Today was the day that I would receive my Boston University decision. I felt delighted when I logged into the Applicant Link and I saw the words “Congratulations!” I proceeded to check my financial aid and only received $11,000 in aid (all federal). As a student who is below the federal poverty line it would be impossible for me to go to Boston University.
I asked some of my friends and they received full rides and merit scholarships – apparently BU gives money on a first application looked at first served basis. This is what was in my financial aid assistance decision “All available University-funded grants and scholarships have been offered to those who completed their applications earlier.” (My friend applied later than I did by the way). It is disappointing that a university that receives a $1.5 billion endowment runs out of aid money. Hopefully those who give the school endowments run out of money.
Thankfully I have other options. I am majoring in Political Science and have been accepted to all the schools that have released their decision so far. University of Michigan is my first choice not only because they have an amazing political science program but also because they actually gave me aid.
Boston University has an excellent and very transparent net price calculator. Did you use that during your search process? Also, the school does not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. And they state that up front on their financial aid page. In addition, BU uses the CSSProfile to award need based aid, not the FAFSA. If you have a non-custodial parent, or a business, or other assets that don’t show up on the FAFSA, this would also affect your aid award at BU.
It sounds like you have a good other choice in U of Michigan. I hope you are instate there…they meet full need for instate students.
I just posted what I said as a warning to those who were applying in the future to not get their hopes up. Thankfully University of Michigan gave me their grant, im oos, and I will graduate with about 20,000 in loans if I go there.
The school doesn’t “receive” that endowment. The school OWNS that endowment and uses the income from the investments of that endowment to fund aid. They don’t spend down the endowment.
I’m sorry that you didn’t get the aid you need, but did you apply late for aid? Do you have modest scores for the school?
BU is a hit or miss when it comes to this financial aid stuff. I’ve heard this story hundreds of times.
Did you apply before December 1st? If you didn’t, then you have no right to complain. They made it VERY clear that those who apply before Dec 1st will be considered for most (if not, all) merit scholarships.
I applied for aid before the deadlines and my scores were higher than people from my school who got full rides. I have a friend who had the exact same clubs, classes, and lower scores yet she got a full ride. She applied later than I did as well for fasfa, css, and her BU application. That’s all I had to say though. Hopefully one of my reaches accepts me, if not I’ll enjoy my time at U of M which is ranked 4 in the country for my major.
BU is probably worse than NYU in scholarships/aid.
Water rising. I understand that you are disappointed with your financial aid package. But I ask again…does your Profile reflect anything that your FAFSA doesnt…like a non-custodial parent, self employment income…home equity in a primary residence. And did you run the BU net price calculator prior to applying?
I am familiar with BU aid. In terms of merit, the most generous awards are by special application…and none are full rides. The Trustee Scholarship is a full tuition merit award, and unless something has changed, that is the most generous award BU gives in terms of merit. And it is by special application, as is the MLK scholarship.
There are some merit awards that are based on the strength of your application, but those are not even close to a full ride…not close.
In terms of need based aid. The school is clear…they do NOT meet full need for all. They just don’t. And there was never any promise to you or any other applicant that they would.
And the info on the Profile trumps the FAFSA.
BU’s net price calculator is a good one. In fact, BU has had information about merit awards, etc on their website for far longer than many other schools. Their merit award policies, in particular, are very transparent.
I woild suggest you stop counting other people’s money. You don’t know the nitty gritty of their applications, or finances. Even if they share with you…you don’t know.
You have a wonderful choice in Michigan. Instead of dissing a school, why not celebrate your acceptance?
No, that’s actually not accurate unless BU has gotten more stingy compared to a decade ago when some younger friends applied there and NYU. NYU is much much worse in comparison from their experiences and going back around another decade, my own.
Anyways, it doesn’t matter now that you’ve received a much better offer not only financially, but also academically. Enjoy UMIch!
Here on the East coast, many students would give their right arms to get into U Michigan (and at instate rates besides!), which has a significantly better reputation in this part of the world than does BU, so it’s hard for me to understand this hissy fit.
