Hi everyone! I have applied to Northeastern EA for fall 2018, and it is my dream school. I would have done ED if it was financially feasible for my family but unfortunately it was not. Anyway, I know that no one on here is on the inside of admissions and the financial aid department at the school, but I was wondering if anyone who knows a lot about the school or has gotten accepted in the past would be able to give me an idea of what I could be looking at for financial aid if I am lucky enough to get in? I’m from a small town in RI, go to a small public school, and I am raised by a single mom. Family (my mom’s) income is less than 20,000 a year (I work full time in the summer, 6 or 7 days a week, and part time during school, 3ish days a week). Although my stats are in the middle range to be accepted I doubt that I’ll get substantial merit aid. Basically I am just looking for any kind of hint of the level of aid I could receive, since I know Northeastern isn’t known for being especially generous about it! If posting other information would help I definitely can!! 
@cb6800 I wouldn’t say that Northeastern is not generous with financial aid, but it is a very expensive school so you can bet that part of your aid package will include loans. Northeastern is a private school located in an expensive city, so loans might total more than what they would at a lower priced school. It will be up to you to decide if it is worth it.
Northeastern technically claims to meet 100% of demonstrated need, the catch being that “demonstrated” is defined by the school. For families that don’t own businesses / property / other special cases, the aid packages can be quite nice. They will include loans, but nothing beyond federal limits. I myself got a very good package and know others that have one as well, but I also have seen people get unaffordable packages on here as well and be unable to attend. It’s really more or less luck it seems to me, but the more straightforward your financial situation, the better chance it seems that their aid algorithm works for you.
Thank you both so much. I will definitely be weighing my options when the time comes but I appreciate your help and input!
My D was accepted at NE last year (didn’t go). Their offer was not as good as some, but was pretty much in the middle. As in, we would have had to pay a little more than our FAFSA EFC, and she would have to to take out $5500 in a loan (plus a $1500 Perkins loan, which I think no longer exists). She didn’t get a merit scholarship, but I’m not sure if it would have been that different if she had.
One good thing about NE was that with the Northeastern Promise, the scholarship would be the same the following years, plus a small increase for tuition raises. So it would be a little more expensive the later years, but not by that much. And I think after the first year you only need to file FAFSA, not Profile. For us, that would have been good in that we wouldn’t have to worry about any additional amount in income resulting in a higher college cost.
Good luck with your admissions and financial aid! I don’t remember the exact day she was notified of admission, but financial aid was Feb. 3.
I was admitted in 2014, but for what it’s worth I receive a very generous aid package, as do most of my friends (though I met most through Honors.) I received $24k per year in merit aid, $12k/year in grant aid, subsidized Stafford loans, a small Perkins loan, and work-study my freshman year. The Northeastern promise was AMAZING because I had a sibling in college my freshman year but not since, so while my EFC jumped by a ton my second year my aid was not reduced (except for federal programs like work-study and Perkins as I lost eligibility.)
You will absolutely be expected to take out the loans and do work-study but the grant aid can be generous if Northeastern wants you. If you are smart enough to be middle of the pack at NU you are probably eligible for some pretty great merit aid at other (albeit smaller or less competitive) schools. Don’t forget to apply for those as well in case Northeastern doesn’t come through.
My D was just accepted but there is no financial aid information on her portal at all. Is that normal? We submitted the CSS and FAFSA back in October and haven’t received any requests for additional information.
@NJParent49 my son’s letter on the portal says they’re missing our tax return. They never asked for it, but they have our css profile and everything is in idocs. I didn’t see different instructions for them and there was no indication that they were waiting for anything.
If you don’t see financial aid, checking up with the office and a few documents usually does the trick. It shouldn’t affect the end package much but will mean a bit of a delay.
@PengsPhils they had all of our info, but didn’t mark it received until today. I hope it’s not much of a delay because we’d really like to know!
@mom2cats I called and got through to financial aid quickly, much to my surprise. They looked her up and saw that all her documentation is complete. Said we should have a package in a week or so. She said they just couldn’t get all the award packages out in time to go with the acceptances. Crossing my fingers there’s something more in it than loans!
@NJParent49 thanks! All of his docs show as received on the right days now, so hopefully they’ll send something soon.
@mon2cats
@NJParent49
Have you heard anything yet? We have not.
Northeastern was still too expensive with a scholarship for me, so my parents appealed to their financial aid representatives and they told us that they’ve run out of funding. Just wanted to put that out their for anyone else struggling to get more money.
@melzar Received our Northeastern financial aid package and they determined we had $0 need so D just got $5.5K loan. Interestingly, Northeastern and Cornell are priced about the same and both meet full need. Cornell determined we had $45K need which they met with $35K in grant, $7.5K in loan, and the rest in work study. Just further proof that all schools have a different idea of ‘need’ and the larger the endowment, the better the chance for need based aid.
Not that it was a competition between Northeastern and Cornell, but the money definitely helps to make Cornell possible. D will be going to Cornell.
@NJParent49 Cornell’s endowment is $6.8 Billion and Northeastern’s is $795 Million. Cornell’s enrollment is around 14,500 undergraduates while NEU’s is almost 20,00. Big difference. While they claim to cover demonstrated need, they simply can’t offer the same amount of money to all admitted students.
20,000. missed a zero.
@bethanylm291 Exactly! Important to keep that in mind as parents/students are choosing schools to apply to.