<p>I have not yet received fin aid packages at 7 out of the 8 schools I have been accepted to.</p>
<p>But, from Case I got:
$22,100 Case grant
$4050 Case loan
$2,932 work study
$3,500 Pell grant
$2,400 Perkins loan
$2,625 Stafford loan (subsidized)
$1,000 Federal Supp. Education Opp. Grant
$3,798 Ohio College Opp. Grant
$900 Ohio Student Choice Grant</p>
<p>This comes out to $31,298 in grants, $2,932 work study, $9,075 loans, and $503 EFC</p>
<p>How good of a fin aid package is this? My parents are divorced, so my father will be considered for the rest of the schools. I got into Cornell, Northwestern, and Harvey Mudd (10k/yr scholarship). I really want to go to Cornell but I think I'll get a lot less fin aid there. How much worse would I be off if I had say.. $20,000/yr loans from Cornell instead of $9,000/yr from Case? Would a degree from Cornell offset the extra money because of the better prestige in the business world?</p>
<p>Interestingly I just checked online for the first time to verify the package and it's different. I now have a 5,000$ CSP (cleveland scholarship program) grant? I guess. And they completely took out the "case loan" ($4,050) then subtracted my work study by 400$ and perkins loan by $550. So it now looks like...
$22,100 Case grant
$5,000 CSP grant
$2,532 work study
$3,500 Pell grant
$1,850 Perkins loan
$2,625 Stafford loan (subsidized)
$1,000 Federal Supp. Education Opp. Grant
$3,798 Ohio College Opp. Grant
$900 Ohio Student Choice Grant</p>
<p>That comes out to $36,298 grants, $4,475 loans, and $2,532 work study.</p>
<p>Atomic, with the CSP grant it looks like an excellent financial aid offer -- very hard to turn down. What you need to do is find out whether the various grants will continue during your four years at Case, or whether some are one-time only things. If any of the grants are renewable each year, find out what you have to do (such as maintain a certain GPA) in order to qualify for renewal. </p>
<p>Here is what I did when I had a lot of questions about what looked like a good aid award at my daughter's school. I wrote down a list of my questions. Then I emailed the school financial aid department and said that I would like to arrange a telephone appointment - or have them call me - to discuss my concerns, and I also listed all my questions. I received a call back the next morning, and it was a very fruitful and reassuring conversation. The reason I did things that way is that I didn't want to have a long series of emails going back & forth, but I also didn't just want to call and confront whoever answered the phone with a long list of complicated questions - so that worked for me. </p>
<p>Don't make any decisions until you get the awards from your other schools - but Case is an excellent school and the award sounds great to me.</p>
<p>That is a stellar award. Call the FA offices at the other schools and ask when you can expect to see an award. Be ready to send of copy of the Case award to Cornell along with an appeal.</p>
<p>Cornell would have to have an extremely sharp pencil to beat Case's award.</p>
<p>I would recommend emailing your questions, but asking for them to reply to your questions by email! You then have a written record of what they said, and any comittments they made. (Like, if they said "Your loans will never exceed $5000. a year, and all other need will be met with grant and scholarship." then you have that in writing. Certainly ask how your loan amounts will increase (or not) over time and get that answer in writing. You can chat with them, too, but it really helps to have the answers in print to review later at your leisure. It is awfully easy to forget exactly what the FA office said.. if you old like me! :)</p>
<p>anxiousmom has a good point about the reply by email -- in my case, I took notes while I talked to the financial aid officer; after I had talked with the financial aid officer, I sent an email repeating & confirming the key points that were important to me, and I got a very nice email back reiterating the promises that have been made. </p>
<p>So yes - I agree in the end that you want WRITTEN confirmation. </p>
<p>I also want to clarify something I wrote above -- I said something about renewal of grants, but it is pretty clear to me that the large $22K grant is probably a need-based grant. (Merit awards are usually called "scholarships" rather than grants in any case.) It was that last piece, the $5000 CSP grant, that the school seems to be treating like a scholarship, because they used it to reduce the self-help portion of your aid (loans and workstudy). This is what colleges typically do when you receive outside scholarships. Plus I looked it up on the internet and here is what it says, at <a href="http://www.cspohio.org/programs/aid.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.cspohio.org/programs/aid.html</a>
[quote]
How are CSP Finalists Selected?</p>
<pre><code>* CSP finalists are selected based on recommendations by the CSP advisor.
* Finalists must also meet CSP criteria for academic performance and financial need to receive a CSP grant.
* Finalists selected to receive a CSP grant are eligible to receive CSP awards for up to 5 years, providing they continually meet CSP criteria.
* CSP awards are Last Dollar Grants applied after all other financial aid has been tabulated.
[/quote]
So that tells me that you do have to do something to qualify for renewal, but I don't know exactly what it is.
</code></pre>
<p>This is a pretty good package, they'll probably up the Stafford every year and you'll end up owing about 23 to 24 thousand. Not bad. Some of the better Ivies and top LACS might do a little better, slightly lower work study and maybe no Perkins, but overall it's hard to beat. If you're interested you should get some assurances as to how the package will be shaped in upcoming years. You can do that via email.</p>
<p>This is very similiar to my D's package at Hiram . Her grants/scholarship has been renewable so take Calmom's advice on questioning the FA office by phone .Then follow it with an email detailing the information they gave you ( anxiousmon's confirmation rule is a good idea , print itout and save it to your files ) .</p>
<p>My S will be applying to Case and we are glad to hear now about these "college - based " loans ..........$10,000 a yr. in loans is just too much , I think & we are glad they replaced it with grants .</p>