<p>It’s posted online. What a jerk.</p>
<p>It is not very nice of the financial aid office to tell a fib, I thought they were a Catholic School! I just got my acceptance today and it is EXACTLY what was on the website!</p>
<p>Yes, I got my acceptance today! (YAY) and it was the exact same package as the one online</p>
<p>Same here. Exact same package.</p>
<p>Whoops. I realized that the amount I saw was just per semester. I was too bummed to realize that 
Anyways, so its actually 27400 per year, and I’m applying for some outside scholarships. However, my mom is sending in a reconsideration letter to see if Fordham can possibly match the scholarship that St. John’s gave me- it would give me at least 9k more.</p>
<p>I see a scholarship but no amount…maybe tomorrow.</p>
<p>@fineform</p>
<p>People have posted mixed messages about the competence of the FA office at Fordham (Monoclide STILL waiting is ridiculous!) but do you really think they outright lied? They probably just didn’t know and got it wrong…clearly the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing in that office. But then again, even the saints were sinners! :D</p>
<p>@Debruns</p>
<p>Check their website to see if the name of the scholarship is listed. My S received the Loyola scholarship which we found out under the messages tab and I looked it up and learned that it was up to $8000. We were disappointed BUT when the final package was up it included a tuition aid award that was greater than the scholarship. </p>
<p>@megan09
Good luck! I hope they match St. John’s and you can go! :)</p>
<p>Should i worry that there is no awards tab when i go to financial aid? There is just forms and Home.</p>
<p>Sat1prep, that is all I have too! :/</p>
<p>I turn in my FAFSA on time and my mom sent in CSS profile but my noncustodial parent never submitted his part of the CSS profile (he was having trouble with some of the questions and at the time I did not think I would be seriously considering Fordham and I stupidly told him to just forget about it…brilliant right?) Does this mean my financial aid request will be all screwed up? I’m freaking out because now a lot of my priorities and decision factors have changed, and I got in and it is one of my best options but it is also the priciest. Should I have him just send his part of the profile late? Or am I just downright screwed?</p>
<p>Well, the NCP really is necessary.</p>
<p>However, Fordham apparently turned a blind eye to mine and used my FAFSA EFC of $849. Which is awesome for me!</p>
<p>As a previous poster stated (too little financial aid) - Same for my son, not enough scholarship money/grants for him to attend…very sad! We loved the school when we visited two weeks ago.</p>
<p>Claire! Tell him to send it in. But call Fordham and explain. Have him fax it. They might be able to respond to you in a day or so. You could risk your deposit money and send it in pending, if you want. But cover your tracks and deposit at your backup. You will lose one of them, but if Fordham is your choice and you think they can help you, then do so. Otherwise, its a sad reality.</p>
<p>As for those who didnt get the aid they needed, its a sad reality for a lot of middle income families. The kids with uber high SATs get all the scholarship money, even though the SAT is not a good indicator of gpa in college. I hate it. </p>
<p>I’m sorry if you have to select another school. Fordham has an acceptance rate of around 49 percent and thus there are more accepted students than they have room for, and so you are not alone in having to go elsewhere. </p>
<p>But millions of kids are in this situation.</p>
<p>Fordham called today and answered to my letter of reconsideration. Got 4k more and it looks like Ill be signing up with Fordham ASAP :)</p>
<p>Awesome news, megan09! Congrats and welcome to Fordham! :)</p>
<p>I am not sure about uber SAT’s getting all the money. My S has a 2310 and we would still have to pay 40,000 to go to Fordham. I think the Catholic school kids get all the money at Fordham.</p>
<p>Did you request additional scholarship money? Those students and families who wright letters to their financial aid counselors often receive additional money. I’m surprised someone with such good SATs did not receive a larger award. </p>
<p>And Fordham does not consider religious affiliation when granting admission or financial aid. It’s an official policy they have. In fact, religious diversity is something celebrated on campus.</p>
<p>Yes, we did request a review but they sent us a letter saying sorry, no, but best wishes on wherever you decide to go. We all really liked Fordham, the city, the Jesuit tradition, but with better offers from more highly ranked universities it is just not possible.</p>
