<p>I was recently admitted ED to Northwestern University and am very excited to attend the university. However, being from a lower income financial background (single parent, ~35,000), I am afraid that my chances of going to college are slowly slipping away. With no savings to help me pay and little support to be received from my family, I am not sure if +40,000 tuition fees are realistic for me.</p>
<p>Being in this predicament as many others may be, I was wondering what type of financial aid was granted by the school. I read somewhere that 100% of financial aid was met, but I'm not sure what exactly that entails or if their predicted amount to give is anything that my family can still afford.</p>
<p>Also, I was granted a salutatorian scholarship to attend an instate school, but unfortunately, I will have to sacrifice the amount to attend Northwestern (which is out of state for me). Was this a bad move or will Northwestern pull through with its financial aid package? What other grants/scholarships/loan programs does the school offer that may help?</p>
<p>You should not have applied ED. If you cannot afford the tuition and try to pull out, you could then jeopardize not only your own chance to attend another college, but other kids applying to NU from your high school in the future.
That being said, apply to as many small scholarships as you can, because they can add up and not many people go after them (1-2k), making them less competitive than you'd think. It takes a lot of work/writing essays again but it's worth it. That's what I had to do.
They do not meet 100% aid. hahahaha what a twist of words they promote. They do have grants for those who "qualify" but I don't know what standards they use. There are grants for people who qualify for financial aid, and loans no matter what, usually. It depends on what you consider financial aid, if loans are financial aid, then most need is met, but from what I've seen NU does not like to hand out hard cash. PM me if you'd like to ask anything more specific, and I'll try not to be too bitter about the system. :-)</p>
<p>comflsomh-What is your classification and if you don't mind me asking-what is family's EFC?</p>
<p>My son is a RD freshman this year and our EFC was $9,600 with 33,000 grants. In addition, he was eligible for a Stafford loan. Although, we didn't use the loan due to outside scholarhips making up the difference. He is a dual degree major and this package should carry throughout the 5 years. Unfortunately, when his sister graduates in the summer of 2008, I'm sure the EFC will double.</p>
<p>Richtra-with your family's income of $35,000, I believe you will be pleasantly suprised with your FA package. Yes, you may have to participate in a work study-and take out some loans-est. loans may be as high as $15,000-$20,000 upon graduation. I wouldn't think it would be more. Like comflsomh said, do apply for outside scholarships. Try local organizations first and then look on the larger scale. Hang in there! It will all work out in the end!</p>
<p>Wow, here's another problem I would like to present to everyone...</p>
<p>Since my parents are divorced, my mother (noncustodial parent) was supposed to fill out a profile and submit it by December 1st, as I managed to do with my CSS profile. Unfortunately due to long distant contact problems and financial issues with my mother, she wasn't able to send it until today, eighteen days after the deadline.</p>
<p>I explained this in an e-mail to Northwestern but am still not sure how they will respond to this delay. Will this hurt my chances of financial aid tremendously or am I overworrying? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Ohh, I'm from Wisconsin, so the Mid-West :-)</p>
<p>I believe you will be okay-but by all means follow-up w/a phone call to confirm they have received and find out if there is anything else they may need from you. If you were RD-had been accepted and missed the deadline-then I would be worried.</p>
<p>Northwestern will come through, don't fret. Well, FAFSA will at least. They'll basically tell NU that you can't afford to even pay the tuition, so NU will see that and help you out nicely.</p>
<p>How do I know?</p>
<p>One of my best friends is in a very similar situation to yours and he is currently a freshman at NU. His parents are divorced and he lives with his aunt and uncle. His income situation is all messed up and low, and to sum it up, he basically only has to contribute like $3000 to $4000 total to tuition. So I think you might be fine :) </p>