Is she interested in any engineering discipline? Computer science?
Oh i see now…the “DD doesn’t want a directional school” comment was edited into the OP.
ETA…there are plenty of very smart students at directional schools for many reasons. As college costs have increased, these schools have become the affordable option and yes…even for smart and motivated students. Your daughter is wrong in her thinking that there won’t be smart students there.
There are also smart students at Community Colleges!
I’m going to be very frank. At this point, this student has $5000 parent contribution, $5500 loan that’s $10,500. That won’t even cover room and board at most places. Any money the student earns would likely be needed for books and discretionary spending…with maybe $1000 or so left towards billable college costs.
It sounds like your family has had recent significant job loss/disability issues. Your whole family is affected by these. You parents have needed to adjust your financial picture. The schools might consider this when computing your need based aid. I feel like this comment (which i have made several times) is being ignored. Contact the colleges and find out their process for a special circumstances consideration. Maybe that will help you.
Your daughter is a member of this family. She may need to adjust her expectations as well.
If it looks like things will turn around in a year or so, consider having her take a GAP year.
@mom2collegekids there is NO University of Ohio. There is the Ohio State University in Columbus, and Ohio University in Athens. Which do you mean?
NC State has some full ride (or full tuition?) scholarships, but they are quite competitive. I would still have this student apply. I would check out some of the other NC schools…UNC-W, UNC-A, etc.
OP…your daughter doesn’t want a directional school, but these are the schools that may give her the money she needs. Smart kids ARE at directional schools for similar reasons as your daughter. Keep in mind that students with much, much higher stats …and very strong applications …often apply to flagships…these are the kids who get big awards (if there are any to be given). Having said this, there may be less “popular” flagships out there that would possibly be very generous to your daughter…I would do some research on them. I don’t mean to be blunt…it’s not in my nature…but somebody with your daughter’s stats (which are very good but not superior) and who also needs a full ride…has to lower her expectations and be realistic. That being said, I would throw in an application or 2 (if you have the money) to some of the well known flagships and see what happens. It won’t be easy…a lot of students who are at the very top of their HS class also apply to these schools.
Your daughter might try looking at schools that meet full need…I agree that you might want to call a few of these schools and explain your situation…it can’t hurt (many of these schools may be an academic reach). Of course we don’t know your entire financial picture…savings etc.
NC State was surprisingly generous to an OOS friend of mine with FAR LOWER stats and a much higher income ($130k). So I would throw an app that way.
I think there needs to be a “come to Jesus” meeting with the daughter where the cards are all laid out. She doesn’t seem to know/grasp the family’s financial situation. Or perhaps she thinks it’s all very temporary? If the family’s reduced income is “the new reality” for this family, then she needs to know that. That will help her understand TWO things:
- the family can’t pay much
- the family can’t take on or cosign loans
She also needs to know that SHE can only borrow $5500 on her own. Put it into HER lap that she would need to:
- start working part-time NOW to earn/save money towards college.
- have a job which will allow her to go from part-time during school year to full time during summer. Target? Waitress?
- get a job which allows easy transfers if college is elsewhere …Target does this.
- get a job that helps pay for college! (Target gives a few thousand each year, Home Depot, Lowes, AT&T, UPS, and more help pay for college.). I would get a job now at Target, quickly qualify for tuition help, work part time now, full time in summer, transfer to the Target near the college…and then repeat.
- apply for local community scholarships. They tend to award students like your daughter…good students with modest incomes.
- apply to at least 3 schools with huge assured merit, 3 schools where she’d likely be awarded huge merit, and a few generous full need schools.
While this is true, this high stats student needs to grab the huge merit as an incoming frosh. As a CC transfer, she probably couldn’t afford to transfer to any school other than one she could commute to.
There are schools that will award huge merit for her stats.
She could try UT Dallas. She would probably receive $3000/semester which would give her in state tuition leaving a total of about $18,000 which I know is too high but if she applied soon there is a possibility that she would receive full tuition plus $1000/semester which would lower her costs to $9,000. It could be worth the $50 application fee.
This may have been a huge shift in momentum and direction for your daughter. I’m sorry about this turn in life. It hurts , I know and now you have the other fall out from it.
Whether your daughter accepts the new cards on her table is entirely up to her. As others have said, one can give it a try to apply for financial aid, given the new situation with disability. I think it’s worth a try. But it still might not yield enough money even if your DD gets accepted to one of the most generous “ meets all need” schools. Happens all of the time and, yes, can happen here. Those schools also tend to be highly selective and getting accepted to one is no sure thing either. Merit money in the amounts you are seeking are truly lottery tickets , especially at those schools where even getting accepted has single digit chances.
Not sayin, “Don’t try”. Do. But it’s pretty danger clear, that some contingency plans also need to be put into place or she won’t have any options next year. That’s the flat out truth of the matter
If she refuses to include any likely schools that are affordable because she feels they are beneath her, so be it. They are HER applications. I’d explain the situation AGAIN(I’m sure you have already) without rancor , put it in writing even. Then drop it. No sense ruing your relationship with her nagging and fighting about this. You can refer to the email or letter of subject comes up. The funds are limited to $10-1kk including her loans. If she can get more through scholarship, if Fin aid pans out , fine. But if she doesn’t pursue schools that are real possibilities at that price points because they are not up to her standards, that’s a big time option she is eliminating and she may pay the consequences of not availing herself of that route
So she does as she pleases in the college app process and if none of her acceptances are affordable, she can’t go. She has to find another plan. Do a gap year and reapply. Go to a local college, possibly community college and commute. Find a job and start saving money. Work for Starbucks and start taking Courses at ASU ( or UArizona) on line. She will have still have choices. Just not the ones she eliminated by not applying to schools more likely to accept her, and let her go tuition free. She may have to live this choice before reconsidering, or … not. Enjoy what you can if this year regardless. This is not a life or death situation. Many kids take a gap year after high school.
