<p>I got into my college of choice via ED but I still haven't received my financial package but I already accepted the admission. the college total cost is 56k and I have about 29k of guaranteed scholarship. the school meets full financial aid, and my EFC according to fafsa is about 4100k and I got pell grant of about 1000k and 5500 subsidized loan. I'm really worried that the college is going to make me pay 26k a year, which I can't afford. their policy is that family who makes 50k-100k a year only will have to takeout 15k loans total in 4 years. What will be my likely, financial aid package?</p>
<p>You should call the financial aid office and tell them you need your award information immediately. A school might say it meets 100% of need, but I don’t know a single one that uses FAFSA only to determine need, and Profile and other financial calculators can come up with a lot of different numbers. Also, how they meet need can be an issue. Some schools meet that need with loans and that is not what you want.</p>
<p>I don’t know of a college that would expect a student with financial need to accept a binding ED acceptance without first seeing their financial aid award.</p>
<p>What was the deadline to confirm your acceptance? Was it back in January? If that’s the case, and you are, in fact, talking about a binding ED offer, then it sounds like your financial aid award may have fallen through the cracks somewhere, or else your aid application was not complete or something.</p>
<p>As Cptofthehouse says, you should call them right away.</p>
<p>the OP has been accepted and has committed to Emory…according to post history</p>
<p>they do not do FA packages until after RD acceptances go out…never did, never will…</p>
<p>Prior to the change in their FA policy (the guarantee of 15K loan package) this used to create HUGE issues for the ED kids…I haven’t seen it be too much of a problem the last couple of years though…</p>
<p>Looking at the Emory website ([Financial</a> Aid - Emory College - How to Apply for Early Decision Round 1](<a href=“Apply for Financial Aid | Emory University | Atlanta GA”>Apply for Financial Aid | Emory University | Atlanta GA)) it appears as though the student should have already gotten a tentative aid award, with the finalized award to arrive later after the college receives their final tax documents, etc.</p>
<p>But the student should have seen something by now that gives them a sense of what their aid will be.</p>
<p>Is that the issue, ilikepizza? That you’re concerned your final award will not look like your tentative award? From looking at the website, it does sound like you may have to take out your maximum loan amount initially, and in subsequent years it will be limited by the $15,000 loan cap.</p>
<p>Anyway, if you’re concerned about the gap between the scholarship and aid you already know about and the total cost of attendance, just call the FA office and ask if that’s something that should be clearer at this point. It may be they’ll plug the difference with institutional aid, but it would be reassuring to know that!</p>
<p>This is an issue that has always bothered me about ED for those who need financial aid. If the actual award is too far off of the estimate, it can pose an enormous problem at time too late for many other alternatives. I know a local family who is breaking ED right now for that reason. School meets full need, the estimate was just doable, and then the revised numbers makes it $10K more. Family probably should not have even gone for the original estimate but through scraping decided to give it a go and every single resource was tapped dry. </p>
<p>At this stage, you are pretty much stuck with the offer and what you can negotiate with the school if you don’t want to find a less expensive alternative that is still open or take a gap year.</p>
<p>thanks for the advices. I read from the other thread that this mom thought she had a good financial package but then she got a huge surprise. I was concerned that my final package will not be the same as my estimate. do they usually change by a huge number?</p>
<p>In my experience, it does not happen often. But it causes a tremendous problem when it does happen and it is a risk that I just don’t think is worth taking. But that is my opinion only. </p>
<p>You are most likely fine. This is a time of the year for anxiety of this sort.</p>
<p>If I was you (or if I was your parent) I’d still give them a call. What would be a lingering concern for me is why it wasn’t explained in your tentative award how the full cost of attendance would be met. If you know your Pell and Stafford loan amounts, and you know your scholarship amount, the question remains what is the family contribution amount going to be. Since Emory uses the CSS Profile as well as the FAFSA to determine need, your expected family contribution may be very different from your FAFSA EFC. They may determine the contribution your family is financially able to make is far higher than the amount they actually can make. When colleges say they “meet full need” it means “need” as they define it… not the student or the parents. The college may think your parents have assets they can dip into to help with that other $26K that is not evident in your tentative aid award. They likely will also expect a contribution from you in the form of summer earnings and part time work during the academic year. (My son goes to a generous school that meets full need, but he is expected to earn money during the summers and the school year, and most of it goes to the college… which is only fair.) I think you would be very wise to check in with the FA office sooner rather than later… just to get those questions answered. It may all be just fine, but either way it would be good to know.</p>
