<p>@iLoveNewYork2015
What is your final guess on financial aid given your circumstances? I started to read the thread but there were too many people getting on their soap boxes.</p>
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<p>I think you came a little late to the party. :D</p>
<p>@PnwParent: my EFC was about 02250</p>
<p>My grandpa went to Fordham, straight out of Slovakia. Wonder how selective adcoms were back then hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaha</p>
<p>This process is a bit unnerving…first time for us. D wants to go to a private University, we committed to pay full ride equivalent to a State school. Hopefully one of the five private schools she applied to will offer enough grants. April can’t come soon enough:) Good luck everyone!</p>
<p>iLove – an average is only an average, as you know. </p>
<p>On the FAFSA – yes that is a formula—what we did about it with the first daughter, and are doing now, is:</p>
<p>Took all the bills for things which we could do nothing about, for the past year—electric, unreimbursed medical, heating oil, propane gas, pump out of septic, tuitions, etc. Copied and stapled together with a polite covering note. Sent to Fin Aid office.</p>
<p>This is not counting things like car loans or charge cards, which are discretionary and considered “consumer debt.” The best thing to do is time your car purchasing so the loan is paid off before the kids go to school!</p>
<p>They have to use formulas for regions of the country which are averages—everyone knows the NY metro area costs more than say, rural Iowa, for a family of four. But your actual cost of living might be higher or lower than that average for your region. If you give the FA documentation of your actual real expenses of the things you cannot change, then they see them. They might not decide to award you aid more favorably anyway, but at least they have the info. </p>
<p>They have to use the FAFSA numbers for any Federal monies they are disbursing (eg Pell grants). But they can use whatever they want for their own monies, such as their school’s merit scholarships or their own fin. aid grants or loans. If you give them the actual info on your real expenses and it is higher than a table of averages, at least they have seen it. It worked for us.</p>
<p>Thanks JRZ, finally a helpful answer! lol</p>
<p>does anyone know when we hear about the FA packages? is it before the May 1 deposit deadline?</p>
<p>Financial aid should come out during the first week in April.</p>
<p>To OP, through our experience, Fordham gives an less than desirable financial aid package. Our EFC was pretty low and they offered us 10k and wouldn’t up it at all. Of course my D was not at the top of the heap for merit, so I am talking strictly financial aid due to need. If you have great stats, perhaps they would add something on for merit, but if not - have a second choice (and not NYU, which is much worse for financial aid).</p>
<p>Sorry everyone, I have another question: A few days ago I got an e-mail about “IDOC” saying that my parents have to fill out their tax returns, but my dad says he doesn’t fill his out until August because he owns a business. What does this mean?</p>
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<p>Individual taxes are due April 15th for the previous year. Have your dad figure out how much money he made in 2010.</p>
<p>August seems like an odd number. Does he file for extensions? Those are extended until October.</p>
<p>Yes, he files for extensions.</p>
<p>I don’t have anything that Fordham requires iDOCs. I’ve sent mine in for 3 other schools.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think two of mine require them. My dad is going to call all the schools I applied to tomorrow just to make sure.</p>
<p>i actually found fordham to be very generous with financial aid. i think they met my entire EFC with what they called “gift aid.” i’m not 100% sure on the specifics of it but it looks like i dont have to pay any of it back (i mean they called it a gift, right?) what they awarded me made fordham entirely affordable for me and if i win even one or two or the seemingly endless number of scholarships i applied to, i may not even have to take out loans. i understand that not everyone will have the same experience as me but i think most people should get fairly generous packages because my family is by no means impoverished, in fact i think we are at the very center of the “middle class.” the only thing i can think of that could have qualified me for the great aid i received is my SAT scores which were well above fordham’s average apparently.</p>
<p>but anyway to summarize, don’t rule any school out based on price until you actually see the package you get. especially private schools like fordham which generally have a larger endowment to work with. you never know what qualifies you as deserving</p>
<p>rishi206 - congratulations! I think to have your entire EFC met with gift aid, must mean your stats are excellent. My daughter got a nice package (w/o financial aid info yet-I guess sometime in April) but it is no where near meeting our need - let alone cutting into our EFC. We will keep our fingers crossed anyway.
Good luck in the rest of your college process!</p>
<p>@ susancani
thanks a lot! i wouldn’t say my stats were excellent though, my GPA was pretty average when i was accepted but my SATs were pretty good so maybe thats what did it. good luck to you too!</p>
<p>I think the real question when deciding to come is… Can you affordham it?</p>
<p>“I think the real question when deciding to come is… Can you affordham it?”</p>
<p>hahaha thats clever</p>