My family income for 2015 was 115K, for a household of 6 (2 parents, 4 kids). There will be 2 kids in college next year. My parents also bought a house last year for 250K that they owe 200K on. I filed the FAFSA and CSS profile, and sent tax information (tax returns, w2s).
I honestly feel like there has been a mistake because I thought Tulane was more generous. I was pretty sure my dad made mistakes while filling things out b/c he and my mom filed taxes separately and in general he didn’t know what he was doing. But does this look right?
-Distinguished Scholars Award: $27,000
-Perkins Loan: $5,500
-Federal direct subsidized loan: $3,500
-Federal work study: $4,000
-Federal direct unsubsidized loan: $2,000
This is a total of $42,000 per year and Tulane’s cost of attendance is about 67, 000 per year! So they’re expecting my parents to pay $25,000 out of pocket, which we definitely can’t afford.
I’m just really surprised with this, which is why I feel certain we made a mistake when applying for financial aid. Does Tulane not give grants? I thought Tulane was very generous. Any insight would be appreciated!
What was your EFC from the FAFSA? That Distinguished Scholar Award is a grant, so they did give you a grant.
My EFC from FAFSA is $10,531 @DiotimaDM
That does not seem right. Mine was pretty generous and actually one of the better packages I have received. I’m not looking at the package right now so I don’t have exact numbers but I got the presidential scholarship and then they gave me a grant to get it down to like 26,000 out of pocket per year. I also have a household of 6 and including me, 3 will be in college.
Does your family own a business, by chance? You might need to see if you can get a copy of the FAFSA to double check if it was filled out correctly. If you think the award is low and that you might be eligible for need-based aid from the school, you can call and ask about it.
There’s also a way to document your family’s actual expenses to see if they’re higher than average. If they are, the financial aid office may be able to make some changes in your favor. Just be aware that things like credit card debt don’t count. This would have to be something like large mortgage payments, medical expenses, etc.
@DiotimaDM no we don’t own a business. And my parents recently bought a house and owe 200K on it. Our finances are pretty straightforward. 115K income, family of 6, 2 in college next year. Do you think the financial aid package looks off? I want to contact them but their office has been pretty rude the precious 2 times I called (for other questions). So I don’t want to contact them unless there’s some sort of confirmation that the fin aid package is off
It’s hard to say if it looks off or not. Unfortunately, they’re not a meets-full-need school, so they’re not obligated to give you aid until the package meets your EFC.
I’d say it’s worth a polite phone call where you say you’re trying to understand the offer, and is it common for them to gap students by that much.
I am not an expert in these sorts of things, so hopefully someone else will come along soon to offer other opinions.
I don’t think people on the house does too much. We owe over $200000 on our house and our adjusted gross income for our family of 6 was less than $60000. You, as a young person, don’t realize y’all have a lot of money! Get a loan. We are having to take out at least $25000/year
@gogogogobruins going a 100K in debt for undergrad is crazy, in my opinion. I have compared my package with someone who had a higher EFC than me and they received a lot more money! So I think something might have been off with my fin aid application
You haven’t posted anything about your academic achievement. Maybe someone received a higher merit award because they were a stronger applicant. Tulane is offering you $108,000 over 4 years which is 40% of the cost of attendance. I think that is pretty generous of them. They just don’t meet full need.
I am not talking about merit award. I received a 27,000 per year scholarship. The person I am talking about had a higher EFC than I but received a Tulane grant (NEED based aid) of almost 10K. I didn’t receive any need based aid and my EFC is lower. This is what makes me think that something might be up.
Based on what @123Mom456 is saying, Tulane determines need based aid by merit, and that’s not true (as far as I know).
I got a 10000 grant from Tulane and my efc was lower but instead of work study I was offered a 5,000 loan instead
They may have made a mistake , so call 
It does not hurt to ask the financial aid office but it seems very generous to me. $25K per year for a private university like Tulane is not bad. I agree that it is not worth $100,000 in debt but the sticker price is good.
Your out of pocket is equivalent to the annual cost of attendance at our state university. In Louisiana, the annual cost of attendance at LSU is ~$22,000 for example. Of course, it would end up less in that you would likely have access to the same loans you mentioned. Subtracting the loans would make LSU out of pocket only $7000 per year. Some of that could be offset with summer work.
Is this far off from what the net price calculator on the school website showed? Also, confused about why your parents filed taxes separately.
I have no idea why my parents filed separately. They’ve been doing it ever since we immigrated here 10 years ago. @intparent
Hahah guys so funny story. It turns out the fin aid office wasn’t finished compiling my fin aid info. So I checked again today (and I had never called them), and saw that they had given me a 16.7K Tulane Scholarship (which is the need based aid I was talking about). They also took away the work study. So my total aid package is now 54K
Oh, wow, that’s an AWESOME package!!
Are things ok now and will you be able to go?
@MYOS1634 Tulane is definitely back into consideration, but I’m waiting for packages from USC (cali) and Notre Dame. Then I’d have to decide between those and a full ride scholarship at my state flagship!
An embarrassment of riches is a good thing to have