<p>how are you notified of merit based scholarships? online or through the mail?</p>
<p>So far I have been accepted to four other universities, all of which offered me similar aid packages. I must say I was quite surprised when BU expected my family to pay 30,000 a year on a <60000 income…with another older sibling in college and my mom’s job sort of in jeopardy. Suffice to say, I will not be attending BU- luckily I did not put all my eggs in that basket!</p>
<p>I have a $0 EFC… I got no money from BU, just federal stuff. Am I suppose to take $40,000 in loans? BU is my top choice and I’m ****ed</p>
<p>Ugh, BU gave me about half tuition as a University scholar. It is still not enoughto attend. They are expensive. I wonder if I hurry up and reject them, they will give my buddy some better fin. aid.</p>
<p>Try $6,500, all in loans. Quit complaining. I would be able to go to my top choice school if I only got something for a grant.</p>
<p>Where are you guys seeing these financial aid packages? I was admitted to the January 2012 semester but there’s no financial aid information despite my financial assistance application being “complete” according to their site.</p>
<p>I like how people here feel entitled to better financial aid.
Let me put this in perspective.
You are the poor one here, not them, they don’t have to give you *<strong><em>, if you are really supposed to be *</em></strong>ed at anyone, be ****ed at your parents for being poor.</p>
<p>oooh…people are snarky on this. Honestly, all of the information they gave out made them sound like a really well endowed school…it kinda seems like the economy hit them this year and they had to make cuts on aid. but i’m just spitballing here. My package was somewhat small…i’m hoping to pick up a few more local scholarships and work with BU, because I have some family stuff I didn’t adequately explain. Hopefully I can make it work, because BU’s definately my top choice…if I can afford it.</p>
<p>In the meantime…everybody calm down lol, there’s no reason to take all your financial and academic angst out on random people on the internet lol</p>
<p>Thank you kelizabeth, well said.</p>
<p>rmac 399: Any idea of how to “find” 30k/year for 4 years. Is it really worth it going in debt for 120K???</p>
<p>When I talked to them this morning, they wouldn’t give me a reason as to why I didn’t get any money from them (other than $11k fed grants/loans obviously). Finally they said they didn’t know why I didn’t get any aid and that I qualify for it just fine – it’s just the economy has taken it’s toll this year. The only thing I can do is appeal.</p>
<p>That’s all they said.</p>
<p>Is it common of BU to offer such little aid? They kind of remind me of NYU right now. Can anyone who currently attends speak for what happens on average? Maybe it’s a sign of hard times, but I wouldn’t think a major university could simply run out of funds to offer. Also, is it positive that one can appeal an aid decision?</p>
<p>BU is one of the only schools that has not seen a drop in the number of applications. There are a huge number of very qualified students applying to BU, and as such there are limited funds available. For every student who is shocked and appalled at their level of aid, there are others who are quite pleased. BU is quite forthcoming about its aid calculations, and if it really wants a student to come there, it offers significant amounts of aid. Appeals can and do happen, and I’m sure will become more frequent once people begin accepting/declining their offer.</p>
<p>So is it beneficial to wait and appeal closer to May 1st?</p>
<p>I think you can feel free to appeal whenever you want, it will show you’re interested. I’m just thinking that probably not much will happen til closer to May 1st. i’d call and ask</p>
<p>How do I about to appeal the financial aid offer? My dad recently said he is willing to manage $25,000 in loans and out-of-pocket payments, but after the financial aid offer I still must pay $35,000. So, I have to find $10,000 some other way. Are there any scholarships I can still apply for? Or should I just send an appeal stating my situation (my dad’s offer) and how much I really want to attend BU?</p>
<p>I actually got killed by their financial aid. My EFC is $9,000, and all they gave me was $5,000 in loans. I know the economy’s down and all, but really, this is bad. I’m especially frustrated because BU was my top choice and I was so excited to get in, but this financial aid is just devastating.</p>
<p>my efc was 12000, and i got 30000 in scholarship/merit money and 10000 in loans so thats 40000 alltogether. it was better than any other offer i got.
uc berkeley is asking me for 10,000 more than bu… so i have a really hard choice to make :(</p>
<p>I don’t really get why people are confused about this. Financial aid depends on academics. BU wants to entice smart kids to enroll by giving them scholarships and use dumb rich kids’ parents to pay for it. To quote a NYT article on it, “BU may be need-blind in admissions, but like many colleges, it is not talent-blind in financial aid.” They’ll let the poor kids with mediocre stats in, but they won’t help them pay for it so they don’t enroll. It allows them to claim that they’re need-blind in admissions, even though they know many of the people they let in are highly unlikely to enroll because of their unmet need. If you’re mediocre, they don’t want you to attend unless you’re paying full tuition, and they’ll offer you a bad package that forces you not to. “Need-based” aid is just merit money for kids who also happen to have demonstrated need.</p>
<p>[“Need-based” aid is just merit money for kids who also happen to have demonstrated need. ]</p>
<p>I see your point. But admitting kids with lower stats that you don’t want to matriculate would lower the average GPA/SAT, makes the school less selective and lowers the ranking. Unless the average is for those who will attend, and not those admitted.</p>