Affording Northeastern - Scholarship question

So I got my fin aid package from Northeastern and it’s not pretty. I’ve got a $27500 NU Grant and $6470 in federal grants. I have to pay almost 34k out of pocket Which is my family’s entire paycheck.

It is my understanding that the NU Grant is need based and will be replaced if I win any outside scholarships. Is that true?

Also, how can I afford NU with out being $120k+ in debt?

The only other offer I’ve got is from Becker College which is 25k a year in loans (ridiculous) and won’t give me the same major I want. Educational quality is just so drastically different.

I’m still waiting on on decisions from BU, Cornell, and Harvard. Suggestions?

What was your EFC on Northeastern’s Net Price Calculator. Do your parents own rental properties or other major assets etc?

Yes my dad owns rentals, that we reported a net loss on. I also have an NCP who reported 0 income and that she will provide $0 to my costs. My EFC was around $560 on the FAFSA, we never used NUs net price calculator

The FAFSA EFC is irrelevant. You need to use the NPC for each school.

@TomSrOfBoston $25,851, which is well over half my family’s annual income.

Northeastern is a CSS profile school. Large assets will hurt your financial aid.

It appears that NU met your demonstrated need according to their criteria.

NE will look at the rentals as disposable assets to pay for your gap. NEU is unaffordable to many students. Divorced parents’ finances cause NPCs to be unreliable, but how come you didn’t run NPCs?
You have no safety schools? The three reaches are very reachy for you. Safeties have to be affordable schools you will get accepted to.

Do not take on large debt for undergraduate school. It is not worth it. If you don’t get enough aid at any of the schools to which you are accepted, go for a good state school.

Do not take on large debt for undergraduate school. It is not worth it. If you don’t get enough aid at any of the schools to which you are accepted, go for a good state school.

We insisted that our daughters had two types of safety schools: Ones that we knew they would get into, and ones that we knew they would get into and we knew that we would be able to afford. Of course some universities (such as our local state university) did fall into both categories.

These numbers look very ugly to me. There is no way that I would take on anything even remotely close to $100,000 in debt for university, or let my daughters do the same. Selling a building to pay for university seems equally horrid. You might get a better offer from a school that you are waiting on, but I wouldn’t count on it. I am wondering if you will need to take a gap year and apply to an economically safe school.

Given that most of your schools are in Massachusetts, I am wondering whether you are also. If so I suppose that you could call Umass Amherst and beg. Also, I just noticed on the Umass Lowell site “The UMass Lowell web application is available through June 1”. Umass Lowell is a pretty good university, IMHO probably pretty close to Northeastern in quality. One option to pursue might be to apply there, with the thought that you could transfer after a year if you don’t like it.
https://www.uml.edu/admissions/apply/fees-deadlines.aspx

I’d say nu is still a notch above Amherst and definitely above lowell. Their job placement is top tier

Did By come through with aid @AgelessFall ?

College’s will base your financial aid package off your dad’s gross income, not the net. If you applied to profile schools, they’ll consider your mom’s income and the value of the rentals too. They won’t care that she doesn’t intend to pay. They’re not going to cover her contribution for her. The unfortunate reality is that if your parents can’t or won’t pay their EFC (as calculated by the colleges), you can’t attend.

If you get a ~$5k Pell grant, the ~$5500/year federal student loan, and save ~$3k by working summers, you’ll have a budget of ~$13k/year. How much can your parents pay without borrowing? If they can’t/won’t pay, you need to look at other options. Do you qualify for a merit award anywhere that would cover tuition? Are there any schools you could commute to from home?

@AgelessFall My son is in a similar predicament. He too is finding schools are very expensive. There is just nothing that can be done. The money is not there and it will be a struggle just to get the loans you need let alone you trying to pay them back. I hate to be such a downer but the schools you listed are not all that cheap at all. Did you apply to a cheap safety school to commute to? Like a Westfield state, Worcester state, Salem state? I ask because even these state schools with R&B is min $20k’s. That too might be too high. Becker is not a cheap option for you.

My son prefers small schools around the 5,000 student body size so UMASS Amherst and Lowell was out for him.

Another option is to locate a school with a rolling admission policy. It will not be a top tier school but you might find one with a good fit. The gap year is an option also.

Good luck.

"I’d say nu is still a notch above Amherst and definitely above lowell. Their job placement is top tier "

Northeastern is not worth a $100,000 debt however. A year or two at Lowell and a transfer to UMass Amherst looks like a much better deal to me.