Ack- college is next year!!!

[disneefamily]

When you do the collegeboard calculator to see what parents are expected to provide for college, is that for one year, or all four years?

If it's all four then we are all good, it says 32-37k depending on the method, and we have $40k for DD.

If it's per year, then UC Berkley is out, UC Davis is in and Sacramento State becomes the dream college!

DD has 4.0 so maybe scholarships will help. Any tips on non financial based scholarships?

Any advice is welcome and I'll trade Disney tips for any information I get!

 

[flipturngirl]

When you do the collegeboard calculator to see what parents are expected to provide for college, is that for one year, or all four years?

If it's all four then we are all good, it says 32-37k depending on the method, and we have $40k for DD.

If it's per year, then UC Berkley is out, UC Davis is in and Sacramento State becomes the dream college!

DD has 4.0 so maybe scholarships will help. Any tips on non financial based scholarships?

Any advice is welcome and I'll trade Disney tips for any information I get!

Um I think that it is all 4 years. .But I am not sure if I remember correctly... My parents were expected to pay about that much too.. Well I am paying for it now

 

[Jeafl]

I'm thinking that is per year. I could be wrong though. If you make a decent living, you pretty much get no financial aid at all.

All I know is that my daughter's college is $38,000 a year. She is allowed to take out only $3000 in student loans (state law??). She got a partial scholarship for $10,500, and we, as parents, are supposed to pay the rest. Which means in our case, we need to come up with $24,500 a year, plus books and spending money. Her books for this semester were $496, and they are on trimesters! I am thinking it will be another $1500 a year for books.

You always think you are saving enough for college, but we found out we were wrong!

As far as scholarships go, we have found that more money is given away from the smaller private schools. Although my daughter was accepted at larger state schools as well (U of IL-Urbana-Champaign) she received no assistance from them at all. Every private school she was accepted at came up with at least some money.

Have your daughter register with fastweb.com. It is a comprehensive list of scholarships of all kinds. Whenever a new one is available they will email her. Good luck!

 

[Patch'sD]

That is a per year number. A rule of thumb. Reach Schools, will not provide assistance. Ideal Schools will provide token amounts, Saftey Schools, Ones they exceed the requirements will put up the most.

I know that most students won't except this, but two years at a Community College and then transfering to a Named Four Year School will save $ 60,000 in tuition and the 4 Yr Diploma will still say the Named Four Year School. It will also say the same name on the Resume. Food for Thought

 

[Breezy_Carol]

If you make a decent living, you pretty much get no financial aid at all.

As far as scholarships go, we have found that more money is given away from the smaller private schools.

I totally agree with both of these comments.

I have 2 in college, thankfully in-state public university. But like Jeafl said, more money from smaller and less competitive schools. DS was valedictorian of his high school class and received $1500 once from University of Maryland because it is so competitive to get into. At a smaller satate school he would have received $8,000 - $10,000 per year. Too bad he didn't want to go there.

 

[Jeafl]

I know that most students won't except this, but two years at a Community College and then transfering to a Named Four Year School will save $ 60,000 in tuition and the 4 Yr Diploma will still say the Named Four Year School. It will also say the same name on the Resume. Food for Thought

Just make sure that all credits you take at a community college will be transferred to the 4-year school. I know a lot of people who were burned by this and are now in their 5th and 6th year of college because of it. Double check everything and get it in writing!

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

My DD is a senior as well. We had college night last night. The costs were unbelieveable.

I honestly don't know how we're going to afford it. She has a 3.8 grade average and is in the top 10% of her class, but that doesn't even get you far these days if you don't have leadership skills and a ton of activities.

Back when I was headed off to college, a free full-tuition scholorship was given to anyone with a 23 or higher on the ACT. That barely gets you in on automatic admission anymore.

 

[disney1990]

We decided to let our daughter at age 18 become an independent adult. We no longer had her on our income tax; she has her own apartment and works in addition to going to college. Because she is "on her own" our income no longer comes into play when she applied for aid or scholarships.

 

[Jeafl]

I honestly don't know how we're going to afford it. She has a 3.8 grade average and is in the top 10% of her class, but that doesn't even get you far these days if you don't have leadership skills and a ton of activities.

.

I can totally sympathize with you. My daughter had a 4.125 GPA (weighted because of honors classes), a 29 on her ACT, tons of activiites, sports and volunteer work, as well as leadership activities, National Honor Society and Spanish National Honor Society. She got accepted at every college she applied to, but only the small private ones came up with any money, and even that barely made a dent.

A word of advice, get your daughter involved in some kind of volunteer work and leadership activities. We know of a few people with higher GPA's and better test scores that did not get into the same colleges as my daughter because they had no activities to report. They are looking for well-rounded kids these days. Good luck to your daughter!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We decided to let our daughter at age 18 become an independent adult. We no longer had her on our income tax; she has her own apartment and works in addition to going to college. Because she is "on her own" our income no longer comes into play when she applied for aid or scholarships.

So how did you get around not filling out the FAFSA? I know that you can try and get around it via "special circumstances".

You are supposed to fill that out up to age 25.

Heck back in the 80's my DH had to fight tooth and nail because his parents did not give him a cent and he was moved out of his house.

 

[christineann]

If the college's financial aid package is not enough, call the financial aid office and ask for some guidance. We were told that there just wasn't much money for out of state students at a public university, but being persistent yielded some very good results for my child.

 

[helloirishkitty]

We decided to let our daughter at age 18 become an independent adult. We no longer had her on our income tax; she has her own apartment and works in addition to going to college. Because she is "on her own" our income no longer comes into play when she applied for aid or scholarships.

How did you do this? I'm 21, own my own home, make enough money where they can't and haven't claimed me as a dependent, and STILL have to have my parents income tax return on my FAFSA every year. I was told by my tax adviser that it was 25, no matter what.

 

[allison443]

We decided to let our daughter at age 18 become an independent adult. We no longer had her on our income tax; she has her own apartment and works in addition to going to college. Because she is "on her own" our income no longer comes into play when she applied for aid or scholarships.

I don't believe this is possible anymore under the current FAFSA rules.