Was very excited to be accepted. Unfortunately 80k with no scholarships is completely ureasonable and I will not be attending due to that. I’m sure other middle class students are In the same boat because their parents “make too much” to be given aid even if tuition and living costs would put anyone not extradonarily affluent in debt.
@ruth23 so sorry to hear this but know that you are not alone. I am in the RD pool and praying that I get in but I wont be able to attend without help. However, on paper, my parents make too much money. I have found the whole college process to be disheartening
It seems all the schools are moving towards need based aid only. It makes it hard for those whose amount is far beyond what a college student can earn. For low income families, the gap might be low enough that the student can earn it over the summer or through a job on campus. For those in the middle to upper middle, the gap is so much that the student cannot make it up on their own without taking on some huge debt.
Soon it will be only the rich and poor going to the top schools. The rest are completely shut out.
Not many low income students get into the few colleges that meet need, so the middle to upper middle income families don’t have much to fear from the poor. Families who earn too much for aid at top schools can still generally find a residential college experience if they’re willing to broaden the net. The schools aren’t assuming the students are paying for college on their own. They expect the parents to pay. That’s why it’s called “expected family contribution,” not expected student contribution.
Did you run the Net Price Calculator for each school you’re interested in? If the financial aid package is way off what the calculators suggest your net would be contact the schools to ask why.
@Ruth23
Agreed, it is the reason my daughter did not apply to Tulane. She also nixed Occidental for the same reason. She applied to schools where she had a shot at decent merit aid or which were reasonably affordable. That being said, some of her admittances are not affordable but fortunately she applied to 10 schools and has choices.
There are a couple of lessons here that can help others:
- Cost is a fit variable. Before applying, kids/parents should run the NPC to find out, with reasonable accuracy, whether a school is affordable. It makes little sense to apply to a school that isn't.
- There are options for middle- and upper-middle-class families who make too much to receive a lot of aid and are not cash-rich: taking off the prestige goggles, a lot of schools offer substantial automatic and/or competitive merit scholarships and many in-state publics tend to be affordable (at list price) for mid- and upper-mid families. It might require some budget and investment adjustments, but worthwhile endeavors sometimes do.
@austinmshauri The estimated merit was a lot lower than the calculator indicated. Tulane announced after applications started that they were reducing merit, Had we known that, I would have steered my son away the same way I did all the other top ranked schools. We can help pay, but The gap is more than I am willing to allow my son to take on in debt.
The net price calculator at Tulane is for FA not merit. Perhaps you did one on another website. Merit is not guaranteed at Tulane.
@collegemom9 The Tulane calculator did give an estimate of merit and what we might expect given our income. The actual costs were much higher than the estimate. I never expected need aid, and I always expected to pay and a lot. The gap was a lot higher than the estimates I ran.
To all preaching about public colleges. Yeah yeah yeah. Already have those in hand. Had we known Tulane was going to reduce their merit budget, we wouldn’t have let ds apply.
Good to know for kids 2 and 3. No matter what they do, they will never go to one of these schools.
Hang on. Did you set a budget @elodyCOH? If so, then a school either comes within budget or it doesnt. We had Lenny of acceptances here that didn’t end up in budget, and my kids knew that meant they couldn’t attend.
Sorry, on my iPad which weirdly doesn’t give the edit option? Anyway, substitute many for Lenny.
@suzy100 Of course I set a budget.
In a departure from the ratios of many highly selective colleges, three out of four students accepted to Tulane decline the offer. As finances may account for part of this, you might not be alone in your situation, @Ruth23.
One’s impression of Tulane’s affordability really depends upon which other schools/comparables are in the consideration set. For my D last year, Tulane was far more affordable by way of their their merit offer (we did not qualify for need-based aid) than two OOS publics that offer little merit to OOS applicants but which had a significantly lower sticker price (UVA and William and Mary) as well as two other privates with lower sticker prices (Richmond and Denison) who offered less merit. Tulane wasn’t the least expensive of her options, as she had an in-state public as well as a couple of privates with lower stickers who offered similar merit. Tulane fell somewhere in the middle of price but was number one in overall fit. For us, that combination was a good value.
80K per year? Wow!
Next year’s tuition, room, board and fees is just under 75K. Yes, it is expensive, but so are many other schools, as @pishicaca mentions above. My S17 was fortunate to receive a merit award from Tulane making it more affordable than some of his other options (that offered him no merit).
Not sure where that number came from. Tuition, fees, room and board for 2019-2020 is $74,860. Including books, transportation and misc might get you wishing a few thousand of $80K, but for clarity and comparison sake, those are the real numbers.
@elodyCOH Not sure if you saw the post on the other thread, but Tulane still gives quite a bit of merit aid overall and did not eliminate it entirely. Even on these boards there are quite a few people that benefited from merit aid:
Here’s the list of categories of schools that I created with my son. We don’t qualify for any need based aid.
List #1: You can probably get into this school and you can afford to go (publics)
List #2: You can probably get in, and they publish how much merit you will get based on your stats. UA and Miami of Ohio fell in this category
List #3: You may or may not get in, but you will need merit and and the amount they give varies by school. If you don’t get enough merit you can’t go. Marquette, WashU, ND and Tulane fell in this category for us. I also defined how much merit was needed (at least 25K)
Maybe your feelings towards Tulane are such that you will never let your kids apply and that is fine. There is also the chance they could apply with a stronger application and get more merit, or they could even get one of the full tuition scholarships offered. You just need to set clear expectations with your kids and with yourself, so you’re not so disappointed.
@AH1310 - My son got $23K per year in Merit from Tulane - so he got merit, but not what we saw in the calculator. The amount that we were quoted when we ran the NPC was about 30% off from the actual numbers. We had thought that NPCs were fairly accurate for simple situations where it’s married parents, no business or farm income. Since the initial calculator looked like we might be able to swing it, hopes were higher than they should have been.
@elodyCOH In same boat here. Got either 23k from Tulane (or maybe 22k?). That takes some of the sting off the 75k, but not enough to feel the value was worth it. Also we’d have a few extra thousand for travel expenses. Based on last year’s threads we thought she’d be a candidate for 30k or more. No sour grapes here though - her 2nd choice came in 30k less than Tulane and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Tulane still a great school of course and she’s still wearing the sweatshirt proudly happy to have even gotten in with how crazy admissions were this year 