k from each parent), plus $12,500 (1/4 of your 529), plus Federal Direct Student Loan ($5,500 frosh year, then $6,500/$7,500/$7,500)?
You do need to confirm with your mom that FAFSA and Profile are correct (includes step dad financials, and child support). Then the 529 has to be removed as a student asset. If your step dad financials and child support were included, removing the 529 as a student asset will lower your EFC.
Lastly, you will still need to deal with the 529K being held by your bio dad (the non custodial parent). Distributions will be non-taxable income to you and consequently would affect your aid (decrease it, maybe significantly) in junior and senior years. Two options include changing the custodian, or not taking any distributions until January of your soph year which, assuming you graduate in 4 years, wouldn’t affect your aid in junior or senior years…but with no 529 distributions, your budget will be lower for your first 3 semesters.
@Mwfan1921 net cost would be about 9,000/year. The only thing is I’d rather not go there b/c we had an issue with a scholarship deadline, and at this point, I’d rather go to CCSU or UConn.
My ideal budget would be the 16,500k with the 4,000 contribution; I really don’t want loans unless absolutely necessary. Though, I probably could get my parents to contribute more than 2,000/year each (at least my mom, maybe not my dad). So maybe 18,500.
I’ll definitely talk to my parents to figure out how the 529 works out.
Makes sense.
Ok…but have the money talk with them sooner rather than later. And you should be able to make $2K-$4K working this summer if you get a job, and $1K-$2K during the school year.
First is to fix FAFSA and Profile…if the 529 being reported as a student asset is the only mistake, your EFC is artificially high and is impacting/will impact your fin aid packages.
Once FAFSA and Profile are accurate, then deal with the 529 custodian issue.
Out of state tuition is very reasonable at SUNY schools. My son was accepted into MechEng at SUNY Polytech with a $7000/yr merit scholarship. That brings OOS tuition down to $10K. I believe that merit aid at SUNY Poly is automatic if your grades/test scores are above a certain level. For the $7K award, it was 1100 SAT/22 ACT and 88 GPA. Also UMass Lowell (which is primarily a STEM school) offers reduced tuition to New England residents. Congrats on getting into some excellent schools but you can still get a great education at a lower-priced school. Sounds like you are hard-working and ambitious – you will do well anywhere. Best of luck!
OP- nobody wants loans. But you need to be realistic-- and some moderate borrowing may be what’s required in order to thread the needle here.
Did you look at U Maine? I don’t know the mechanics of how the “We want to attract CT residents” program works but it’s worth five minutes on their website to check it out.
If your ultimate goal is astrophysics, are you sure you want to start in engineering? A physics major as an undergrad might be more forgiving of the progression and might “count” more of your credits…
@h8annah. Just because you have like all the calcs done doesn’t mean they will give you the credit automatically. I know of people that had math through Calc 3 and the engineering school wanted them to start at Calc 1. Even getting all As in those classes… So really make sure. Also some engineering schools will only take AP classes that you got a 5 in. Then of course most schools will limit the top amount of credit they will give you from any source, especially in engineering or stem fields. Lastly there is a progression they want you to stick with up to a point. My Junior son is taking most of his senior courses now then swamping some others in senior year. So I guess there is some flexibility depending on schools.
Again, your most affordable option. Sure if it’s close and you can swing going away then great. As you do this research see where kids are getting jobs in your said field after 4 years. There is no stopping you getting a job and having the job pay for graduate school… Right. I know little about your field but just something to look into. Most PhD programs, they will pay for you to go there. Not sure if they do this with Master programs in your field.
Well, you got tons of great advice. Something tells me your going to figure this out
BTW - the reason I say have a talk now with dad or if grandma is still alive, sometimes especially with grandparents they will set aside money in their will for their grandchildren. But you need the money now. It might also make them happy to see you do something with it now like college. Hope I am not overreaching here.
