My son was admitted to NYU in the ED process for Fall 2017 session. Despite our EFC (expected family contribution) being at exactly 50% of the cost to attend, the school did not offer any aid. With another son already placed in a similar private school in the Northeast, we will be stretching our means even at a 50% contribution.
What can we do at this stage to have the school reconsider their aid decision? Besides reiterating our position based on our FAFSA/ CSS statements, what other talking points matter?
They do not meet full need and will not offer any more than a token amount of grant aid if you appeal the lack of financial aid award.
They will definitely release you from the ED contract. (If the did not award any aid at all they expect that – your son is the recipient of what is sometime called an “admit-deny” – the university doesn’t care whether he enrolls or not and assumes that without aid he probably won’t, but they will be happy to accept his money as a full-pay student if his parents are crazy enough to take on the humongous Parent PLUS loan they have probably suggested).
So make sure your son gets apps into other schools more likely to award need based aid, or where he is likely to receive merit money.
You son was “admit/deny”. He was admitted without given the means to attend, it’s a soft deny.
Cross out NYU. Tell them the FA package is not sufficient and therefore won’t be able to attend. You’ll be “unbound” from the ED contract.
What’s your EFC? And can you afford it or do you need merit money?
If he has the stats to get into NYU, he should consider universities that will consider the fact he has a sibling in college and meet 100% need. Look into Skidmore or Connecticut College, for instance - run the NPC.
You can contact the financial aid office…but don’t expect them to magically drum up the $72,000 cost of attendance…or even half that amount.
The school is costly, and does not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. In addition, they do preferential packaging…meaning more aid is offered to students they really want to attract.
If the school is unaffordable at $72,000 a year…and rising…your kiddo will have to decline the offer of admission.
calmom, thank you. This is exactly what they did. The rolled all the cost under a ‘Parent PLUS Loan’.
MYOS16384 - I thought so to. He could have been admitted only for the money. Our EFC, after FAFSA was submitted for either school (the older one goes to Georgetown) came about $38K for each of them.
MYOS1634: “What’s your EFC? And can you afford it or do you need merit money?”
We can definitely afford the EFC, if it was applied to both sons. I also wonder what the other school (Georgetown) would do to meet the EFC at this time. Will they obliged to provided a need based aid for the cost difference from this point on? (We paid full over the last 2 years, but we were hoping that if both of them have to go at the same time, the ceiling set by EFC will kick in).
Georgetown DOES meet the full need of all students. You should see an increase in your need based aid there when two are in college.you won’t see DOUBLE. Typically, each kid is 60% of the total amount…not 50%.
NYU does NOT meet the full need of all students. They just don’t.
These soft deny letters are tough to take. They really put the parents in a tough bind when the child looks to you like “why can’t I go? Why will you not pay?”. I know it is all a part of being a parent, but to look into your child,s eyes and deny their top choice because you cannot pay hits you hard. If brings up feeling that you let your child down by not being more affluent.
We all have these talks ahead of time about tempering their expectations and explaining that these schools are a financial reach if the scholarship money does not come in but it is still hard. You explain that you have to apply to see if they will give you good aid. There are no guarantees but the kids feel like it is so close to their grasp. Such is life. It is not fair and they need to learn that.
Lots of parents and students going through this same pain this holiday season. Sure makes it difficult.
"They really put the parents in a tough bind when the child looks to you like “why can’t I go? Why will you not pay?”
They sure do, given that we have already paid in full for the first son for two years. I agree, being hard on oneself is a virtue they have to start practicing from now on.
Not sure, based on how this is phrased, if you know this–but the FAFSA EFC is not the same as the family contribution that is indicated by schools’ Net Price Calculators. There is no “ceiling” on what a school can expect a family to contribute no matter what the FAFSA EFC is.
Georgetown might drop from full pay to $45,000 or so with a second child in college, but many schools–and it looks like NYU is one of them–will still expect you to pay (or borrow to pay) full (or close to full) freight. Run the NPC on every school that younger son is considering to get an idea of how much of your need they will meet vs. how much you’ll be “gapped” so you can see what’s affordable.
LuckyCharms913: Yes, it seems like the EFC seems like a mythical benchmark figure that the school NPCs have not regard for. In most cases, the NPC’s estimate of family contribution is significantly higher than the FAFSA estimate of EFC. In this case, Georgetown’s NPC with an annual cost of $70K calculates the family/student contribution at $50K, while the FAFSA/EFC is set at $38K.
