<p>My son is a rising senior. CMU would be a very good match for him to apply to but it's not on the list because it's unaffordable. Do <em>any</em> students get full rides...ever? Are there any kind of students that might somehow tap into extra aid? URM? Academic/competition superstars? Anyone? We're a middle income family (78K) and CMU is simply out of reach. I had CMU send me a f. aid work up and there were a lot of loans in the aid package. That's just not doable.</p>
<p>Ehh no… If you made 78k I can’t imagine why your aid is so bad. But I still encourage him to apply to peer schools (they sometimes match peer offers) and maybe he’ll get lucky.</p>
<p>Have you run the FA calculator on the FAFSA site? Try that. I think Duke and many other schools at that caliber would consider $78K low income (in terms of aid).</p>
<p>In my experience I believe CMU does give larger grants to URM. Since CMU lacks URMs I’m pretty sure they get larger grants. I received 40k in grants and I wouldn’t classify myself as a top student. I’m actually, according to their test statistics, below the 25% mark. Also, my parents together make at least $120,000 so I’m pretty sure it was need-based. The only conclusion I can draw is from being an URM.</p>
<p>I filled out the form on the CMU site and they sent us something in the mail. Based on the info I gave them, 78K income, 750-100K equity (it keeps dropping so I don’t remember what I put), 0 in savings, 0 other assets, this is what they sent me:</p>
<p>Total costs: 55,855
Estimated grant: 22,099
Estimated loan: 8,125
Estimated work study: 2,500</p>
<p>Estimated aid: 32,724</p>
<p>So, not only are there 8K worth of loans each year (gack!) but they expect us to have
22K sitting around somewhere to use.</p>
<p>No thank-you.</p>
<p>Well the 100k in equity probably screwed you.</p>
<p>Im a white male in the midwest with average scores. My parents made 115k and I got a 34k dollar grant</p>
<p>OP
You should complete a financial aid forecaster at FAFSA.gov and you’ll get the same numbers.</p>
<p>This is the very same type of package you’ll get at similarly priced schools</p>
<p>Loans are student loans-- not parental loans.</p>
<p>Probably a good time to familiarize yourself with the sad reality of how unaffordable private college is for middle class families. CMU is no different from other schools. CHeck on the financial aid discussion area on CC for some of the basics.</p>
<p>With 100k in personal savings- even in equity-- that hardly makes you a poor family as far as the FAFSA/EFC calculation process goes.</p>
<p>Whoa! We have 0 and I mean 0 in personal savings. We own an 1100 sq. ft. home in one of the most expensive cities in So. Cal. and our equity is about 75K right now. We are definitely not poor but at some schools my son is looking at, we are definitely on the lower end of their applicants. The fafsa EFC was around 10K so no, it was vastly different than what CMU estimated. Other colleges estimates are much closer to that than CMU. Thus, CMU will not be on the list. My son will probably have some very good financial choices, at least that’s how we’re designing his college list. Our hope is he’ll somehow (ha!) get into an Ivy where our EFC is around 6K or get into a NMSF school with full pay.</p>
<p>Thanks for the eye opener on CMU.</p>
<p>Physicsdude, interesting that your grant was higher than what was estimated for us. Maybe you don’t own a home? Not all schools take equity into account but clearly, CMU does.</p>
<p>My family makes about 70k. CMU gave me a 36k grant, ~3k work study, and a couple of ~3k loans. We appealed for more aid and got a 2500 scholarship. I think you should definitely apply and see what they end up giving you.</p>
<p>My parents make 156k gross, and I got 30k in grants, 1.5k in scholarships, and 2500 in work study. 5500 in loans. My parents own 2 homes, one primary residence, other investment. However, the houses are now worth less than what we owe on them, and some outstanding circumstances that CMU kindly took into account.</p>
<p>You didn’t say “home” equity in your original post. So, no – home equity is not a factor in estimation of FAFSA, although it is in the CSS Profile which is now used.
That said, I it is either an error or your S’s stats are unimpressive.</p>
<p>Lots of anecdotes here that the CMU estimate is right on target. Was for both my kids.
