Will I get an actual letter from Furman or other schools about the final cost? And how do I know if Furman or the other schools meet full need?
And you won’t know until Furman notifies you of its financial aid determination.
More likely that your daughter will find out from the school’s online portal. In the old days it was a letter. She should keep checking the portal (she probably has a user name and password). If you want, you can call the financial aid office and ask when they will make the financial aid determinations for incoming freshmen.
Here’s the financial aid page for Furman. http://www.furman.edu/sites/financialaid/Pages/default.aspx
It gives you a link to your personal portal to find out if they are requesting more documents at this point. That’s where you will go to find out the aid determination too. The dates are on the page in the link above.
Thank you !!!
You’re welcome.
Oh, and of course do the same for all the other colleges. She should be checking her portal frequently to see if the FA offices are asking for any additional documentation. If they do ask, be sure to get it to them ASAP.
Have you run the Net Price Calculators on each school’s web site? That might give an indication of any other potential aid coming.
Furman does not meet full need. On average it meets 79% of need. See https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/furman-university
That does not mean that Furman will meet 79% of need for every student; rather, it is an average. Some students may get 100% need, some may get nothing, and some may get something in-between. It all averages out to 79%.
Also, because that is an average of percentage of need met, rather than dollars, it could be misleading since it is possible that many of the students are low-need whose need is entirely met with loans and work study. For example, if a family only has $6000 of need and the financial aid package includes a $3500 federal direct loan and $2500 work study award, that student has had 100% of need met.
The page I linked to also provides other averages: average loan, $5000, average grant $32K, average debt at graduation (total amount of student loans over 4 years) - $32K.
However, it is still very possible that Furman might supplement the scholarship with a small need-based grant that comes close to meeting your EFC. The fact that your DD has been offered the $15K scholarship may be an indication that she will be given a more generous need based package, as schools will leverage their age to try to attract the students who are most desirable to them.
I think at this point as your daughter’s application are all in you should just wait until you have all financial aid awards in hand. In hindsight if you had understood the financial aid system better you might have made some different choices as to which colleges to encourage your daughter to apply to, but it does seem like you will have affordable options with your in-state colleges.
Once you have all awards in hand you may be able to appeal for more aid at some schools, but you will want to be able to compare aid packages first.
In this example…if your kiddo got only a $15,000 scholarship…and yountook the $5500 Direct Loan…you would,be responsible for ALL additional costs to attend this college.
I’ve looked at your list of colleges above. In that list NONE guarantee to meet full need. The MINIMUM you can be expected to pay is that $30,000 EFC of yours. That will be the MINIMUM.
Where will YOU get that extra $30,000 to $35,000 every year? Are you really planning to take out $100,000 in Parent loans for your daughter’s undergrad?
In looking at your daughter’s stats, her SAT score really is too low to anticipate large merit awards at any of these colleges.
You are instate for University of South Carolina and College of Charleston. Are those affordable for you??
Ok, so you say your EFC is $30K.
And you said “we were hoping not to go over $30-35,000” What does that mean, specifically to you?
Are you saying you can actually fund the $30,000 per year from savings or with cash flow?
Or is that just a line in the sand you drew as far as how much Parent Loan debt you were willing to go into?
There are LOTS of people in your boat. Their kids simply want a school that is too expensive. You should not go into significant Parent loan debt to fund a private school. If you can’t cash flow the school now and pay at least $600-1000 a month now…how are you going to be able to do it into your 50s and 60s when you have to repay the Parent loan?
Can you pay your $30k/year EFC? If so, that’s a good start. Make sure your daughter knows how much you can pay without taking out parent (PLUS) loans. I wouldn’t plan on taking out parent loans because I think if you have to borrow much more than the federal student loans to pay for a school, it’s unaffordable. Also be clear that schools that cost more than the limit you set will come off the table. It will make April go by much more smoothly if you’re clear about your limits now instead of trying to set them as offers come in.
Will you have any other children in college after this first one for 2017-2021?
Both College of Charleston and University of SC have tuition/fees/room/board costs this year in the $25,000 a year range.
So…your student could take a $5500 loan…and that would leave you paying about $20,000 a year…plus personal expenses (and really…you daughter should have a job to help with those).
Is this affordable for you?
No other children in college, she’s an only child.
I don’t want to take out a lot of Parent plus loans.
She knows if Furman and Elon and hopefully Wofford (not accepted yet) do not come close to $30,000 a year than they will be out.
I can fund $15,000 year with cash flow.
When will I know the bottom number that each school accepts us to pay.
Thank you everyone for your help!!!
@thumper1
yes that is affordable but can any of the private schools get close to that number? I’ve always heard private schools have more money to give out. So if a private school that she decided that she really wanted to go to was $5,000 to $10,000 more would that be worth it?
“I’ve always heard that private schools have more money to give out”
This is the largest myth I encounter when I talk to parents. Some schools do have generous endowments they CAN give out, but it is how they choose to give it out. Some schools choose to to meet full need as they calculate need to be. So at a school that guarantees to meet full need, they will use their endowments to fill in the gap between total cost and EFC. You would STILL have to pay your EFC though.
Just because you don’t have your EFC doesn’t mean you have need. The colleges expect you to have it. You don’t have it so you think you have need…but according to the schools you do not have much need.
Deciding how much more is worth it totally depends on the family and the kid. Why does she really want to go to that school? Where are you going to come up with the extra $10K a year.
Instead of COA you can also look at the direct billed costs of a school, what they will bill you for.
Tuition, fees, room and board (if living on campus)
Then compare the direct billed costs minus aid at each school to get a comparable bottom line.
The school will send you a FA award letter (or FA info in student portal) with COA that might include some costs for books, transportation, personal expenses. Transportation costs are dependent on location of school, and book expenses can be reduced by renting or buying used.
The school will estimate the room and board amount, but the school might have cheaper options available for rooms and/or meal plans.
If you can contribute $15,000, your D can borrow $5,500 and she can earn maybe $3,000 with part-time job and summer earnings, then the budget (after scholarships and grant aid) is about $23,000.
http://www.furman.edu/sites/financialaid/CostofAttendance/Pages/default.aspx
For example Furman has 2016-17 tuition and fees listed at $47,164 and room and board (weighted average room, unlimited meal plan) at $12,378 for a total direct billed costs of $59,542
So if she has scholarships of $20k, then the remaining costs would be $39,542
Unless Furman gives her a lot of grant aid, it will be unaffordable. You would have a $16k gap, after applying your $23,000 budget.
So you will have to see what they can offer her in institutional aid.
Do I get in touch with them or wait until I get a letter?
You’ll get a financial aid package. Check the web portal of each school because ours arrived there before we got the paper copy.
Private schools do seem to have scholarships, but admission is either really competitive so lower stats kids have less of a chance of getting in, or the stats needed to get the best scholarships are pretty high so they may get in but not get enough aid. I think colleges will expect you to pay your EFC. If your EFC is ~$45k and you can only afford ~$23k, I wouldn’t expect a $60k/year school to work out because the gap is too large. A school with a COA closer to $35k might if they offer any merit for her stats. Have you run the net price calculators for all these schools? If not, run them and see if any seem affordable.
You or your daughter will have to check the website of each college. Navigate to the financial aid page. It will give approximate time frame or an exact date when applicants can expect to receive the financial aid determination.
You’ve asked this question a few times. Let me ask you this: How did you and your daughter know how, whether, and when a college was going to provide an offer of admission? You probably read the website and learned that they provide the admissions decision via the portal on a particular date, or within a particular window of time. Now approach your questions regarding financial aid (How do I find out? When do I find out?) the same way.