@redpoodles - no worries, I assumed you meant BC. We’ll see what else comes in.
@cloe.salas did you turn in all your FA materials? Including the 2015 tax returns that Bc require to be mailed? Maybe that’s why you didn’t get the email.
@cloe.salas The portal is www.bc.edu/finaidapp. Do you have anything out-standing? The email is generic and doesn’t even know if you applied for aid:
"Thank you for your interest in Boston College. If you are thinking about applying for need-based financial aid or have begun the process, The Office of Student Services encourages you to check your application status via the Agora portal (www.bc.edu/finaidapp). If you have any required documents to submit, please do so as soon as possible so that we may determine your eligibility for need-based aid. Please send any required documents to:
Boston College Financial Aid Processing Center
P.O. Box 67486
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
If you have any questions about this process or about financial aid in general, please contact our office at 1-800-294-0294."
I have been reading this thread and I am curious as to BC’s policies on need-based aid. From what I have generally read on College Confidential, it appears that all else being equal, in regards to a family’s finances, BC is less generous than its "peer’ schools (eg, other Boston private universities plus the upper-ranked Catholic unis). Does anyone know specifically why this is? For example, is it primarily due to BC’s higher weighting to housing equity in its aid calculation, its overall annual amount of available need-based aid or its declining acceptance rate? I am not being critical of BC, I am just curious as this comes up every year. Thanks.
@londondad I’m not sure but I do know that there are two different methodologies that the colleges can use when determining “need”. As someone indicated earlier, one of them takes assets into account (I think maybe more so than income?) and the other I think might not utilize assets as much if at all and relies more heavily on income. I personally think assets should be considered because someone who owns two homes and has many assets should not be treated the same as someone that has barely any assets (but by the same token, why should someone be penalized because they invested their money wisely…). I’m not sure why BC is coming across as stingy. I know they are one of the few schools that is truly need blind (unlike Tufts, not sure about BU or NEU), maybe this could be one of the reasons?
BC comes across as stingy because they seem to use your one home that you live in as an asset that should be liquidated. Our home is not luxurious–we don’t even have a master bathroom or an entry closet or a garage. It’s 1500 sq feet for a family of 5. Apartment prices are now twice to three times the cost of our mortgage. But we do have home equity, which they seem to want. (Home prices have grown astronomically here over the last 20-25 years which explains a lot of the equity.)
I mean, where else could we live???
For the 2nd home, I think it’s fair to expect some liquidation. (We don’t have one.) I’m very curious to see what kind of package my youngest gets should she be lucky enough to get accepted. We’re in a better state now as far as income or I wouldn’t even have let her apply.
Very few undergraduate programs (if any) are worth 240k IMHO. Unfortunately you don’t know the actual cost until you apply. In our case, BC was disappointing.
It’s such a hard thing to gauge…what makes a college “worth it”…I remember seeing a report a while back that did show the relationship between lifetime income and the competitiveness of your college to be somewhat linear…meaning the “better” the school, the “better” its graduates did in the long run. But this of course is really such an impossible thing to measure because there are so many variables, including major. And a little luck. (BC for example has a school of education, unlike some other schools of equal caliber, so their salaries might be skewed down because typically education majors make less money than the other majors…I’m generalizing but I think you know what I mean.)
I think the students that really hit home runs with their ROI are the in state students at schools like UNC, UVA, Michigan, UCLA/Cal Berkely, etc. where the flagships have amazing academics.
With that said, we are paying full price now for my daughter who is a sophomore at BC in the business school. We are banking on her getting a good job…there certainly is a lot of recruiting activity based on what we have seen so far and she is only a sophomore. Would she have the same opportunities coming out of Rutgers, our home state? My gut is no…unless she went accounting and is top of her class at Rutgers which might get her a big 4 job. But you really never know because there definitely are a lot of Rutgers business grads that do exceptionally well. On the other hand, I know of a Rutgers senior with a 3.8 majoring in finance who is struggling to find a job. This is all just impossible to predict!
@collegemomjam - very valid points. My view is probably skewed coming from a state that has several great, less expensive options, as you mentioned (UCLA & Berkeley). It’s hard to wrap my brain around today’s costs at private schools, based on our in-state tuition. BC is a lovely school and my D got into the Honors program - which sounds amazing and has several benefits over the UC’s (small class sizes, closer connection to professors, etc) We were prepared to pay more, just not double.
I don’t think I would pay double if my daughter could go to UCLA or Cal Berkley, assuming they have the major she wants. We are about to pay full tuition for my other daughter (current senior) who is likely going to Georgetown…she also got BC honors and we were hoping for the Gabelli at BC which she didn’t get (knew it was a long shot). But we aren’t sure yet…BC honors is tempting because I think they get a lot of attention and for business, I think a lot of great opportunities.
You probably wouldn’t get anywhere, but maybe explain the situation to financial aid…you would have to come up with more “need” (being they don’t give merit unless it’s Gabelli) but being she got honors, maybe they can look at things again and get you to the range where it makes sense to give up the in state tuition? It might be nice for her to experience a different part of the country and Boston is a truly amazing place to go to college (I’m a BC alum myself).
Good luck! Sounds like she has some great options.
Thanks. She loved Boston and BC when we went out this summer. We were also very impressed with the personal welcoming from admissions. We are waiting to hear where else she gets accepted before deciding if appealing is worthwhile. My concern is even if we are successful in an appeal, we will be stuck for the remaining 3 yrs; so it’s unlikely we will try. Most likely we will make someone on the waitlist happy! 
Makes sense…I don’t know much about financial aid, but are you sure if you won an appeal it would only be for one year? I know you have to resubmit the FAFSA each year, but I would think most people would assume their package would be similar each year…just wondering.
I just realized now after checking my portal (I didn’t get an email) that I’m missing some documents they need for financial aid. Since decisions are coming out in less than a week, does anyone know if it is worth it to send in my forms now? Or should I wait to see if I even get accepted in the first place?
My aid package was actually great. It came out several thousand under what NEU offered and was pretty close to the NPC, even though my parents are self employed business owners with a rental(all of which supposedly make financial aid way different from the NPC).
does anyone know if there is a groupme for Boston College??
@gk 1733 send them in. We had the same situation and called, told them they were on the way.
1 week away guys!!
@mimimo7890 will it be thursday next week for sure?
I’m betting on Friday since the EA results came out on Friday
They came out on Thursday for EA