Hi! If anyone can help me out that would be great. BU Is my first choice school, so applying ED isn’t far fetched. I did an online calculator for financial aid, and got that my net price wasn’t much (my parents don’t do that well and I have 5 siblings, 3 in college) is that information accurate? Should I rely on the online calculator and apply ED, and expect that amount of money?
BU is not known for great financial aid. They don’t meet full need and you should expect to pay much more than the predicted net price. Unless you have stratospheric stats, I don’t expect you to get a full scholarship from BU. And in that case, it’s probably still worth applying regular decision.
Tufts is significantly more selective than BU and meets full need. But it is not need blind, so your chances reduce if you apply for significant amount of financial aid.
Harvard is yet more selective than Tufts. Harvard meets full need and is need blind. But the trouble is obviously getting in.
So, my suggestion is: don’t apply to BU early decision.
Which state are you from, what are your stats? Without telling us anything else about yourself, how can you expect people to help you?
I didn’t mention my stats to see if BU gave need based on the situation, not the stats. Thanks for claryifing it plays a roll. I have a gpa up to par with BU when converted from 100 (about 3.4), my SAT score will be out soon but I’m excepting a 1300+. My EC’s include 1-music (guitar for 3 yrs)
2-setting up care packages for gazans after wars
3- raising money for orphans/disabled kids and their mothers
4- community volunteering, also was in a camp that debated social issues and their solutions
5-visited various refugee camps to raise awareness about their situation and raised money for them
6-programming and coding outside of school
7-French lessons outside of school
8-book clubs and religious groups
These are messingly written, but I hope you understand. My school ciriculum is extremely demanding. We have all three sciences from 9th grade, AP, and not optional (I live in the Middle East.), English is also every year and is honors, and I’ve been taking PE, religious studies, social studies (civics, world history, US history, US gov, PAL gov) every year.
I’m considering early decision because I know the financial aid is more likely to be given. And I know that if they don’t give me as expected, I can pull out of the agreement. Is this true? Should I expect this to happen?
Not true. I’m not sure where you got this from. If you apply regular, you can compare financial aid packages. That is pretty useful.
You are an international student from the middle east applying early decision and requesting financial aid. Your GPA is 3.4, though at a rigorous school. I wouldn’t be super hopeful for good financial aid from BU. If you apply ED and it turns out to be unaffordable (which seems expected), then you can pull out.
I’m not an international student. I’m just a first generation American citizen living in the Middle East. Also, by the time one would apply regular, any school would have less money than they initially have. If you need the specific numbers, I was told via the calculator that if only pay 2k - which is extremely affordable. The economy is way different from where I am, as my parents make less than 30k and that’s fine for here.
Did you use the NPC on BU’s web site? Because that seems wrong. BU does not meet need. BC does.
Yes, it was on BU’s NPC. I just need to know if that should be my expectation.
If you have relatively simple finances (no home business or strange assets) then it should be fairly accurate if you entered the data correctly. But I think you probably made a mistake. I just ran the BU NPC with $30K in income and no assets and came up with $35K for your family to pay.
They make less than 30k, with no home in their name, and have a couple tens of thousands in investment debt. Also, I have 5 siblings.