<p>So this past weekend I was fortunate enough to be accepted into Emory University under Early Decision I. Bad news is after filling in my CSS profile and sending last year’s taxes I was estimated to receive only $4500 in financial aid (and this is only due to the statewide Zell Miller Scholarship). Even granted my parents make about $130,000 a year (I am not trying to sound like a greedy or selfish person), don’t you think $60,000 a year including board and living is a lot? I don’t believe me and my family can afford that much, but I really do want to go to Emory University as well as abide by the Early Decision contract. What are my options? I doubt I will receive a merit based scholarships from Emory itself. Can I talk to the school? Should I start looking at outside scholarship? And most importantly is it common for students to be paying this much to go to a private college like Emory?
All guidance is appreciated. Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Is the aid that you have received significantly different than what was projected when you ran the NPC before applying?</p>
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<p>Yes, quite common. Many expensive schools like Emory tout statistics that say something like “45% of the students in this year’s freshman class are benefiting from financial aid.” That means that about half of the students get no financial assistance.</p>
<p>Run the NPC for Emory and see if it matches up with your financial aid package. if it’s way off, contact Emory and let them know, and see if anything can be resolved. Also run NPCs for some other schools on your list and see if they come out similar to Emory’s NPC and financial aid package. If the NPCs come out with expected contributions more than what your family can afford or want to pay, you need to be looking at some different schools. Also if your family owns a business, you have a NCParent, unusual financial circumstances, the NPC might not be accurate for you. Regardless, you need to find out if this is truly what schools are going to expect you to pay, and if that’s the case, you need to look hard for schools that have low sticker prices and/or big merit money because you aren’t going to get the financial aid you want. </p>
<p>Your old thread looks like you tried to run it before but maybe didn’t do it right. Pjus you said there your parents make 150k plus. You can try to run it with your parents and go over the numbers and talk to the college.
<a href=“What is an average financial aid package? - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>What is an average financial aid package? - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>If you apply to an expensive school with a high income your ‘need’ is low. They expect your parents to have saved for it, pay some with current income and maybe you to take your student loans, have a student contribution etc. Your family income is not in a place to afford that price college without significant savings. Except for super aid college like Harvard maybe. ED was not a good strategy for people looking for best offers. Were you expecting 20k in aid like the thread said and your parents will pay the rest, so you are running 15k short or what can they pay?</p>
<p>You need to know your parent income. $150,000 is different than $120,000. Your family contribution on a $150,000 income could very well be $50,000. </p>
<p>Also, what are your parent assets? What is the equity in your home? Do you have college savings?</p>
<p>All of these impact the amount of need based aid you might receive.</p>
<p>How much CAN your parents pay per year?</p>
<p>@MiddKid86 I agree with thumper1, in addition to income, colleges look at other factors for need-based aid. As for Emory stats, here are links to need-based and merit aids data specific to Emory:
<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1039”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1039</a></p>
<p><a href=“College Navigator - Emory University”>College Navigator - Emory University;
<p>And CC’s Ask the Dean has a great piece on Aid and ED:
<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/000198/”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/000198/</a></p>
<p>And here is one on asking for merit aid…
<a href=“Seeking Better Merit Aid Scholarships”>http://www.thecollegesolution.com/asking-for-better-merit-aid-scholarships/</a></p>
<p>Lastly, yes, contact Emory. It doesn’t hurt.</p>
<p>Hope this helps. Good luck!</p>
<p>I don’t think MiddKid is disagreeing with me. </p>
<p>The reality is…this student needs to know very accurately the parent income. At some schools, need based aid is more generous at some numbers than at others. It is very possible that a school would provide VERY significant need based aid to a family with an income of $120,000, and much LESS generous need based aid to a family with an income of $150,000.</p>
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<p>I think that @eCoachJen has me confused with the OP.</p>
<p>You are correct. I didn’t even realize it until you pointed out. Thank, @MiddKid86 : )</p>
<p>i’m so new at all these discussions. thanks for your patience. when you talk income and need – is it generally your adjusted gross income? and in the situation above, does 30K really make a big difference? </p>
<p>FAFSA uses the AGI with ‘add backs’ like 401k contributions for the tax year (not total in 401k), certain credits, business credits, etc. Actually, just a few thousand can make a difference for Pell or other need based awards, although usually at a much lower rate, like the difference between $50k and $55k (over that, most don’t get pell)</p>
<p>When you get north of $100k, it’s hard to get much aid except for the really big endowment schools. Merit money, yes, but not usually financial based aid.</p>
<p>What other options do I have to lessen the cost? I do definitely want to go to this school but I would need anywhere from 10-15k of support from an outside source.</p>
<p>Bgbg…yes…$30,000 in income can make a huge difference. Some schools have excellent need based programs for students with family incomes below a certain amount.BUT if your income is higher, the generous programs go away.</p>
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<p>Here are some options:</p>
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<li>Merit Based Scholarships: Does Emory have any merit-based scholarships that you can get? (In this context, ‘merit’ usually means a scholarship that is not based on need, usually awarded on the basis of SAT scores, high school GPA, or some kind of competitive application process. [this</a> link](<a href=“http://apply.emory.edu/apply/meritbased.php]this”>Types of Financial Aid | Emory University | Atlanta GA) <– contains useful information about their merit scholarships. Unfortunately the one at that link needed to be applied for by November 15 which means that it is probably out of reach (hmm, maybe I should not have mentioned it then) but maybe there might be others lying around that are not as big but will help you with the 10-15K that you want. </li>
