Aid concerns

Colleges and Universities A-Z Barnard College
1

<p>hi, i’m new here, i’ve been following this board for a while and i wanted some input…i hope this is the right place. this is kind of long, so please bear with me. </p>

<p>ok, so i really, really want to apply ED to barnard. i asked my counselor if it was a good idea and she said to try an NPC calculator and if it gave me a good amount, i should go for it.
however, i put my info into an EFC/NPC calculator and was really surprised and disappointed with the results. i know it’s not totally 100% accurate, but it gives a general estimate…my NPC was about $6200 after loans and work-study, which is completely undoable.</p>

<p>my mom makes about $60000 a year before taxes. i think she really takes home about $52000. we have no assets, no savings whatsoever, and we rent our house. seriously, we have nothing. we live paycheck to paycheck…i have two brothers (does the fact one of my brothers is over 18 make them expect my mom to pay more? he lives at home and goes to a technical college). we haven’t had contact with my father in years so he’s completely out of the picture, and they were never married. i’m african american and first-gen. i feel really stupid for thinking my EFC would be less than $1000 when in reality, that’s reserved for families with much lower incomes it seems. </p>

<p>do you think that’s just the final word on it? i mean, someone who makes that amount is definitely going to have to pay around that much at every school, no doubt about it? i’m not questioning how it works, i just need to know so i don’t get my hopes up over nothing. do you think my EFC would be lower if barnard got more information through my financial aid application, or is the calculator information as detailed as they want? i’m really nervous…</p>

<p>i mean, if a school that meets 100% of need (i know it’s based on what they decide you need) is already out of reach, what do i do??</p>

<p>also, i know it’s risky to apply to a school ED if you need a lot of aid. i was starting to make peace with it knowing that you could get out of the agreement if the aid package just isn’t sufficient. </p>

<p>bottom line is, i just want to know, would applying ED would be a waste of time if i know i couldn’t afford anywhere near my EFC estimate??</p>

<p>thanks in advance, all input is appreciated.</p>

2

<p>I’m not familiar with those calculators, but please do write to financial aid!
And besides, if you want it so much, ED away. After all, everyone is human and you can talk to people.</p>

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<p>what do you mean by write? thanks for the advice! i’m still kind of worried, though. i don’t wanna “waste” my only ED chance on a school that i knew was unaffordable from the bat, you know?</p>

4

<p>I completely understand the inclination to apply ED. And the aid Barnard gives may be quite different than what the calculator indicated.
BUT I really don’t think applying ED is a great idea in this case. You really should apply to a broad range of schools and then you can compare financial packages once you get all your acceptances in hand. What you do NOT want to do is apply ED, get an aid package that your mom and you may or may not think is do-able, and then have no idea what options you might have had.</p>

<p>Hopefully, Calmom will chime in here because she knows way more about this than I do, but your dad might be a huge question mark in this. I get that you have not seen him in years and such, but I just don’t know how that would be handled. That might be a very good question for the financial aid department, though.</p>

<p>Best to you! I wish I could help more…</p>

5

<p>As for “writing” financial aid, I’d just call them. You have a very specific situation with your dad that you can ask about.</p>

<p>There have been lots of discussions on here about the “boost” that ED will get you. But Calmom and others will argue that there is really not a “boost”. In fact, the NATURE of the ED pool skews things so the acceptance rate is higher than the RD pool. But if you are not a strong candidate to begin with, Barnard has no reason to accept you ED if they weren’t going to do so RD. Not saying at all that this is the case with you, just the logic of it.</p>

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<p>I’m a single parent and was earning significantly less than your mom while my daughter was at Barnard, and the financial aid required us to pay between $18K-$25K each year. There are other factors coming into play – for example, I am a homeowner and am self-employed – but basically I think that if your mom takes home $52K a year, then that $6200 seems like a reasonable or even low end estimate. Have you done a calculation of what your FAFSA EFC would be? Do you understand that because of the way that financial aid is structured, whatever you are expected to pay in year #1 will go probably go up by at least $2000-$3000 in subsequent years? </p>

