Before we can suggest anything we need your EFC to know how much you can expect in federal and state aid.
Can you also provide your IB HLs and SLs - we know that you took Biology SL and Math SL, is that correct?
When your high school sent an email about where to send your IB scores, what did you reply?
If you haven’t yet (or even if you did):
Have the scores sent to TAMUG, UT, St Edward’s; then, if you can send more for free, perhaps Agnes Scott, Southwestern, Austin College, Texas Lutheran, Centre, DePauw, Lawrence.
Do you have predicted scores? What would your total be, and the individual scores?
I just emailed them to have them sent to UT. And unfortunately they could only be sent to 1 school since most of the students know what school they are going to ?
Yes, I emailed them. They said they didn’t know what to do, but that they could only send to 1 school. I asked to be sent to UT. This was a few days ago, before I realized TAMUG was an option.
Does a school need my IB scores to accept me?
This is all so stressful ?
I will do the other things later today. I still have school assignments to finish up.
Breathe deeply.
It’s normal if this stresses you out: it’s a lot, all at once, in a scary new environment – “Teen completes college applications while there’s a killer virus pandemic out there”. In 2019, this would have been a teen horror movie spoof. It’s 2020, and we’re living the horror movie/surreal parody.
Look up “Class of 2020: You thought you were free, and history found you”. Read and breathe slowly too.
To laugh a bit, look up “The Daily (social distancing) show: college in the time of corona”, with comedian Trevor Noah.
Then, come back here. Answer the questions. And we’ll take it from there, step by step, till we have a solution for you, and a Plan B, and a Plan C. You’re going to college. We’re here to help.
I don’t see how this is going to help you. Even if they give you the max merit for your stats + full Pell + max fed loans, you will still have a 20k/year shortfall.
Yeah…it was just a school that was accepting late applications so I applied.
They have a type of aid for families making less than $35,000 a year. Don’t know if I am eligible though since it’s late in the game.
How much can you and your family afford to pay for cost of college, room, board, books, expenses, for the entire college cost for next year? This is very very important. What is that bottom line dollar amount? You say you cannot afford tuition, you say you HAVE to go away to school. Are you expecting a full ride, get to go for free, a school and programs to pay for every cent of your expenses for college?
The next question I have is what is your FAFSA EFC? I want to see how much federal money, via PELL, DIRECT loans etc you are entitled to get.
If you are expecting some school to pay to have you as a student, your chances are very slim. Full ride scholarships are just about impossible to get. You have to be in a highly desired category to get that via merit scholarships, or from a school that has that kind of financial aid package to give via institutional financial aid. An exception to this is if your state schools have some auto cutoffs for EFC (which is essential to know here , just as class rank is) So you need to get a very good handle on your numbers
From what I have seen, spring applications/Admissions does offer the same money possibilities at a lot of schools as Fall does. Though I’ve seen students accepted for the fall be permitted to delay admissions after the fact to spring with their awards , targeting your applications for the spring semester puts you at high risk of getting left over money, and a lot isn’t usually left over.
You need to do research on the schools in your state to see where you can get this full ride for room/board as well as tuition in your state.
There are LOTS of schools still taking applications, some with financial aid.
So
1° if Miami has some sort of financial aid program for families with under 35K income, CALL financial aid and ask about it. Or, if you need to gather your thoughts first, write and email and ask for a phone appointment with a financial aid officer. Do this NOW.
2° use common app and apply to colleges that actually say they still award financial aid to admitted applicants. These would include Whitman, St Olaf,Union, Wheaton MA (NOT the one in IL), Beloit, College of Wooster, TCU, Austin College, UDayton, Hobart&William Smith, Truman State.
The first three likely have the most money for financial aid, so target them first and get an app out by this weekend (to all of them). Before June 1 is your best bet.
Several people here can help you with your essays etc, just send us what you wrote and we’ll help you improve them to have the best chances.
TCU and Austin are in Texas so they may prioritize your application, however they don’t meet need, so they should be second. Get the app out by Monday evening at the latest.
Then all others.
You’re going to have to crank out apps fast because each day that passes without you sending an app is a day someone else snatches a place with financial aid that won’t be available to you.
@Petal12: You would receive a substantial Academic Merit Scholarship plus qualify for the Red & Blue financial need based scholarship and possibly one or two more scholarship awards.
Additionally, Ole Miss has an agreement with Texas to give Texas residents in state tuition for majors & programs not offered by Texas schools.
There are so many scholarships, it is tough to go through all of them. But, if you can go anywhere for free, this is a very likely option.
P.S. I PMed you this advice more than 5 weeks ago on April 22. Plus, as an URM you might qualify for additional awards.