@ItsJustSchool My mom attended Community college but when I did the NPC the Odyssey scholarship showed up. Does community college not count?
I am not an expert, but I believe that attendance with anticipation of a 4-year degree is what they are looking for here. Check with the financial aid office to be sure. Also, ask about your dad & step-dad and how their status is treated.
Thousands of people from India and China come here to school every year and almost none of them have a car. QED, a car is not necessary.
IPFW isn’t ideal, but getting the degree is the main thing, and that may be a way.
If it were me, I’d yield on the CS/Engineering front then minor in math. I think Ferris has a computational mathematics program, I know USI (Southern Indiana) has both, and a double major might just be possible there.
When spouse and I were looking for our first house, one of us kept pushing toward more and more expensive houses; the other toward more and more modest houses. We reached a point where we had to sit and talk, then we realized we each were trying to pull the other toward the middle. This seems similar in some ways.
So, as a parent of a very talented student and a lifelong IPFW fan (Good D1 basketball and volleyball) I can attest that it is a quality place to go. I would have been very OK if he had chosen the Mastodons.
I can also tell you that IUPUI is a class place to go to school nowadays. It’s booming! My son chose it over Bloomington for the Kelley School and Honors program. (He made the right choice).
Excellent Engineering track with a Purdue degree.
Both are cool, comfortable, and good places to go to school. Very good academics too.
You do NOT need a car at a 4-year college. I went to IU-Bloomington and did not need one - there will be plenty of other students for ride-sharing, and there is also the “Hoosier Bus” that stops at different state schools, for going home.
IU-Bloomington has a campus-wide and city bus system; and so does Ball State in Muncie. I believe Indiana State, in Terre Haute does, too. I would bet Lafayette and Purdue does, as well as the other IU/Purdue campuses.
Save the car money (and insurance money, and gas money…) and use it toward college expenses, no matter where you go. Most of these college towns are small enough where a bicycle would also get you around quickly and easily.
Also look at University of Southern Indiana. They have residence halls. A family member just applied there this past year, with a 3.75 and less than 30 ACT, and they offered him a full tuition scholarship.
Also - Bowling Green State in Bowling Green, OH - I plugged in my D’s grades and test scores, which are lower than yours, and her OOS tuition came to only 10k - yours would be less than that, I’m sure.
I still think you should look at Eastern IL and SIU-Carbondale, too - they both seem to be seeking students with high test scores. Western IL may be worth as look as well.
You won’t need a car at any of these places.
Go for the 4-year college, if you can swing it. CC will be fine, too, and you can save some money, but if you can get a merit scholarship for all 4 years, it may end up coming out close to even.
The general wisdom is, incoming freshmen scholarships are often more lucrative than transferring.
Finally - I disagree with others that you should major in Engineering if it is not what you are interested in. Mathematics and/or a hard science can lead to jobs, too.
Here’s the thing - Engineering is not easy, even for many Engineering majors. If you are not interested in Engineering, you may not do well… Try to convince your mother to let you pursue what you are truly interested in, so that you will be more likely to get good grades and finish your degree. this is where a college tour and info session with someone in the department may help…
Or, at least, start in Engineering with the intention of changing your major (unless of course, you decide you love Engineering and want to stay there, but I’m not seeing this happening from reading your posts here.)
@BeeDAre I’ve just never been a tinkerer or felt a desire to build things or learn the intricacies of how things work and work as a whole.
Stuff like building a trebuchet or designing a bridge or drawing a schematic has just never interested me. I’m not a very hands-on type of person. I’ve had an interest in Nuclear Engineering, but mostly the physics and chemistry behind it is what interested me.
@burgerMan1 A lot of math kids are going into computer science these days. That could be a potential fit too. When you are strong at math and science, you will have a lot of options.
If your choice is to go where you want and study what you want, it sounds like you’ll be allowed to pay for all of it. While wonderfully satisfying, this has the disadvantage of being monumentally difficult.