<p>^^^ well I think that is the correct statement of policy. How it works in practice, I don’t know. Of course, its very hard to determine because everyone is working off of anecdotal evidence, being “comments from other students/families” and its impossible to know if what they are saying is accurate, or if some other factor played a role in their award (or lack of award.) </p>
<p>I do know that SAT scores are a HUGE, if not determinative, factor in who gets money (merit aid) and who doesnt. And there is a general cutoff somewhere around 1400/1600 on the SAT. Exceptions do occur. GPA is considered, as are EC’s. Some scholarships are restricted and that necessarily means the applicant pool is smaller. Every student who applies to Fordham is automatically considered for any available scholarship, based on their incoming stats, but its also true that Fordham requires the CSS from everyone and thus gets a glimpse of the financial needs for various families…so its not needs blind. Some criticize that policy, but others think it is on the margin, more equitable. I don’t know, because I don’t work for Fordham and have no clue about how the committee determines such things. There are historical schools that Fordham has a long relationship with, an outstanding record of recruiting these school’s best and brightest and it may appear they get a lot of scholarship money to some. But I also know that Fordham is much more diverse than it was even 7-10 years ago, with a high percentage of public school kids from all over the country. Does politics make a difference (as in who you know?) Maybe. Are there rich kids walking around with excellent scholarships and lots of middle class kids scrambling to find the money? Yes. </p>
<p>If I was in charge of the world (LOL), I would make huge changes in the entire college admissions and financial aid/scholarship universe. While I support “diversity” as a valuable social mechanism to benefit society as a whole and individuals in specific cases, I am also frustrated that people who are not URM"s seem to have a higher threshold to get a decent scholarship. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if you need the money, then file a FAFSA and Fordham can sometimes be as generous with grant money as they are with merit aid. </p>
<p>Its not a perfect process. Rising college costs/expenses puts pressure on families and also on the school. Its a thankless job, if you ask me, working in admissions/financial aid. But its also very frustrating to families. To suggest that middle income families can stuff away 200k for each child in an education fund (especially considering the horrific problems on wallstreet and the investment world) is an absurdity on its face. Most middle income families are lucky to be keeping their jobs, paying their mortgages and providing for their kids, let alone stuffing away huge sums of money for college. The notion “let them eat cake” (let them go to a public university) is so offensive its tantamount to classwarfare, so I reject that on its face. </p>
<p>The sad truth is that there is gross injustice around the country in college admissions decisions and financial aid/merit aid decisions. We all hear stories about people going here or there with a full ride etc, and we are sitting here with tuition bills wondering whether we have to start panning for gold in the neighborhood creek or digging for oil in our backyards. </p>
<p>Then there is the sports scholarship extravaganza. I know a lot of families who are choosing lower tier schools for their kids this year, because those schools offered more money. Some of them had kids admitted to Fordham. So it happens.</p>
<p>In the end, we all have to make decisions that are prudent for our families and our kids. I personally don’t recommend going into outrageous debt for an undergraduate degree. By that I mean more than 40k. But asking a kid to take on 25k in debt over 4 years is well within the norm and there is some value to having them “with skin in the game” so to speak. Makes them more motivated to do well, and to be VERY motivated to look for a decent job when they graduate. </p>
<p>I wish every school could be like the Ivy League with essentially ZERO merit aid (since they are all brilliant kids anyway, so where do you draw the line), and giving very generous financial aid to those who need it, with a low threshold (some even allowing moderate six figure incomes and still giving generous aid.) But alas, not every school has the resources of Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc. </p>
<p>Schools lament that they get bazillions of applications, often from kids who have no intention of going there…but that is the product of kids/families fishing for the “best deal” and the quirky admissions process. If we had a more straight forward and equitable system, people might make better choices up front and relieve some of that pressure and stop applying to 15 schools.</p>
<p>JMHO.</p>