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<p>No, that is not what a “loan cap” means. </p>
<p>There are to sides to every financial aid package –</p>
<p>1) The part that is supposed to come from the parents & student - often called EFC - but I’m going to call it FP (Family Pay) here so it isn’t confused with the FAFSA EFC
2) The part that is made up through a combination of grants, scholarships, work study, and loans by the college, called “financial aid” (FA)</p>
<p>A loan “cap” means that the college will limit the amount on the financial aid side to a certain amount. Since they are usually talking about subsidized Staffords, lets say that a hypothetical college promises to structure aid for its students
Freshman year: no loans –
Sophomore year: $4000
Junior & Senior Year: $5500 each year </p>
<p>That structure would be a total of $15K over 4 years.</p>
<p>That does NOT mean that the student is prevented from taking out more loans.</p>
<p>Now lets say the COA for the school is $50K. The hypothetical student has a FAFSA EFC of $5000, but the private school weighs in home equity and decides that the family should pay $10K. </p>
<p>So the financial aid award for year #1 is structured as:</p>
<p>Family to pay: $10K
Grants & scholarships: $40K </p>
<p>But lets say that the student doesn’t have $10K – but learns that he is eligible to take a $5500 in Stafford loans. So the student opts to pay $4500, take $5500 in Stafford loans.</p>
<p>That does not mean that the student has now used up his year #2 “loan” and will get another loan-free package. The college just promised to limit the amount if ITS obligation that will be met by loans, not to limit the amount of money the student might choose to borrow to meet the student/family obligation.</p>
<p>So, if the numbers stay the same for year 2, the financial aid award will look like this:</p>
<p>Family to pay: $10K
Grants & Scholarships: $36,500
Stafford loan: $4500</p>
<p>Let’s say that in year #2, the student opts to take $5500 in loans again – now, that still leaves $9000 of EFC to meet – if the family can only come up with half of that, perhaps the student takes a private loan or the parents opt for a $4500 PLUS loan.</p>
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<p>None of this has anything to do with Emory (as opposed to any other university) – I am just posting this to address what seems to be a misunderstanding of what loan caps mean. Private colleges do not promise to meet FAFSA EFC —and the college-imposed FP (family pay) amount often is substantially above the FAFSA EFC. When it is above the FAFSA EFC, that will leave the student still eligible for federal aid to fill the gap between EFC and FP – and students who attend loan-capped need-based schools will fill that gap with the same subsidized loans that the college promised not to require. </p>
<p>In the end the student owes more money than the cap, but some of money was on the FP rather than FA end of the FP+FA equation. (FP+FA=COA)</p>
<p>ilikepizza…</p>
<p>If you and your family’s financial issues are rather simple (not complicated like that other mom’s), you should be fine. </p>
<p>You don’t have a non-custodial parent whose income is being considered, do you?</p>
<p>Yes, of course, Calmom, but this is what I was referring to when I said they may front-load the borrowing under the loan-cap program:</p>
<p>
[Emory</a> Advantage](<a href=“http://www.emory.edu/FINANCIAL_AID/emory_advantage/]Emory”>http://www.emory.edu/FINANCIAL_AID/emory_advantage/)</p>
<p>The rest of your post is probably very informative and helpful to the OP, but I just wanted to clarify my comment regarding the borrowing being concentrated in the early years.</p>
<p>Emory is not the only school with a loan-cap that does this, and it makes sense that they limit their contribution of institutional funds upfront so more is available to students who stay to graduate from the school, while those that leave or transfer or whatever are less heavily invested in.</p>
<p>Thanks for the details specific to Emory. I would point out that the financial aid formulas at most schools tend to put a higher expectation of student earnings for later years – so a student may find that after he’s used up the $15K loans, there may be an increase in the amount he is expect to contribute from summer earnings or via a work study allotment. </p>
<p>But it does look like, contrary to my example, Emory “front loads” its loan, so the numbers might look more like this:</p>
<p>Year 1: $5500 loans
year 2: $5500 loans
year 3: $4000 loans (but student may opt to borrow more if EFC is not met)
year 4: -0- loans in package (but again, student may be eligible to borrow</p>