So if your EFC is that low and you were given this package-- you can apply and hope it’s an error -or you can ask them about it before you apply.</p>
<p>CMU doesn’t promise to meet unmet need and as noted on their website and in many posts by others here on CC, they do place their money in the students they want to attract to build a diverse pool of future leaders. Not all URMS received money-- but yes, at CMU and other schools, money is provided to URMs sometimes when students with similar stats and income don’t receive as generous a package. </p>
<p>The best advice is to ask for clarification given that your EFC was low and see what they say.</p>
<p>What GPA and standardized test scores did you enter in the estimator?</p>
<p>You commented that an Ivy EFC is $6k and CMU EFC is $10k-- that makes no sense. EFC is one number that doesn’t vary by school. It’s generated by FAFSA.</p>
<p>Princeton has their own calculator and it came up with an EFC of I think between 5500 and 6500.</p>
<p>You know, I don’t remember entering my son’s stats when I did the work up. Hmm. AT any rate his SAT is 2320 (800 M, 790 CR, 730 W) and his gpa is 4.0/4.87. He’s taken 3 SAT II, 800 Physics, 760 Math II (took it in 8th grade and will take again next week), 730 in literature. He’ll take 1-2 more SAT II in October. He has some national level stuff (twice physics olympiad semi-finals, AIME, ARML and he’s nationally ranked in chess for his age) and tons of music locally, though mostly just working professionally and teaching but not competing. He also plays varsity baseball (but is doing as lousy as I’ve ever seen him. Ick!) He’s 1/2 Puerto Rican and he’s part time homeschool/part time college with about 60 units of community college and some upper division physics at the local state univ. He should be NMSF (225 PSAT in Ca. will get him to the semis) and NHS (or whatever the National Hispanic Scholarship thing is).</p>
<p>He’s a strong candidate but I honestly don’t think I entered these stats when doing the aid. I just don’t know if it’s worth it for him to apply. It seems like the awards you all are mentioning are pretty good but my dh does <em>not</em> want son to take loans first year. We are in disagreement here.</p>
<p>My son will do some graduate level research in physics at the local state u. this summer and his hope (ha!) is that he can use the research to enter (and win, of course! LOL) one of the science competitions. He’s not done it before so it will be a steep learning curve but good experience no matter what happens.</p>
<p>Well, my parents are home owners. But I have a sister going to a local CC next fall too. Idk why I got such a good package. Originally it was 25.9k grant, then they told me it was changing and it went up to 34k. Hopefully they just reallly want me haha. (I doubt it). I also got a 2.8k work study. Overall, by far my best package. </p>
<p>Btw, your son sounds legit. He’ll probably get in an ivy. I would still apply to CMU. I didn’t do an estimate, so I guess I can’t comment on its accuracy</p>
<p>AHAHHHH Princeton, a beast in and of itself that destroys all the other Ivies in financial aid and admissions. Their endowment is HUUUUGEGGEEE and as such, they took a self proclaimed departure from the agreements Ivies made years ago.
Their package has no loans, and they make a commitment that no family will have to pay more than 10% of gross income on college education. NO and I repeat NO other Ivy league follows their model. Harvard has its own model as well - but not as generous as Princeton. That said, Princeton has a 7% acceptance rate.
Cornell is the least generous of the Ivies-- their financial aid package includes a “student self help” concept-- which is cruel and dishonest – COA- EFC = Unmet need? HA not at Cornell. They add to that package student max fed loans, $2500 freshman summer earnings plus max work study (10 hours a week for freshman) – so basically they add $10k to the EFC before they even meet need. Student self help IMHO should be a reduction to the parental contribution - like, hey kid- help your parents. But it’s hey kid, help Cornell add $1ok to your parent’s EFC. </p>
<p>Your S’s stats are impressive in and of themselves and being a URM makes his stats very attractive to CMU and any school. Your estimator has to be an error. I recommend contacting the head of minority recruitment at CMU. He should have attended the SAMs program this summer-- perhaps not too late if their pool wasn’t strong and spots still open-- why not review that program and if it looks of interest- -have him contact them to see if a spot opened up- the deadline was March 1. He should attend the Diversity weekend in November and line up an interview in advance. </p>
<p>Tell your H- there’s nothing wrong with loans-- the future earnings from CMU and summer internship opportunities will more than pay for these before he even graduates.</p>
<p>Good luck-- you should apply - that package cannot be right.</p>
<p>well, Im a single parent and low income and my son only got $15,000 grant. so I don’t understand there process at all. I don’t own property. He is also a top student. he won’t be going as there is no way he could borrow that much money. There loss.</p>
<p>
If you are a bagpipe double major, i think you get grant money on the order of 8k…</p>
<p>I do if you dont factor in loans. White/Female/Instate/MCS/CIT</p>
<p>My Financial Situation is as Follows: Around 40k gross, family of 6.
