@LKnomad Boy, this is a great article. Would be a good one to post in the financial aid section!
@suzyQ7 Same blog but discuses other colleges. This one also has a spreadsheet listing colleges and how each calcuates equity.
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/will-your-home-equity-hurt-financial-aid-chances/
This would be even worse. MUCH worse: freshmen would think their need is met… and then they’d have to drop out, leave their friends, and find another school, but this time without access to any big merit scholarship since those aren’t awarded to transfers. It’d reach scam-level.
Boston College is not need blind. They favor wealthy families who, in their view, can pay full freight. Their calculations are, indeed, ridiculous as they “say” they meet 100% need but since they calculate need in strange ways that are guaranteed not to be affordable for all but the wealthiest students (and a few random middle class/lower income ones + another handful Presidential Scholars.)
Note that “middle class” is 80-125K*, what you mean with 150-200K is upper-middle class.
(* strictly speaking starts at 60K)
PREACH! I just checked mine and they’re only giving me 6,600 a year. Both of my parents are retired and our income before taxes is around 25k, we own our house and have a little bit of rental property, worth about 400k, but they cannot sell their house because it is part of our income. I can’t possibly go to BC when I have to pay 62K a year. And I cannot possibly ask my parents to sell two houses or take out 248k dollars in loans. I was really hoping to get the majority of my tuition or all of my tuition paid for.
I emailed the band director, since he “advocated” on my behalf to the admissions committee.
I am shocked because Northeastern is giving me 36,000, and Case Western is giving me 34,500. Both of those schools do not meet 100% financial need, but still offer way more money than BC who meets 100% financial need.
Does anyone have any advice??
My advice to you is to take that northwestern offer and run 
BC is my top choice. I applied to 15 other schools. The best offer is from The University of Alabama, I have full tuition so far. Northeastern’s offer is with loans and stuff, without its about 26k which is still four times more than BC. And BC “meets 100% need”, and I’m pretty sure, BC has more money to offer and less students than Case or Northeastern.
Sorry I misread your post I thought it was northwestern. So nevermind I would call bc and see what they say that’s what I’m doing because my offer was trash too
It’s awful. I read about yours, and this is complete bs. I’m not trying to trash talk or anything like that, but Northeastern has double the students and not as much money as BC but still manages to give me four times more financial aid money than BC which is a need blind school that meets 100% need based financial aid.
My parents are retired, and their only source of income is aout 12k in social secuirty and around 13-15k in rental property and that is before insurance, taxes, and expenses. My dad has a skin disorder and can’t work, and my mother has a blood disorder, so she can’t work either.
Plus, the band director advocated on my behalf. I was expecting way more than just 6,600, that’s not even enough for room and board.
Not everyone is entitled to a private college education if you cannot afford it. There are many other options out there such as University of Alabama.
Little bit?
it’s 3 rental properties. But after taxes insurance, and maintence fee, there is barely any money left. They’re worth 400k in total, but they won’t sell for that much right now.
They certainly are for the purposes of admissions.
Instead of meeting full need, those other schools offer merit aid; they are paying for your excellent scores and GPA. (Top ~20% earn merit money.)
Sure, but most of those students are full pay. (Less than half of NEU’s students qualify for need-based aid.)
While personally frustrating, I hope you understand that most college kids don’t come from family’s with rental properties. Instead of investing in real estate, their parents put money away into their kids’ college fund.
Sorry to hear that, but given their situation, you should choose less expensive over the alternative. Definitely appeal to BC, but keep looking at your other options. Good luck.
But realize that when you appeal, you may just get a pittance more.
And you are right to subtract loans packaged in an aid offer.
@em1998 Something does not add up. You are saying that your family of at least 3 lives on $25,000/year? Before taxes??? If both your parents are on Social Security disability that alone would be more than $12,000/year. There has to be something else in play here that BC detected in reviewing your paperwork.
Can you provide the source of this statement?
@TomSrOfBoston Isn’t the issue that BC uses home equity and NEU does not, as mentioned up thread - home equity at BC has a huge affect on FA calc.
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/will-your-home-equity-hurt-financial-aid-chances/
@bluebayou’s comment is correct as it relates to need-based aid, as per NE’s most recent CDS. 44.4% of freshmen are determined to have financial need. However, that doesn’t mean the rest are full-pay, as there are also non-need students that receive merit scholarships (section H2a). When factoring in those numbers, it looks like about 68% of NE students get some type of aid.
“My advice to you is to take that northwestern offer and run”
then-
"Sorry I misread your post I thought it was northwestern. So nevermind I would call bc and see what they say that’s what I’m doing because my offer was trash too "
If Northeastern is her second choice after BC, why did you change your mind about ‘take the offer and run’ when you thought it was Northwestern that was her second choice? Don’t quite get it.
@suzyQ7 Because Northwestern is clearly better than BC, but Northeastern is not.
Common data set.
But to be fair, most kids at top privates are full pay, or could be. Full payors used to be the majority at HYPS until H raised the need-bar to $180k income levels, instantly creating “need” where none had previously existed.
Correct, since the majority of merit winners would have been full payers without the merit $$, I should have clarified my statement: the majority of students at NEU do not qualify for need-based aid, and absent merit money for high grades/test scores, would otherwise be considered full payors based on income/assets.
Why that’s important to this discussion is that BC does not offer merit money (other than a dozen Presidentials). NEU uses some/much? of its fin aid budget to offer merit money to attract hundreds of top students, many of who are upper middle class and wealthy.
I’m also from the Midwest and live about 40 minutes from northwestern, so I know a lot about northwestern and that’s a very good deal from northwestern. I know absolutely nothing about northeasterns cost, so I do not feel I should influence someone to take a deal from a school I know nothing about