<p>AH! Sorry for the spam, the number is really 31k, guaranteed - we inputted the exact numbers from the 1040 tax document.</p>
<p>No. Rent, mortgage, living expenses are considered discretionary. You choose the level you pay. You don’t get a break from debt repayments either. $31k is what I would expect, I really jacked up some parameters in family size, taxes, and oldest parent’s age to get $27K. Usually, Profile comes up with more because it can include assets like the family car, money in siblings’ accounts, and some even look at retirement accounts and the gold/silver in your teeth. I would look at that $31K as the minimum you’ll have to pay. Most colleges that meet full need tend to define need more stringently than FAFSA. </p>
<p>Still, if you have an academic profile that makes you a candidate for CMU, there are schools that may offer you some good aid. URochester, Tulane, Fordham all come to mind along with U Denver, RPI, UPitt, Vanderbilt. These are all chancy for big fat merit/aid packages. You might want to also look at schools where your stats are in the very top of their range, Momfromtexas has a thread on finding full ride scholarships, and you might want to use her methodology. You can also throw CMU in the mix and see how it goes. Once you have a couple of schools on your list that will definitely love to have you and that you can afford, you can apply anywhere and treat those apps as lottery tickets.</p>
<p>Ok that’s good to know. I’ll guess have to start looking at different colleges that offer better aid packages and start researching them.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all your help guys!</p>
<p>Loot at Case Western for a techie focus with great merit aid.</p>
<p>My S applied to CMU regular decision this year. Our EFC, as computed by CMU was 14,000 (our total taxable income is 65K). Because he applied RD, CMU did NOT meet all his financial need. The FA package they gave him left him with 14,500 in loans (some of them unsubsidized) and we were still left to pay $30,000/year, even with the 14,000 as our EFC. CMU provided us with any number of “loans” that we could take out as parents to try to “make up” the difference.</p>
<p>We did have two much better offers , both from what they considered “peer institutions,” who met us at our FAFSA calculated EFC (only 10,000!). CMU did not negotiate with us - they made us wait over 3 weeks, only to tell us that they would not be changing their aid package. There were some other students (probably those who did not need a lot more to meet their need) who did get anywhere from $1,000-6,000 more after their review.</p>
<p>All the advice I received was that, because my S had applied RD, CMU was under no obligation to meet our need. However, even if he had done ED, CMU’s calculation of what we could afford would have been higher than all the other institutions - and I’m not convinced that they wouldn’t have thrown in more loans. We were not going to let our S graduate from undergrad with over $50,000 in loans! </p>
<p>CMU was my S’s choice after he got in both in SCS and MCS, but we just couldn’t afford it. You might want to try contacting their financial aid office in the summer - just to make some inquiries - couldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I’ve known a couple of CMU kids who did apply ED and the financial aid was not generous at all. At that time, they did their own application for fianancial aid and the expected contribution figures were much higher than the FAFSA EFC. Their packages also include loans which then takes away the possibility of using that money towards meeting what the family/student payment amounts are. You either have to have the money or your parents have to borrow it or cosign to meet what they consider your share of the cost. So applying ED and getting their best offer does not mean, it will be an affordable one for you, and this is not a school known for its generosity. Unless you fit into a niche that they really want, you aren’t going to be getting a lot of money from them. You will do a lot better at any number of schools.</p>
<p>MisterK’s suggestion of Case is a good one. They have some generous merit money there if you meet the numbers.Pitt which is just next door also has some good merit awards.WIth that income figure, you are not going to be getting a lot of financial aid. As I said before, that EFC is likely the best you will see, as PROFILE tends to look deeper into the financials and usually generates a higher EFC, though without home owner ship, separated parents, some of the big difference items don’t apply in your case.</p>
<p>My son graduated from Pitt and had a wonderful experience as well as getting a great job. Case was also very generous and was the other viable option in addition to Pitt. CMU might come through for you, but look for colleges assuming they won’t.</p>