<p>Also, just because you think that your father is out of the picture doesn’t mean that Barnard will agree – they could put you through a lot of hoops to waive his information. It’s quite possible that they won’t be able to give you an estimate of financial aid in December because of that issue, even though down the line they may agree that his information is not needed. </p>

<p>Do NOT apply ED. Anyone in your situation should be applying to MULTIPLE colleges in order to maximize your chances to have an affordable option at the end of admissions season.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that Barnard’s estimate of the COA probably underestimates the true costs of attending a college in NYC. That is not true of other colleges – for most colleges, the estimates for incidental costs would be fairly generous. But NYC is another story.</p>

<p>The fact that you are african-american and 1st generation college is a big tip factor, probably much more significant than any possible advantage that one could get applying ED. Keep in mind that the reason that colleges have ED is because they want to lock in enough full-pay or nearly full-pay students to make ends meet. While they are need-blind in theory, that doesn’t mean that they can’t tell the difference between an application coming from a student who comes with money and one who doesn’t. They have a set of priorities during the ED round, and a different set of priorities during the RD round. “Diversity” is probably not the top priority during the ED round – ED is a good time to lock in high stat, strong students who are likely to get into and opt for other colleges down the line. </p>

<p>That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t get accepted ED – but it’s very likely that you would not have a clear enough answer on the financial aid to know all your options.</p>

<p>$6000 is not that big of a barrier – it is quite possible you could get that or close to that in outside scholarships-- so it would make a lot more sense for you to apply to multiple colleges and also spend some time seeking scholarships, so that you will have a more clear financial picture in the spring. </p>

<p>

With your finances, you should not be applying ED anywhere. If you want an early answer, apply to colleges that have nonbinding Early Action (EA). The only thing you are “wasting” is your opportunity to apply to multiple colleges and end up with a wide array of choices.</p>

7

<p>apply anyway. if you love barnard, there’s no harm in trying.</p>

8

<p>thanks so much for the advice, everyone! it’s extremely appreciated. </p>

<p>i get what you’re saying about ED. i don’t think i should apply ED anymore. it’s really obvious that i’m low-income because my essay reflects some of that. unfortunately, i can’t find any scholarships anywhere…i’m just not really accomplished. i’ll just wait and apply RD. i’ll try to find more schools to apply to early action. the thing is, most schools don’t have early action…only early decision. i don’t know. i’ll see. RD it is. </p>

<p>thank you so much!!</p>

9

<p>Palex14, from my daughter’s experience, I’d recommend you also look into Wellesley, if a women’s college appeals to you. It is an outstanding school, and they are much more generous with financial aid. Thanks to help from grandparents, my daughter was able to manage Barnard costs and go where she most wanted to be, but it was hard not to go with Wellesley.</p>

10

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<p>Don’t sell yourself short. If you have the grades to get into Barnard, you have the potential to get a scholarship. I’m not talking about the top end, 5-figure scholarships – I am talking about the community based scholarships, maybe $1000, maybe $2500. It does’t hurt to apply. You can pretty much recycle the same essays you are writing to apply to college with a little tweaking here and there to support the scholarships. The main point is that from your first post, it looks like you are worried about coming up several thousand dollars short for college – not tens of thousands. That’s the area where one or two modest scholarship awards might make a difference for you.</p>

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<p>I agree with Calmom: don’t sell yourself short on the scholarship front. There are scholarship search websites that you can use to help you search out scholarships and apply for them. Do a google search for “scholarships for women”. I found a website called “Scolarshps.com” that seems helpful and there are all kinds of things out there…</p>

<p>Best to you!</p>

12

<p>@notakid thanks for the suggestion! i really only took a second look at barnard and mount holyoke (my other choice) because of columbia/the consortium. i go to all-girls school now and i kind of wanted to get out of that, haha. but i’ll definitely look into it!</p>

<p>@calmom you make a really good point. i don’t have much time, but i guess i could try to find a lot of smaller ones. if i could just find at least 3 or 4 grand, that’d be amazing. i’ll keep looking!</p>

