<p>I am a rising senior, and I am almost sure I am going to apply to Mac ED. My intended major is Poli Sci, and I've heard that it is actually one of the most popular majors at the school.</p>
<p>My only concern about the school, though, is FA. I know it claims to meet 100% of the FA need of all students who applied, but I am not sure if that is going to be enough for me. Does the school give out a lot of scholarships, or loans? Or work-study?</p>
<p>As much as I want to go to Mac, I need FA. Can anyone please tell me? :D </p>
<p>Thank you in advance!</p>
<p>*PS. Mac is famous for its focus on internationalism...but I am not sure if that is apparent among the students. Do students "self-segregate" themselves (international students hang out only with international students, black students hang out only with black students, white students only hang out with white students, etc)? This has been a big issue for me in high school and I really don't want that in college...</p>
<p>I don’t know your particular circumstances, however, my daughter will be a freshman at Mac this fall. She applied EDII and was not offered any financial assistance, although she appled for whatever she thought she could qualify for. She was not offered any schlorships either.
She applied to 4 other schools and before she got accepted to Mac, she was accepted to two of the schools both of which offered her very generous merit schlorships.</p>
<p>saywhatt: apply for everything and hopefully you’ll get FA from Mac and the other schools you are considering.
We filled out the FAFSA forms and she did check off financial aid on the commom app. The 2 schools that offered her merit scholarships did it based on their own formulas. She didn’t apply for anything specifically which is probably very important for you to do based on your family financial situation.</p>
<p>Look around on CC and you’ll see that if you have a concern about FA you are advised not to apply ED. However, Macalester says this about ED:
</p>
<p>Macalester’s admissions is not “need-blind” but rather “need-aware”. A wiki article on the subject says:
</p>
<p>Our family has found Macalester’s financial aid to be very generous. My daughter’s package has included scholarships, grants, loans (Stafford), and work study. My daughter has also had summer jobs since she was sixteen. You say that:
That sounds to me as though you may need additional loans and, if you look around CC, you’ll find many people cautioning you against doing that.</p>
<p>@kathyhathy
Yes, definitely! And you mentioned that she was offered scholarships from two other schools she had applied to. Did she have to notify Macalester in any way about this since she was an EDII applicant?</p>
<p>@farfallena
Oh, wow! Totally did not know about the ED/RD part! And good for you and your daughter to receive aid from Mac I was just wondering, is most of the FA that Mac offers scholarship? or loans/grants? </p>
<p>Hi, saywhat
My husband did call the Mac financial aid office to ask them if they would match the other merit scholarships and was told they don’t do that. The reason he called was because a friend of mine told me a couple of years ago that a coworker’s son was offered merit money from another local college and after being accepted to Mac they called and Mac matched it. I don’t really believe it though because both parents are physicians and are a lot less need based then us.
A friend of my daughter was wait-listed, offered a spot in mid-May and was waiting to hear about financial aid before accepting. She did accept, we don’t know about the FA, but she lives in our neighborhood so again I don’t think her financial situation is radically different from ours, so if she got any, maybe it’s because she applied RD?
On the other hand, we knew from the start that applying ED or EDII would pretty much mean no financial aid.</p>
<p>saywhatt, I encourage you to go to the Macalester website and read the Admissions and Financial Aid pages. There is a lot of information there! For example:
which answers one of your questions.
</code></pre>
<p>@farfallena
Glad you provided those stats! I couldn’t find them on the website…simply because I lack skills in web-surfing But I am glad that it’s only 11%; I am not from Minnesota so I would have to get private loans from somewhere else to make up for the loans that the state government gives out to its resident students. </p>
<p>@kathyhathy
Well…I did hear that the financial aid office is very good to work with so I guess I’d just have to keep my fingers crossed Applying is ED is so stressful haha</p>
<p>thanks all of you for the input! Really appreciate it :)</p>
<p>I would co-sign all the information in this thread so far, so-to-speak. In my and my parent’s experience the FA office as Mac is extremely accessible relative to other schools, which is very nice.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you mean by Minnesota based loans, all the loans that were a part of my financial aid package were Federal Stafford loans of some kind (though I am out of state). Unfortunately I don’t know what they do with ED applicants.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind, though you won’t know this until after you get your aid package, is that Macalester also offers merit-based aid sometimes, on top of need-based aid. A few funds they use are actually set aside for lower income students specifically, too.</p>
<p>@wombatsoup
Some states offer statewide student loans to their resident students–regardless of public/private institutions. At least that’s what my home state does and my sister gets about $5,000 every year off of it.</p>
<p>Saywhatt: My daughter applied Early Decision and was given very generous financial aid. Her f.a. package was made up of the maximum allowed federal student loans (can’t remember amount – you could look that up) and some work-study. She received a very large grant, which doesn’t have to be repaid. My experience with Macalester Financial Aid is that they’re generous and accessible.</p>
<p>jeg: I guess FA, no matter how you apply, depends on your financail situation.
As I posted before, my daughter was accepted EDII and when she applied that way we pretty much knew she wouldn’t get FA (info from other Mac parents and on these boards about applying ED or EDII).
She was offered a small Stafford loan which we won’t take simply because it isn’t worthwhile.
Bottom line, I guess according to our FAFSA score, according to Mac, we’re rich!</p>
<p>Macalester’s financial aid is generous but do expect some loans - even if you come from a lower income family. The college will invest into your education with a large grant, but they also expect you to give as well. I would say farfallena’s statistic is basically spot on; my financial award is roughly 80% grants, 10% loans, 10% EFC + student employment. By the way, I believe the maximum amount in loans is $5,500 for freshmen, through $3,500 in Stafford and $2,000 in Perkins.</p>
<p>@jeg I’m so relieved now. I talked with my parents last night, and they seemed pretty content with Macalester’s FA program. I guess the only thing I have to do now is to apply and get accepted Thank you so much!</p>
<p>@eagles2393 I will! Are you, by any chance, a Macalester student?</p>
<p>OH and if someone could answer my question in the PS…that’d be great (esp. current students)!</p>
<p>The internationalism is very apparent, it’s certainly something the college promotes for better or worse. You’ll definitely get to know lots of international students or American students from international schools if you go to Mac, which is great. As far as self-segregation goes, Macalester is honestly pretty integrated as far as liberal arts schools go. I remember that was one of my influences in going to Macalester–I liked that my host’s friends didn’t all remind me of him, both demographically and personality-wise. I know in some poll we got named near the top for race/class interaction, which in my experience has been basically true. That being said, self-segregation obviously exists at Macalester, as it does pretty much everywhere. People are going to gravitate towards people with similar backgrounds and experience, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that as long as they’re willing to branch out, which at Macalester people certainly seem willing to do.</p>
I was just wondering, is most of the FA that Mac offers scholarship? or loans/grants? </p>
But I am glad that it’s only 11%; I am not from Minnesota so I would have to get private loans from somewhere else to make up for the loans that the state government gives out to its resident students. </p>
Applying is ED is so stressful haha</p>
Thank you so much!</p>