<p>Yes, keep CMU on your list. See what they have to offer. Frankly, they don’t tend to offer much with respect to financial aid unless you are a student they really want. You are not missing a whole lot getting their full need met guarantee from ED. It’s need “AS THEY DEFINE IT” and it may include loans.</p>
<p>If you apply ED and the package is not good enough, you can always pull out, right? Either way, thanks for the suggestion, I’ll definitely keep Case Western in mind.</p>
<p>My plan was to apply ED there in the hopes that I’ll have a better chance of them meeting need, and if I can’t afford it, then I can always back out. Now that I found all this out, I’ll have to reconsider. I think I’ll contact the Financial Aid office during the summer or ask them during their presentation when they come around here. The only advantage I was thinking with CMU was the large amount of internships available for the students, and the 5 year master’s program (guaranteed for CIT students with 3.0 GPA and 270 credits by end of junior year).</p>
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<p>The problem is that (a) it can be hard to assess whether the package is “good enough” at the time you receive notification of the ED decision, and (b) the package you are given for ED is only tentative, subject to change once the FAFSA is submitted. So you can accept a spot based on a financial aid award that is substantially modified in the spring.</p>
<p>Re point A. Let’s say you have a student whose parents are willing to pay a maximum of $15,000/year and the student has decided he is willing to borrow a maximum of $3500 for the first year. The student applies to a school ED, an the award would require the family to pay $18K and student would have to borrow $5000. More than the self-created limit – so if the family sticks to their guns, the student turns down the spot.</p>
<p>Now, let’s say in the spring, none of the other awards are any better. You can’t go back to the ED school and say that you’ve changed your mind, you will take their offer after all — you are stuck with your decision to turn them down.</p>
<p>Comparing financial aid awards in the spring is not simply a matter of figuring out which college is the least expensive; it also provides a dose of reality as to what college will cost. Sometime that reality is bad news, in the sense that the family realizes that their plans were unrealistic, and college will cost more than they hoped. It is quite likely that you will not be able to assess the quality of whatever award you get from CMU, assuming you are admitted, until you also can see the awards from other schools.</p>
<p>Figure out if your parents can meet their EFC. If not, study the meit aid threads on this board.</p>
<p>Definitely plan ahead for all eventualities. We went through the appeal process and got the negative reply at the last possible moment - seriously, about two days before the final decisions were due.</p>
<p>My parents can pay a maximum of 20k, the rest would fall on me - which is why I’m looking into places with excellent internship opportunities as well as preferable a 5 year bachelor/master program.</p>
<p>Look into applying to Cornell university. Their financial aid is more generous than CMU and they have a great computer science dept (ranked in top 5).</p>
<p>From what I’ve researched, I didn’t really seem to like the area, but I’ll take a better look into that as well.</p>
<p>I submitted a financial aid “application” even though my son is a sophomore. They will simulate what you would have gotten if you had applied in their most recent application process. The astonishing thing to me was that they showed ED and RD separately, and ED was about $8k more aid than RD. You should really try to do this.</p>
<p>^ I have no idea how you can submit an FA app to simulate an FA offer.</p>
<p>The other thing about CMU that you should keep in mind is that they do actively encourage students to submit other financial aid offers from like schools. You can’t do that with ED.</p>
<p>The difference between the ED and RD numbers is that CMU meets 100% of need for ED applicants, but does not for RD applicants. Keep in mind that CMU uses the CSS profile.</p>
<p>The problem is that the 100% of need is defined by THEM not by you or by PROFILE. Do complete a NPC for them and see what CMU thinks your family should contribute. This is also a school that gives loans in the package and uses work study and every bit of the Staffords to meet need, leaving very little leeway to for the student to come up with anything to pay for what the family cost will be. My son’s friend who went there was “loaned” up to the maximums and had workstudy hours so she could not borrow any more, nor did she have free time to work to make some money for her part of the cost. It was all part of CMU’s package. </p>
<p>THis is why comparing packages is important. Two schools can both say they are meeting need with need defined differently and then met using a lot of self help or by mostly grants. It can make a big dfference.</p>