<p>Hi, I am going to be a senior this upcoming school year and I plan to apply for early decision at Emory (since they don't have early action). I am almost positive that I will go to Emory if I'm accepted and if I can afford it. </p>
<p>That's why I really want to know if Emory will let me know how much financial aid (grants) it would offer for me BEFORE I apply for early decision. Because my family is not great in the financial area and I really want the LEAST student loans possible, I really need to know how much money my family would have to pay before applying for early decision. I'm only talking about grants that's based on my family's financial situation, not scholarships (because I know those you can only apply for after you're accepted) I don't want to be forced to go to a school where my family would have to pay a lot for (but my family and I really want me to attend at Emory) So for Emory students who applied for early decisions and those who know the answer to this question, thank you for answering :D</p>
<p>If you are accepted ED, Emory will send you an FA package when you’re accepted, or shortly after. If you can’t afford to attend with their offered aid, you can turn them down and move on to applying to other schools RD.</p>
<p>BUT: do some homework first. Run a FAFSA estimator using the so-called Institutional model to get an estimate of how much a school like Emory will expect your family to pay each year. If your EFC is more than your family can afford, then you will need to look for merit aid. Merit aid is generally given out during RD as a way to encourage people to enroll, so if you’re looking for merit aid (if Emory even offers it) you’ll want to wait for RD. </p>
<p>Take a look at the Emory forum for old threads on acceptances and financial aid. Once you have your EFC, you can ask people on the forum if you’re likely to get enough aid to make the school affordable.</p>
<p>Since you want as little in loans as possible, you shouldn’t be applying ED at all. You won’t be able to compare financial aid offers ED. One not-fun possibility: you apply ED to Emory, get in, but the school is a little too expensive. You turn down your ED acceptance, apply to other places RD (or EA), and then find out that the Emory FA offer was the best of the bunch. But it’s too late: once you turn down an ED acceptance, you can’t change your mind.</p>
<p>Yes…use the FA calculators…for both Federal and Institutional methodologies</p>
<p>Can you clarify?</p>
<p>It sounds like your family has a good income, but is not good with money. If so, that will be a problem because likely they will be asked to pay more than they can afford.</p>
<p>How much CAN they afford to pay?</p>
<p>A very rough estimate of the amount that Emory will expect your parents to pay is about 25% of your family’s income (before taxes). Since you say that your family isn’t great with money, I’m guessing that they don’t have a lot of assets…so the 25% estimate shouldn’t be too far off…unless your family is low income. </p>
<p>I don’t think you should apply ED…I think you need a strategy based on your stats and your financial situation.</p>
<p>You need to be able to compare offers…so don’t apply ED.</p>
<p>*I’m only talking about grants that’s based on my family’s financial situation, not scholarships (because I know those you can only apply for after you’re accepted) *</p>
<p>??? Is that an Emory rule? It’s not a rule at other schools. And, schools have no need to offer merit scholarships to ED students because they aren’t competing for those kids.</p>
<p>No you won’t get to “know how much Emory will give you before you apply ED”…you can’t really know with certainty what Emory will give you for financial aid before you apply ED. You can get some guestimates by using the online calculators using the institutional methodology. You MIGHT be able to get an “early read” from Emory, but that isn’t all that common.</p>
<p>In most cases you apply for scholarships before you get accepted also…not just need based aid. Emory does have some merit awards…you will apply for those when you apply for admission.</p>
<p>If financial aid is a significant factor, you might want to reconsider applying Early Decision. Emory might give you the best package…but then again…Emory might not and some other school might. If you apply ED, you will never know if other schools might provide you with better financial aid.</p>
<p>If you are accepted ED, Emory will send you an FA package when you’re accepted, or shortly after. If you can’t afford to attend with their offered aid, you can turn them down and move on to applying to other schools RD.</p>
<p>One of the problems with that strategy…especially for a student whose family may not be able to afford its EFC is that many of the schools that give large merit scholarships have scholarship deadlines of around Dec 1st.</p>
<p>Every late Dec thru January we see ED kids posting and saying…“my family had no idea that schools would expect them to pay so much. My ED school expects my family to pay X…but they can only afford “half X.” I now need to apply to some schools where I can get lots of merit scholarships.”</p>
<p>But, alas, many of the deadline (at least for the big scholarships) are past.</p>
<p>Unless you’re low income/low assets/ no NCPs and the school meets need, or your family can afford to pay full freight, it is too risky to apply ED.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the helpful replies. I guess I was a little bit impulsive in my decisions. I’m actually reconsidering ED after reading your advice. I talked to my parents about the pros and cons and it seems like they are deciding against ED.
