<p>The short version is that Olin's COA is just over $60K. They give every student a half-tuition scholarship in the amount of $20K. That leaves $40K to pay. They meet demonstrated need based on FAFSA EFC but our FAFSA EFC is more than we can afford by a fair chunk. </p>
<p>So... I'm thinking this is a "we can't afford this school" situation and we shouldn't even visit. But it's a very unique school that I think might be the perfect fit for S2. So I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas.</p>
<p>S2 hasn't been much of a "go-getter" thus far, but might be motivated by a "dream school" (if he indeed ended up loving the place as much as some kids do) and try to find ways to earn a bit more than we've projected for him to. And I wouldn't be adverse to co-signing a <em>small</em> amount of additional loans for him. </p>
<p>So I guess the question is: should we just walk away and not get his hopes up, or should we visit and see if he loves the place and if that motivates him to help find ways to make it work. Of course, he might also hate it and render the whole thing moot.</p>
<p>What ways could he help make it work? He could take a job over the summer (~$2K), take a Stafford loan ($5.5K) and what else? Can you afford $30K? If not I would put this on the unaffordable list.</p>
<p>I’m thinking of things like hustling for a few outside scholarships to help with at least the first year (I know they’re usually unrenewable) and maybe the ability to make more during summer internships after beginning the program. (That was why I originally posted in the Olin forum – I figured they’d have more specific information about what an Olin student is likely to net from a summer internship, and how much they can make working on campus during the school year.)</p>
<p>And as I’ve said, we would also consider co-signing a small amount of additional loans for him. I know everyone says they’re a bad idea in general though.</p>
<p>We looked at Olin and crossed it off our list. Students love the school but there is no way we can pay the remaining balance of $40K/year. DS wants to graduate without any loan debt so he is casting a wide net for schools that award, at the very least, full tuition scholarships. I am not in favor of taking out loans for your children’s college education. I have friends who have done so and it has affected them greatly in a negative way.</p>
<p>Well, you have Olin at the $40K mark. Look at Cooper Union which would be about half that or less. Look at state schools with good engineering programs and schools where your son might have a chance at merit awards. How much have you decided that you can pay?</p>
<p>We can pay ~20K/year We have several schools that should be doable with merit (especially if he makes NMSF, which is possible but nothing we can bank on) though few of them are state schools as UVM doesn’t offer much merit, and OOS schools don’t generally offer a lot for OOS.</p>
<p>this question was specifically about Olin, though, since it is quite unique.</p>
<p>Is Olin’s uniqueness worth 20K/yr more than an alternative school? I guess you’d have to say what makes it so unique in a positive way for your kid. My kid wouldn’t like it since it’s not a traditional college environment. It’s a small tech focused school, so you’re always with other kids in like majors. Not much diversity of people. </p>
<p>If kid made NMSF cutoff then making finalist is pretty much a given as long as they have decent grades and get a decent (doesn’t have to be super high) SAT score they make NMF. Something like 95% of semi-finalist make finalist.</p>
<p>Cooper Union extremely competitive to get in. Better have 2300+ SAT and be in top 1% of HS class.</p>
<p>you’ve been around CC long enough, you should realize outside scholarships are pretty tough to get in any significant amount. Not something I’d count on. Internships are touch go get after only freshman yr, maybe after sophmore year yes, but then he’d probably be living away from home that summer so the living cost would eat a good chunk of it.</p>
<p>Sounds like an engineering major, what are stats so I can reply with my opinion based on my search last year.</p>
<p>Olin is pretty competitive too. I believe they still have a semi-finalist round where the students are invited for a weekend on the campus and then they are whittled down to the finalists. Ultimately the decision is based on your ability to take on debt for yourself and your child. If you are willing to do so, then go ahead and visit Olin.</p>
<p>I have an older son who just finished freshman year in engineering, planning to major in CS. He had to hustle, but he did get himself an internship where he will clear about $6K after taxes and living expenses. In his case he will be able to use that to make his student summer earnings contribution and also reduce his loans for sophomore year. I don’t know what’s typical for Olin students, and it may be easier to get early internships in CS than other engineering disciplines. But it’s certainly not unheard of for engineering students to get decent-paying internships. So… wondering if that’s a realistic thing to plan on or not.</p>
<p>And I do think some schools are worth paying more for than others. My older son had some options (based on NMF scholarships) where he would have only been responsible for his books and incidentals. He chose Cornell where he also has to make a contribution from his summer earnings each year, and take on up to $7500 in loans per year. (We do not co-sign for those – Cornell offers loans on top of the Staffords.) </p>
<p>Whether Olin is worth paying a lot more for, I don’t yet know. But if there’s no way we can manage it, then it’s not worth even visiting and learning whether the kid will fall in love with the place, or will find it too small, too limited, etc. Because I don’t want him falling in love with a place that is definitely out of reach, obviously.</p>
<p>It’s good your son was able to get a 10K 3-month summer job after only freshman year. But don’t expand your sample size of 1 to thinking thats common. I’d say it’s pretty rare to get that kind of money after only 1 year, even in CS. That’s like winning a lottery ticket, not something to be basing financial planning for college on.</p>
<p>^^^ Although we weren’t expecting it for S1 after freshman year, my impression is that it’s not uncommon for CS students at his school, for those students who make it a priority, which S1 was doing for career reasons more than financial. Definitely not akin to winning the lottery, though certainly risky to have to really count on. So, we’re wondering what <em>is</em> common for Olin students their first summer (I’ve asked over there).</p>
<p>Hugs, Mathmomvt. It’s tough when you are in that situation, and you have to make the call, given the risks involved. We did visit schools that we knew would be too expensive, with our kids, and they were good about throwing them off the list when they offered nothing to make it affordable. It would have hurt if they had fallen in love with any of them. But then again," nothing ventured, nothing gained". Or as they say about the lottery, “You gotta play to win”. We did get a few surprises each time where a school that we thought was out of reach, threw in a $10k award. My recent college graduate went to his surprise package school and though his brother did not, it really was a nice thing to get that award that made a school a possibility.</p>
<p>cpt, we did that with S1 – applied to some schools we thought we could not afford with the caveat that we would probably have to toss them out once the packages came through, but you just can’t know for sure in advance. S1 took this to heart and and held all his schools at arm’s length until he knew what the financial reality was going to be. In this way he was able to dispassionately toss the schools that didn’t offer a doable package. Perhaps I’m over-romanticizing Olin, but I get the impression that this is a school that some student really fall in love with, particularly with the CW as a required part of the process. In fact, I’d imagine that a kid that was holding Olin at arm’s length and not getting attached would not end up being accepted – I’m sure they can easily see which kids are really passionate about the place when they visit for CV. And I don’t want to put a kid through getting emotionally attached to a place that is very unlikely to be affordable. So I think my DH and I need to first have a discussion about whether Olin might be “worth it” for this kid enough for us to consider tapping additional resources, or whether we should just eliminate it from consideration now.</p>
<p>You would be surprised at how much the financial aid office would be willing to help your family out. I wanted to go to a college that was a private catholic school. It’s around 40k to attend and the school offered to help pay for more than half of the costs. Even though the cost went down greatly, there was still a lot for me to pay. I scheduled an appointment to meet with the Dean of financial aid and after much discussion the cost of going to the school went down to around 6 or 7k.</p>
<p>You are better than we were with our first. We paid it when we should not have. We just wanted too badly to give him exactly what he wanted. ANd we are literally still paying for it.</p>
<p>Bmore, it’s all well and good when the surprise is that the financial aid office comes up with what you need, but too often it is the other way around. Some of us have been that way, and the pain just isn’t something we want to repeat experiencing.</p>