<p>How do you guys afford the 58k tuition? What's financial aid like at CMU?</p>
<p>...Did you have to sell your liver on the black market?</p>
<p>Kind of worried that I'll get in and then be forced not to attend for financial reasons.</p>
<p>Ive read that financial aid isnt the best at cmu. They dont promise to meet full need. But ive heard that more aid is given to urms and those that cmu wants i.e the stronger accepted students.</p>
<p>They meet full demonstrated need during Early Decision only.</p>
<p>Also not everyone that attenda cmu can afford the cost of attendance. Many take out loans and some eho get in simply dont go because the cost is too high</p>
<p>Does legacy help at all?</p>
<p>No. 10 char</p>
<p>I mean…I had a 20k EFC and received enough aid to have out of pocket pay of 18k my freshmen year. Waiting for my financial aid package this year. (of my aid, only federal loans were loans, everything else gift aid)</p>
<p>But yes…I’m a URM.</p>
<p>CMU doesn’t give need based aid to internationals, so are there any other options?</p>
<p>What about student loans?</p>
<p>My family is able to afford the full cost of college, but CMU still awarded me a half tuition scholarship in merit aid alone. The rest of the package was in fed loans/work study/etc things. I declined the loans.</p>
<p>One thing a lot of people seem to notice is that CMU will give more merit aid to students that they want the most. Of course, this won’t always be the case (my HS GPA is in the bottom 10% of accepted students here). CMU will also match aid from competitor schools – but only if they deem it to be actually competitive. Hopefully many of you will be lucky in this respect D:</p>
<p>However, work opportunities are VERY plentiful. Worst case scenario, CMU will be a financial strain, but not so much that you are so saddled with debt. Last year, FA was very stretched because CMU overenrolled people. This year I doubt they will make the same mistake. Furthermore, its endowment has increased significantly and though tuition has risen, they did say that they would make further efforts to improve financial aid.</p>
<p>As for loans, I heard Obama was signing into law a bill that would cap student loan rates at 10% with a forgiveness plan.</p>
<p>Your GPA is in the bottom 10% of accepted students, and you got a half tuition merit scholarship? You either must have an amazing hook, recruited athlete or something like that…or you are confusing merit aid with financial aid.</p>
<p>Most likely it was need-based financial aid with a merit component. The package included loans and work study, so there is demonstrated financial need. Many people make this mistake; the schools use very ambiguous language, and people respond well to the “merit” terminology in FA packaging.</p>
<p>Does CMU offer any pure merit scholarships at all?</p>
<p>The way merit aid usually works at CMU (from my somewhat limited experience) is that any merit aid you get is subtracted from your total need-based aid. If you are getting $10k in need-based grants, and then the school decides to give you a $4k merit scholarship, your need-based grant will be reduced to $6k, so you’d still end up paying the same. It’s very rare for a student to get more merit aid than they need according to their EFC, unless they are a very, very top student.</p>
<p>Do you guys know when CMU releases its financial aid package? I just got in and am super stoked but i can only go if they extend some pretty generous financial aid. thanks</p>
<p>
Meh. My application shined for the things I did outside of school. But either way, that’s not the point of my post. I wanted to explain that such cases can exist by using myself as an example and that CMU <em>can</em> be rather nice, so it’s worth holding out hope.</p>
<p>Not to mention the employment opportunities. CMU pays their TAs, RAs, peer tutors, computer consultants etc quite well relative to other colleges IMO. There are various other jobs on campus (and off campus, but sponsored by CMU) that have excellent pay. I’m certain the latter jobs aren’t only for work/study students either because I know of several international students at these jobs, too.</p>
<p>As for pure merit aid, hm. I know there’s various scholarships out there within CMU, but I’m not sure whether they’re need-based or pure merit.</p>
<p>How is carnegie mellon with matching other shools offer? I would need at least $20,000 to attend and i received a $33,000 award from rensselaer is there a good
Chance carnegie mellon will match some of it?</p>
<p>
The only ones listed on their website have a need component, other than ROTC.</p>
<p>There are definitely more scholarships than those listed; mine aren’t even on there.</p>
<p>Either way, I’m sure merit aid exists, because there are some rather very well off students (also very academically brilliant) that I know of who have an amazing package. Surely their FA package can’t be need based if that’s the case.</p>
<p>cortana431: RPI is a peer institution so you would want to contact FinAid office. Original aid package for S was about $5000 less than other schools provided. CMU didn’t match but came within about $1000 of these other schools. No harm in asking.</p>
<p>First - That is good to know. How did you hear about your merit aid? Was it awarded as part of the admission process?</p>