ED Financial Aid Help

<p>So I was accepted Duke early decision. I indicated when I sent in my application I did not need financial aid, but now it would help. So I told the financial aid this a few days ago and submitted my CSS profile. The applicant website does now say they have received the CSS profile. However, I just sent in my W2 forms and Federal Tax Returns today and found out the financial aid office is on winter break until January 2nd. When do you think I will get an estimate of my financial aid?</p>

<p>eenie, meenie, miney, moe…</p>

<p>there’s really no way for anyone here to know.</p>

<p>When do you have to accept your ED offer and make a deposit? Don’t you have to do that within a couple of weeks of your ED acceptance?</p>

<p>I have to ask…why do kids do this? They’ll indicate that they don’t need FA on their apps (likely thinking it will help their app), and then magically after getting accepted they suddenly need FA?</p>

<p>mom2collegekids: It’s need blind so I thought it didn’t matter. Also, financial aid isn’t like desperate for us. we’re in high income bracket so I’m not even sure if we will qualify. But we’re not rich or anything and even a couple thousand or work study can help. So I want to see what we can get.</p>

<p>I just want to know in general how long it takes financial aid people to award stuff after they receive all the information.</p>

<p>It’s need blind so I thought it didn’t matter</p>

<p>Again, I don’t understand. If you thought it didn’t matter cuz it’s need blind, then why not indicate that you’re applying for FA and submit FA paperwork at the appropriate time? The fact that a few thousand may “help” isn’t a new situation for your family. It’s not like they had some major financial upheaval in the last couple of weeks and now you need/want some FA. </p>

<p>What I’m sensing from some of these kids is that they are applying ED without asking for aid (again, to maybe get an edge), and then getting their acceptance and then asking for FA. </p>

<p>By submitting all the FA paperwork after the ED acceptance, it effectively delays the deadline that a student must accept/deposit by at least 6-8 weeks or more. This enables them to keep their other apps active for a much longer time and perhaps garner some more acceptances/offers so that they really have offers to compare. The fact that you don’t even think you’ll qualify for FA even more suggests that this is just a method to delay your decision.</p>

<p>I completely understand where those thoughts comes from. My brother recently decided he wanted to get his MBA at a pricey private college so we decided to apply now. And I’m not delaying my decision. I’ve already accepted the offer to attend the college. Could you give me any ideas for my original question mom?</p>

<p>There’s no way to know. The school is closed. They’ll reopen Jan 2. We don’t know when they’ll look at YOUR app. Maybe that day??? Maybe a week later. Then we don’t know how long it will take them to determine if you have any need and if you do, how they’ll meet that need. </p>

<p>If this is a school that puts loans in their FA pkgs, and if you have little to no need, then you may just get a student loan and/or some work study…maybe no free money.</p>

<p>I see that this is Duke. If your need is about $7k or less, they may only give you a $5500 student loan and some work study.</p>

<p>Does Duke care if you have a sibling in grad school? Some schools don’t.</p>

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<p>May not matter to Duke because for all intents and purposes, your brother is an independent student. In the eyes of the school, your parents wont “need” to pay for him to go to an MBA program because he can fund himself (in theory he is now eligible to borrow the whole cost of his education without your parents).While in the financial aid calculations he may be included as a person in your household, he will not be included as a person in college</p>

<p>Sybbie is right. When you applied for FA, did you indicate that there will be two in college? The question is whether there will be two in undergrad…in your case there will only be one in undergrad.</p>

<p>Some CSS schools will take into acct a grad student if parents are paying, but not to the same extent that they would if the student is an undergrad. </p>

<p>If you indicated that there will be two in college, then your FA offer may seem more generous, but then get “taken away” once they find out your sibling isn’t an undergrad. </p>

<p>The system is set up to assume that parents are to pay for undergrad, but students are supposed to pay for grad school.</p>

<p>I just wrote down that I have a brother that is attending a college.</p>

<p>^^^</p>

<p>That’s going to need to be corrected because you’re going to get an incorrect “family contribution.” Then, they’ll find out that your brother is not an undergrad (yes, these things are checked), and then they will remove any aid that was awarded.</p>

<p>Your brother is a grad student. He’s not the responsibility of your parents anymore. When you submit FAFSA, you can’t list him as being in college either. He’ll have his own FAFSA and only list himself.</p>

<p>Since you’ve already accepted your ED enrollment, your family now has to decide what to do. They can pay for all of your undergrad and help your brother as much as they can (and he’ll have to borrow the rest)…or they can decide that your ED school isn’t affordable. </p>

<p>(BTW…if your brother has been accepted to a pricey grad school, then your family has known that he was applying for awhile. This isn’t new info.)</p>

