However, if the OP maintains the high GPA, then knowing what scholarships may exist may help know what the target SAT and ACT scores are.
PSAT: target is National Merit threshold
ACT / SAT based full rides at the current time (but may change in the future), if GPA is maintained:
24 / equiv: Mississippi Valley State
26 / 1260: Prairie View A&M
28 / equiv: Alcorn State, Jackson State
30 / 1390: Tuskegee
32 / 1470: Troy
^And @deadgirl already has 6 APs. In two more years those could really provide some savings if her future college accepts them.
@deadgirl Do you have Running Start?
“I think your parents will probably need to fill out the FAFSA for you to get aid anywhere.” Nothing can make them.
“if someone can afford to save for a child’s college but chooses not to and fritters the money away instead, that makes them a bad parent.” We don’t know enough. We don’t know they’re truly frittering or why the brother is in private school. Just saying.
If there is a crisis, yes, OP needs to ensure this is reported in the right ways. If needed, CPS can get copies of a birth cert and SS card. But we don’t know why a therapist, nor why this wasn’t reported.
OP did start with complaints about their spending, the original point was not having money for herself or saved for her education. If there’s more to this story, we really don’t know.
We may see it differently… However…
not only the alleging abuse came later. I had previously worked with police and CPS, if the following were true
I believed the cops were not doing their jobs if they had not contacted CPS…
We do not know whether there is more to the story…people tried to help based on the “situations” that were raised.
But there’s a therapist, too. Again, just saying, but it seems unusual that if there are multiple abuse charges and a therapist relationship, no one flagged this. It’s not usual to leave an abuse victim in the home and send her/him for therapy.
Alright, mea culpa on jumping the gun, but I think this girl could really benefit from the wisdom of this site as long as she feels welcomed. OP - the more info you can provide, the more specific help we can give you, as long as you are comfortable sharing.
@ucbalumnus It would help if the OP shared baseline scores even if from practice tests. That would help posters make better suggestions.
FWIW, 6 APs completed before 11th grade is not the norm in your avg US high school amg students whose parents do not care a flip about education. There is way too much about this scenario that we do not know.
OP I think the only advice about finance that anyone on this board is really able to give you right now is: if you are serious about being independent, you may need to look into it more. And it seems like you are doing very well in high school, so consider what you would have to do (with SAT or whatever) to make college as free or cheap as possible.
If you have other broader questions, people on this board will do their best to help.
OK, changing my post after getting to the part about abuse.:
Your parent’ s money belongs to them. They’ve earned it. It’s theirs. You don’t get to say how it’s spent once we get beyond your basic needs. The fact that you have access to a computer seems to indicate that there’s money on hand for at least the basics.
If you are in physical danger, your therapist should already have called CPS-- she is a mandated reporter and it’s part of her job. And, for what it’s worth, I think you should also mention the screen name you’ve chosen-- it doesn’t seem to me, based on the little we’ve read, that you’re in a particularly healthy emotional place.
Your best resource is probably your guidance counselor.
I hoe things get better for you.
Unauthorized by …whom?
You probably have to take federal student loan to pay for big percentage of college education if you are not looking at the option of community college, or get meaningful merit based scholarship. There may also be loan forgiveness option in the loan plan. With the high price tag of the education, it is not quite realistic to work part-time (as decades ago) and still to be able to pay for college. Make sure you select the college major that can get you a good job after graduation. If you go into history, art majors, there is low odd to pay off the loan after graduation.
The need based financial aid policy does screw up some students like you. I personally think the system is not fair.
@ParentofA_student
What STUDENT loans would you be talking about that could fund a BIG %age of college?
Here are the student loan limits:
Freshmen $5500
Sophomore. $6500
Junior $7500
Senior. $7500
Those loans are on the student name only. Any loans above those amounts would either require a parent cosigner, or need to be taken out by the parents.
^and parents with debt won’t be eligible for extra loans.
Or…the parents will not be willing to take loans…or cosign them.
@ParentofA_student Plenty of students have to work and attend college part time (not full time like the 80s) For all four years this student can only take out 27k in federal loans. That’s it. If she takes a gap year or two and saves everything. She might have commutable affordable options.
But that’s a long way off. Right now her safety and well being come first.
We go through this every few months here on this part of the forum. There is not enough aid to make it “free” for everyone.
@sylvan8798 who said anything about free for everyone? There are other ways of organising funding that don’t depend on parental income.
@chzbrgr None of which exist and are completely irrelevant to this discussion. Merit aid or commuting to a low cost school where costs can be covered with FA and part-time work are the only realistic options in 2017 for kids whose parents either can’t or won’t pay the family expected contribution.
That’s right, it’s derailing the conversation to go off on tangents about who wants “free” tuition. But I agree with you about what students can do in the current system.
OP is far from the only kid with funding issues, whether parents are poor, wealthy but resist, or they have other issues to juggle.
She has no scores, is 16, is a hs junior, etc. We can’t tell her where she can get full funding or if she’ll truly qualify for merit. Nor for need based aid, since no one knows her family income and assets. (Or if her parents will eventually fill out the Fafsa and maybe CSS.) We can’t tell her she’ll qualify as an independent, that’s complex.
But we can steer her to look at the less expensive options around her and the ways of making that work. That starts with comm college. If she’s determined, that can open doors.