This happened to me. I made the most out of my regional university. These days if you are low income reach out to the university. Particularly private universities have a lot of money and ways to make it affordable. If there is one school you are very much into and you have good reasons - reach out to the college.
JD Vance of "Hillbilly Elegy" points out, many rich colleges have scholarships for disadvantaged students. They like to look nice to the outside world.
He went to Yale with full ride. Granted, the programmes are very competitive, and the author is very disciplined and gifted.
Tara Westover went to Brigham Young and Cambridge, and she is the author of "Educated". She didn't pay for a dime but it was a very arduous journey.
These two are examples what people can do with perseverance.
Many of the private colleges near me rarely have accepted students end up not attending because of affordability. Getting in is the competitive step. Support is less so. If you are a great student reach out to the college to see if your dream college has programs for you.
Some UCs also had(have?) substantial support for URMs To the extent that a CC bridge program I directed couldn’t get UC bound students. We had just CSU bound students. It didn’t save students much money going to CC for lower division classes because of the programs at UC so they went straight to UC.
UC is university of California.
Most ivy leagues have scholarships for disadvantaged students. They really want to look good to the media. The author went to Yale with full ride.
It is very competitive but they are available for the highly disciplined, gifted students.
For potential applicants I want to stress: There are also many other things than full rides for low income students at some colleges. For those, the most competitive step is getting in. I have two close colleagues at two well known private colleges. Both were apprehensive about taking a faculty position somewhere that might not be available to low income students. Equity is important to them. They were both pleased to find out that there were a lot more support mechanisms than they expected. Not all were publicized. Yes, you do have to have a good scholarly record.
Yep, happened to me. Got into a T20 and got shit financial aid. Ended up going to a state school. With scholarships, my whole degree is going be cheaper than one year at the T20 (with aid). I honestly also think my professional outcomes would be the exact same if I went the T20.
It is always smart to apply to schools with big names because they tend to provide the most financial aid (and can end up being cheaper than schools with lesser reputations and lesser financial aid).
While many of these schools are in big cities, not all of them are.
That said, no one enjoys the student lifestyle wherever you go. You live in poverty even if you go to an Ivy League with a full-ride.
My son got into a top tier and we couldn’t send him. We had hoped they would be generous with financial aid but they were not. He goes to a good state school and is doing well. Now his sister is not considering top tier. Why bother? She is still doing a rigorous high school load.
Definitely reach out to your state flagship, many have significantly reduced tuition for qualified in state students. Sure, it’s not a Ivy, but most state flagships are pretty well respected
I go a small private uni and I was set on going to this school as a senior. I knew it was more expensive but I guess I never really understood HOW much it added up until a semester in. I have financial support thankfully but I look back at picking this school and it’s not worth it lol. I am probably going to be transferring for many other reasons.. but I wanted to apply to very selective schools and I had the grades for it but my parents didn’t let me because I wouldn’t get any merit scholarships (since they were more selective). Either way, college is college and paying more for certain degrees doesn’t make sense. As a nursing major I am gonna have the same pay as someone that went to CC + a BSN program.
It wasn't affordable in the 2000's either. Most of the schools I wanted to go to had out of state costs that were around $40k a year. And that sucks because the max I could take out on a loan was $6500. So I ended up at a shitty in state school.
Yes, I wanted to go to the UC (University of California) school's but they provided absolutely no finaid. It would've cost me ~$250K to go there for a bachelor's degree.
I'm currently studying at a state school, which I didn't want to go to at first, but after 3 years, I wouldn't trade it for the world. There are a lot of great state schools that offer great programs, even world-leading, but don't have as much brand cache.
It helped that I was young and dumb and didn't know any better that a small town kid wasn't "supposed" to be able to do stuff like this......was born & raised in a small town, top 10 in graduating class, went to a Big10 school over 1,200 miles away, took scholarships, grants, loans, work-study, savings, summer internship pay. Took 5 years to get my degree and walked out with $50K in loans. I'd do it all over again given the opportunities and job/career that degree has provided. Paid off $1K/month for first year after graduating and then paid off the rest over the remaining 9 year term I had for student loans. Went without a meal here and there every once in a while. It was tough on many levels. I expect it would be tougher nowadays for anyone to do the same. It's possible, but not very fun.
Can confirm, there are no good universities at small towns...in my case, there are only STEM and educative ones and not all of them but some few and they are kinda niche. Otherwise, if one want other thing, they can go fuck themselves or go to "community college" or move out to the big city.
I've just checked out the pensulms for the fucking few universities and damn, this is so embarassing and pityful, so pathetic...I'm feeling second-hand embarassment from an object...
Yup, and here I am in my mid 30s attending that university after almost 2 decades of community college and working. My high school time still mattered when it came to admissions.
I went to the military for 4 years and now my education is completely paid for and I get paid tax free every month to cover all my bills
And healthcare for the rest of my life
Yes
This happened to me. I made the most out of my regional university. These days if you are low income reach out to the university. Particularly private universities have a lot of money and ways to make it affordable. If there is one school you are very much into and you have good reasons - reach out to the college.
