Is there a particular area on CC that offers advice for students who have no support from home and don’t know where to start with college search/applications/aid?
I’m trying to help out a friend who is a single mom with very limited income. She nor ex-husband have college degrees, are not familiar with the process at all, and neither have any savings or ability to pay toward college. Their current senior is an average/decent student, but not a standout. She does have some extracurriculars – chorus, band and theatre. No test scores yet – she is signed up to take the school-day SAT next month.
She’s been operating under the assumption that college wasn’t an option for her because there was no way to pay for it, so she hasn’t thought about what she would like to study if it were a possibility.
I am confident she’ll get a lot of financial aid based on mom’s income, but it was humbling to realize that I had no idea how to start advising her otherwise.
I told her to have her kid sign up for a College Board account and take some of the free practice digital SAT tests, so she can gauge how she’ll do on the test.
Otherwise, can anyone point me in the right direction? She lives in one of the northern Houston suburbs. Living at home is an option, so is community college the best path for a student like this? Do community colleges offer financial aid?
Thanks for any advice about how to even start looking.
Texas does have programs for residents. My nephew attends CC in Austin for free. He qualified based on gpa. There are many transfer pathways in state as well.
The school guidance counselor should be able to walk them through the application process
for free resources w/how to write your college essays, go to https://www.collegeessayguy.com/ and the College Essay Guy Youtube channel.
the mom needs to figure out what the max $/year the family can afford to pay. Use tax return info to go use Net Price Calculators.
does the student have an idea of what major(s) they’re interested in studying?
What’s the student’s UW & W GPA?
Go to https://modernstates.org/ for info about their ‘freshman year for free’ program. Free online courses which conclude with you getting a free voucher to take the CLEP exam for the course. CLEP courses administered by College Board. Most in-person test locations are at community colleges, not high schools. Student can use that to shave off a year’s worth of general ed classes at a lot of colleges and universities.
We had a pretty shaky quake wake us at 3am - @tamagotchi and other east bay peeps, you too? I had to laugh at everyone on Facebook who felt they had to preface their 3am posts with “it woke me up”.
Yes, the shaking and very loud creaking noises woke me up, and as soon as I opened my eyes I saw two pictures fly off the wall, which is not something I usually see in a quake. S23 was also alarmed and texted us (he lives very close to the fault).
But D26 did not wake up! I guess that tells you how much she needed her sleep
Oh gosh- hope there was no damage from the quake! I lived in Los Angeles for about 10 years when I was a child and I remember cowering under a table with my dog during a couple powerful ones!
I grew up in Texas (after LA) and absolutely HATE the winter. I have lived in NEPA for almost 30 years and I am still not used to the constant snow, ice, and cold. Forget driving in it; when I worked in education it was so nice to have snow days with the kids, but now I make my co-worker that lives in my neighborhood give me a ride when it snows D26 on the other hand likes the cold so she is fine with going to a college more up north.
For a while, the only recommendation letter that D26 had was from her guidance counselor (she knows her very well) but her environmental science teacher agreed to write one for her as well. If she needs another, she can ask one of her art teachers that she has had all four years. In their post-grad prep class last year, they had to fill out a “senior background” sheet with a bunch of questions. She groused about it at the time but was very happy that she already had it done for the letters.
We visited Quinnipiac on Saturday. Loved it! It has moved into the top spot on D26’s list. It is interesting that the acceptance rate is very high for EA, but drops by quite a bit for RD. It definitely provides a lot of motivation for her to get her essay completed!
Has anyone taken advantage of the beta version of the FAFSA? I was going to fill it in, but then I worried if there were any glitches, would that create a problem later?
Woke me and my husband here in Marin too. S26 slept right through. No damage, except I was awake until 4:30! I’m a native, lived here for the big quake in ‘89. These 4.x quakes are kind of a relief to me bc it feels like maybe it’s a release valve that will keep a bigger one at bay a little longer. And 4.x on the Hayward fault is pretty typical in my experience.
Yep. We felt it good at our house too. I said something to my wife immediately, and she was like “Yes, I felt it” like I was asking a dumb ass question. Which it was, because of course she felt it! But, I was half asleep still so giving myself grace. No visible damage here and everything stayed on walls and shelves.
I grew up in south Florida, so I’m well versed in hurricanes and hurricane prep, but the only earthquake I’ve felt was strangely here in Atlanta in 2003 – I think? It was centered a couple hours west of us near the AL/GA border, but it was a pretty good 4.x quake, and it woke us at 5 a.m. But we had no idea what was going on – because this is Georgia, lol.
Yeah it was quite a shake. S22 is at Cal, much more shaking there. Lots of kids and parents were texting, especially the ones who are not from here and hence not used to these frequent tremors.
Class of 25 parent randomly chiming in… our main APUSH teacher was such a popular person for students to ask for letters of recommendation that he now only writes letters if you get 5 on the AP exam. My S25 was sweating it waiting to see his score, because if he missed it, he didn’t have a good humanities teacher back up.
The lack of backup would worry me. I prefer the way C26’s English teacher did it where she said she only had capacity for X LORs and would let students know by a certain date. Our school policy is that students should have their recommenders locked in by end of junior year (end May).
Okay -four days late. But you do NOT need to be a math whiz to work in cybersecurity. I have a family member in that field and math is not something that comes up (at all) - a tolerance for boring policy work is needed (at least occasionally -haha) and good organizational and problem solving skills are very useful -but you can learn those things.
The Chance Me thread basically said, “You are too poor to afford anything but CC” (despite me running plenty of NPCs well within range). And the other answer was “You are test optional with less than a 4.0, go to your state school”. I realized chance me wasn’t the thread for useful replies.
Hmm, that is not what I remember seeing in your chance me thread(s). When I glanced through your thread history, it looked like people were pretty supportive, but I did not read every post. Might it have been one particular poster saying those things?
D26 on the other hand likes the cold so she is fine with going to a college more up north.
Which it was, because of course she felt it! But, I was half asleep still so giving myself grace. No visible damage here and everything stayed on walls and shelves.