Thats a good idea except that my parents wont even let me consider colleges in California (like UC Berkley), so Le Sorbonne or Oxford are similarly out of the question (for undergrad school at least.)
Oops, I should clarify, I can’t consider those colleges because they’re too far away.
Pretty clearly unethical, IMO: After I told her my SAT scores, she said “Well, with those numbers, you’re DEFINITELY in.” I wasn’t.
Just plain odd:
Interviewer: What unique perspectives do you think your gender or ethnic background has given you? (N.B. My ethnic background is Polish-Irish-Scottish-English-and-maybe-Dutch-American, not exactly the stuff gripping hardship stories are made of, so naturally I seized on the gender thing.)
Me: Well, um, I don’t think gender should really matter in the classroom – I believe education is one area where men and women should be completely equal, because I think they basically think and learn in the same way…
Interviewer (interrupting and glaring): THE LATEST RESEARCH shows that they don’t.
I’m not a social scientist and I have no idea what research she was referring to or how valid it was, but I cannot imagine that it was compelling enough to justify shooting down a seventeen-year-old interviewee for expressing an honest opinion.
Take a good hard look at the University of Toronto. I think you will find that several of the better ivy league schools may be on par with Toronto. 
If you wish to speak to someone about physics there, try Toronto’s Faculty Association President and physics prof George Luste, or Princeton’s Sara Seager who did her undergrad at Toronto and her Ph.D. in astrophysics at Harvard. (But call them quick, for each tends to paddle in the arctic during the summers.)
At Toronto, tuition for a foreign student such as yourself in your first science degree would be about CDN$11K per year, which would be about US$7K. Similar savings due to the exchange rate would be had for living expenses.
Ok, I wrote this post last night but the evil hampsters [sic] ate it. So I’m going to reiterate:
I don’t think anyone is saying that any of the top schools you have named are not good matches for you. I’m certain that you, like many high-achieving HS students, have thoroughly investigated these schools, and taken them on their merits and not just their “name.” What others in this thread (and I join them) are suggesting is that there may be other schools of equal quality but much lower price tag that you have not carefully considered. I have listed a few suggestions below.
The College of William & Mary
University of Virginia
Rice University
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
McGill University (Canada)
There is a huge middle ground between Columbia and SUNY-B in both price and quality.
Im going to community college and idk how im going to pay for it. My family isnt poor but we arent rich either. Middle class kids are screwed when i comes to a college education.
Did you EVEN look at the FRAKKING date stamp on the OP!!! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Study hard in high school, be very critical in choosing colleges to apply to, take any and all scholarships, don’t expect to graduate sans loans (and therefore, have a plan for tackling those loans once you graduate), and study something that will support those plans.
I did not qualify for need-based loans and I graduated from a $40,000 a year school with 20,000 in subsidized loans. My secret was not blaming being middleclass.
Don’t rule out top tier private schools. They often have a lot of financial aid (not federal but institutional) to give out. I ended up paying less to go to a very expensive private school (in Boston) than it would have cost to go to my local state school (a SUNY school).
Many students assume they can’t afford expensive private schools but don’t realize the quantity of aid that’s available.
Damn. Missed how old the OP was.
Some universities give discounts or reimbursements on tuition to staff. If you find one, try to get some menial job there and get your tuition reimbursed.
Sadly, if your parents earn above a certain income level ($180k?), their income will disqualify you for a lot of the subsidized help. Neither of my children qualified for federal grants or scholarships. Ditto for subsidized and deferred loans; in our case, if we borrowed money, interest would start accumulating the minute it was borrowed.
So, I’ll second the advice to ask your parents to fill in the FAFSA now to see what you qualify for.
If it’s basically nothing but a secured loan, with interest due immediately, then my advice is to not try and divide whatever your parents have saved by 4 years; instead, front load the money into the first years to delay interest from accruing as long as possible. In subsequent years, that means they’ll also have fewer assets to report, which might change what you qualify for.
If your parents have a line of credit, ask if they will loan you money for reduced interest.
Work as much as you can to defray expenses.
Live off campus as soon as possible.
And, finally, I agree with the others to think long and hard about the return on your investment. To come out of college with $75-100k in college loans is a hard way to test out independence. It may be in your best interest to forget about the top schools. You wouldn’t be the first person who couldn’t afford something they wanted.
Congratulations on making outstanding grades and good luck to you!
Oops. Well, either he figured out how to pay for college, or the zombies ate him.
She’s NEW. Give her a break.
Chillax. Jesus, did a zombie thread steal your teddy bear when you were a child or something?
New NOT illiterate!
And not against the rules to revive a zombie, so take it easy.
It’s not against the rules to revive a zombie thread, so dial back the outrage a bit.
Strong suggestion - take your first year or so at a community college. Do your academics, like history, English, foreign language, etc. They are much cheaper and the credits will transfer to your four year degree school, where you can finish out your degree.
Hell’s bells, I usually notice that they’re zombies before they lure me in!
I wonder what the OPer did do. Can someone track him down like a bloodhound and force him to report in, please.