As an aside here, check out Soka University in CA Something very unusual and different. They may take extra consideration in financial aid.
I’d suggest a look at Truman State, but I don’t know if the costs can be brought down low enough.
As suggested above, UTD might work. I know kids with similar stats who received full tuition scholarships. This is a very good school for certain majors plus Dallas offers lots of opportunities.
What’s your FAFSA EFC?
The EFC formula for 2020/21 uses 2018 income.
https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/2021EFCFormulaGuide.html
Try the formula and see what the FAFSA EFC will be.
Your D has very good stats, I would think a 95 is about a 3.7-3.8 GPA.
But she needs to face reality.
Pitt and Penn State main cost $30,000 (for tuition, fees, room and board), their branches cost about $24,000, the PASSHE schools are around the same cost.
It is difficult for PA students to get merit, let alone full tuition at Pitt or Penn State. The branches might be more likely for merit, as are the PASSHE schools. Temple stopped their auto merit, but she might qualify for a good amount. She could apply to Cook honors college at IUP.
Privates are only affordable with need based and merit aid.
Lycoming, Susquehanna might be affordable.
Run some net price calculators.
Some of the Ohio publics are good bargains for students in neighboring states, especially Western PA residents within their service area.
For example, Youngstown State: "Undergraduate students who are legal residents of the University-defined “regional service area” (which includes the counties of Chautauqua, NY; Armstrong, Clarion, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Indiana, Jefferson, Warren, PA; and Brooke, Hancock, Marshall, and Ohio, WV) pay a lesser surcharge than do students who are legal residents of other areas.
A further reduced surcharge is assessed to undergraduate students who are legal residents of the PA counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence, Mercer, Venango, Washington, and Westmoreland. These counties are considered to be within the “Western PA Regional Area.” https://ysu.edu/university-bursar/faqs/tuition-fee
And most have plenty of merit scholarships, both automatic and competitive.
How soon is “soon”? Does it make a big difference when you apply? I mean when you are close to November 1st anyways?
Temple stopped auto merit? So now they apply it only sparingly, at their discretion you mean?
It appears that this student qualifies for full OOS tuition at the U of Kentucky. The scholarship is competitive…not automatic…but is worth investigating.
Some schools are rolling admission, while others are not. I would apply now.
“Soon” for many schools means right now or as soon as possible. Schools such as Pitt have rolling admissions and students who apply first have the best chance for merit. Yes, merit at Temple is no longer automatic.
well, I have narrowed the preliminary search of colleges to 2. Preliminary meaning that the outlook on tuition is not bad even before scholarship awards that may, or may not come. West Chester University is within our commuter distance and it is reasonably priced and may be can give some merit on top. If I don’t have to pay for dorm, I could carry the tuition, I hope-with her working as well. The university also seems to be a decent choice, from what I hear from alumni and students. The other choice is Rowan University in NJ, which if I move there next year would give her merit the first year, and state tuition the second, hopefully. And the tuition is affordable somehow, without the dorm cost. We cannot hope for federal aid, since my divorced husband still lives in the same house as us, because he cannot afford to move out with his new salary, cut in half, and supporting us at the same time. But of course she has to apply to other institutions, just in case there would be a substantial grant coming. I do not see her moving out of state due to dorm and living cost increase plus the cost of commuting home, which I understand she has to do at least once in a while-we have to see each other sometime. But any other advice is appreciated.
Ok, I will prompt her.
Yes, Temple no longer gives out automatic merit money. You have to apply and they decide how much to award if any, like most schools do.
The problem here is primarily that the OP’s daughter does not want most of the schools that will be affordable with a high chance of getting money. Eliminating directional universities, and I’m wondering if little known non selective colleges are included in that bunch, eliminates nearly all the free tuition schools. Though her grades and test scores are excellent, the competition for large merit money is fierce and We don’t look at that as any sure thing even for kids with much higher stats and hooks.
So , she can give it a whirl with her limitations and see what happens. She may end up without an affordable choice.
Temple used to have automatic full tuition scholarships for stats, but too many such scholarship students enrolled, resulting in a budget crisis. Now, any large scholarships Temple has are competitive.
If your daughter goes to West Chester or another Pennsylvania school, she may be eligible for a state (PHEAA) grant, even if she isn’t eligible for a Pell grant. Also, with her stats, she may get merit aid from West Chester and could apply to the honors program. Check Rowan’s residency policy carefully. At some, schools, a student that starts as an out of state student remains an out of state student, even if the parent(s) move(s) to that state. At the least, it may require that you live in New Jersey for a full year before your daughter would be considered instate for tuition purposes. I know the PASSHE schools sometimes get a bad rap, but West Chester is probably the best of them, and has many very capable students whose families who can’t afford the state-related schools (Penn State, Pitt, Temple).
Too late to edit again. Should say “whose families can’t afford”