<p>This is the reason at least 3 different admissions reps told us in different college info. sessions that if we needed to compare financial aid offers, we should NOT apply for Early Decision. I thought most people received that advice…if a family has great need, they need to cast a wide net in the college application/aid process.</p>
<p>One reason to need to compare financial aid offers is if the family’s income has a history of or known potential for significant change. If it’s stable then the school’s estimate is generally reliable.</p>
<p>Federal loans on the order of 10% of cost should be expected as a part of financial aid at most schools.</p>
<p>I have always felt that ED is not for those who need financial aid even if the school guarantees full need and has good reputation in giving it. You just don’t know what glitch or event could cause some issue. If you truly NEED for your cost to be under a certain amount, you really should not take the chance that this does not happen. It is truly a pain to get out of ED if accepted. You have to negotiate the offer and the school might feel that if you can get a loan to pay your part of the cost, then you can afford to go there. This is really not an additional stress anyone needs. </p>
<p>We know someone right now who is trying to get out of an ED commitment. The reality of taking out PLUS for the amounts that it is going to take to meet what the college says they have to pay have hit home. The daughter has an opportunity to go in state for an affordable amount in an honors program, and all of a sudden that dream school offer has become a nightmare after years of wanting this acceptance. Yes, it can change just like that.</p>
<p>“It is truly a pain to get out of ED if accepted.”</p>
<p>Not with a Common Application school; it says right on the ED agreement:
</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf</a></p>
<p>You just (sadly) tell them thanks but no thanks, and apply elsewhere RD.</p>
<p>We should warn applicants about which schools are making it difficult; which one is it?</p>
<p>Imagine a school not releasing, somehow compelling attendance, and then expelling when the bill can’t be paid. Now imagine why no one ever hears of this happening, and the horrible publicity the school would suffer. It just doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>It does not work that way. Someone we know has been going through this issue and it is not so simple. If you do not get the package you like, you need to try to work it out with the school. The ED letters often go out right before school closes for the holidays, so the back and forth is not smooth. Also, if the options that the school feel works and you don’t, you can have a problem, especially if some other schools on your list are very strict about ED back outs and if your high school is not supportive of them. Many private high schools make it difficult to pull out of ED. It is not a pleasant experience.</p>
<p>You have to make sure your kid is not flushed off of the lists of those schools that are automatically notified of ED acceptance and some of them want a detailed explanation plus a release from the first school. They still don’t like it. Now if your kid’s other choices don’t care, and your kid’s high school doesn’t care, your fine. But it can be a nightmare depending on those factors. It’s not something that is so easy to shake and it’s already a stressful time.</p>
<p>Also for some families, the offer could be a good one. They don’t know until they have comparative ones. It can really cause a lot of uncertainty if affordability is an issue. Better to stay away unless you are determined to make it work regardless of cost. or don’t mind the a possible storm and complications. The parent who has gone through this back out this year that I know, is now totally against ED period. Kids change their minds. Financial perceptions and conditions change. It is truly a rich kid’s option and unfair for that reason.</p>
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<p>Echoing vossron’s question: what colleges do this? </p>
<p>If a high school isn’t supportive of backing out of ED due to financial considerations, I hope that the high school is being extremely upfront about that piece of information. Have these high schools been burned in the past by students using the financial piece to wriggle out of the ED commitment? Or are these high schools trying to stay in the good graces of the admissions departments?</p>
<p>Those high schools are active with the admissions departments, the ones that I know. And , yes , they are upfront about the seriousness of ED. It’s just that kids and parents don’t get it while in the hype of applications. When the dust clears and reality sinks in, that’s when the trouble occurs. I know about a dozen situations personally of reneging EDers for a variety of reasons, and it’s almost always not pretty. In one case, it was just plain sad since the reason for the renege was an acutely ill parent. If you understand how college admissions offices work, many of the selective schools that have ED have a lot of automatic things in place, once a kid is accepted ED. It is not always easy to get out of that commitment.</p>