<p>This reminds me of bargain shopping in a discount store.</p>
<p>“60% off the lowest ticket price”, well it still costs $$. Too bad they don’t do 90%. Let’s move on, hon.</p>
<p>Tilgaham -
Not only does it not seem to, it doesn’t. I think I see now why you are saying that, it is a misunderstanding you have about scholarships, EFC and the total cost of college. Let’s look at the general picture, ignoring for a moment that you qualify for the no-loan program.</p>
<p>If college costs $50,000 list price, the student just got a 50% discount, pretty much as PCP says. Naturally the school expects the student (and family) to pay the rest, and if their EFC is $10,000, the school will work with them to finance the remaining $15,000. Now in your case if you do indeed qualilfy for the no-loan program, that $15,000 (actually closer to $17,000 this coming year probably) is taken care of so that you come out loan free. That’s $42,000 a year out of $52,000 that the school is covering. You are actually getting a better deal than a DHS winner that doesn’t qualify for the no-loan program since the DHS “only” covers tuition. I know $10,000 a year is a lot of money, but in the general scheme of things it is a pretty sweet deal! If nothing else changes with your family’s financial circumstances, that will be about $170,000 you didn’t have to pay over 4 years.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that you can look at financing some or all of that $10,000 so that it doesn’t impact your family as much. So let’s say your family does $5,000 a year and you borrow $5,000. That’s $20,000 of debt coming out of school. Not trivial, but well within what a lot of students take on as undergrads. And for a Tulane education and experience? It’s a good deal.</p>
<p>Colleges have to expect families to pay what they can. Otherwise they are out of business.</p>
<p>Tilgaham: You are correct that in your case the scholarship makes no difference. But circumstances can change, and the EFC gets re-examined every year. In some cases that could make the scholarship quite valuable.
$10,000/year is a great price for what you’d get at Tulane, especially including room, board and travel. Regardless of EFC, you know best what your family can afford. If you’re serious about Tulane, I would contact the Tulane financial aid folks directly and discuss it further with them.</p>
<p>fallenchemist, excellent post.</p>
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<p>Or if they are Olin College or Cooper Union.</p>
<p>Thanks PCP - yeah, I knew when I said that there were some very limited exceptions. I figured it was generally true enough to not throw in the few distracting disclaimers.</p>
<p>PCP-
I thought I read somewhere that due to the economy, Olin was changing its policy about COA.</p>
<p>I heard the same too, but I haven’t heard what the new plan is or when they the plan to change.</p>