@WaterRising, I understand you’re upset. I’m sorry you didn’t get the aid you wanted at BU. You should be aware, though, that other students and families sometimes give inaccurate information because this is all new to them too. We frequently see people post “full ride” when what they really got was “full tuition.” Or, the parents are told they can apply for thousands and thousands of dollars in Parent Plus loans and should be proud their need was 100% met. Being full pay, or nearly full pay, through expensive loans isn’t having your need 100% met. So take what those other students are telling you with a grain of salt.
@MommaJ, I think many students (especially low income) are led to believe that their college expenses will be paid for due to their income level, esp. if they have good test scores and GPA. I saw a post a day or two ago from a young person who was under the impression that being low income automatically entitled a student to free tuition at whatever school they wanted. It’s a shock to realize it’s just not true.
I think as a society we should commit to not lying to kids about this stuff. Counselors shouldn’t tell kids that there are billions of unclaimed scholarships every year, or that Ivy Leagues give full rides for straight-A students, or that every low-income student gets a full-ride wherever they go. I’m sure they are just trying to encouraging but I feel like students such as the OP end wasting their time tilting at windmills so to speak because they don’t have honest and knowledgable college advising; by the time they sort through the dross on the Internet and make it here they have a lot of implausible expectations.
Also, a $1.5B for a school the size of BU isn’t a lot of money.
Assuming that you can expect 5% annual income from that (you don’t expect an institution that has to plan to live forever to spend down what are essentially its savings, do you?), that’s $75M a year. With 30K total students, that’s $2.5K to spend on each student each year, which is not a lot of money.
I agree it’s tough to decipher some colleges’ FA blurbs. But lots of kids never dig deep enough. I remember wen BU’s wording was, “We’ll help you find the resources.” Too many thought it meant BU was going to find that in their own pockets.
You misunderstand the concept of an endowment. The $1.5 billion is capital they have in a bank acct or in stock/bonds. They income (interest or dividends) they earn from the $1.5 billion is what they spend, not the $1.5 billion itself.
You have no sense of money if you think ANY school on the planet receives $1.5 BILLION in donations every year.
BU totally misrepresents even attempting to spply aid with any uniformity- this is the issue I have- if its random- no transparency no parental notice of why the added $30k to FAFSA EFC and no we have no assets other thsn small retirement snd savings of about 50k mostbschools exempt 401k least to 100k and allow 50k savings somCSS should hsve yielded EFC of 23k BU aid should have been - even if they tried to act like they even tried about $20k- we got $4k merit $4k losns and will take $k in PLUS loans each and every year because we believed US News and BUs web (US News cites BU does not indeed meet full need but AVERAGEs 85% of demondtrated need). When inwuired why our EFC was "apparently $55,00 or 3 times the GAFSA was not given ANY reason - take it or leave it- thats our offer- not you applied late- not that kids SAT was below the 80%ile (was above) gpa 4.0- Web site is bunch of nice cases that some kids get perhaps in depts. they need kids from cherry picked from notion of a diverse locales, not necessarily ethnic. Sorry not a tyrade- its truth people need to be sure to look into eachnschools FA and not maje mistakes we did in trusting farvtoo much data thst is not underwritten with integrity or based in fact.
Okay, for starters, data can’t be “underwritten” - with integrity or otherwise. Just sayin’.
And what exactly do you think that “85%” means? That the school meets about 85% of each applicant’s need? No, not even close. The awards range from 100% (for some students) to 0% (for others). And those are the figures ONLY for the students who decided to attend BU. You can assume that a very large number of the students who decided not to attend BU made that decision because it was unaffordable for them . . . and none of their FA offers are taken into account in calculated that “85%” average. So if you’re looking at all the FA offers extended to admitted students, the average percentage of need met is likely quite a bit lower.
The numbers posted are likely accurate or close to it - but it’s up to you to know what those numbers mean.