<p>Alrighty, I was just accepted into Duke Early Decision and for the past couple days I have been extremely stressed out. </p>
<p>Duke has offered me barely any financial aid and my parents are grudgingly willing to pay 20K per year. That would mean I would have to take out 40K a year in student loans.</p>
<p>Florida on the other hand, would give me a free ride because of Florida pre-paid and Bright Futures. </p>
<p>I am 95% I want to major in computer engineering and attend Berkley for my Masters Degree. Is UF going to get me where I need to go or will I regret not going to Duke?</p>
<p>Talk to Duke about your financial situation and see if they are willing to accommodate you. Frankly, I don’t think it would be a good idea to renege on your commitment to Duke, but I guess it can’t be helped in light of the extenuating circumstances.</p>
<p>I plan on talking to Duke… but what if they offer no other financial assistance?</p>
<p>And technically I’m not “renegading” on my commitment to Duke. The commitment is conditional based on the family’s ability to pay.</p>
<p>“Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment.”</p>
<p>^^That is straight from the Early Decision contract.</p>
<p>Talk to Duke fin. aid and your parents. You can’t go $160,000 in debt for Duke plus more debt for grad school. You will be stuck with debt the rest of your life.<br>
Of course a UF degree doesn’t equal a Duke degree but if you excel at UF you should be able to continue to grad school and be free as a bird with no debt. If you can get the Duke debt to a managable level, maybe $10,000/year go to Duke.</p>
<p>I don’t know that there is a good argument to make unless your financial circumstances changed after you applied early decision. This is the first year that the government required schools to provide the net price calculator. If what financial aid sent was similar to the net price calculator results what would be the reason. In my case it was very close.</p>
<p>I would definitely pick Florida under these circumstances. What if you attend Duke and start you senior year, bringing your parents’ debt load to $140k for seven semesters, when heaven forbid you suddenly become ill/hit by bus/other tragedy. They are now stuck with a sizable mortgage payment and no means of paying for it.</p>
<p>Even in the best case scenario, if your parents decide they can double their contribution to $40k/year, you will graduate $80k in debt (assuming their contribution rises with tuition increases) as you start graduate school.</p>
<p>If opportunities arise during your college years (study abroad, co-op employment, etc.) the interest on PLUS loans continues to accrue. You will severly limited in terms of what curriculum enhancements you will be able to take advantage of.</p>
<p>Talk to the FA office to see if they can help. However, I fear that you are simply too far apart in terms of dollars. Good luck!</p>
<p>This is what I really don’t understand about college admissions and high school students’ decisions. Why apply early decision if you’re not absolutely sure that you would be able to bear the burden of the costs, if you do not end up getting a merit scholarship, which very few accepted applicants do and about which you would not find out until spring-time anyway? Sure, Duke is alluring, but is it worth all that (uncertain) debt in your eyes? Otherwise, you face a situation where you are at the mercy of the whims of the financial aid office to hopefully make some meaningful change to your financial aid, which, unless there has been some change in your financial situation between before and after your application, is unlikely. You have to know the risks going in. I’m not trying to worry you, I’m just trying to help paint a clearer picture of the situation and of the high risks of certain decisions. </p>
<p>Also, for the excerpt, “Should a student who applies for financial aid not be offered an award that makes attendance possible, the student may decline the offer of admission and be released from the Early Decision commitment.”<br>
Do you realize how ambiguous this is, for a contract? Who’s final judgment is it as to what makes attendance possible? Hmm. There can be different interpretations of this statement, and you are at the natural disadvantage of already having an offer that you are not satisfied with and having to force some type of change, which is generally not easy.</p>
<p>Although I am in a similar situation with the financial aid, I think if you really need to you should go to UF. Studies show that it is not the school you attend, but the schools you are accepted to that determine future success. Google the article, I’m sure it’s easy to find.</p>
<p>What about the person that didn’t get an ED offer because you promised to attend? All of the arguments why you should go to UF are valid. So is the argument that you could and should have known exactly what financial aid you would get before you applied.</p>
