Alright guys, @ammielove was just showing concern over her ability to pay for a school she reaaly wants to attend and then is hit with a reality she didn’t expect. We are on here to inform and support each other. Not be competitive or spiteful. If that wasn’t the intention then all the better.@ ammielove, don’t try to use ones schools offer against another,especially an elite school with a huge endowment. Best to call Columbia and speak your concerns to them directly.
@ammielove Are you sure that the estimated total cost is 79 K? Mine is closer to 75 K I got about 52K per year in grants. Also, what is your personal contribution? Based on the numbers it would seem that totals to about zero. That should alleviate your parental contribution a little bit. After all, I think having you work is not an unreasonable thing. Columbia has a lot of opportunities for student employment that you might want to look into. Also, Columbia’s average grant is roughly 48 K. No offense, if you thought you were getting 15 K in total contributions, you should have looked elsewhere.
@WrathOfGod1999 total cost is definitely $79.7k. i think maybe there are other expenses to do with being international. my personal contribution is $5.5k. I included it in total contribution. When i did net cost calculator before I applied it said $11k contribution so how would i know to look elsewhere? im sorry but when you heat the phrase “full demonstrated need” you would think that it would actually match my need… and i already thought that $11k was expensive but may be manageable. now im just confused about how you all survive paying such excessive amounts out of pocket… for comparison, for me to stay and study in the uk the net cost to my parents will probably be about £3k without me working.
@WrathOfGod1999 This is the break down:
Cost of attendance: $79.7k
Columbia grant: $54.9k
Parent contribution: $19.3k
Student responsibility: $5.5k
Net cost: $24.7k
@snicks1234 i’ve been told that universities may try to match each others offers, is that false?
@Afrikal yeah hopefully. i i will probably call the FAO after i get decisions from other universities.
@ammielove yeah my top choice wants me to pay over double my efc and that’s not happening so I totally feel your pain because it sucks when you get accepted and then find out there’s no way you can make it a reality. I appealed it but was told that was the best they could do even though they also claimed they meet 100% of demonstrated need. And they gave me a package worse than another school that claimed to meet about 80% of need so…
@ammielove I feel you. I got into Princeton early action and I was not given "full demonstrated need*. It really does suck.
@ammielove I strongly suggest that you call Columbia’s financial aid office and explain your circumstances to them. Often times they’ll be willing to raise their offer if they knew about your situation.
@charcoalatey2021 Connections are weighed very little, if at all. More important to them is what’s in the letter, not who wrote it.
@masquerade98 ah okay; thank you!
@shooting4stars @oplurobha omg it really sucks, I’m so sorry! I think the system is broken. Ik the universities aren’t regulated by government but I think that they should try and standardise their financial aid. Maybe all the ivies should get together to standardise aid, that could be a starting point. Now just got to hope for the best come Ivy day. I don’t think affordability should ever have to be a reason someone says no to a university, university should be affordable for everyone.
@ammielove I agree that the system is ridiculous but try not to complain about it so much on this page. Columbia is really generous with financial aid compared to a lot of other schools. If you want to come to an private American university, you should understand that everything is going to be a lot more expensive. Also, I can’t make sweeping conclusions about your financial situation but I am just going to put this out there, your 50 somewhat K grant covers nearly all of tuition. The contribution from yourself and your parents essentially equals things like room, board, food, supplies and travel (and now thinking about it, since you’re an international, this might partially explain why your total is a little larger than mine). Point being, the 25 K that youre essentially paying to live at university is pretty reasonable considering the living cost in NYC. If you were living by yourself, paying rent and working your own job in NYC without Columbia, I guarantee that your yearly expenditures would be more than. I get it, it’s expensive. But as far as whats the norm on this side of the Atlantic, its not so bad. That being said, since the calculator gave you such a low value, I would ask them about that. My guess is you probably missed some assets while calculating that got reported in your FAFSA/CSS. But if nothing works, I hope you see things from a more sunny side.
How is everyone able to see their financial aid this early? Was it through email? @ammielove
@ammielove 54k is a lot for international. The average aid for international students who APPLIED is 57k, so your package is pretty reasonable. I don’t know the percentage of international students receiving aid from Columbia, but I’m sure it’s pretty low. Since your parents didn’t work and pay taxes in the states, you are not eligible for federal aid. In an ideal world everyone should be able of afford education, but the reality is that domestic students will always be taken care of first. On the other hand, the money of your package all comes from Columbia (not state or federal government). A school must be in love with you, to offer you that amount of money for four years.
Overall, I wouldn’t say Columbia isn’t generous to you. But if you still feel “unappreciated”, you should choose Cambridge instead. Oxbridge is in the tier of HYPSM. It’s only three years for undergrad, and you’ll pay much less as UK/EU citizen.
@ammielove I have just skimmed this thread so don’t know all of your details and may have missed something. However, it appears that you are not comparing apples to apples as you are not comparing the full cost of attendance at each Uni (based on your post #438). Look at it this way:
Columbia COA: $24,700 (post #444)
Cambridge: Tuition - £9,250
Living Costs (Housing and Meals): £9,000 (from Cambridge website)
Total: £18,250 (USD 22,812)
However, the Cambridge bill does not include books which is currently running me $2,000 per year.
In addition, most students take out loans every year for the £9,250 for which interest rates accrue from disbursement compared to the USA where loans do not accrue interest until graduation. In the UK currently, the student loan rate is a shocking 4.6% p.a. (the Base Rate is only 0.25%).
Obviously the big cost advantage of Cambridge is that most courses are only 3 years so there would be substantial savings there.
Anyway, I am not criticising your opinions or telling you what to do but you do need to work out the full cost of attendance (including any loan financing costs) for each school before you go back and make any appeals. Good luck!
@londondad yeah but I don’t really consider the uk student loans as ‘loans.’ There are completely tied to income and are taken directly out of pay, so they are more like a temporary tax. There is no way you could ‘struggle’ to pay. They do not affect credit scores or anything. Repayment rates are very low; most people get their student debt wiped before they finish paying. And if you have a low income you don’t have to pay anything back (or only very small amounts).
And I have actually made an excel spreadsheet comparing costs and stuff (including debt from student loans) but I am very afraid to get a loan in America based on what I’ve seen. Also, everywhere I’ve looked that gives loans to internationals require me to have an American co-signer which I don’t have. And even then the interest rates were like 9% APR.
But thanks everyone for your help! I think I may have fundamentally misunderstood how FA works. I’m going to discuss the situation with my parents more. It’s just I really want to go.
@Leonhard @WrathOfGod1999 guys I realise that Columbia has been generous and I’ve probably got a better deal than I would at other colleges! I guess I didn’t fully realise how unaffordable US university would be as a whole. I kind of feel bad for getting upset when apparently this is the norm for most people but then at the same time I feel sad that this could be allowed to be the norm.
Is it a bad sign to be getting emails telling me about the school of general studies? I applied to the Columbia engineering collebe