My son got admission to Boston University however no scholarship or aid is mentioned. He will be on full tuition. is there any chance of tuition discount or scholarship if he appeals to financial aid staff?
Do you have an affordable alternative? Would you need to take on debt for BU?
Would the appeal be for merit based or need based aid?
BU is certainly very expensive at full pay.
for records , we may come under affordable family as we(My spouse and I) work in IT department. However , we have one more son for education and no other promising funds. we might need to go for merit based appeal or looking forward to hear any other tips for appeal.
Frankly I would not pay full price to attend BU unless I was comfortable spending that much money (and I am not). I understand that it is a very good university. However, it is not MIT or Harvard.
You could appeal, but I would not count on getting any meaningful aid.
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so far his liked admissions:
- University of Miami for HPM( Health Professional mentoring Program ) with the scholarship of $48000(4 years) . Health Professions Mentoring Program | Undergraduate Admissions | University of Miami
- NSU BS/DO program with the scholarship of $78000 (4 years). Waiting on full aid tuition interview results.
- BU - no scholarship (I think we missed the scholarship essay during application)
- Other admissions (UPitt , NC state , OSU, UNC) - all are premed majors.
Looking for honest advise on the preference and advantage of joining to BU when I compare with top 2 other selections.
Thank you
I would not pay full price for BU, especially for a premed. What state are you in? What’s the budget?
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Usually it is always a disadvantage with the first kid in the family going to college. Regardless of how many other children in the family are in the college pipeline, they won’t factor in. However when the next kid in line is not that far away in age and enters college sooner than later, both of them will qualify for aid since the expected family contribution becomes half for each.
What was the figures given by the net price calculator on BU website based on EFC? You may be able to appeal if there is a surprisingly high difference.
With Miami, though the award is not much, it is a decent school and some percentage of the kids in the program get absorbed into their early pathway program to med school in sophomore year. And it is a good medical school. Something you may want to consider. Other schools may have early assurance kind of programs, but the competition will be intense for a handful of spots. Reach out to Miami with questions on that program if you aren’t sure.
I will have 3 in college next year, only 2 offered any FA besides the federal loans.
You can try, but they certainly will not give you any merit based money. If anything has changed with your financial circumstances, you need to document it for BU and ask them if there is anymore financial aid you are eligible for.
BU is not worth full price. Especially not if you have more affordable options, and especially not if you have other kids to put through college.
I you look at the Common Data set for BU out of the 3000+ freshman only 150 received non-need based merit aid. So unless you are at the tip top of the profile for incoming students there is little merit based aid at BU
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A merit aid appeal would not be successful. If he missed the deadline for applying for the top merit awards that is his fault. Lesser merit awards are awarded based primarily on stats.
Thank you all for suggestions. After one of you suggesting on checking sticker price and using net calculator, we see the results on BU page calculator as we may get some need based scholarship. However , I think my son’s application didn’t attach our FAFSA profile. He is resubmitting now and planned to talk to financial assistance department.
Any hopes ?
My DS 25 was admitted to BU Honors. But no merit and no fin.aid. He was admitted to Northeastern with $22K merit. We also have DS 24 at Emerson with a very small merit award. Do people think it would be worthwhile to ask BU to reconsider merit?
While it never hurts to ask, I would say it falls somewhere between slim and none. BU offers VERY limited non-need based merit (<5% of students). Most (if not all) of those are application based and the deadline has passed.
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Sounds like Northeastern wants your son to attend.
Yes. It is nice to be wanted this year!
Thanks. He sid apply by the deadline for the BU Trustee scholarship but was not selected.
My son received admission today for university of Southern California. They also didn’t mention any financial numbers. What does it mean?
USC will sometimes add small scholarships to the applicant’s FA portal before May 1, but in all likelihood if the admission notification mentioned no merit scholarships, then none are awarded and you’re expected to pay full price. But it sounds like your son has some great other options that are more affordable.