Any chance of JHU adopting reduced tuition programs like many Ivies have recently?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
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<p>Originally, I only planned to apply to 3-4 schools anyway, so application fees wouldn’t have been a huge concern. I wasn’t extremely concerned about my chances of getting in; I knew that based on my stats, I had a pretty good shot (not trying to sound arrogant or anything). The reason I applied ED was because JHU was in fact my dream school, and I wanted to know the decision as soon as I could, and perhaps get considered again for RD if somehow I got deferred. The fact that this decision would cost me 50k+ per year with zero financial aid was definitely not that clear to me, especially since all the representatives from JHU and other colleges (I asked specifically) stated that ED students are in the same finaid situation as RD students…</p>

<p>Well, apparently not. Because I had to withdraw all other offers, I only got one (EA from Case Western) scholarship decision back in time. And I’m almost completely sure that JHU won’t do anything to consider or match that offer.</p>

<p>I guess I’ll consider it a lesson learned, albeit a very expensive one.</p>

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<p>You’re allowed to back out of an ED contract if you don’t get enough estimated finaid… contact the office of financial aid and tellem you want mo’ money.</p>

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<p>Backing out of ED is not an option right now…that would basically mean not going to college for a year or going to an in-state school, since I’ve already withdrawn ALL of my other apps.</p>

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<p>Contact the office of financial aid.</p>

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<p>996GT2:</p>

<p>I dont get the picture. You are supposed to withdraw the other applications only if you accept the admission and financial aid package. If you are not ready to accept the financial aid package, why did you withdraw other RD applications?</p>

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<p>Good Luck with the office of financial aid. We were in a similiar situation, we make a little over $100K a year, but after expenses and taxes our take home barely covers our current bills ( we have a large debt due to a real estate loss we took years ago ) We were hoping for ANY aid, but received nothing. We thought there must be some error, so we contacted financial aid and they had us resubmit everthing, and they came back with $3200 in work study!! We have had to take a PLUS loan to cover costs, and my husband and I just plan on working until we are 95!</p>

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<p>Yeah, the financial aid office isn’t exactly the most generous in handing out need based aid…the only thing I qualified for in the acceptance letter was $3000 worth of loans. </p>

<p>twosonmom, have you filled out FAFSA? From what the financial aid office informed us during my parents’ conversation with them, FAFSA wouldn’t do much more than give the option of a few loans (with interest).</p>

<p>Best case scenario would be if JHU offered a finaid program like many competing schools have done recently…or if I got a merit scholarship, but chances of the latter are pretty slim since only about 25 out of state students get those, compared to some 100+ people who enroll in the already hard to get into BME program</p>

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<p>Regarding the FA package, my wife and myself also plan to work until 95 and without any vacations.
What I don’t understand in this process is that if FAFSA doesn’t count in this decision [at least at private colleges and especially in the ED process], CSS gives usually a higher EFC due mainly to home equity [which, btw, drops every day now], and all is based on somebody’s assumption that you can pay a certain amount/month in loans [similar to the car salesman’s approach “tell me how much you want to pay/month…” only that in this case you can’t negotiate], why all this fuss about these forms? Just to add to the complexity and confusion of the application process?</p>

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<p>rovision, I was smiling as I read your post… the schools have you fill out all these forms and send in all these tax schedules, you panic that you are not getting things in on time. I was down at the post office on, what seemed to be, a daily basis mailing out a new stack of documents, and then we get NADA! The worst was one school, which shall remain nameless, actually had a person call us up and told us they had gone through our paperwork and told us they needed just a few things more. We were thinking that was “good” news, must be promising if they are still asking for stuff. Off to the post office I go… our financial aid package… NOTHING!!
It is a very time consuming process, I would think there has to be an easier way.</p>

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<p>:) sounds exactly how I feel!
I guess at a point in time somebody thought that government needs to get involved in this “need based” fin aid process [which might not be bad], but the result as in other cases is an inflated bureaucracy, which by itself maintains this paper trail and lives off it.
How much money would colleges save by only reducing this overhead!?
Now the intermission is over, back to making money for paying that long term PLUS loan that I’m supposed to afford!</p>