<p>Unless something has changed on the FAFSA, the brother can be listed as member of the household and as a grad student. It is then UP TO DUKE to determine if they allow him in the count. </p>

<p>When my DD was an undergrad, we did just that for the two years her big brother was a grad student. Her school counted him, because WE still considered him a member of our household (paid in excess of 50% of his costs) and this particular college counted grad school siblings who were also members of the household.</p>

<p>Not all schools do this. YMMV depending on the undergrad college.</p>

<p>When they ask about kids in college, they mean undergrad. It will make a huge difference. I made the same mistake last year when doing the calculators on school web site when evaluating colleges for my daughter. It was a huge shock for me when the financial aid packages came and our family cost was about 10K more than what I expected. The difference was that I had 2 kids in GRAD school not undergrad. So. . .it WILL make a difference. </p>

<p>And for those who are thinking of applying ED to schools next year. . .if you want to be able to compare financial aid packages. . . DON’T apply ED!!!</p>

<p>*Unless something has changed on the FAFSA, the brother can be listed as member of the household and as a grad student. It is then UP TO DUKE to determine if they allow him in the count. *</p>

<p>I don’t think anything’s changed. I think you could always list a grad student as a member of household on FAFSA if the family was providing more than 50% of support. But, I don’t think you can list them as a student attending college since the grad student has his own FAFSA as an independent student. </p>

<p>Another reason why an undergrad student doesn’t count a grad student on his FAFSA as attending college is this: If an EFC is $6k with one in college, then it splits to $3k with 2 in college (Pell eligible). Students don’t get this splitting and Pell eligibility when the other student is in grad school.</p>

<p>I think it may be on CSS that a mention of a sibling being in GRAD school can be mentioned (not just “in college”) and then the school may choose to give that “some” consideration…but doesn’t have to and probably won’t consider it the same as having a sibling in undergrad.</p>

<p>This student needs to clarify this othewise he may get aid that is taken away.</p>

<p>An opinion than a P.S. my opinion…the OP applied to Duke indicating NO need for financial aid…and didn’t apply for it. Was accepted ED. I’m wondering if this was to get an admissions edge…or if there have been changed in the financial situation since the ED application was sent. </p>

<p>Just a P.S. the student needs to find out what DUKE allows. As an FYI, we had to send an enrollment verification for DS which clearly stated he was a grad student. Like I said…her school counted grad students in the count. Others do NOT. Duke is a Profile school and makes its own judgment about this situation. </p>

<p>OP, you say that initially you did not apply for need based aid. Have you run the net price calculator on the Duke website? Would you even qualify for this aid?</p>

<p>Only the financial aid folks will be able to tell you if they will make an exception and give you a special estimate of what your financial aid package might look like. The way it usually works is that when you apply ED and indicate that you want financial aid, you fill out an estimated PROFILE form, and the financial aid office prepares the estimated packages for all accepted ED students so that they get that estimat and can make the decision whether they can affod to go to Duke or not. </p>

<p>Since you did not submit your materials at this time, the financial aid office will have to do a special estimate just for you. Or they can tell you that you have to wait until everyone else who did not send in the estimated information gets their packages which is in March or April. So it’s up to them entirely what they want to do. You missed the deadlines and did not do as you were told to do; you did not follow procedure. So the next wave of calculations are for the RD kids and they get sent out in the spring. Any other way of doing it is catering to you, making special exception and they do not have to do this.</p>

<p>ED schools may have a procedure for this because they may be annoyed at ED applicants saying that they don’t need aid, and then asking for it (without a huge change like the breadwinner suddenly dying). </p>

<p>As Cpn says, Duke may do what some other ED schools do…and that’s process late FA applications with the RD students. Another ED student recently posted that he didn’t know about CSS Profile. His ED school told him to submit by Feb 1st and it would get processed with the RD applicants. Don’t know if he is being allowed to delay his enrollment deposit until then or not. </p>

<p>Although this may not apply to the OP, as I mentioned above, this whole strategy can become another way for ED applicants to “game” the system. Apply ED, don’t ask for aid, get accepted, then ask for aid, the aid application takes awhile to process, the student has to delay giving his enrollment deposit since he doesn’t know his FA offer, doesn’t have to withdraw his RD applications, THEN all the acceptances and FA offers come in, and the student gets to review and choose.</p>

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<p>Actually, he is counted as a member of the household, he should not be counted in the number in college (as it refers to undergrads).</p>

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<p>Op’s brother is not attending college, he is attending a graduate program where he is pursuing a MBA. A parent contribution is not required and the parents are not being asked for a contribution (as they may if he was attending law/med school). Any contributions the parents make are strictly of their choosing. So basically your parents are saying that they will fund his MBA and other people’s parents (the money that funds the endowment that gives you institutional aid) should fund your education.</p>