Being in the Corps at Texas A&M does not require a military commitment, necessarily. There is a civilian option for Corps members. Now, maybe there is less scholarship money involved. I don’t know that part of the equation.
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Hi, @kindamediocre - I’m sorry that you are dealing with the double-uncertainty of the volatility of the overall situation with the pandemic and higher ed, and a lack of clarity as to what your parents can/will pay for your education. It’s really good, though, that you are starting to address the situation before you even start your junior year. I hope that your parents, even though they’re not ready to be transparent with you, are taking your questions to heart and starting to figure out how they can support you. It sounds as if they have high expectations college-wise; hopefully they will take in the fact that some level of financial backing will be essential to realizing those expectations. As others have said, if your dad’s income has jumped recently, hopefully a lot of that increment can be earmarked for your education.
However, when it comes to your own planning, you’re unfortunately going to need to prepare for the worst as well as hoping for the best.
The fact that you could commute to UTD is really helpful in this regard. You also did very well on the PSAT as a sophomore. Make it a priority to do as well as possible again this year, as making NMSF will make UTD as affordable as community college and thus take the CC debate off the table - plus, it may open up other merit options.
I don’t quite understand how your GPA maps onto a traditional 4-point UW/ 5-point weighted one; you’ll want to make that conversion in order to gauge where you stand relative to admitted student stats at various colleges.
Basically, you need to do some tiered planning. You need a strategy for the minimum level of funding (surely it won’t be zero but it could easily be limiting). It doesn’t sound as if you’ll have difficulty getting in at UTD… how about computing the projected costs as a commuter student, without NMF merit, and ask your parents whether they can commit to this baseline as an absolute minimum. If they want you to go to college and reject the idea of community college, surely this should be a reasonable starting point as a minimum investment. If you get additional merit money, great; but for now, the assurance that they would cover your EFC as a commuter to UTD would at least set an appropriate “floor” in terms of parental contribution. (The good news is that UTD is a very good school that would prepare you well in any of your fields of interest. And there’s a lot to be said for staying within the Texas public system, if med school is your goal.)
Schools like NYU need to go in the “pipe dream” tier, unfortunately. This is one of the most notoriously unaffordable private universities in the country. Also, OOS public U’s like Stony Brook that don’t offer significant merit incentives to non-residents are probably not going to be workable either. (You might consider U of Utah - Salt Lake City could be a great change of scene, and Utah allows students to establish residency and pay in-state rates after the first year; this combined with merit and the appeal of the Honors College could create a nice OOS option for you. FWIW, UofU made a list of the top 25 LGBT-friendly campuses, a few years ago. BUT, consider carefully whether you’d want to give up your TX residency which could be your ticket to an affordable med school.) Also forget Hawaii, sorry.
There should be an “If I get NMSF” tier, to include ASU Barrett and UCF, as well as UTD and probably others I’m not thinking of off the top of my head.
From there, look for schools that are either affordable at sticker-price-minus-auto-merit (Truman State in MO, for example… Miami of OH… Minnesota-Morris… UA/UAH… possibly New College of FL) or that have the potential to offer significant merit that isn’t guaranteed ahead of time (the Colleges That Change Lives list of schools is a good place to start - check out Rhodes which is urban and great for premed as one example).
You’re just going to need to keep things fluid and surf the uncertainties of the next couple years, keeping a few financial safety options in play and exploring other options as you gain clarity about the money situation about the credentials you will bring the the application process. It’s hard to hold a range of possible futures in your head but that’s what your situation (and frankly often life in general) calls for. Try to maintain as much equanimity as you can and get your proverbial ducks in a row - you’re doing great to be starting this early, and I’m optimistic that you’ll end up with good options if you do your research and plan realistically.
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It’s first and foremost your responsibility to pay for college. Parental income can be unreliable, because layoffs and business failures are becoming more common these days. There are plenty of opportunities for scholarships, especially in Texas. That would solve the problem, and let your parents save for retirement. It’s a win-win.
Regardless if someone went to college or not, people seeing that you have lots of material things like cars, houses, kids, vacations, etc does not mean that behind closed doors the income that they make they can actually AFFORD THOSE THINGS! We all know everyone wants to keep up with their peers to the extent of going into overwhelming debt to pay for those things with money they don’t have - AKA spend more than you earn!
If you cant afford a 4 year college, go to a community college first or look into getting a union job or working for a couple of years after HS to save some money. Unfortunately it sounds like barring extenuating expenses like health, job loss or disaster, your parents who seem to have a very good income, didn’t care or were selfish and spent all their money on today rather than saving for tomorrow (they probably dont have a safety net fund for themselves either). Great but sad lesson on how not to manage your future finances.
Wondering what the OP thinks about these responses. I feel like we are all talking to ourselves!
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