Did you apply to University of Hartford? Their engineering program is good. You might get sufficient merit aid to bring your cost to affordable especially if you can commute. They allow co-op which is an advantage as well.
The fafsa must be fixed, but there is no guarantee these schools listed will increase need based aid because they don’t guarantee to meet full need anyway.
Agreed, but OP is awaiting admission decisions at some reaches which do meet full need.
So you must have a body double. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1353153-aerospace-engineering-or-astrophysics-college-application.html
This “might” be helpful and it’s like your exact situation. I didn’t read the whole thread… I am in the group of doing engineering till you prove you don’t want to. It’s usually hard to transfer into. Easy to transfer out of. Better chance to get a job. Might be able do to graduate work in astrophysics. The combination to me would be ideal. If you decide not to do a PhD program (just like my daughter did after visiting a program) you will have an extremely employable job. Plus more likely to get a paid internship that can help pay for your schooling. No one said, you couldn’t take out loans then pay them back with your internship money, right?
This thread both breaks my heart and makes me angry at this entire system. When i hear GC’s at HS tell parents and kids that kids need to take ownership of this procedure i want to scream. Kids should be responsible for doing well in school and filling out the applications/essays to the best of their ability. Any and ALL financial documents/conversations with FA offices, etc should be handled by the parents. This is a business and the schools eyes light up when they deal with 18yr olds vs. parents. No child should be making a $250K + life-changing decision on their own. I want my kids to understand finances and they do within their universe and we converse frequently as we travel through this screwy system; however, they shouldn’t be put in a position of dealing with seasoned FA negotiators–that’s a parents responsibility. I feel for the OP as this is obviously a special situation and she’s doing a remarkable job, but for those parents who purposely stand on the sidelines regarding this issue, i just feel that’s so wrong. Sorry for that somewhat tangential vent!
When it comes time to making a decision, if the amount of credits that will transfer is important to you, then I would double/triple check this with your top school choices. For example, you mentioned Rice somewhere in this thread. My D is a freshmen engineering student there. While her AP credits are helping her get out of some classes, it’s not making a HUGE difference overall. I mean, kids are not coming into Rice and graduating in 2 years with an engineering degree due to AP credits. Those who do graduate early work their butts off to do so. You may get credit for a class but sometimes the AP credits don’t satisfy certain requirements they have. Like you might get credit for AP Chem and get out of Gen Chem as a freshman, but those credits don’t take the place of an actual class and might not satisfy a needed science requirement so you need to take another class instead. I think most kids with AP credits coming in just end up graduating with a lot more credits than they need.
And then there is the whole issue around coming in as a freshman and jumping into junior and senior level classes. At some schools this is doable. At others it will be a serious challenge. My D took Calc 3 dual enrollment at a local large university her senior year and then took it again at Rice. Even though she basically knew the concepts coming in the class at Rice was significantly (very significantly) harder.
I know this got a little off topic and I wouldn’t stress about transfer/AP credits now, but if it’s a big factor for you when you make your final decision I would be sure to ask lots of questions to be sure you understand how they are handled.
^^^^this. Math is much harder in college as most subjects are. My son had APs etc and can graduate semester early if he chooses. But there are just so many cool classes and opportunities that getting a minor is something that will keep him there longer…
Not all of the $12,500 of the dad’s 529 distribution would count against FAFSA EFC as dependent student untaxed income.
There would be about a $7,000-7,200 income protection allowance then the rest would be assessed at 50%.
This income protection allowance seems to go up by about 2% every year ($6,600 for 2019/20 FAFSA and $6,800 for 2020/21).
The money he would give you in 2020 wouldn’t be reported until the 2022/23 FAFSA.
It might increase your FAFSA EFC by about $2,500, that might not matter for need based aid purposes depending on the FAFSA EFC you have already, based on mom’s and stepdad’s income and assets.
Since you are looking at public schools (with merit), that increase in FAFSA EFC might not result in any aid decrease.