As for the EFC calculator, call me dumb, but I find it extremely difficult to enter the amounts because of the complicated tax terms. I know the basics like “adjusted gross income” but after that I have no idea what the other terms mean…I actually got my parents’ IRS form out and tried to do it…my parents don’t know English very well so they couldn’t help me that much either…lol. If you guys know of any website that can instruct step by step how to fill out the EFC calculator or FAFSA, please let me know, that would be greatly appreciated…as for now, I’m still trying to figure out these complicated terms…</p>
<p>Oh, if it’s helpful at all my parents’ income together is around $42,700. Is that too much to be able to receive grants? There are 4 in the family and we still have to pay mortgage monthly. I know this is really basic information but I’ve never looked at tax forms until recently so I’m very clueless…sorry…thanks a lot for your help and effort, though.</p>
<p>Ask at your high school for the names of any parent or community volunteers who help students with the FAFSA. There may be someone who does that.</p>
<p>@MySweetMelodies: do ED. with 42k you are pretty much guaranteed full ride with no loans (see emory advantage program). I did ED and my family makes more than yours and I got a very nice package. dont worry about it.</p>
<p>hold on…we don’t know the family’s total financial picture…</p>
<p>if it’s helpful at all my parents’ income together is around $42,700</p>
<p>The fact that they have a mortgage isn’t relevant. Does the home have value/equity?</p>
<p>Does this income come from being self-employed? Do your parents own a business? Many small business owners claim a lowish income, but FA officers will come to a VERY different conclusion after adding back in various deductions and consideration for how much the business and equipment is worth.</p>
<p>Does this family have any other assets/savings/investments?</p>
<p>The way it works with Emory is that you complete the financial aid form PROFILE at the same time as when you file the ED application. It has to be estimated because the 2011 year is not over yet. You would use 2010 tax forms and include signed copies of them and would make changes where you know there have been some during 2011 so it best reflects the current year. Emory will then send you an estimated financial aid package if you are accepted so that you can see what they would give based on your estimated information. Once 2011 is over and you have actually have 2011 W2s, 1099s and have done your 2011 taxes, you will file FAFSA and a revised PROFILE for Emory to send you the “real” package.</p>
<p>There is that old expression, “garbage in, garbage out”, and that goes for that estimate. If your family financial situation is about the same for 2011 as it was for 2010, and you fill out that estimated 2010 PROFILE close to what it turns out to be, you’ll be fine. You can see what Emory would offer you and if you don’t like it, you can turn them down if you cannot come to agreement on the award. But there have been kids who have gotten drastically different actual awards because either something happened before the end of the year after PROFILE info was given or they were not careful in completing the estimated PROFILE. Either way, you are in a bad situation if April come rolling around and your final package is not what you expected and more than you can afford. </p>
<p>I personally do not recommend applying ED if you need or want aid, because you can’t compare what is a “good” package for you, and because if there is a substantial change in financial numbers, the package can change. It’s tough when you get an acceptance and package, and if it’s not what you wanted, you can’t see if that’s going to be it for you, whether you will have other alternatives. Because if you can’t get them move on it, you really are stuck.</p>
Those applying ED needing FA should assume that they’ll turn down an acceptance offer, and proceed at full speed with whatever RD application preparations are appropriate. This solves the problem of deadlines passing, and removes this particular ED risk.</p>
<p>ED should be attempted only at your number one choice/dream school, when your only question is “Can I afford it?” and you don’t care about comparing FA packages.</p>
<p>OP’s family makes less than 50k which will automatically make him graduate debt free because of emory advantage program. emory wont expect him to pay much (maybe 1-3k a year max) because the total cost of emory is much more than what his parents make. unless his parents have outrageous amount of assets, he will get an almost free ride. there is almost no risk to apply ED if a family makes less than 50k. emory just got $15 million gift this year to go for the financial aid program which is very good for those who will qualify for emory advantage program (under 50k its no debt; 50k-100k there is a cap of 15k in loans for 4 years).</p>