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<p>Some departments have scholarships designed to attract underrepresented groups to specialized disciplines, so check to see if your major/academic department at Emory extends some kind of support. Also, consider going beyond Emory to community groups in your area. I am normally a big detractor for things like Fastweb or Cappex which I see as being as unproductive as playing scratchoff lotto tickets but local scholarships – especially local RENEWABLE scholarships – are the next best thing to institutional aid.</p>
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<li><p>Loans???: Have your parents nailed down how much they can pay per year? Anyone can get an unsubsidized Stafford loan directly from the Education Department. For freshmen it’s somewhere around $5500 which is not as much as you say you need but brings you closer. If you have a job during the school year and during the summer you might be able to get a couple of thousand more in by the time you start school (many if not most schools don’t need you pay the bill until close to the semester’s start, so you can use the coming summer for work too). Worst case scenario, your parents may also be able to take out a Parent Plus loan. or some kind of personal debt on their own. I personally despise them on principle but </p></li>
<li><p>Play with the numbers: Also, one thing I could recommend is to comb through the Cost of Attendance on your student bill for obviously inflated numbers. A lot of schools tend to pad those numbers (my COA for my undergraduate program somewhere close to $1200 for travel expenses – it cost me MAYBE $200 total in gas to drive from school to home and back over the course of a typical year; books are another expense that you can manage.) What you really want to boil down your costs to are things that are DIRECTLY billed to you – tuition, room, and board. The rest are manageable and that might help bring the cost down for you since you can control exactly how much you spend on miscellaneous line items.</p></li>
<li><p>Installment plan: Sometimes, your parents have enough money to pay the tuition but just not all at once. Let’s say the school costs $60,000 – if your parents can pay $50,000 up front, the remaining $10,000 can be paid in monthly installments over the course of the semester. If Emory offers such a plan it might be worthwhile especially since you can take a job to help with those payments. To me, even though installment plans usually carry fees they are much better than taking out a loan for such an amount in terms of overall cost.</p></li>
<li><p>Rescind the agreement: The school can’t actually force you/your parents to spend more money than you actually have. If the school is financially unaffordable for you then that’s just that and you have to go somewhere else. It sucks, but that’s what happens sometimes. Most schools don’t meet full need even for poor kids.</p></li>
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<p>That being said, yeah, $50,000 for an expensive school is not uncommon and if your income is the six figures need-based aid tends to dry up pretty fast barring special circumstances at most schools.</p>
<p>If you really can’t get the numbers to work and attending would be cost prohibitive then the best thing might be to back out of your ED agreement.</p>
<p>“Even granted my parents make about $130,000 a year (I am not trying to sound like a greedy or selfish person), don’t you think $60,000 a year including board and living is a lot?”</p>
<p>That’s why people should only apply to schools that they can afford. At that income, there are many schools that ARE affordable. </p>
<p>That’s why I don’t go into a Mercedes or even a Buick dealership when I need a new car… I go to Toyota or Hyundai. And why my daughters looked at state schools (not our flagship - Penn State) and schools that offered generous merit scholarships.</p>
<p>If your parents cannot/will not pay for Emory, you need to notify the school, cancel your agreement, and apply eleswhere. </p>
<p>You cannot afford this school if your parents are not in position to pay for it. This is a conversation you need to have with them. This is not a one time expense, but an annual recurring one. There is no guarantee that you will get an Emory Merit award as they are very selective . Frankly you should not have applied ED, because had you applied RD, you would know if you got one of those Emory Scholars awards that might make it possible to go there. What you gave up for the additional consideration as an ED candidate is knowing what else you could get.</p>
<p>My advice is to talk to your parents and find out what they can afford, and contact Admissions, your particular admissions officer, thank him/her for the acceptance, and lay it out to the person, asking for help. You can appeal the fin aid and see what comes of it. IF it’s doable, then you are set, but if they cannot meet your family needs with their formulas, you need to request to get out of your ED commitment due to insufficient financial aid which is the failsafe clause to get out of ED></p>
<p>You then pick your other schools more carefully, running NPCs, and makes sure you have a safety school you can afford and that the schools you pick have sufficient merit aid that it’s possible for you to go there. It’s going to be tough to find a school that will give you enough financial aid, given your family income numbers. You need to go for lower sticker price (state schools) and merit awards.</p>
<p>@infiniteevo12 Your parent/legal guardian must have also read and signed the ED agreement. Had they not run the numbers and understood that they could be responsible for 100% of the cost?</p>
<p>If there is only a $15K gap, you can take out loans for $5500 and you can probably earn another $5000 by working summers and during the school year. Just remember that the cost of attendance generally increases from year to year, so what is 15K your freshman year could be 20K or more your senior year. </p>
<p>Lastly, short of resending your ED, I would encourage you to apply for outside scholarships. Some might be only $1k but I know a few people who received several outside scholarships and every bit does help. The downside is that often you must reapply for outside scholarships each year. </p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptance to Emory–I hope you find a way to make it work. </p>