<p>I’ll talk to her about the SAT one more time and will show her Truman State and talk to her about LAC’s again . What a great group of replies and so quick. Thank you! If anyone has any other ideas, keep on sharing. I appreciate it.</p>
<p>Truman state does a sliding scale on gpa and act so she would qualify now for a $2000 automatic scholarship. They also may have other opportunities.</p>
<p>Also you would qualify for Midwest exchange tuition reduction at truman and her automatic scholarship would actually be $3000. I just have heard high recommendations so you might have her investigate it. Not a huge school but not small.</p>
<p>What is her “super score” ACT score? </p>
<p>maybe some here can recommend some schools that give merit based on SUPER scores???</p>
<p>Also recommend Truman State. There are also some southern schools that have lowish OOS costs. Look at Ole Miss. </p>
<p>I think the Dakotas have low OOS costs.</p>
<p>Yes, Iowa State is a very good school. You don’t have to worry about that. </p>
<p>Many of the test optional schools require test scores for merit. However, I think Sybbie knows some that don’t use test scores for merit. Smith maybe??? Can’t remember. Send her a PM.</p>
<p>[College</a> Admissions Counseling](<a href=“http://Www.collegeadmissionspartners.com%5DCollege”>http://Www.collegeadmissionspartners.com) look under college testing for a list of schools that superscore. This would be a huge asset for her. Website collegeadmissionspartners.com</p>
<p>^^^
I looked at that link and couldn’t find where you find the list of schools that superscore. Can you find that and copy/paste some schools?</p>
<p>A Chicago-area friend sent her daughter to U of Northern Iowa in large part because the cost was less than in-state in IL. Minnesota has several smaller Us that would be in your budget range. So do the Dakotas. Run the college-matching search engines to find out which might work for your family.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Actually it is under the blog but with google I just put in “colleges that superscore” and it popped up. Sorry cant copy/paste on my phone.</p>
<p>You hear all the time how test scores aren’t everything, but they sure seem like they are to us! Help</p>
<p>this is true for ADMISSIONS, but it is very often true for merit. (and this isn’t just true for large publics) A school’s ranking is affected by its reporting numbers of the SAT and ACT for middle quartiles. So, schools will pay to get those with high test scores on campus, because it helps their reporting numbers.</p>
<p>There really are just too many kids with high GPAs alone. Schools today will report that half their incoming frosh classes have A averages. So, schools have to use test scores for “down selection” when it comes to merit.</p>
<p>We were hoping to contribute about 15,000 a year, but she will need to cover the rest. If she can’t do that with loans, we may have to sell our condo or refinance again and take out a 30 year mortgage or borrow from retirement. None of those sound good but we can’t take out a loan because we couldn’t pay it back (we are living paycheck to paycheck right now).</p>
<p>Can you clarify? If you’re living “paycheck to paycheck” now, how will you come up with $15k per year (which would mean that you’d have to come up with $1250 per month after paying all of your bills/expenses. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, then doesn’t that mean that at the end of each pay-period, you don’t have much left? </p>
<p>Do this…see how much you have left over during November, December, and January. That will give you some idea of how much you really can contribute each month towards college costs. </p>
<p>Don’t sell your condo or hurt your financial future. Do you have other kids?</p>
<p>Your D can save a lot by commuting to a local state school or CC.</p>
<p>or are you saying that you already have the $60k in savings for that $15k per year?</p>
<p>You asked about the other UW schools. La Crosse and Eau Claire have separated themselves from the others in the stats of incoming freshman and other ways. They are well thought of. Other UW schools have areas they are strong in but if your D is undecided, La Crosse and Eau Claire would be the places to consider first. Both participate in MSEP though it appears La Crosse limits the number of MSEP students.</p>
<p>What is your daughter’s unweighted GPA and does her school rank?</p>
<p>There is a chart showing which schools and outside scholarships superscore the SAT:
<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat-score-use-practices-list.pdf[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat-score-use-practices-list.pdf</a></p>
<p>But there does not appear to be a similar chart for the ACT. It would not be surprising if many schools have similar policies for the ACT as they have for the SAT, but you need to check each school individually to see if that is actually the case.</p>
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<p>List price of UIC for a commuter student is about $20,000, though that lists $0 for room and board (apparently, food and utilities consumed by the student at the parent’s house are free in Chicago). OP might want to check if there is financial aid there in the net price calculator.</p>
<p>The city colleges of Chicago are about $10,000 lower in tuition than UIC. Presumably, the other costs as a commuter student would be similar to that of UIC.</p>
<p>I agree that commuting to UIC still wouldn’t be cheap. the tuition alone is high. But, if the parents can pay the $15k and the student borrows $5500, it’s doable.</p>
<p>As for “home costs”, seriously, unless the parents are low income, parents tend to absorb those costs as they have been for the past 18 years.</p>
<p>That said, I think if money is tight, then paying UIC’s tuition rate for the first 2 years is not necessary. Two years at a CC saves over $30k.</p>
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<p>However, that means that if the student goes away to college, the parents’ household will spend a few thousand dollars less at home, which can be seen as a hidden discount against the cost of going away to college. So the difference in cost between commuting and going away is not room and board minus commuting costs; it is room and board minus commuting costs minus food and utilities at home. Commuting is still usually cheaper, but one needs to assess the difference realistically.</p>
<p>Commuting to UIC at $20,000 might not be any cheaper than going away to Iowa State if the OP’s daughter actually ends up with a net price of $20,000 there as mentioned earlier (Iowa State at that price may be cheaper since the OP would not be supporting the daughter at home, unlike at UIC). But commuting to a city college in Chicago would be cheaper for the first two years.</p>
<p>We have about $30,000 in a 529 for her and are hoping it will grow a bit. We are planning to put less aside for retirement and medical savings, my husband may work weekends and we are hoping some tax credits will help cover the difference in “paycheck to paycheck” and what we would need to meet that 15000 each year.</p>
<p>We do have one other child that is still about 7 years away from college.</p>
<p>If she got into UIUC, doesn’t it make sense to try to find a way to pay for it considering the great reputation? Won’t it help in getting a job or would she do just as well at Iowa State or other places?</p>
<p>Regarding City Colleges in Chicago - we just can’t see sending her to any of those schools. This may sound terrible, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t meet her needs or our standards. But there are some good community colleges in the suburbs that are possible. Again, she would just be so disappointed. I also feel that going away serves such a great purpose in helping you grow up. I guess she could wait 2 years and then get a chance to grow up, but it just kills me when both my husband and I were able to go away to school. The price is just so crazy now.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info on the Wisconsin Schools. My daughter’s school doesn’t rank. Her unweighted GPA is something like 3.4 or 3.5 but I’m not positive.</p>
<p>If she got into UIUC, doesn’t it make sense to try to find a way to pay for it considering the great reputation? Won’t it help in getting a job or would she do just as well at Iowa State or other places?</p>
<p>No. What would her major be? </p>
<p>UIUC is known for STEM, but so is Iowa State. </p>
<p>Going into big debt for UIUC wouldn’t be worth it. If you can afford Iowa State then that’s good enough.</p>
<p>Commuting to UIC at $20,000 might not be any cheaper than going away to Iowa State if the OP’s daughter actually ends up with a net price of $20,000 there as mentioned earlier</p>
<p>I agree…might as well go to Iowa State. Altho I don’t know if the OP figured transportation costs for ISU.</p>
<p>Chicago to Iowa State can be driven, but it is a fairly long drive (5-6 hours).</p>