Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
HI,
We are moving to Lexington in 3 weeks after a year long plan to do so. We have heard a lot about the instate college tuition being very low for SC residents. Where could I get some info about this?
Thanks
If your child has good grades (B average or better), they can qualify for a lottery scholarship, which will pay part of the tuition at any state-supported college or university. Also, normal tuition is less for South Carolina residents.
I think it's even lower if you attend one that is in-county. I received an extra $900 off for being an in-county resident in addition to being in-state.
Also, I believe you have to be a 1-year resident and have attended a full year at an in-state High School. That is how it was when I went, the same policy may still apply.
I think it's even lower if you attend one that is in-county. I received an extra $900 off for being an in-county resident in addition to being in-state.
Also, I believe you have to be a 1-year resident and have attended a full year at an in-state High School. That is how it was when I went, the same policy may still apply.
In county might apply for Tec schools. It definitely does not apply for normal 4 year colleges.
I graduated highschool in 2000 and college (Clemson, a SC State school) in 2004. At the time, and I believe it is still the case, Life Scholarship was available to all students who take the required courses in highschool (essentially all college prep tracks will have them taking the right classes), and graduate with a B average or better. To keep it through college you have to maintain a 3.0 cumulative (wow you can't abbreviate cummulative...). GPA. You get 1 semester of "probation" if your GPA drops, so if you don't get it back up after the probation period then you lose it.
I understand the idea of Life is that it would pay most or all of the tuition (not room and board) for SC residents at SC state schools. When I started, Life paid $2000 / yr which covered most of the tuition at Clemson. The Lottery was voted through around the same time, and the state cut the budgets to the schools, but increased the scholarships available. Life went up to $3k per year my soph year, and it was $5k by my senior year. Of course the budget cuts required Clemson to raise their tuition rates. Fortunately I maintained my GPA consistently to keep Life, but even the increases they made weren't enough to keep pace with Clemson.
Clemson is the most expensive of all of the public schools in SC, so by choosing to go there you may be choosing to pay a little more than Life will cover. I had friends that went to Lander, and their Life scholarship covered tuition and even some room and board.
I have no idea what the Life amount is today, but I'd definitely look into that. Its one of the few that you can control academically, rather than having to apply and be selected.
In my experience, the State's budgets after the Lottery was introduced was worse than before. Yes they increased the Scholarship amounts for my Life scholarships, but they cut the funding to Clemson that forced Clemson to raise the tuition more. And I was fortunate to keep my grades up. At the time I heard numbers like 50-80% of Life scholars dropped their scholarship because of their grades after the first year. Some get it back later, but if you're irresponsible as a College Freshman, its easy to carry a 2.0 or lower GPA that makes it hard to get your cumulative GPA back over 3.0 before you graduate. The "great lottery funding" forced alot of folks out of school that may have been able to afford it themselves if Clemson hadn't had to raise the tuition because the state cut the budget.
I'm speaking about this all in reference to expereince from 4-8 years ago. If things are different now I'm glad, but thats what happened to me.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
