<p>My EFC is 52k. Apparently my family is super rich and can afford 50k a year for college...NOT.
My parents have been saving up for college for 10 years at least, and they've saved up enough to cover 25k a year for 8 years I think.</p>
<p>So...I've narrowed down my options to UCLA and Northwestern, but Northwestern costs 57k and UCLA costs 30k. I got no aid to UCLA and my Northwestern aid is:</p>
<p>Award Description Category Offered Disbursed Balance
Northwestern Scholarship Grant $2,526.00<br>
Fedl Sub Stafford Loan Loan $2,000.00<br>
Academic Year Totals $4,526.00 </p>
<p>Is there any possible way that I could get any more aid to make NU cost anywhere closer to LA? Because my parents WILL NOT pay for Northwestern, or even put that 25k a year towards it, if I have UCLA on the table.</p>
<p>P.S. I have 2 siblings entering college in 5 years, if that matters.</p>
<p>Try appealing. It may not get you much if anything, but it’s always worth a shot.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think your parents’ mentality is the most sound. UCLA is also an excellent school and personally, I wouldn’t pay 80k extra over 4 years just to have the privilege of going to NU as opposed to UCLA (don’t get me wrong; I love it here). Do you really not want to attend UCLA for some reason?</p>
<p>I live an hour away from UCLA, and I was really looking for a college experience that was completely different from Southern California. That plus the fact that UCs are broke and have 400-person classes, and that NU has an 80% med school acceptance rate compared to UCLA’s 50%. I’m just bummed that cost has made it so that my college has already been decided for me, I don’t get to choose at all.</p>
<p>
I’m no expert in the med school acceptance rate in either school, but I do know of a local school which is little known outside of our area that is known to have a great acceptance rate. What I was told was that they have a reputation of weeding out many of the kids so that the ones who are left are the ones who have a really good shot. Whether this is true or not I don’t know, but that’s the word around town. </p>
<p>So what I’m saying is that the figures you cite may have a other factors, but for DD’s sake I’m hoping your figures are correct since that continues to be her goal.</p>
<p>Actually, NU does not have a screening process like some schools. But what it got behind that 80% admit rate is the fact that the admits have a MCAT average of 34. If you include the 20% of non-admit, the overall average is probably still something like 32-33. I doubt UCLA students have that kind of average (extrapolating from their SAT average). So my point is if you get 34 on MCAT while at UCLA, you probably will do better than its 50% average.</p>