<p>I’ve heard it said that Barnard does not give financial aid generously AT ALL.
Specifically said, that while Barnard is affiliated with Columbia, it does not have Columbia’s endowment.</p>
<p>I would really love to go to Barnard and REALLY REALLY want to apply ED. But after reading stuff online about Barnard’s lack of FA grant, I am leaning towards Cornell ED cause I know I will be able to get FA at an ivy league.</p>
<p>But I would rather go to Barnard because then I wouldn’t have to pay for dorming (I live in the city), while still reaping the benefits of attending some of my classes at an Ivy League Institution.</p>
<p>But I can’t apply ED unless I KNOW I’ll get FA.</p>
<p>I know that middle class families usually fall out in the FA, but I’m not middle class either.
I have a single parent and I believe I’m below the poverty line.
Will I still fall out for FA?</p>
<p>Please give your input. This is a MAJOR deciding factor between which college I plan to ED to.
I would prefer to ED to Barnard than Cornell, but there is absolutely no point in missing out on Cornell if I end up having to reject Barnard bc of lack of money.</p>
<p>What do you guys think? Money is a big factor for me. My family has no assets either. My parent works minimum wage. </p>
<p>Top NYC hs, with a 90 average. (the average EDer from the school gets into Barnard with a 92, so that would make Barnard a reach school for me with a difference of 2 points. Same exact thing for Cornell. If I ED, I have a chance at either of them, but I can only pick one to ED). Which is the safer choice, Cornell or Barnard, money-wise?</p>
<p>I would not do ED at all, if I were you. If money is an issue, then you don’t want to do ED because you have no idea what sort of financial aid you will be offered. While it seems like you deserve a lot, you never really know and the last thing you want is to apply ED anywhere and realize you don’t have the money to go. Plus it seems like you want to go to Barnard more, so why just ignore it altogether by applying ED to Cornell? That’s a binding decision, and you couldn’t apply to Barnard anyway unless you got rejected from Cornell.</p>
<p>We also found Barnard’s financial aid to be good. Not a “free ride”, but we could swing it with planning and effort. Which is as it should be, IMO.</p>
<p>BUT, it sounds to me like ED is not a great idea for you at all. You need to be in a position to hopefully compare aid packages offered when all acceptances are in, and then make your decision accordingly…That being said, there are aid calculators out there that you could go online and fill out to get some sort of notion as to what your expected family contribution would be. But you do need to understand that a portion of the financial aid that Barnard gives (and most schools, I imagine) would be in student loans you would be expected to take out. </p>
<p>Do not apply ED if you need financial aid. </p>
<p>I also found Barnard’s financial aid to be workable for my daughter, but I also was willing to borrow with PLUS loans as needed – I borrowed about the same amount in PLUS loans that she took in subsidized Stafford loans. </p>
<p>It is possible that your family may be in the -0- EFC range and you will get good financial aid, but it is also possible that your or your parents will be expected to take on loans that are burdensome and no feasible in your financial situation. (I can spare a few hundred dollars every month to make a loan payment… can you?)</p>
<p>As far as I know, Cornell’s financial aid tends to be very heavy on loans – probably more so than Barnard. (College Board stats show that average debt at graduation is $21,549 for Cornell; $14,706 for Barnard; the average need-based grant at Barnard is slightly higher as well, so that would tend to support an inference that Cornell’s aid would tend to be weaker than Barnard’s)… </p>
<p>Anyway, the bottom line is that you need to apply to multiple schools, RD, and choose among options in the spring. That includes schools that are less selective that Barnard/Cornell but likely to be generous with merit aid; and in-state public options.</p>
<p>Hi. I wanted to suggest you look at the list of partner schools on the questbridge.org website. These are schools which ACTIVELY recruit low-income, high-achieving students. </p>
<p>Even if you don’t go through the QB application process, you can still apply directly to these schools and get great financial aid awards at most of them. Even if the school is a QB partner institution, however, it is still important to examine the financial aid webpage to see how they TALK about aid (for example, Scripps College versus Wellesley or Vassar). You will immediately notice suggestive phrases if you look for them: “It is primarily the family’s responsibility to fund their children’s education.” “A typical student’s f.a. package consists of x, x, and loans.” “We expect all our students to apply to outside scholarships to help fund their education.” Schools with more generous financial aid programs for low-income students will not usually say these things. </p>
