Home State: New Jersey
GPA: 3.95 / SAT 1510
We didn’t receive any word for any kind of financial aid from nobody …
My question is - how am I going to find out the final price ? My expectation was that we will be informed about the final price, at least for tuition, with or without aid.
Is that normal tuition to be double than FAFSA score and no aid to be offered ?
Or it could be that the schools have not yet released their aid packages. Some schools send that a few weeks after the acceptance since most financial aid offices work independently of admissions. You can inquire at each school to find out when to expect that.
ETA: Merit is often handled through Admissions. Need-based aid is handled by the Financial Aid Office. Completely separate.
WhT is your budget ?
Around $30k
Fafsa has nothing to do with what you’ll pay.
That’s what the federal government says is your expected contribution.
The schools are not the federal government.
Only UNC and UVA meet need for OOS publics. The other schools may give you merit aid or even some need aid but they do not work to match the EFC.
For out-of-state public schools (of which there are many on your list), expect little or not financial aid.
What does the net price calculator on each school’s web site say? (particularly for private schools and NJ publics)
Larger merit scholarships are most likely at schools that:
Well - Ohio State offered him to go to Honors College ? However, not a word about price …
Again - with or without aid, no words is so confusing. How are we suppose to evaluate the price then ?
Did you see my note about the financial aid and cost information often coming later?
For example, my D21 was accepted EA to a school in December but did not get the financial information until March. Luckily that school was transparent about the timing so we were not worried.
Then throw in an application to U of Alabama, U of Alabama Huntsville, and Mississippi State.
They are easy apps. The first two will be about $20,000 all in. All three are very solid in Aero. My son goes to Bama and had 5 full time job offers including two in aero. He’ll work in aero. He is a MechE major.
Rutgers won’t be as cheap but can get you to $30k.
You cannot get close at UIUC, UMD, NC State, Colorado or Florida.
On your list just Rutgers and NJIT. OHIO State - tiny chance.
Your list was wrong for your budget. You chose highly rated but you need affordable.
Yes - I saw that. I just found out Maryland releases the financial aid in March but not sure how, via email ?
Other than this - I looked online to UIUC, Colorado and NC State and there is no deadline …
Meantime, just 2 min ago he got rejected from Texas …oh, well …
Oh, I’m sorry to read about the UT result. Hugs. Thankfully he has great options, but I know the uncertainly of affordability is worrisome. I agree with the others suggesting adding an application to UA-Huntsville and/or some of the auto-merit schools where you know they are affordable before applying.
Re: the financial aid award information… typically you get an email about a portal update and the financial aid information will be available there. Some schools also snail mail a package, but in our experience it was all available on the portal.
In the student portal a financial aid package will post in one of the tabs. Some take longer than others. NC State takes forever and then give very little.
In some acceptance letters they will mention merit. Go back and reread those.
And make sure he is checking emails for any additional rounds of scholarships he is invited to apply for from the colleges.
Hello everybody 
,
I am back with the final list of admission
Reach Schools
Georgia Institute of Technology - deferred
University of Michigan - deferred
University of Illinois - Urbana- Champaign - accepted
University of Texas - Austin - rejected
University of Notre Dame - rejected
University of Virginia - accepted
Match Schools
Purdue University - rejected
University of Maryland - accepted
Ohio State University - accepted
University of Florida - accepted
Virginia Tech - accepted
Safe Schools
NC State University - accepted
University of Colorado Boulder - accepted
Rutgers University - accepted
NJIT - accepted
Stevens - waiting for results
Meantime we also received some scholarships … based on price, the short list is
Univ of Virgina - he received a huge scholarship and at this moment is the cheapest
Univ of Florida - no news about financial aid yet
Virginia Tech - very small financial.
Well, to drive me even more crazier - although UF was his first choice till recently, now he is considering Virginia Tech because he was accepted to honors school and 2 of his best friends have been also accepted and for sure will go there. Now there is a $15k difference in price between VT and Univ of Virginia and he asked me to help him write an email to Admission Office asking them to match the UVA offer.
I don’t think it hurts trying, however is this a common practice ? Do we have any chances ?
You should always ask. Depends on how badly they want him.
UVA in general gives need based aid, not merit. Did he get the Jefferson, which is not administered by the university?
Very doubtful Virginia Tech will give you major merit aid or match another school. They are not known for giving substantial merit aid. $3000 maybe. But, you can always ask so you have no regrets about not pursuing every possibility.
Congratulations on all the great acceptances!
Good luck with the decision!
UIUC is now a safety. Purdue is now a reach.
You show how crazy admissions are. UIUC is considered harder than Purdue to get into.
You have great options. Your match and safeties are strong too. UMD, etc and Ohio State - very well known. Va Tech as noted.
Congrats to your son. Well played.
Congratulations!
I can’t remember if this was talked about earlier, but with Virginia Tech you are not admitted to Aerospace directly, you start off in General Engineering and then declare a major after your freshman year. Aerospace is one of 2 that are not guaranteed with a 3.0 GPA. If you have a 3.5 GPA you are guaranteed Aerospace, but if you don’t it’s only if they have space available. Most who do want it though get it regardless - that’s why they ask you declare your intent when you apply to make it more likely they have space for everyone to get into their first choice major, so it’s not a huge concern, but something to keep in mind.
It’s a great campus though, and a fun school that the students genuinely love (at least the ones I’ve talked to). My son will be going there this fall, and we’re excited!
Reach - Match - Safe - that was how we considered them on the list.
Purdue was a big, big disappointment, and the first one received - pretty devastating.
In all honesty, Purdue accepted him to his second choice, which was School of Technology. Somebody said he shouldn’t have picked a second choice … anyway, he will not do anything else than aerospace, therefore no Purdue.
Now that we have the acceptances - it is unexplainable to me how different the prices are for the same FAFSA.
UIUC - no scholarship at all - ridiculous expensive.
Colorado - same - no scholarship - same price as UIUC
Maryland - very little scholarship - not worth it
Virginia Tech - very little scholarship - not worth it if they don’t give more
Ohio - very big scholarship and invitation to Honors College - for some reason he is not looking much at Ohio State - maybe I should insist (?)
UVA - 50% scholarship - the cheapest so far
UF - reasonable as is - waiting for financial aid offer if any
Which one would be a better choice between Ohio, UVA, UF and VT (if they drop the price) ?
(when I say “better choice” I am thinking at connection to the industry for getting a job after graduation)
Honestly they will all give excellent outcomes to students who worked hard and maximized their opportunities. These are strong programs. At this point you can be happy he’s going to go somewhere that will set him up well. He should pick on a combination of cost and comfort.