Reverse Chance Me/Suggest Schools!

Will your parents fill out the FAFSA for you, or will they try to sabotage your college education? For you to receive financial aid every year, they need to fill out the FAFSA forms every year.

Legally, they have to fill it out, even if they kick you out of the house, so long as they kicked you out of the house AFTER you reached the age of 18. So if they kick you out, and you are 19, you will still be considered a dependent.

However, many colleges with good financial aid programs will take that into consideration, and still provide you with financial aid, even if the Federal Government does not.

I recommend that you apply to top Liberal Arts Colleges rather than Stanford. Amherst college provides just as good financial aid as Stanford and it both has higher acceptance rate, and, being a LAC, focuses a lot more on your story.

The financial aid of most of these may not be enough (see below)

SInce you may have issues with FAFSA forms, you may want to focus on colleges which are full need met without having to take loans. Colleges which are full need met without loans that you may want to consider are:

Colby College (on your list) - high reach
Swarthmore College - high reach
Davidson College - solid reach
Pomona College from the Claremonts - high reach

All are lower reaches than Stanford, though.

Colleges which may also provide full need met without loans to people with your family’s income are:

Colgate - solid/lowish reach
Lafayette - low reach, perhaps high match
Maybe Vassar - also lowish reach

For Tufts, Williams, and Wellesley, your family may make to much to qualify for Full Need Met. However, it may be possible to get full need met if your parents refuse to fill in FAFSA.

Mt Holyoke, Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Claremont McKenna, Hamilton, Skidmore, and Smith generally require that you take some loans. Since you will not be able to do so if your parents refuse to fill FAFSA forms, that is something for you to consider. However, you should contact the financial offices and ask whether you will still get support in that case

You may want to also look at Agnes Scott - they will not meet full need, but your are most likely eligible for enough merit aid to attend cost-free. Another college which may give you enough merit aid to fill in the missing financial aid is Beloit.

Some colleges where you may get a full ride based on merit are:
WashU - Annika Rodriguez Scholars Program, since you’re Hispanic
Tulane - has a few
Fordham
U Miami
Wake Forest

You could be eligible for more if you can get your SAT past 1400. However, looking at your GPA, you evidently know the material, so you should consider taking the ACT, since it is more straightforward. Check out a couple of practice tests and see how they go.

5 Likes