<p>To the poster above, OP’s family is making a bit below 50k. With the value of assets and stocks unknown, there might be a chance of it going over 50k if one were to add everything up. In my opinion, doing ED is still a gamble on the Fin. Aid end and that’s assuming that OP does get accepted.</p>
<p>I would not be so quick to say that OP will get a free ride as we do not know her financial situation. We do not know if the 42k is income from work, income from a family owned farm or income from a buisness that happens to be faltering. THe last 2 scenarios cold very easily net her no financial aid. We do not know how much equity they have in their home or hoe Emory looks at home equity (if they are house rich they could end up not gettign FA). We do know know if there are step parents involved</p>
<p>*OP’s family makes less than 50k which will automatically make him graduate debt free because of emory advantage program. emory wont expect him to pay much (maybe 1-3k a year max) because the total cost of emory is much more than what his parents make. *</p>
<p>Do not give false hope when we don’t know the details. If this family only has that small income and little assets, then she could get a lot of aid.</p>
<p>However, if that income is from a family business and/or the family has other assets, the school may determine that she qualifies for little aid. There was another student with a similar income (and parents not speaking much English) and all their income was coming from rental property…which was worth over a million dollars.</p>
<p>I have stated this story many times of a friend of ours who thought he would get significant financial aid from Harvard which is probably the most generous in financial aid. He supported the family and planned for his retirement by investing in income properties. He netted a nice but not very high income from them, but as real estate values went up those years when his son went to college, he was considered very well to do. Never mind that selling a property to pay for college would diminish his income permanently. Never mind that these were his retirement resources. They didn’t get a dime in financial aid. </p>
<p>The best thing the OP can do is to complete a PROFILE and ask Emory for a calculator or help for a guesstimate on what kind of aid is probably. Using the institutional calculator on line will give some idea, but you really don’t know till you apply. And then you gotta make the decision to go with it or let it go when the aid/acceptance package arrives.</p>
<p>mom2…one of your previous posts implied that a student would miss scholarship deadlines if they didn’t get accepted at their ED school by Dec 1.</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t the student apply to these schools also? IF the student gets accepted ED, then the student would be required to withdraw all other applications (and acceptances if there are any)…but does applying ED mean that the student CANNOT apply elsewhere prior to December 1? I’m not sure that is true.</p>
<p>*mom2…one of your previous posts implied that a student would miss scholarship deadlines if they didn’t get accepted at their ED school by Dec 1.</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t the student apply to these schools also? *</p>
<p>Let me clarify…</p>
<p>They certainly CAN apply to those schools, but too often they don’t…because they aren’t thinking that they need to be pro-active at that point because many don’t realize that there are those early scholarship deadlines.</p>
<p>What has happened in the past…Some kids have applied ED and often wait to find out the results and then apply to others if needed… And, even if they do apply to some EA schools as well, those aren’t often the big scholarship schools. They often aren’t good about also applying to safety schools with early merit scholarship deadlines.</p>
<p>Then, their ED results come out and their FA packages come and THEN they discover that they have an unaffordable “family contribution”. So, in late Dec/med January they are posting that they now need to apply to schools that give good merit scholarships…but at that point the deadlines has passed.</p>
<p>I think this happens because many kids/parents have no idea of what their family contribution will be AND they are so mesmerized by the ED process that they aren’t thinking about all of these things.</p>