Financial Aid is as follows:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon Undergraduate Grant $ 11,419.00
Tartan Tradition Grant $ 14,589.00
Federal SEOG $ 3,000.00
Estimated Pell Grant $ 5,500.00
Estimated Federal ACG Grant $ 1,300.00
Pennsylvania State Grant $ 3,541.00
Outside Scholarship $ 2,500.00
Federal Work-Study $ 2,800.00
Federal Perkins Loan $ 1,700.00
Federal Direct Subsidized Loan $ 4,500.00
Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan $ 2,000.00
Suggested Direct PLUS/Alternative Loan $ 2,000.00
Total Financial Aid Award(s): $ 54,849.00
Resident Cost of Attendance: $ 54,850.00</p>
<p>err…my SAT scores were ****/under 25th percentile. Inner city public school.</p>
<p>Mom2012,</p>
<p>What is SAMS? We’re clear across the country so there will be no more trips to the east coast before applications. </p>
<p>My son visited Pittsburgh once with his symphony when he was in 8th grade and really liked the city. We did one east coast visit to Penn and Princeton about a month ago and he felt the same about Philly as a city. We drove into NYC to visit relatives for about 1/2 day and he didn’t like NYC (neither did I). He’s never visited CMU, though. I think some of the symphony members went to CMU but dh and son drove to Ohio for the football hall of fame instead. :-)</p>
<p>Well, I’ll contact the head of minority recruitment (didn’t know there was such a thing) if I can figure out how to do that. Thanks for the tip.</p>
<p>Assets need to be carefully calculated and honestly reported. 529’s count as student assets even if they are “owned” by a grandparent. Retirement accounts (401Ks and IRAs) are treated differently. Plain old savings, stocks/bonds/etc are seen as assets that can be plundered for undergraduate costs so if you plan to use your savings for retirement, put them into a retirement account to indicate what your long term plans for this money isfor retirement. Of course, you can’t withdraw tthe money without penalties but that is precisely the point. Make any such redistributions of savings it before 2012 rolls around and you are in your child’s application year. My husband, who can’t bear to consider the inevitablility of retirement and/or death, resisted putting his savings into IRAs so the savings/stocks/bonds etc are all considered liquid assets for short term needs (undergrad education). </p>
<p>Student savings are considered as completely dedicated to paying for student education. If a kid has some idea of amassing a nest egg during middle and high school to pay for study abroad…it will be entirely consumed by the first year of education expenses. </p>
<p>The system is fair in the sense that if you have the money saved it is there to be spent on education; the system is unfair if people game it by hiding assets or underreporting. Trying to game it by not saving and keeping assets low is probably risky and unlikely to result in a good payout unless your kid grabs the golden ring of Princeton or other "no loan"meet full financial aid need school.</p>
<p>If you apply Early Decision to Carnegie Mellon, your full demonstrated need (as calculated by EFC) will be given to you if you are accepted.</p>
<p>I applied Early Decision and had my full need met, and I am not an URM. </p>
<p>“Carnegie Mellon will meet the full demonstrated need with a combination of grants, loans and work-study as calculated by the university for all students admitted under early decision. However, we do not guarantee to meet full need for students who are deferred or denied admission under Early Decision and later admitted under Regular Decision”</p>
<p>[Admission</a> > Application Plans](<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University)</p>