I'm a rising senior in NJ whose has 3 other siblings that need to go through college. As a result, my parents want me to go to Rutgers because in state tuition is cheaper. I really want to go to a more prestigious school, however. Schools that I'd love to go to are 70-80k a year, which is way out of range. I estimate that my parents can pay roughly 40-45k a year for college.
Because of my PSAT score, I should be a NMF next year which means i'm going to apply for the northeastern university 25k a year scholarship. This would take it from 75k to 50k, but then there's roughly a 10k/yr gap I need to cover and I don't know how to solve that because we aren't poor enough to qualify for a Pell Grant and other scholarships don't stack with that.
Also, I'm kind of lost on what other schools to apply to? My EFC for all these schools is like 60k a year which is too much for my parents to pay for. I would like answers besides "just go to rutgers" because I really want to shoot my sights high and hit a school maybe near T20. What other schools that are more selective than Rutgers should I apply to because they are within that price or have some sort of scholarship?
For example, UNC is about 50k a year which is more doable than 80k a year like Boston College. The only issue is that UNC out of state admissions are nearly impossible.
Also, my parents aren't too keen on me going very far for college (car drive > 8 hours, because they don't want to pay for the plane).
This is really stressing me out and some advice would be helpful.
I recommend focusing on applying to schools that meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Apply to as many of them as you can to increase the chances that at least one of them will offer you a great aid package. While most schools that meet full need are highly selective, some have acceptance rates in the 30% range. Hope this helps!
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