<p>How would you know your financial aid before applying? You can maybe estimate/predict it through FAFSA (which I think would be after ED decisions come out), but I believe their formulas are proprietary, i.e. only they know them. Some kind of “science”, apparently.</p>
<p>Go to Duke’s net price calculator. You will find it on Duke’s web site in the financial aid section. It is very accurate if you provide the correct information and shows your estimated net price based on Duke’s formulas.</p>
<p>tennis - good point about the spot being given away. Hadn’t thought about that one… I guess it could mean one more happier deferred kid come April? </p>
<p>Talking to finaid MAY help, but I agree that without a change in circumstance, where would you get your, umm, let’s say “proof that you can’t pay”. </p>
<p>I’m sorry, I’m sure it doesn’t help to have us saying you should have/could have known to a reasonable certainty, about how much aid you would receive. Personally, I would not want to have to renege (it IS “renege” b the way, and not “renegade” ). Did you go in thinking you could always get out of it? And hey, there’s always the 4k or so a year that they expect you to pay from a summer job and by doing work study! I know it’s not much, but it softens the blow to your parents a bit and is not a loan.</p>
<p>Ok I don’t think I should have to be defending my decision of applying early decision to Duke, but here goes nothing. </p>
<p>A year ago if you asked me where I was going to apply to college I would have said Harvard and UF. Then a family friend told me that I could get a ton of MERIT BASED grants and scholarships from second tier schools, so I decided to do my research. Though it seemed unlikely I would get a full ride to Duke I thought I could squeeze by with maybe $20,000 in Work study and grants. Duke is my top choice school and I wanted to have the chance to get these MERIT BASED SCHOLARSHIPS before the regular decision applicants.
ONCE AGAIN… I thought when I got my acceptance letter in the mail I would be getting a package containing incentives for me to attend Duke university. SOO I couldn’t use the “net price calculator” to determine my MERIT BASED financial aid.</p>
<p>As to the ability to renege (is this right?) on my Early Decision contract, even if my parents were billionaires (which they’re not, for the record) Duke can’t force me to attend their college if I (EMPHASIS ON I) can’t pay for it. I’m sorry that I’m using all caps but this needs to be said. JUST BECAUSE MY PARENTS CAN PAY FOR IT DOESN’T MEAN THEY WILL. My parents have 100% control over their own finances and they decided they are unwilling to pay for me to go to Duke. I am extremely grateful for the amount they are willing to contribute, unfortunately I am unable to cover the remaining cost without a little help from Duke. </p>
<p>Now, with that being said, I want to attend Duke more than any other University on the planet. I have been reduced to tears the past couple days because the fact that I could attend Duke and am financial unable is heart-breaking for me. I am now looking for less appealing options that are financially in reach.</p>
<p>I started this thread to ask the good people of college confidential if it was worth almost $200,000 dollars in student loans to attend Duke instead of the University of Florida, NOT TO BE SCOLDED BY STRANGERS FOR APPLYING TO DUKE EARLY DECISION.</p>
<p>Duke has some merit money but most schools don’t hand out serious merit money until after regular decisions. EDs should mainly depend on FA. Duke’s merit money is not a whole lot and even that is thrown in quite a bit towards those in need.</p>
<p>The only serious merit money is in the Robertson (may have this wrong) or whatever program that goes across UNC and Duke where it is almost free.</p>
<p>I remember seeing a notice earlier in the year that UF was getting rid of computer science program?</p>
<p>Thank you for the helpful advice. You make a valid point when you say that I could miss out on educational opportunities during college…</p>
<p>Question. I know you can’t see the future, but is it possible with the competition that’s arising to get into a top computer engineering school after undergrad if I don’t go to schools like Duke?</p>
<p>Yeah it is the Robertson scholarship where if you’re at Duke you take a few courses at UNC. </p>
<p>But I was under the impression that with my acceptance letter would come a package that included some work study, some merit based grants. Apparently times have changed since my family friend attended college, because no such package came in the mail.</p>
). Did you go in thinking you could always get out of it? And hey, there’s always the 4k or so a year that they expect you to pay from a summer job and by doing work study! I know it’s not much, but it softens the blow to your parents a bit and is not a loan.</p>