<p>When I click on Undergraduate Financial Aid, it says, " Please note that prospective freshman and transfer students should not complete a University Aid Application, but should instead consult the Office of Admissions for information regarding application procedures and deadlines." I clicked on the link, but I don't really know where to go next. I'm confused. Can anyone help?</p>
<p>i think all you need to worry about for your financial aid is the CSS/PROFILE (<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeboard.com</a>) and the FAFSA...</p>
<p>oh okay. most colleges just request those two things, but a few have an individual app. phew.</p>
<p>The CSS Profile will have questions on it that are specifically requested by NU. There is no NU application for financial aid for applicants.</p>
<p>I'm just curious. I've heard the word "endowment" being thrown around a few times lately (not that much here but in other places), and I really kind of want to know what it means. I feel so uninformed now. If anybody knows what this means, I'd appreciate it if I can be "clued in" on the information.</p>
<p>...related to college financing, endowment is the amount of money college has. It can be long and short term investments. Colleges use the endowment to fund their grants and scholarships....</p>
<p>Thanks, frazzledad, for your response. I had a feeling that it meant something along those lines, but I wasn't sure. I also heard somewhere that NU has one of the largest endowments so that kind of sparked my interest even more. That must be where the adcom got the $15,000 average loan debt for NU's seniors. Since the school has so much money to give away to those who need it, they have the ability to make the students' debts be a lot lower than expected.</p>
<p>Reese...</p>
<p>NU's financial aid package was very fair. The EFC we calculated using the online calcs. was almost exactly was NU came up with. The student work study is under 10 hrs. a week....very fair...and a couple of small loans that if used each year will come to between 10 and 15K...the balance is a NU grant...</p>
<p>...all in all a very fair package...our family will use most all disposable income for college for the next few years....but behind medical care there is nothing more valuable...</p>
<p>I don't doubt that their financial aid packages are very fair, and I completely trust the person that gave me that information. I was just curious as to how they get that debt thing so low (and I think I now have the answer - your second response just backed it up). However, a $40,000 tuition and room and board price tag can't exactly be taken as lightly as going out to buy a new DVD once in a while. This is why I'm kind of taking everything pertaining to financial aid with "a grain of salt" right now (that and the fact that when my brother applied for financial aid last year, he got nothing - however, he's not at NU so I don't know what they'll do). I know that having two kids in college will be a completely different situation than having just one in college, but I'm still a little skeptical.</p>
<p>I'll try and explain NU's financial aid as best I can. Aid is made up of basically three parts: grants, work-study, and loans. Grants are "free money" the university gives you - you don't have to pay it back. It is based "solely" on financial need, so you don't have a GPA that you have to maintain to keep your money. Work-study is part of a financial aid package that the university offers to some financial aid students. It is an offer to work (up to a certain dollar amount) in a work-study job on or off-campus. How many hours you work per-week is based on how much your job pays. Loans are, well, loans that you have to pay back. There are student loans and parent loans. There are two types of student loans: Perkins loans and Stafford loans. Perkins loans are for those who have "severe financial need" and are the ones you want if you can get them because you have longer to pay without interest. There are two types of Stafford loans: subsidized (demonstrated financial need) and un-subsidized (no financial need). The interest on subsidized Stafford loans is paid by the government while you are still in school, while the interest builds on un-subsidized loans while you are in school. </p>
<p>Bad news for all of us: I hear that NU is fairly generous with grants the first year, but then in the subsequent years they are less giving (since you already go there so they don't have to 'bribe' you). The amount of Stafford loan that a student is eligible for also increases as the student moves up in school. As a freshman, I think students are eligible for around $2700 Stafford loans. By junior year, that number increases to (I think) 5500 dollars. Also, from what I understand, finaid will "max out" the amount of loans that you (the student) are eligible for, then figure out how much work-study you are eligible for, then subtract this added amount from the total cost of the university (about 40,000) minus the EFC. The remaining amount is made up in grants, since NU meets 100% of financial need. To put it more simply:
$40,000 - EFC - student loans - work-study = grants.
It is more complicated than this, but this is the general gist of NU's financial aid policy. Hope this helps!</p>
<p>Sorry if that's really redundant for you guys (reses and dad) if you knew all of that already - I'm hoping it might be able to help some other people!</p>
<p>Oasis, I used to work for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions (I still volunteer) and I STRONGLY URGE you to call the Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid. They know more about the formula and process than most of us on this forum. In fact, on my job, it was required that I NOT talk about financial aid to prospective students. Many families would ask me questions and I had to divert them to financial aid officiers on the phone or email. I could talk about the basics (grants, loans and work-study). Nothing more, and definitely not our financial aid packages (for confidentiality sakes). If you know what your EFC is, then you will have a geniune idea what your package will be. Furthermore, only 50% of Northwestern students receive any kind of financial aid package (again, 20% of students here come from families with a gross income of $250,000+. You do the math.)</p>
<p>I agree with tenisghs. All I know comes from my personal experience. Each person's financial situation is different. Call FinAid - they know more than any student will.</p>
<p>The reason the NU grants decrease after the first year is because in each subsequent year the student is eligible for higher loans and they expect the contribution from the student's earnings to go up a little each year. </p>
<p>The formula for EFC is widely known and the various calculators are very accurate. </p>
<p>Tenisghs is correct...once you compute your EFC it is fairly simply to get a good idea of what the package will look like...work study is limited to a couple thousand dollars a year and the loans to students have yearly caps...they expect you to work summers and use most of that for school... The bottom line is you're not going to avoid paying the EFC... The EFC is the key variable of financial aid packages...if you've not sat down and computed the figures with your parents you need to...someone from your family will have to come up with that amount of money...neither the federal government nor any college that provides need based finacial aid is going to reduce your EFC.</p>
<p>Whatever your EFC is becomes the difference from the total cost to attend Northwestern. If your EFC is less than the total cost, Northwestern must match (in loans, grants or work/study) the remainder. How they match the difference is up to the financial aid officiers.</p>
<p>For example, if your EFC is, say, $23,000, and Northwestern costs $42,000. Northwestern must match ($42,000-$23,000) the difference in financial aid. Now, a lot of students have EFCs of $38,000, which means the school will give them little to no aid. The process is not really difficult. Whatever your EFC, you will know what kind of financial aid package you will get.</p>
<p>tenisghs,</p>
<p>I have one quick question (and afterwards, I'm going to leave the subject of financial aid because I'm sick of talking about money). Do you know that the web address of the site where you can calculate your own EFC? I saw it a few months ago, but I didn't do it then because I didn't have all of the accurate information to complete it. Now, I think I might want to try it, but i can't remember its address.</p>
<p>Reeses...there is an EFC calculator link on the home page of this CC site. It's down at the bottom of the page...also collegeboard and finaid.com.</p>
<p>Thanks frazzledad.</p>