The challenge is that neither school Georgetown or NYU use only the FAFSA to determine your EFC. Both schools use the CSS profile which looks at a more in-depth picture of your finances.
In reality the only thing the FAFSA EFC does is determine your eligibility for Federal aid (PELL, SEOG, FWS), which neither of your kids are eligible for.
As others have stated, there is also a difference in financial aid policies; Georgetown commits to meeting 100% demonstrated need. NYU does not meet 100% demonstrated need.
While you may be eligible for some need based aid now having 2 in college from Georgetown (again, that may not happen depending on your income and assets). NYU has determined that either you have no financial need or has given you an admit deny- they have academically admitted your child but will not provide him any financial aid to attend. If you can pay full freight- Welcome to NYU. If you cannot, let them and your high school GC know that you are declining the ED offer and move on.
That’s why there is an “E” in “EFC”. It’s an estimate, and schools are under no obligation to consider the FAFSA calculation at all.
That’s also why the NPCs are much more important. Hopefully you had run the NPC for NYU so these ED financial aid results weren’t too much of a shock. Definitely run the NPC for any other school your son is considering, before you take the time to submit an application. Unless you own your own business (or have another atypical scenario) the calculations will be in the ballpark.
When you think about it, FAFSA is a federal form. The federal gov’t has no right to be deciding how much a school can expect you to pay. That’s why schools don’t have to do much with that number.
I don’t have any advice but I see the awkwardness of telling S2 that you cannot pay for NYU for him after having paid full-freight for S1 for his first 2 years at Georgetown.
Are there any other schools on S2’s list that meet full need? Might he be willing to add some lower-ranked schools to his list that would possibly award him merit money so he can be the “big fish” in the small pond?
Maybe your post will help other families avoid this scenario. I’m sorry you’re in this position and I wish you well as you make the right decision for your family.
@kpt16384 - if it is any consolation, my DD was admitted RD to NYU a decade ago, and while they did offer some grant aid, it came up very short. She attended an admitted-student weekend event and tried to negotiate with the financial aid department… they increased her grant by $1000-- but that was a drop in the bucket. The total was still under $10K – she was Pell-eligible that year so did much better at a school that met full need. She turned down NYU, and in hindsight was very happy that she did so. She felt she got a much better education elsewhere, and that feeling was reinforced years later when she attended NYU for grad school.
I do think it was a good decision on my part at the time to give my daughter the task of negotiating for more aid. I provided her with some documents about our finances, but I let my daughter handle the actual contacts with the financial aid department without me. I knew that NYU wasn’t going to offer more, as they leverage aid in a tiered fashion - so the initial offer told me where she stood. But I think she was more comfortable with turning down her spot because of her involvement with the financial aid office – it wasn’t a matter of mom saying no, instead it was the NYU financial aid department saying no.
You are very fortunate if you can afford a $38K EFC, as it means that your son will probably have many options in the spring. Of course he is disappointed but I think you should encourage him to apply to colleges that may offer merit aid, as it’s quite likely that he will have affordable options where he doesn’t have to rely on need-based aid.
I see @GnocchiB’s point that it could be awkward to have allowed kid1 to attend full pay and have to tell kid2 that he can’t do the same…but, family circumstances do change and kids need to be flexible. Parents lose jobs, or get sick, or (in your case) TWO full pay schools simply were not anticipated.
Don’t expect NYU to provide any additional aid.
If you can’t afford two full pay schools, kid2 will have to accept that. There is still time to submit other quality applications.
It sounds like the family can’t afford to e full pay for either kid - IE., child 1 has two full pay years, then 2 years at 60%, child 2 has two years at 60% full pay, then 2 years at full pay. So it’s even for the kids - provided they both attend a 100% need school… Which NYU isn’t.
The family could say that if child 1 still feels strongly about NYU in two years they can try and make it work then, as a way to soften the blow, but kids tend to bloom where they’re planted and there are very, very few reasons why one might want to transfer to NYU after getting into a great college such as your son can hope to get into.
Look for 'meet need ’ colleges
Decline your ED and get apps in to better, more affordable schools. NYU charges way too much tuition for the product they provide because people will pay. Not worth it- protest with your feet.