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<p>I feel it is important to clear up some misinformation posted on this thread:</p>

<p>(1) The financial aid office DOES NOT BARGAIN NOR NEGOTIATE. They will absolutely accept a phone call to discuss one’s personal situation, but in the end the formulas for determining packages are what they are.</p>

<p>(2) Every school has different ways of determining which students should receive merit-based aid or their in-school need-based grants. Because one school offers X does not mean the other school will offer the same … actually that rarely happens. </p>

<p>(3) It is not about how much money a school has for aid, it is how that school decides to distribute that money. Some schools put a lot more in merit aid; others focus almost solely on need-based aid. Some focus on funding specific types of incomes, specific types of students, etc. Financial aid policies vary from school to school greatly!!!</p>

<p>(4) If the financial cost is going to be an issue, YOU SHOULD NOT APPLY EARLY. The Admissions staff at Hopkins clearly states this. Early plans (especially binding ED programs) are not for those students who want (or need to) weigh offers from schools. </p>

<p>(5) The financial aid calculator exists to help those before applying. It is typically quite accurate. </p>

<p>(6) I can’t state this any more clearer – the financial aid packaging of a student applying to Hopkins will be the same no matter if admitted Early Decision versus Regular Decision. The process, the formulas, the packaging are the same. You are not going to get more money or less money by applying ED. </p>

<p>(7) If you back out of your ED contract for financial reasons, you can not then weigh other offers and later accept your ED admissions. If you withdraw from ED, you are withdrawing all together your admission. </p>

<p>(8) Because Harvard, Yale, and a number of other institutions are offering new financial aid packaging systems, does not mean other schools will be doing this immediately. There are only a handful of schools able to do this right now – a handful. Using a term like many schools changing their financial aid policies is just not accurate.</p>

<p>As far as the discussion about financial aid policies and the bureaucracy involved, I can sympathize with you all. Unfortunately, the system is what it is across the country for almost all schools and in can be frustrating. I assure you that if you invest the time and energy in making the right decisions and having a bit of patience things will work out. Nearly 15 years ago my parents and I were having very similar conversations, but it all worked out for me through loans, scholarships, and just a bit of debt.</p>

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<p>Does anyone know what their EFC was when applying? I used the EFC calculator on JHU’s site and several places, and my family’s EFC never exceeded about $100k even when the absolute best-case scenario was entered into the calculators. Do they simply expect you to borrow the other $100k?</p>

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<p>EFCs are typically displayed as your ANNUAL Expected Family Contribution, not the Expected contribution over 4 years. If your EFC was around 100k, that means $100,000 per year.</p>

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<p>996GT2:
As you were told: your need-based aid is not changed, whether you apply ED or RD. What is different is that during RD round you can hope to get a lot of merit money at other strong schools. WUSTL gives a few full tuition scholarships, for example. There are also schools that give need-based aid to families tht do not qualify for it on CSS or FAFSA. Ivies have their own calculators. If JHU is your dream school to an extent that you would choose it over a free ride at WUSTL or a decent aid at Princeton - ED is for you. If your parents would agree to pay in this case - ED is for them. And 100K is for one year. To get this number you have to have a lot more than an upper middle class income. </p>

<p>rovision:
See what the acceptance rates will be for RD. They will be MUCH lower than for ED, unfortunately. Bad year.</p>

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<p>Their take home income, combined, is < $100k…but the JHU estimator came up with an estimated efc of 100k…it doesn’t seem to add up right to
me…</p>

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<p>There has to be a mistake somewhere. Go over the figures again.</p>

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<p>If your family has a lot of money in assets and savings, that could be skewing the numbers. Large amounts of savings are factored into your EFC.</p>

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<p>Just recalculated using the most recent tax data straight out of TurboTax, as well as verified figures for savings, investments, etc. The finaid.org calculator (using institutional methodology) gave an EFC of around 46k, so I guess the Hopkins estimator was way off. Going to call the finaid office tomorrow since I’m supposed to get at least 6-7k of need based aid according to finaid.com.</p>