<p>You can also do a web search for “financial aid honor roll,” “no-loan colleges,” and “lowest average student debt” for lists of colleges with especially good f.a. policies. My daughter did not do the QB College Match process for a variety of reasons, but she did apply to Wellesley ED, and we are confident we’ll be able to work with the school to get an aid package we can live with.</p>
<p>What Barnard does is state from the outset that they expect students to earn money to contribute to their own education, and that amount does increase yearly. So our D got a job each summer to come up with her contribution amount. A couple of those summers, she had paid summer research internships which more than covered it.</p>
<p>Personally, I do not see this as anything near an “ugly trick”.</p>
<p>ALL colleges have a self-help component of need-based financial aid which includes factoring in the student’s earning capacity. I feel that Barnard’s expectations for my daughter were very reasonable, and in fact my daughter was able to earn far more than the amount factored into financial aid. </p>
<p>I think what some students miss in evaluating a financial aid award is that the cost of attendance includes some items that are estimated incidental expenses (costs of travel, books, day-to-day living expenses) that do NOT have to be paid up front. As a parent, I simply paid the bill that came from the bursar and let my daughter take care of the rest from her own earnings, and it never was a problem. That part was a pay-as-you-go type of thing. I’d note that my d. had her own credit card, which probably helped a little in terms of the pay-as-you-go budgeting – since she could also manage her own budget somewhat based on “future” earnings. But my d. was extremely disciplined about keeping track of her card and paying off all charges right away, at least up until her study abroad year.</p>
<p>I’ve been taught to give credit. Anyway, back to the actual topic. “Barnard’s policy” as compared to some of the financial aid packages that I received that didn’t require finding your own job like that. The only other “self-help” component I saw from those financial aid packages was work-study. Also, those other financial aid packages were supposed to be consistent from the start – meaning, every year, they wouldn’t keep reducing the grant while increasing loans and summer contributions. However, Barnard’s financial aid can be manageable depending on each family’s circumstances. It really just depends on if you’re willing to handle it.</p>
<p>In regards to Cornell’s financial aid vs. Barnard’s, I’ve personally found Cornell’s financial aid packages to be better than Barnard’s financial aid packages.</p>
<p>Collegestandard, there may be some exceptions, but you are simply mistaken about both the factor of increasing loan burden and contributions from summer earnings. (Since you brought up Cornell, they refer to that part of their financial aid structure as “summer savings expectation”) The CSS Profile formula has a student earnings contribution built in, and the federal loan system is set up so that the amount of subsidized loans available increases after freshman year, so any college that expects their students to take Stafford loans will structure the financial aid award so that the loans increase. Although, FWIW, my d’s Barnard grant did not go down because of those factors, because Barnard’s overall costs kept going up, and the costs were going up at a faster rate than the loan/work expectations.</p>
<p>As for comparing Barnard to Cornell, here is the published data. It looks to me like on average, Barnard grants are higher, and Cornell students end up graduating with considerably more debt:</p>
<p>Cornell:</p>
<p>Average financial aid package: $37,846
Average need-based loan: $2,735
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $33,653
Average indebtedness at graduation: $20,648</p>
<p>Barnard:</p>
<p>Average financial aid package: $39,578
Average need-based loan: $3,330
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $36,670
Average indebtedness at graduation: $14,617</p>
<p>So while I don’t think it is particularly useful to compare one college’s financial aid policies with another, the published data seems to suggest that Barnard’s aid is fully competitive. </p>
<p>I do think that Barnard’s policies are very transparent, and everything is spelled out quite clearly on their financial aid web site. Many other colleges aren’t as clear at the outset as to what is likely to happen over the coming years.</p>