I have been accepted into my ED school without any financial aid. I love the school and feel that it is the perfect choice for me, but I do not want to leave college with $200,000 of debt, or put my family through any financial hardship (my sibling will be going to college in a few years as well). I am upper middle class and do not believe that I will receive any help from FAFSA. Is there anything I can do, as it is an ED school?
You can decline the ED offer of admission because the finances don’t work for you.
Right now, you should,be applying to affordable schools. Hoping you applied to,some with guaranteed merit aid already.
I applied EA to a school and received a considerable amount from them. I am not as competitive to the ED school so I do not believe I can use that as any sort of leverage to get some money.
???
Did you not use the NPC before applying? Did you not ask your parents how much they would pay each year?
How did you think college would get paid for.
You’re right…submitting FAFSA won’t help. The FAFSA application had already been figured by your school. Income too high for a fed Pell Grant.
Did you apply to any other schools that give assured merit? Many of those deadlines have passed.
Are you a NMSF?
What is your major and career goal?
YOU can’t borrow $200k anyway. YOU can only borrow $5500 as a frosh, unless your parents are naive enough cosign for more. Most parents won’t do this because it’s too risky.
You should have made this decision ahead of time and not applied ED. The net price calculator probably showed no aid, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Doesn’t matter now, you applied and can’t afford it. Just turn down the ED acceptance because of money and move on. You can ask the ED school why you received no money (maybe there was a mistake?) but you aren’t going to get $20k or $40k from them, and will even a small amount help? Probably not.
I’d just move on.
If it comes out that the OP’s parents did cover similar costs elsewhere, I would think the GC would be pretty pissed off. If I were the GC, I sure wouldn’t be cooperative about providing year end reports, etc to those other schools. These parents are in clear violation of the ED agreement they signed.
If you apply ED, the ED school does NOT expect that you will be using other financial aid offers to negotiate your aid there. Really, those don’t come into play at all.
And as you say, your EA school is less competitive.
You got $0 from the ED school. Unless you can pay the full cost of attendance, you need to decline the admissions offer.
@intparent Unless this student attends a “feeder school” for top schools, the GC isn’t going to be fazed by this.
the student declines due to affordability.
The GC will have no way of knowing if a later school offers more or less, since GC’s do not see FA pkgs.
ED has become a big joke with no power. Schools should get rid of it and become EA or SCEA
My kid’s GC (not a big feeder) would have been livid. And she knows enough about admission to know that a FA offer from someplace like Duke will likely be similar to Cornell.
If you cant afford it, it is not the “perfect” choice.
Decline the offer for lack of finances and move on. Lots of students do this who don’t realize, when they apply, that they won’t be funded in ED. Shocker when they think they’ll get big bucks and they don’t.
Like love, there is no perfect one and only. Each fit has a compromise. This one is $. If that is too big a compromise, then the fit is not perfect. Another school will show you less compromise on $, but perhaps you’ll compromise on something else. It will never be perfect. Stop expecting that now, and save yourself some heartache.
I am mildly annoyed by all the folks who knew they would get little to no aid who decline the “EDOffer”, which I would not call on offer! The applicant offered themselves, the college accepted. The applicant is reneging. Call it what it is. Frankly, it’s not fair to the kids that applied who were ready to fulfill the ED agreement terms…
Nothing wrong with applying for ED if it’s your first choice.
I disagree profusely with those who criticize you. You didn’t get enough money. You know have a legitimate reason for not attending that school. However, since I assume that you would like to attend that school, I think that it makes sense to appeal the lack financial aid. There is always the possibility of a clerical error. If in the end, you can’t afford it, then you must request an ED release from the school.
You should still apply to other schools and do not have to withdraw any applications.
Will the school give you an extension while you appeal?
Have you applied to any financial safeties? If not, are you ready to?
@intparent If you’re from the NE, then maybe GCs are more mindful of these things. The GCs in the rest of the country are less likely to pay attention to or know such things.
And, no GC can be certain that a FA pkg from X school will be the same as Y school. One may consider home equity, one may not. One may make more allowances for medical bills, another may not. One may consider K-12 private school tuition, and another may consider an older child in grad school. There are all kinds of reasons why one school may yield a better pkg.
Perhaps the way to give ED more teeth would be to tie it to the NPC. Something like, “if the price with your acceptance is equal to or less than the NPC, then you cannot use financial hardship as an excuse not to attend.” That would allow those with tricky situations (self-employed, divorced parents, etc.) an out if the NPC is inaccurate, and it would hold those with $300k family incomes who (gasp) didn’t get need-based aid to the fire.
Not sure how it could be enforced, maybe through pressure on the guidance counselors, although it sounds like that might be hit or miss.
I’m from the Midwest.
What is the difference between what your parents will pay each year, and the cost of the ED school?
What is their upper middle class income?
$100,000?
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Perhaps the way to give ED more teeth would be to tie it to the NPC. Something like, “if the price with your acceptance is equal to or less than the NPC, then you cannot use financial hardship as an excuse not to attend.” That would allow those with tricky situations (self-employed, divorced parents, etc.) an out if the NPC is inaccurate, and it would hold those with $300k family incomes who (gasp) didn’t get need-based aid to the fire.
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Still would be hard to enforce. The family can suddenly lose a job, or have some other change in circumstance.
I do think that the ED agreement should require that those who need aid at least try the NPC.
This student got $0 in financial aid to her ED school. She says $200,000 total would need to be paid…so,hat means $50,000 a year…or so. This would imply an income in the $150,000-$200,000 range per year.
Did this student think they would be eligible for need based aid?
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but I do not want to leave college with $200,000 of debt,
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The income is likely $150k or more…could be a lot more.
Sounds like the parents aren’t willing to pay anything if 200k in loans would be needed. Makes you wonder WHY the parents signed the ED agreement ??? Even if they assumed “some aid,” they had to know that they’d be expected to pay a goood chunk.