Hi everyone, I’ll try to make this as least rant-like as possible, but I just received my financial aid award and I am in utter shock. I come from a middle class family, both my parents work, and have been saving for years to send me to college. While together they make an income of 140,000 after some very high taxes we only have a usable income of about 100,000. Yet BC is only giving me 1,300 in grant many a year. That is asking my parents and I to pay nearly 70 PERCENT of our net income to BC, leaving my parents to pay for all of their expenses on only 30,000. In order to make BC actually feasible I would have to come out of undergrad with over 100,000 in loans and I definitely don’t think ANY school is worth that. Has anyone else had an issue like this? or is a good portion of the student body just okay with burying themselves in student debt? Sorry for the slight rant but I’m just a little frustrated here 
I hear you. I"m a parent and it was a shocker once I realized that the very good schools that accepted my daughter weren’t going to give us any money. One question – you mentioned that your parents had been saving for years for college…will that help offset things?
My parents have a good 40,000 in savings but honestly that won’t make a huge dent in the overall costs…
Did you run the net price calculator on the college website before applying? Did it show something different?
Yes it said they would give us between 8,000-9,000
I am guessing your parents have considerable assets-far more than $40,000 in savings you mention. Otherwise the numbers don’t make much sense. Was this using the CSS. I imagine so. Schools consider different things but I’ve not heard of a family with assets of only 40K and an income of $140 paying 70K a year-especially since Boston College is on the list of schools that promise to meet need.
Do your parents have other assets, businesses, and investments. I’d assume they do based on the fact that the school is only providing $1300/year.
I just log in to my account and I’m completely devastated to find out that I received only 3500 in bc grant. My father is unemployed and has been for almost a year. And in November I was diagnosed with an immune deficiency and now I have to get ivig infusions every month for the rest of my life so my medical expenses are skyrocketing. Bc was my first choice but now there is no chance I can attend with this financial aid package it is completely ridiculous
@lostaccount We met with a counselor briefly and they told us that since our house was pretty much payed off, that my parents were expected to borrow against the home to meet our “efc”, but no my parents do not own a business, or any other property besides our primary residence, or any investments besides their retirement.
@travisn10 I am truly sad to hear your story, as you seem to be in an even worse position than I am. BC was my number 1 also, but its just not worth the debt.
Unlike most other top 30 universities, BC factors home equity heavily into their FA calculations (in fact, I believe they do this to the greatest extent among the top 30). That said, the EFC typically is expected to be a combination of past savings, current income, and future loan payments.
Thanks goldenbear2020, that makes sense. I suppose a family with a very expensive house that is paid off has considerable equity to borrow against-as much as they’d have if they still had a big mortgage but had considerable assets in investments or in the bank. That would be problematic if the parents were near retirement age or if there were a number of younger siblings but I know they take those factors into consideration.I wonder why the outcome is so different than what the students expected given they did run it through net price calculator.
Dear Friends : Here on College Confidential, I have been writing (for years) about the carnage in the aftermath of a Boston College acceptance due to the difference in expectations between “need blind”, “meeting 100% of demonstrated need”, and “paying the bill”.
@lostaccount makes the error of confusing 100% of demonstrated need with promising to meet your need. Your expectation of your needs and Boston College’s view of your demonstated need are often very different. We talk about it every year on CC, yet the message is not heard. Your family’s lifestyle will have to change is you are expecting a need-based award because you will need to put more on the table than expected.
Boston College is, for all intents and purposes, a $240,000-$250,000 four year experience with price increases taking place annually. At approximately $60,000-$65,000 for any year, this is not a bill which can be met annually from personal earnings for a family making $150,000 per year. (With $100,000 in net annual income, you are not going to be able to shift 60% of that cash to paying for college.)