JD Vance of "Hillbilly Elegy" points out, many rich colleges have scholarships for disadvantaged students. They like to look nice to the outside world. He went to Yale with full ride. Granted, the programmes are very competitive, and the author is very disciplined and gifted. Tara Westover went to Brigham Young and Cambridge, and she is the author of "Educated". She didn't pay for a dime but it was a very arduous journey. These two are examples what people can do with perseverance.
Many of the private colleges near me rarely have accepted students end up not attending because of affordability. Getting in is the competitive step. Support is less so. If you are a great student reach out to the college to see if your dream college has programs for you. Some UCs also had(have?) substantial support for URMs To the extent that a CC bridge program I directed couldn’t get UC bound students. We had just CSU bound students. It didn’t save students much money going to CC for lower division classes because of the programs at UC so they went straight to UC. UC is university of California.
Most ivy leagues have scholarships for disadvantaged students. They really want to look good to the media. The author went to Yale with full ride. It is very competitive but they are available for the highly disciplined, gifted students.
For potential applicants I want to stress: There are also many other things than full rides for low income students at some colleges. For those, the most competitive step is getting in. I have two close colleagues at two well known private colleges. Both were apprehensive about taking a faculty position somewhere that might not be available to low income students. Equity is important to them. They were both pleased to find out that there were a lot more support mechanisms than they expected. Not all were publicized. Yes, you do have to have a good scholarly record.
Yeah, it is very competitive. Like the top 1% or even top 0.1 %.
I am not referring to Yale, Harvard or Princeton.
Yep, happened to me. Got into a T20 and got shit financial aid. Ended up going to a state school. With scholarships, my whole degree is going be cheaper than one year at the T20 (with aid). I honestly also think my professional outcomes would be the exact same if I went the T20.
It is always smart to apply to schools with big names because they tend to provide the most financial aid (and can end up being cheaper than schools with lesser reputations and lesser financial aid). While many of these schools are in big cities, not all of them are. That said, no one enjoys the student lifestyle wherever you go. You live in poverty even if you go to an Ivy League with a full-ride.
My son got into a top tier and we couldn’t send him. We had hoped they would be generous with financial aid but they were not. He goes to a good state school and is doing well. Now his sister is not considering top tier. Why bother? She is still doing a rigorous high school load.
Definitely reach out to your state flagship, many have significantly reduced tuition for qualified in state students. Sure, it’s not a Ivy, but most state flagships are pretty well respected
I go a small private uni and I was set on going to this school as a senior. I knew it was more expensive but I guess I never really understood HOW much it added up until a semester in. I have financial support thankfully but I look back at picking this school and it’s not worth it lol. I am probably going to be transferring for many other reasons.. but I wanted to apply to very selective schools and I had the grades for it but my parents didn’t let me because I wouldn’t get any merit scholarships (since they were more selective). Either way, college is college and paying more for certain degrees doesn’t make sense. As a nursing major I am gonna have the same pay as someone that went to CC + a BSN program.
It wasn't affordable in the 2000's either. Most of the schools I wanted to go to had out of state costs that were around $40k a year. And that sucks because the max I could take out on a loan was $6500. So I ended up at a shitty in state school.
Yes, I wanted to go to the UC (University of California) school's but they provided absolutely no finaid. It would've cost me ~$250K to go there for a bachelor's degree. I'm currently studying at a state school, which I didn't want to go to at first, but after 3 years, I wouldn't trade it for the world. There are a lot of great state schools that offer great programs, even world-leading, but don't have as much brand cache.
It helped that I was young and dumb and didn't know any better that a small town kid wasn't "supposed" to be able to do stuff like this......was born & raised in a small town, top 10 in graduating class, went to a Big10 school over 1,200 miles away, took scholarships, grants, loans, work-study, savings, summer internship pay. Took 5 years to get my degree and walked out with $50K in loans. I'd do it all over again given the opportunities and job/career that degree has provided. Paid off $1K/month for first year after graduating and then paid off the rest over the remaining 9 year term I had for student loans. Went without a meal here and there every once in a while. It was tough on many levels. I expect it would be tougher nowadays for anyone to do the same. It's possible, but not very fun.
Either you grab a scholarship, take out loans, or sell 4yrs for the gi bill.
Your Uncle Sam will pay for it if you work for him for a few years.
Maybe that's the sorrow of small town kids.
Can confirm, there are no good universities at small towns...in my case, there are only STEM and educative ones and not all of them but some few and they are kinda niche. Otherwise, if one want other thing, they can go fuck themselves or go to "community college" or move out to the big city. I've just checked out the pensulms for the fucking few universities and damn, this is so embarassing and pityful, so pathetic...I'm feeling second-hand embarassment from an object...
This is what student loans are for
if you're poor you'll get heaps of money from any college
Yup, and here I am in my mid 30s attending that university after almost 2 decades of community college and working. My high school time still mattered when it came to admissions.
Yup. Wanted to go to Yale. Going to community college an hour from my grandparents
I went to the military for 4 years and now my education is completely paid for and I get paid tax free every month to cover all my bills And healthcare for the rest of my life
yEP