I’m currently a junior at a pretty affluent (and competitive) school. My mom lost her job over the summer and I’m not sure how long she’ll be unemployed this time considering that she’s almost 60 and seems to spend less time looking for jobd every week.
Family income fell from $100,000 to $50,000-60,000 including unemployment, which is far above “low income” and not enough for reduced lunch or need-based outside scholarships. We have high mortgage payments that reflected the former income, not the latter. My dad also had surgery the day after my mom was laid off (we were on mom’s insurance I believe). No money in a 529 and my parents have said that they can’t pay.
My current GPA is 4.3 W, 4.0 UW. Will have completed 8 AP classes by the end of this year. Decent ECs, but nothing wow worthy, especially considering that my school pumps out an unreal amount of competition math awards. I’m taking the SAT tomorrow and will probably update come December 22.
My current school list:
Brown (ED)/MIT (EA) I’m leaning towards Brown ED but I’m worried about financial aid/commitment issues.
Rice
Harvey Mudd
URochester (possible merit)
Case Western (EA, free app)
Pitt (applying as soon as possible, looking for application waiver and merit)
Santa Clara (EA for merit)/Lafayette/Bucknell
UA (hopefully full tuition and $2,500 eng. scholarship)
Local Directional (merit)
Is there any way to reduce application fees besides asking my counselor to write letters to all these schools? I suppose that I could axe SCU/Lafayette/Bucknell but I don’t really want to change my list otherwise. I’m still open to all suggestions though.
You won’t be applying for a year, so you will have to wait until you know the situation next year. Your mother may have found a job, her unemployment may have expired so your income may be low enough for free lunch. You can ask the schools if they have a free application. Some do, some will waive the fee.
You’ve named a lot of high priced schools. You need to make sure you have some schools you can afford, not just schools you want to go to. Say you get into Harvey Mudd with1/2 tuition. How will you pay for the rest? If you get a Pell grant, it Wil be small at $50000 family income. You might get some other aid, but it won’t be a lot.
When you get your test scores, see which schools are really doable if you get the highest awards the school offers. If the highest award still leaves $20k or more, it is not doable.
Run the NPC for each school next year. You can cut down on the unaffordable ones. That’s going to be a lot if them. Come back when you have scores, even past.
Good news: I got a 2350 (750 CR, 800M, 800W) on the SAT. CR is lower than expected but I’m happy with what I got.
Bad news: I recently learned that our house has had a large HOA lien on it for about six months, and that my parents ignored a court summons. They gave me the summons to read and explain (since they are immigrants) and it’s from September! And they won’t get a lawyer.
You need to look at the links ucbalumnus posted upstream for excellent merit awards.
You should also consider applying to some colleges that guarantee to meet full need. Some of the more generous schools (which are also some of the most competitive) might give you excellent Ned based aid with a family income below $65,000 a year.
And you should see what is available for high achieving, instate, lower income students in your own state.
@thumper1 I’m already applying to a local directional U (hopefully lots of merit), Alabama w/ $2,500 engineering scholarship, and Pitt (hopefully full tuition, otherwise I can’t attend). Most of the NPCs that I have run give around $7,000-15,000 EFC. I can cover around $9,000 with the federal loan, work study, and summer job, but I’m not sure if my parents are able/willing to pay the rest if the EFC goes to $15,000. And there’s no way that they’re qualifying for a PLUS loan.
Oh the other bad news that I forgot to mention is that I had to read the summons right before finals. I couldn’t really study or focus with my parents screaming at each other every night (not to mention worrying about foreclosure), and I think that I bombed at least two of them. I had relatively high grades in all of my classes going into finals so hopefully my GPA doesn’t drop too badly.
@HRSMom Back HOA fees. That’s what I’ve been telling them for the past two weeks, but they won’t listen or pay. They owe around $4,000 currently.
It sounds like you have a lot going on. You should add Grinnell and Vassar to your list. Check out the list of schools here to see if any of their financial aid terms apply to you. This list is getting pretty old, but it is a good start for your research:
Also, Marlboro today announced that they are awarding 52 full scholarships. They may offer this next year too as they are attempting to raise awareness of their school.
Finally you may want to take some time before attending college. If you do so, and declare yourself financiallyindependent of your family, you may be eligible for several fellowships available through womens’ colleges, if you’re a woman. Smith, Bryn Mawr and several other women’s schools (I think Agnes Scott and Sweet Briar) offer fellowships for women returning to college after an interruption. Here’s a list of women’s colleges http://womenscolleges.org/
You can check out their websites for special fellowships. Several other schools, like Yale and Brown, have co-ed scholarships for people returning to college at a later age.
Another way that you can lower your application costs when you do apply is to find schools that offer fee waivers for lower income students. I’d start with the list I linked to above, as they are attempting to be kind to lower-income and high-performing students. They may have a fee waiver.
If you’re female with those stats and your considering Harvey Mudd, you may want to also consider Rose Hulman. They may attract you with merit as they are in dire need of female students. Along those lines, try the more “technical” schools that are (desperate) for women: RPI, WPI (making a push lately for more women), SUNY Maritime (the school graduating the students with the highest earnings currently), the mining schools (Colorado, South Dakota school of Mines (also graduates students into v high paying jobs, Missouri, NM Tech) and Columbia’s fu school of engineering.
This student would need to take time off until,age 24 to be considered independent for financial aid purposes at these women’s colleges…or most anywhere else.
Just taking time off…does not mean you can “declare yourself independent” from your family for financial aid purposes. Sorry…not good advice.
That might have been the case in the 1970’s but times have changed.
I’m female and looking to major in computer science.
@ucbalumnus Is the local directional U enough of a super-safety? My SAT score is around 600 points above the 75%ile for the school, and I’d be commuting and living at home. I’ll take another look at the list though.
@Dustyfeathers I had considered Grinnell, but took it off my list because I think it’s a bit of a reach for me. Vassar is a reach too, considering its 19% acceptance rate for women.
I’d be alright with going to women’s colleges, though I’d prefer coed. Smith and Wellesley seem promising, though my parents would have to come up with $8,000.
I ran the NPC for Rose-Hulman and it came up with a cost of $48,000 before merit aid, which is unfeasible. RPI has a cost of around $15,000 (after all aid and student contribution), which is still too much.
@HRSMom Right now I’m worried about the house. I’m honestly surprised that the lien hasn’t been foreclosed on considering how long my parents have ignored it.
I wonder if your school has a social worker or whatever they call this type of outreach person that can step in to see if the family needs assistance. A kid whose housing is feeling insecure might merit that, esp with the layoff and surgery?
I am part of a HOA. When dues are not paid, a lien is placed on the property. In most cases, this means the owner can’t sell the property until the lien finances are settled. $4000 could be one year of HOA fees…depending on the costs per month. Or it could be a special assessment of some sort that your parents neglected to pay.
This should not be ignored, for sure. But it may not be as severe as an unpaid mortgage.