<p>Keep in mind that even if your dad finds a 200k job in the US, you will not be eligible for much if any (at some schools) need based financial aid. Is he prepared to pay the bulk of the cost?</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids, Yes it has been a while. We haven’t lived there for 6 years, and I’m under the impression that he may be being overoptimistic perhaps.</p>
<p>@sybbie, he says he’s willing to pay the full cost of attendance if required, but I’m going to talk to him about this again tomorrow after school (can’t right now). Of course, I would try to make whatever dent I can by working summers and part time during college (although I have no idea if that would really help much at all).</p>
<p>@thumper, yeah…my main concern is that I get no aid from Cornell and would still be legally obligated to attend…although my dad doesn’t seem to share the same concern of having to pay full tuition. I don’t understand why though…so like I said, i’ll talk to him and clear things up asap.</p>
<p>If he does get that job, I think it would be about a year too late to give the father on the other thread advice haha. My dad won’t be moving/looking for a job until he’s certain the business cannot break even any time soon.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention this before, but it may be of relevance that we own property as well (our house was valued at around $400k when we moved in 3 years ago).</p>
<p>With a business and a house work 400k, you should go into this with the mind set that you are most likely going to be full pay and not receive any financial aid from cornell (who does look at home equity).</p>
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<p>That’s exactly what I thought… I was thrown off by the estimated financial aid that the calculator threw at me when I ran it (I didn’t expect any aid), which was why I decided to post this question in the first place.</p>
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<p>First, you are absolutely free to say “no” to Cornell if you decide their offer just isn’t affordable. You won’t have a huge amount of time to make that decision (as in months), but you can likely take a week or two to decide.</p>
<p>Second, you are also absolutely free to change your app from ED to RD with no negative repercussions. It happens all the time, for a variety of reasons, and no one at the school is going to think twice about it. That having been said, I wouldn’t delay too long before letting them know. Don’t push it beyond the end of November, and the sooner, the better. Just send an email requesting the change (no explanation needed) and asking them to send you an email confirming.</p>
<p>And, as thumper noted, you can stay in the ED round . . . if you’re certain that you’re willing to walk away if the offer isn’t affordable. (Clearly, easier said than done!) Look at it this way, though, if you do get into Cornell, even if you can’t afford it, that bodes well for your outcome at other colleges in April.</p>
<p>Good luck with your dad! (Sounds like you’re going to need it . . . ! ;))</p>
<p>I don’t know if I’m allowed to bump up an old thread like this or I have to start a new one… but if anyone wants to know… </p>
<p>I got deferred from Cornell. And I think that’s for the best since now I can compare FA/merit scholarship offers from my other schools.</p>
<p>So far I have a $100k merit scholarship ($25k/year) + ~$5/year need-based at Case Western Reserve in the form of various grants, work-study, and loans (mostly grants though). My Cost of attendance now there is somewhere around $30k I think.</p>
<p>I also got into University of Michigan (merit based scholarship notification comes later though).</p>
<p>And now I’m just waiting on Cornell (probably going to be rejected), CMU (probably too expensive to attend even if I get into SCS and everyone knows how stingy these guys are with aid), Berkeley (probably no aid) and Stanford (probably rejected here too).</p>
<p>So I have a couple questions now… </p>
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<li><p>If I do get into Cornell/Stanford/CMU, should I expect similar need-based figures at around $5k? Or did Case only give me that much since I had already received a large merit scholarship and I should expect getting more elsewhere due to the lack of these scholarships in other universities?</p></li>
<li><p>Is a Michigan CS education worth it over the money that Case is giving to me? I’m not a ranking obsessed or anything but Case is at around #50 while UMich is top 10. Plus Mich is pretty well known in the CS world but I don’t know if the same could be said for Case outside the midwest. So I’m not sure which I should attend. Again, my dad tells me not to worry about finances and that I should go to UMich, but I feel like I feel like i’m being selfish for not taking Case. Right now I’m leaning towards Mich but I don’t know…</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for the update. It is helpful to tag on resolutions to original threads. Of course no aid from Berkeley they don’t give any in your situation. But for the rest you can’t anticipate your decisions or aid. If so, why apply? You might have a better package if you get into one of the meets full need privates, though. We have seen a wide variance between colleges in need based aid. It should have nothing to do with the merit aid you were offered.</p>
<p>I see, okay - guess I can’t predict it. Well I applied to all of these because my parents assured me that they can pay full freight but I’m pretty much blind to actual finances (other than asset value).</p>
<p>There’s no way to predict but, in general, Stanford is the most generous of your schools for need-based aid and Case for merit aid. You need to wait and see.</p>
<p>Just thought I should mention the final results for anyone else in a similar situation (small business, owns property, no household income). What’s interesting is how generous state schools are in my case (totally didn’t see it coming):</p>
<p>I got the maximum Federal Pell grant ($5.7k, I think that’s the max). Almost all of my schools, if not all (can’t remember), gave me an EFC of 0.</p>
<p>Berkeley gave me a ~$25k grant this financial year. I also got about $10k in subsidized loans and the rest of the cost in unsubsidized loans (won’t take them though).</p>
<p>UIUC also covered my full COA, but it’s all in loans other than the pell grant.</p>
<p>UMich gave me about a $14k grant per semester excluding the pell grant. The rest of the COA is covered by subsidized and unsubsidized loans.</p>
<p>Brown hasn’t given me a financial package decision yet but I expect it to be more generous than Berkeley, seeing that the latter is a state school and i’m OOS.</p>
<p>Rejected from Cornell/Harvard so nothing there. Haven’t gotten my Stanford decision but I don’t expect to get in so no financial package to report anyways.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for updating. </p>
<p>Though I believe Michigan does use PROFILE, the rest of the publics use FAFSA only, and so the small business is hardly taken into account You are automatically entitled to PELL due to the zero EFC, even at PROFILE schools, and also to the subsidy on the Direct loans. Clearly your stats are up there, so merit money is in the picture. </p>
<p>What did the PROFILE schools indicate as expected contributions? Not that it matters much because the problem with business ownership, each school has its own methodology on how they deal with different situations Some folks with certain types of businesses have let out a huge sigh or relief as the schools on their kids’ lists did review them conservatively, and others who got reamed, appeal, some get some consideration on appeal, but others are sent along their way. You can get full consideration at one schools and zip at another. So i’ts very difficult to predict how a school is going to view a home business. </p>