Most state schools have a set standard for ACT achievement. It’s up to the student to apply to each individual opportunity most schools have listed...and several states have lottery scholarship funds (ours didn’t), you just really need to do your research. If you make a 34 or 1500 on SAT..there are many schools that will cover tuition. Our college charges 9k for living on campus- my girls had their tuition covered with scholarships but we found housing that both can live off campus for 5k for both rather than 18k the school wanted. It is all about discovering options and opportunities.
1500!!
<—- This dope got a fraction of that! It’s far too long ago for me to remember the exact, but I’m pretty sure min was only a 3 digit score on the SAT. The result? I got rejected from my state school And many others. Oddly enough, I got a full scholarship offer from a really small school and a partial scholarship offer from a public school at another state, neither of which I really wanted to attend but...a scholarship is a scholarship.
Unfortunately, it didn’t cover housing. So I stayed off campus the first year and worked part time. By the 2nd year I had gotten the hang of working 30-40hrs/week plus 5 classes a semester, and because of it I was able to afford campus housing. Burnt out my 3rd year and lost my scholarship.
Ended up working 60-80 hours a week and 2 jobs to pay for tuition and repeated half of the classes, off campus again. One of those jobs ended up hiring me full time 6 months later, paying me a salary that was 2x what tuition, room and board would cost. It also offered tuition assistance. It would take me 2 more years to graduate as I slowed down to part time at that point and focused on my job.
I got it, but I never used my degree, and I’m glad I didn’t have to take a loan out for something I haven’t used. I also wouldn’t be where I am if I did take a loan. I look back and it’s easy for me to say I should have stayed off campus and focused on my school, kept my scholarship. But then I may not have had jumpstarts my career.
Ultimately I just realize there a lot of different paths in life, and a lot of different ways to go to and pay for school. But I wouldn’t wish my situation on my children and fully intend to make sure that a school of my choosing (state) is covered. If they want more, they’re welcome to go get it. But they’ll have to demonstrate and prove to themselves that they really want it and are willing to put in the work for it. Whether that’s through scholarships, or a job.
Then when they’re through it all, I’ll gift them some DVC points and tell them that the real reason they had to work was because I wanted a blue card and spent their private school tuition on AKL direct.