<p>Nuclear - let me know if it adds alot to yours… I am trying to see where BC is coming from with their aid packages… since we are still in the waiting game for it… thanks.</p>
<p>Dear NuclearPenguins : As I had written on another thread earlier in the month, the following parameters generally apply.
This is the time of year where, following acceptances, the real implications of a $50,000 college bill per year hits many families in the pocketbook. While we try to prepare folks to seriously look at their financial picture ahead of time, there are always sticker shock posts; unfortunately, yours is one.</p>
<p>Your only course of action is to speak with the financial aid department at Boston College. However, given what you have posted (about $6,000 per year of loans/work-study), there is just no way that you are suddenly going to get a $40,000 per year discount - if perhaps $10,000 per year might be the difference between attending and not, you can make that pitch. Otherwise, without new financial circumstances, you will likely need to move from Boston College consideration. </p>
<p>Some folks wonder why Boston College yields about 35% of the acceptance pool. Aside from top college overlaps, the financial aid picture is reason number two that folks decide to move to another choice.</p>
<p>Good luck to you and your family in the final decision making process.</p>
<p>So it seems that one must be either exceptionally wealthy or exceptionally poor to be able to attend Boston College. The working middle class – responsible enough to not overextend themselves on their homes – with home equity and a moderate income cannot afford this $50K education but do not qualify for fin aid. </p>
<p>My son was admitted to the Honors Program, but since we’ve received very little aid, he will have to decline. Other private schools with $50K pricetags either do not count home equity (Princeton) or cap home equity at between 1.2 and 2.4 times income (Williams and others). Quite reasonable. They don’t expect people of moderate income to mortgage their home without the ability to make the home equity payments; apparently BC does expect that, or “move to another choice” as scottj suggested.</p>
<p>^^Midclassmom:</p>
<p>Unfortunately, BC is not as wealthy as Pton or Williams or several other higher-ranked schools, who can afford to cap home equity. Thus, BC cannot compete with them on price. But, it really doesn’t need to, since it would be extremely rare for someone to turn down P’ton and attend BC (or other such schools), even if the price was the same.</p>
<p>BC’s aid is not as generous as the well-endowed (and mostly higher-ranked) colleges. With the exception of a dozen scholarships, BC does not offer merit aid, so it may be pricier than some colleges ranked lower that offer merit aid. OTOH, BC is one of the few (dozen?) colleges that is both need-blind and meets full need.</p>
<p>BC is ~60% full pay – a generally wealthy student body.</p>
<p>^^BlueBayou:
I see your point. This is a learning experience for us! We were surprised at the aid because BC is noted for meeting full need, but did not come close to meeting our need. Now we know that “full need” is defined very differently for different colleges, and can vary by tens of thousands of dollars. It will be interesting to see what the other colleges offer.</p>
<p>All of this is extremely surprising to me. I was extremely fortunate in getting around a $45,400 package from BC, $37,000 of which is a schol, and there is a 2,400 work-study there…I’m utterly shocked at the other packages. I come from a middle class family…</p>
<p>MidClassMom:</p>
<p>if you haven’t already, I recommend entering your numbers into the EFC calculator on Collegeboard’s website. While every college has it’s own interpretation, the CB calculator will at least give you a generic estimate of how others might view your financial situation (using full home equity).</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>BlueBayou: Thanks for the suggestion. I haven’t run the calculator on collegeboard, but will right now. I’ve completed the FAFSA and have an EFC that is far less than what BC assumes, and I’ve run calculators on other college’s websites and the IM EFC comes out lower than the FAFSA EFC. I’ll see what collegeboard generates.</p>
<p>Just ran the collegeboard calculator and the IM EFC comes out significantly less than what BC has us paying.</p>
<p>MidClassMomof4:</p>
<p>Try to pm scottj. He knows a lot about this. good luck!</p>
<p>GoGiantsfan it added 14K.</p>
<p>So BC has its own way of determining EFC that is different from most other colleges, a policy that will drive away the kids that are from middle income families. I can see why many of the top kids that get accepted do not enroll, many more than from comparable schools - had we known BC’s calculation we would have passed on applying. Nice school, but to use a similar analogy another poster used - why pay $50K for a Mercedes from one dealer when the one down the road will sell it to you for half as much (or less).</p>
<p>Hockeydad… So, BC uses the CSS profile to figure out the aid… you think their aid is worse then another CSS school? Unfortunately, my sons top 4 choice are all CSS schools…which will hurt us… so it will be interesting to see the different packages that come in from the school… and see if BC is worse then others…</p>
<p>BC takes the data from the CSS profile and has their own rules on how they use it - for example 100% of your home equity is considered as an asset to be used to pay the bill. Other schools can use 0% to a max of 2.4x your annual income. We’ve used the EFC calculators on a couple different sites and BC was off by ~$20K with what they gave. I don’t believe they consider the cost of living in the area where you live in the equation either, so if you are paying $10-15K in real estate taxes you are treated the same as the guy in a lower cost state that is paying a fraction as much.</p>
<p>Hockeydad… ok, so even though my EFC is 3,000 but I have a 350,000 house that I owe 160,000 that is roughly almost 200,000 in equity… they will basically say too bad… you can write the check for the next 4 years at 50,000 and use up all the equity in the house and we will get no aid but the loans?</p>
<p>^^The rule of thumb for ALL assets is that 5.6% is allocated towards EFC. Thus, home equity (or any other asset) of $190k, would increase your EFC by ~$11k, assuming the equity is not capped as it is by some colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks Bluebayou… I added up my EFC… and 5.6% of my equity and other investments… and now have an idea what BC might come in out… We shall see… Thanks to all…</p>
<p>Well as a RD applicant this is discouraging. </p>
<p>But I need to worry about getting in first, haha.</p>
<p>Edit:</p>
<p><a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid;
<p>How accurate was this calculator for you guys? I found that it added quite a few thousand more $ on to my EFC than the CB Calculator calculated for IM aid. </p>
<p>But, IMO, something is wrong with the CB EFC Calc (at least for me), it gave me a ridiculously low EFC. Re-tried it three times and got the same results. Would love to get a package like that from a school in April, but I’m not counting on it haha. </p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>Sorry, can’t edit my last post, but was this chart accurate at all for you guys?</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Quick EFC Calculator Chart](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>Quick and easy way to look, but income doesn’t go over $100k.</p>
<p>The finaid.org calculator gave us a much higher EFC than the CB calculator did. The finaid.org outcome clearly counts all of our home equity as an asset available for college spending. Maybe the CB calculator caps home equity.</p>