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Anonymous
| I'm a single working mom and my DS is a senior in high school. He is a great student with stellar SAT scores and a variety of EC's and he has never given me any issues. We have been looking at colleges (we are in VA) and he is mainly interested in schools out of state and some of them are completely unaffordable to me. I only make about $85K/year, but I have managed to save up enough to pay for tuition and hopefully also room/board for four years at a public VA university. I cannot afford an OOS public or private school. DS is very disappointed and he keeps sending me lists of schools that he is interested in and none of them are in VA, except VT and UVA. He is mainly interested in Purdue and UIUC. I sat down with him on several occasions and showed him the finances and what I can afford, but he keeps insisting that there is a path for an OOS school for him. He has not had an easy life and he has worked very hard and I wish that I could afford more for him, but I don't want to go into debt because I'm 46 and I need to concentrate on my own retirement now as well. |
Anonymous
| Tell him he’s going to VT and to get over himself and stop being so selfish. He’s being ridiculous. What an ingrate. Sorry he’s putting you through this. |
Anonymous
| Agree here. He is being quite entitled. My parents would only pay for an my state university so that is where I went. |
Anonymous
| Tell them how much you can afford. If they can get aid or scholarships that make the other schools workable then fine. If not, they go to a state school. Lots of people have this same discussion every year. |
Anonymous
|
What are his stats? If you are a single parent, did you go to college? Is he FGLI?
If his stats are truly competitive (give us more info on profile and HS), he might qualify for 100% financial aid at many top private schools: https://www.road2college.com/free-tuition-colleges/ |
Anonymous
| Just be sure you are on ignoring financial aid - he’d pay nothing at some ivies. |
Anonymous
| I mean, at smaller private schools, there likely is a path for a cheap education if he does have high stats & only your income is on FAFSA. But they might not be the most prestigious schools |
Anonymous
| Run the net price calculators at some of the very well funded privates. You might qualify for more aid than you think. |
Anonymous
Yes. Tell him what you can afford. The rest is loans. Do not cave on this. None of those schools are worth the strain on your bank account or retirement. We have excellent schools here. It is ridiculous that he would want to spend tens of thousands more to go to Indiana or Purdue. Remind him that they aren’t Harvard. UVA is better than both those schools and if I had to guess, VT might be as well. Signed parent of senior |
Anonymous
| He might qualify for good merit aid at private Midwestern LAC’s or Case. |
Anonymous
| If he’s willing to look at schools beyond the so-called top tier privates, there could be good merit and need-based aid available. Emory comes to mind with its recent news re: free tuition for families making less than $200,000 |
Anonymous
|
You are all just so damned stupid and clueless.
The kid wants Illinois and Purdue. Clearly he’s interested in top engineering schools. So why are you pushing a bunch of schools that don’t come close to fitting the bill? The answer is Virginia Tech. |
Anonymous
His current weighted GPA is 4.5 and his SAT is 1530. I went to college and I have an Associates Degree. What is FGLI? |
Anonymous
|
Imagine if he's looking at Purdue and UIUC oos, then he's CS or engineering?
Look at lots of options at the link above. What is your HHI? Run this NPC: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/financialaid/net-price-calculator.php |
Anonymous
Do you only have an associates degree? If so, he's likely considered "First Generation" and would be highly in demand. Great stats!! What major? What high school? We can help you put together a list. He would likely get full rides from other places. Is he NMF? |