When I discuss this with parents, there is a very simple financial calculation that brings this into perspective : when you have a child - just one - you need to set aside in a separate savings account $10,000 net cash per year in order to be ready to meet that college bill cost 20 years from now. If you start when your child is ten years old, you need to set aside $20,000 net cash per year. @christlin81 suggests that there is $40,000 allocated in a college fund - researching Boston College, you had to have known to you were radically off.
Now, all of this information is looking backwards; what can be done looking forwards?
Boston College assesses home value in their EFC. You certainly must appeal valuation, but I would recommend strongly that you do NOT borrow against your home to finance a college education, even at Boston College. The metric that I have commonly used is that a family with $150,000 in annual income, $100,000 in cash assets, and their own home will not receive any financial aid at Boston College.
Boston College more than most institutions is creating the “double bubble” and leaving behind the classic middle class student. Those that can afford to pay full freight do not see the problem and those coming from truly poor financial situations receive a bulk of the financial aid. The middle class, those in the $150,000-$200,000 range for the purposes of this note (particularly from Northeastern states), are the ones left in the cold so often. This explains why I have railed against the current structure of the Presidential Scholars Program where ~15 full load, four year scholarships are awarded. Imagine if we could make those ~30 full-load two year awards - or ~60 full-load one year awards.
You have limited options at this point. First, you can appeal the award. If there are new circumstances, share them with financial aid. Second, you have to start shopping among the colleges to which you were accepted that meet your budget expectation.
From running NPCs for my family, I do not think your situation is unique at all. I took many schools off of my DS’ lists because we can’t afford them. I know this is a painful situation for you, but you need to find an affordable option. I imagine that you have terrific stats.
Do you have some RD applications still pending? Or EA admissions?
Sounds like even the $8K or $9K the NPC gave you would not be affordable. Its common for kids to be optimistic on merit or FA, but less common for that actually to come through.
What is your EFC? Wake Forest was one school that seemed pretty reasonable in the net price calculator, only slightly higher than our EFC.
Our D chose to go to one of our very good instate research universities with a full tuition scholarship.
Thank you everyone for your informational responses. Thankfully I applied to 15 schools and have multiple more affordable options, so I definitely will be attending college, but that doesn’t change the fact that I won’t be able to attend my top school simply because of money. I totally agree that BC needs more merit scholarships, because I was in the top 9% of admitted students and barely missed the cut off for Presidential Scholarship finalists, yet I have no opportunity to receive any merit money. Most likely I will be attending my Big 10 state school next year, and while it may not be BC, at least I can come out debt free.
Wait how do we view our financial aid awards? Are these like the estimates for if you got everything in on time for EA kids? Because I didn’t get an email or anything.
OP I can certainly understand your frustration. It must be tough to realize that your top choice is unaffordable. I was glad however to hear that you applied to 15 schools and that your state school would be a good solution. It may be upsetting now, but paying back exorbitant loans for most of your adult life would be even more upsetting.
We looked at BC for our son but ran the net price calc and knew that it would not be within reach. I’m sorry you had to find out belatedly but it is better to know now.
CC has stories of kids who refuse to accept reality and then regret it later, when they can’t maintain the financial strain for all four years; have to drop out; and then can’t get their transcripts released in order to attend somewhere else. Then they get to start paying back loans – without having earned a degree.
I ran across this blog post awhile back. It specifically mentions home equity issues with Boston College and it shows quite well what the problem is. Take a look and scroll down for the case study with Boston College.
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/will-your-home-equity-hurt-financial-aid-chances-a-case-study/
I think ScottJ has it right. BC is the double bubble. As an alumni, who donates, my daughter was rejected outright for admission. I didn’t even require ANY financial aid for her, as I could afford the bill with what I make. But after rejection, there goes my donation money as well as the 100% match my company was donating as well. Who does this hurt, you and other middle class students who see NO financial aid from BC. It isn’t the same school I graduated from in 1992. My letter to Father Leahy was completely ignored. You would be far better off going to a school where you will incur less debt and you’ll do just as well without that BC degree.