I second the idea of CS, particularly with a math minor, as a compromise solution.
I don’t think she’s going to overview my major that strictly.
I have a fear that LA Tech will be bad if I don’t go into engineering. Reading student reviews, they seem to strongly reinforce this and it scares me.
@BurgerMan1 your parents are divorced.the net price calculators will not be accurate…at all.
The students I knew who felt they needed cars were education majors who need to drive to schools for student teaching. My cousin just convinced her dad she needed a car to shadow doctors for pre-med, but I am skeptical.
@thumper1 They never married and my father didn’t contribute to my life in the slightest. I was, as my mother puts it, “the greatest accident of all time”.
At some schools, by the time you meet the CS requirements for Calculus, discrete math, linear algebra, and stats, you almost have a math minor done.
Can someone comment on how much documentation is required for an absent father? OP, it may require effort on your part to prove his absence. Is your father listed on your birth certificate? Has he ever lived with your mom or ever given you or your mom any support, money or a place to live?
Sorry, but my idea is the same as your mother’s: “Her idea of college education is going to the nearby state university, studying a “career major” (not sure what the real term is) like Accounting and Engineering or trade school, getting a job, end of story.” What is wrong with this idea? In addition, better yet, if you go for free because of Merit scholarships. This approach will make a College application very smooth and enjoyable and could make a future Grad. school application also smooth and enjoyable.
It takes research, but if you find the college where you can have a tuition free education, then parents only need to provide support for your living expenses, unless you find a free ride place.
There is no reason in a world to struggle with the locked door if you can walk into the one that is wide opened.
Best wishes!
@MiamiDAP The main problem is that there’s no local state schools that are free or affordable. In fact there’s no state schools in my home state that I can afford for sure.
I also don’t want to study Accounting or anything like it nor Engineering and I don’t want to go to a vocational school.
OP, not all engineers tinker and build things. If you are more interested in the pure math and science aspects, may I suggest that you look into Applied Math, Industrial Engineering and Engineering Science (aka Engineering Physics)? And of course, Computer Science as others suggested. Maybe it’s possible for you to find or design a program that’s more palatable to your mom, and still of interest to you.
Also, have you talked to a National Guard recruiter about their college benefits?
Engineering and Business are often competitive to enter into the programs, so it may be to OP’s advanatage to NOT declare for these majors right away - and that would also be a good excuse to give to Mom, as to why he hasn’t declared for those yet…
OP could go in undecided his first year, then declare his major for whatever he wanted. Also - if OP decided to major in mathematics or science, how is his mother to even know what his major is, unless OP tells her?
She won’t be at school with him, and I don’t think one’s major is stated on report cards, etc.
OP, it’s really unfortunate that your mother cannot be reasonable about this, and you cannot have a productive conversation with her about finances, academics, etc.
Have you made an appointment to talk with your counselor, with her and step-dad along?
@MiamiDAP, what is wrong with that scenario is that OP does not wish to study Engineering or Business or Accounting!
How will he do well in a field he has absolutely no interest in? It would be a waste of money and his time. There are plenty of other fields he can go into, where he can gain employment. Egads, every kid in the US cannot be an engineer, computer scientist, or work on Wall Street!
And the main problem seems to be that, even if he gets full tuition somewhere, he has to pay for room and board, which is going to be at least 8-10k/year, if not more… And books, and supplies…
Most likely scenario is that OP will get partial tuition, and pay around 15k a year. Mom is only giving 5k a year - maybe! - and OP can only borrow 5500k a year - that’s a 5k gap, at least.
OP’s mom and step-dad make 80k, and probably won’t get much financial aid, if any at all.
OP should look into every school within a days’ drive, honestly, where he’d be at the top of the applicant pool, and stand a good chance of getting full tuition. With mom’s 5k, a full-time summer job every year and maybe p/t work during the school year, along with 5k loan taken out by OP - he could make this work.