<p>@churchmusicmom: thank you!!</p>

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<p>The problem with scholarships is that Barnard deducts outside scholarship money from what they would offer you based on your financial situation. Can avoid the loan part of the finaid grant, but that’s it.</p>

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<p>From the Barnard financial aid website:</p>

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<p>I am not sure the point of your post, notakid. When Barnard offers a financial aid package, there will be three parts: a GRANT portion(which does not have to be repaid), LOANS (which may or may not be federally subsidized); and WORK STUDY (the student is expected to have an on-campus job). Also, be aware, Barnard calculates the TOTAL cost of attending (including food and travel expenses) when calculating what funds will be required to attend.</p>

<p>So when you say the “problem with (outside) scholarships”, I don’t understand the “problem”. Fact is, they will apply any outside scholarships to the “loan and work portion” of the aid package offered. Any grant awarded will only be reduced AFTER all the loan and work part is eliminated.</p>

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<p>Point was that scholarship doesn’t change the amount of cash you have to come up with before you are allowed to attend Barnard. So if that’s your problem, it’s not solved by scholarship.</p>

16

<p>That’s usually not correct, because the person may still qualify to take loans if the Barnard family contribution amount is higher than the FAFSA.</p>

<p>Here’s an example: </p>

<p>FAFSA EFC: $5000
Barnard required family contribution: $8000</p>

<p>Barnard financial aid (based on $60K COA): </p>

<p>Barnard Grant: $46,000
Loans: $4500
Work study: $1500
Student pays: $8000</p>

<p>Let’s say the student finds $3000 in outside scholarships. Barnard then offers to reduce the amount of the loans to $1500 – but the student is STILL eligible to take the maximum Stafford loan, because even with their FAFSA need is lower than the Barnard determination of need. So the student can do this:</p>

<p>Barnard Grant: $46,000
Outside Scholarship: $3000
Loans: $4500
Work study: $1500
Student pays: $5000</p>

<p>Alternatively, lets assume that the Barnard & FAFSA EFC are the same – let’s say that it is $6500. So without the outside scholarship the financial aid package looks like this:</p>

<p>Barnard Grant: $47,500
Loans: $4500
Work study: $1500
Student pays: $6500</p>

<p>With the outside scholarship it looks like this:</p>

<p>Barnard Grant: $47,500
Outside Scholarship: $3000
Loans: $1500
Work study: $1500
Student pays: $6500</p>

<p>So now the student has to come up with the same amount of cash, but she takes on less debt – or maybe she can drop the work study and use the extra time to focus on her studies. Barnard will definitely work with the student to allocate which funds come from loan vs. work study. </p>

<p>It is true that large scholarships don’t help because they cut into the grant, but the other parts of financial aid: loan and work study – are NOT a gift. The student pays those amounts one way or another, either by taking on loans + loan origination fee + interest after graduation, or by having to work during the school year to earn the money. So the first $5000-$7000 of outside scholarship money does tend to be beneficial because it changes the balance of the financial aid in favor of grants. </p>

<p>There are other cost-savings measure that Palex could take – she might be able to save some money opting for the least expensive available meal plan, for example – so that last $6500 that is labeled “family contribution” isn’t all money that has to be paid up front. </p>

<p>Again, as she now understands, she is much better off if she is able to compare financial aid awards from different colleges, in part because different schools will also offer different cost savings options – those meal plans really can bite you if you are stuck having to buy the most expensive one. (My daughter’s class schedule made it very difficult for her to eat within the main dining hall’s hours in any case – so she was paying for meals she couldn’t eat – she would have been much better off with a points-only plan – and I would have saved a ton of money if instead of a meal plan I could have been sending her regular shipments of food like canned tuna, peanut butter, & ramen from Amazon)</p>

<p>The financial aid is calculated with the assumption that the student is on the full meal plan. I could easily have fed a family of 4 on the money that was charged for the mandatory plan my daughter’s first year – so just the differences in meal plan policy from one school to another can give a student a lot of flexibility in controlling there actual out-of-pocket expenses.</p>