You don’t need a car, sez the professor who has worked on campuses from Illinois to Massachusetts. Many campuses have good shuttle services. Big universities have everything you need, including jobs. Cities, including small cities, have public transportation of varying qualities. When I lived in Troy, NY, I walked around town.
@Madison85 The consensus among this forum is that my parents aren’t low income.
I also am not ranked highly in my class due to my slacking off in Freshman year and I have no documentation proving I have had no contact with my father for all these years.
But Pell grant eligibility isn’t a requirement for Questbridge like it is for Gates Millenium. What is your projected EFC? Maybe spend some time on the Questbridge forum to see if previous winners posted family income or EFC. I vaguely recall seeing someone with $60k-$70k family income getting Questbridge.
I didn’t have a car when attending a rural Midwest university several years ago. Actually, I owned an old flat fendered Jeep that stayed at home. Pretty sure DD won’t have one next year, whether she goes to Alabama, Michigan’s UP, or Cleveland.
It’s a fast way to add several thousand to the cost of attendance.
Edit: correct the auto correct. Surely a modern Juvenal is working on “Quis corrigit corrigiente” or something equally pithy.
@madison85 According to the NPC’s I do qualify for Pell. Does this mean I’m low income?
Pell recipients are generally low income, though could have a non-custodial parent with high income.
Questbridge deadline is September 28.
@Madison85 Alright, I guess I’ll apply. Worth a shot, at the very least.
Applying to questbridge is no different than applying directly to the college as far as qualifying for aid and the calculation of efc, and the need for NCP info for the most part. Ppl who report incomes as high as Madison quotes have hardship situations and 5 or 6 kids. These schools are just generous meets full needs schools. Like Nortre dame and Chicago.
I believe that you can get a waiver so that your father’s information will not be required on your applications. My daughter was able to do exactly that because her father would not speak to her nor see her even though he lived in the same county. He was known to be abusive and was not even permitted to be on the grounds of her high school after threatening an elderly nun in the school office! We had a letter from a family friend, who also happened to be a Presbyterian pastor who had been a privy to the court case and in the document she attested to the situation. The schools understood and as a result, none required anything from her father and accepted only the documentation that I provided.
It’s certainly worth speaking to the schools, especially the OP has not had contact with his birth father in years and there were issues of abuse. No college is going to risk a kid’s life or well being over a financial aid matter.
It is not hard to verify whether or not any of the institutions that use the CSS Profile also require that the non-custodial parent provide financial information. Even then, many of the institutions that do require the NCP information will also award waivers if the student can provide acceptable documentation. In most cases all that would be needed would be a note from the guidance counselor stating that the NCP is not in the student’s life.
If you find out that you will need an NCP waiver, ask that financial aid office what kind of documentation they require. It really, truly, is OK to ask.
@BurgerMan1 - with those stats you would get a Presidential Scholarship (Full Tuition) at Alabama ( http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html ), same at Auburn ( http://auburn.edu/scholarship/undergraduate/freshman.html ), Kentucky has the Singletary Scholars that pays ndergraduate tuition, room and board, stipend, iPad and a one-time $2000 summer abroad stipend ( http://www.uky.edu/Scholars/ ), etc.
If you are a National Achievement Finalist or a National Hispanic Scholar, there are even better deals out there.
@mommdc said “To be independent for FAFSA you have to be 24. CC would be much easier in state, more affordable instate tuition and articulation agreements. He would have to get there and find housing without family around. California is not realistic.”
Unless the student is legally emancipated?
@MiamiDAP - we live in Georgia and if you go to UGA, the flagship school), unless you get the coveted Foundation fellowship/Ramsey Scholarship (very few and under-competitive), the best merit aid you will get it the Zell Miller Scholarship and Maybe 1K more, and you would still have $15-16K a year out of pocket as AN IN-STATE Resident!