<p>Hi. I am considering to apply ED for one of these schools: UPenn, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Cornell.</p>
<p>How's generous is their financial aid package?
My dad's income is about $120,000/year. (But the truth is we're not that rich... )
So i kinda need some financial aid.
Can you guys compare the finanical aid for these schools?
Thanks</p>
<p>All of those schools are pretty generous on Financial Aid, but Penn would probably be the best with Cornell 2nd.</p>
<p>If you need to compare FA offers (and it sounds like you do), you should NOT apply ED anywhere. Forget whatever perceived edge ED might give you, apply EA, rolling and RD and compare the FA/COA numbers in April.</p>
<p>Cornell caps loans to students with family incomes of $75-$120K/yr at $3,000. Also, if you’re a NY resident, Cornell’s tuition is only $20K at the land grant colleges vs. $35K for OOS students.</p>
<p>I think all of those schools are non-merit schools. No money for your grades. I recommend that include at least as many schools which offer money based on merit as well.</p>
<p>Assets are also considered byy these schools, so manyy families making $120K will get zero aid. Use their calculators or call the schools with detailed questions to get a strong idea of what you will qualify for.</p>
<p>I’m going to assume that you are new to this, forgive me it I’m telling you things that you already know. I believe you when you say you are not rich. Unfortunately you may not be eligible for very much need based assistance.</p>
<p>You might want to start by finding out roughly what your EFC, (expected family contribution), will look like. This number is what your family will be expected to contribute to the cost of you going to college for one year. There are many calculators on the web that determine this, you’ll need estimates of things like your Father’s income and your parent’s assets.</p>
<p>Whatever the difference is between the cost of attending your school and your EFC is the most that the schools you mentioned will give you. If it turns out that you are not eligible for much that doesn’t mean that you can’t go to school. It means that you’re going to have to find another way to pay for it besides what you’ll get from a school in the form of need-based assistance. There are merit scholarships from schools other than the ones you listed, there are State schools, you may be looking at student loans, your family may need to contribute more than is comfortable for them.</p>
<p>entomom is right, don’t go early decision anywhere. Financial aid packages vary greatly between schools and you don’t want to miss out on a good one. Financing an education is daunting. Don’t expect to come to terms with the numbers overnight. But there are ways to make dreams come true.</p>
<p>alrite. thank you so much for your opinions guys.
I appreciate it :)</p>
<p>I asked this question because i keep getting mails from Cornell, Upenn and other universities promising that they are gonna make sure i pay as little as possible.
So yeah… idk if i can believe that. haha</p>
<p>PennDreamer, please don’t fall for the marketing gimmicks. Run a FAFSA. If it comes up with 0 EFC, and your parents do not have any assets that are excluded from FAFSA consideration (like owning a home), then you would probably get good aid at Penn. If it comes up more than 0, all bets are off, especially if your EFC is high enough to put you out of Pell grant range. Whatever financial aid you get, odds are that your family’s share will be higher than you hoped or expected.</p>
<p>The best way to compare financial aid offers is to apply to a lot of schools and compare your offers in the spring. It is also a good idea to apply to schools that offer substantial merit aid, where you are likely to qualify for full tuition or full ride scholarship. To get such aid, you need academic qualifications that put you near the top of the applicant pool - and generally that will be at schools that you would consider safeties. </p>
<p>Good luck… but please don’t buy the hype. ED is a way that pricey private schools protect their yield and lock in a substantial number of full pay students early in the process. It is a completely one-sided deal, that puts all the power in the hands of the college: you have to commit to coming, but they don’t have to promise to admit you; they may promise to meet your need, but they get to say what “need” is according to their standards and also set their own terms for how much financial aid is in the form of loans and required/expected earnings through work study or a campus job.</p>
<p>“It is a completely one-sided deal, that puts all the power in the hands of the college: you have to commit to coming, but they don’t have to promise to admit you”</p>
<p>Huh? Has anyone else ever heard of this, heard of a school doing this? ED usually means that you commit to coming when the college admits you. It’s simultaneous and two-sided: The student gets into her dream school and saves the trouble of writing all those other college apps and the stress of waiting for answers, and the school locks up top students, both full paying and aided.</p>
<p>But I agree that this OP should not apply ED.</p>
<p>You agree to ED application and then send it in. The college then decides whether or not to accept you so yes, it is a one sided deal. Your committment is before the colleges.</p>
<p>:) 
Love those technicalities!</p>
<p>ED is a used car sales tactic. “Don’t you love this beauty. We can’t tell you what it costs, but sign here here to buy it. I wouldn’t hesitate. This offer may not be here next week.”</p>
<p>Never, Ever, EVER apply under ED.</p>
<p>Never mind the many who were admitted ED and are glad they applied. If the ED financial aid offer from your dream school is insufficient, you say thanks but no thanks, and apply RD to other schools.</p>
<p>It’s not nearly so easy to get out of ED. Many of the schools share their ED information, and if the student has turned down Penn because the financial aid award was insufficient, if that info gets into the hands of Duke during the RD cycle: that’s the end of it. The info that is shared is a list of who was admitted ED… it won’t tell the RD colleges that the student begged out of the offer based on finances. Can the student apply RD to their in-state public? Probably. To an equivalent level private –> highly unlikely. </p>
<p>ED also robs the student of the ability to make an informed choice. Example: FAFSA EFC is $10,000. Private school costs $50,000; offers $20K grant + $10K “self help” (loans, work study, etc) - leaving remaining COA at $20K… is this a good offer? It doesn’t look like enough… but suppose the student turns it down and spring rolls around and none of the other schools offer anything better. That ED offer is long gone. …</p>
<p>I don’t agree with scotaa as to “never ever” – I think that its fine for people who can afford to pay full cost and don’t qualify for financial aid anyway – but its risky business financially.</p>
<p>“That ED offer is long gone.”</p>
<p>But it’s moot since it was insufficient at ED time to allow her to attend her dream school, so it’s insufficient at RD time as well. A state school or community college may be the only alternative.</p>
<p>If Duke wants her more than Penn did, Duke may offer her more FA. Or perhaps Duke costs less, so the same offer may be sufficient.</p>
<p>ED should indeed be avoided if she wants to make an informed choice; ED should be reserved for the dream school.</p>
<p>Well, what is “sufficient” or not can change over time in the face of reality.</p>
<p>Example: if you had asked me on Friday whether I had $700 to spare to buy something… lets say a new appliance … I would have told you no.</p>
<p>But then my car broke down over the weekend. It needs a new starter motor. Mechanic will charge $700. Won’t run without it. So I’ve got no choice: I need a car, I couldn’t buy a new car for $700, and blue book on the old car is well above that… so I’ll pull out my credit card tomorrow and pay for the car. The landscape has shifted, so now I will find the way to come up with the $700 that I didn’t have last week. </p>
<p>Same balancing applies for college. It’s one thing to evaluate a financial aid award in the absence of any other information – if it seems skimpy its easy to make the assumption that other schools will offer more. Its another thing to sit at a computer & enter in the numbers with 5 different award packages, especially when each is structured differently and the schools have different offerings.</p>