<p>Hey CC,</p>
<p>I want to apply to Penn ED, however I definitely need to get a lot of aid.</p>
<p>If I do apply ED (and somehow get accepted), is Penn not going to give me much $$$?</p>
<p>Thanks,
brownman23</p>
<p>Does anyone do their own research any more?
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<p>[You</a> Can Afford Penn](<a href=“Submit My Documents”>Submit My Documents)</p>
<p>That doesn’t change for ED applicants.</p>
<p>Please run the online financial aid calculators that tell you how much schools are likely to consider that your family will have to contribute. (College Board has one; finaid has one.) A school like U Penn that meets full need will likely determine that your family can contribute up to what those calculators say is your IM (institutional method) contribution. If your family can afford that, great! If not, you need to look at schools other than meet full-need schools. (Unless, of course, the bridge between what the Penn estimates and what you need is small enough to be bridged with a loan. Since U-Penn doesn’t include loans in their aid packages, you could get a stafford to use toward your efc.) </p>
<p>If you meant Penn State, I do not believe they meet full need for students.</p>
<p>To the OP…no way of being able to answer your question. Penn gives need based aid only and that is based on your family’s income and assets. I agree…use one of the online financial aid calculators for a GUESTIMATE of what your family contribution might be. Then go from there.</p>
<p>Just because you say that you “need a lot of aid,” since we don’t know what your family situation is, we don’t know if UPenn will think your family’s income/assets are low enough to get a lot of aid.</p>
<p>Do you mean UPenn or Penn St?</p>
<p>If you mean Penn St, applying there would be a bad idea (but I don’t know if Penn St even has ED).</p>
<p>I mean University of Penn.</p>
<p>I was just wondering whether ED reduces the amount of aid to get.</p>
<p>It shouldn’t if you qualify.</p>
<p>However, many, many kids (ED and regular admission) find out that their school expects a larger family contribution than what is affordable.</p>
<p>What would your likely expected family contribution be?</p>
<p>If you need significant financial aid to go to Penn, it may not be a good idea to apply ED.</p>
<p>The EFC was around 5000 at finaid.com</p>
<p>That EFC is a GUESTIMATE of EFC. </p>
<p>IF your family contribution as computed by Penn is REALLY $5000 , Penn will offer you the same finaid package ED as RD. However, you won’t KNOW what Penn computes as your family contribution unless there is an online calculator on the Penn site OR you talk to them about giving you an early estimate of your financial aid there.</p>
<p>You need to realize that Penn meets full need based on THEIR calculation…they use both the FAFSA and the Profile. Your parents will need to include information regarding home equity and possibly supplemental questions about other money they have (e.g. balances in retirement accounts…don’t know if Penn uses this supplemental question but some schools do).</p>
<p>If you have significant financial need, it is best to be able to COMPARE financial aid offers and your own bottom line expenses from multiple schools. Even with full need schools, the offers can vary by THOUSANDS of dollars. THOUSANDS…because the formulas they use vary.</p>
<p>If you are a competitive admit in the ED round, you will be a competitive admit in the RD round. Apply RD.</p>
<p>Brownman…</p>
<p>Did you use federal methodology, institutional methodology, or both?</p>
<p>Did your parents supply all info for you (including assets info)?</p>
<p>Do you have a non custodial parent?</p>
<p>Are you using Adjusted gross income or “income after taxes” to determine EFC?</p>
<p>Can your family pay its EFC?</p>
<p>If you do decided to apply ED, then also protect yourself by applying to 1 - 2 rolling admissions schools that you KNOW will give you big scholarships for your stats. Then, if the ED thing doesn’t work out, you won’t have missed the deadlines for scholarships at rolling admissions schools (some have early deadlines for big scholarship consideration).</p>
<p>I see these are your stats…</p>
<p>*I took 3 SATs so far (one in March 2009 (soph year), Oct 2009, March 2010).</p>
<p>Mar 2009: 670 CR, 740 M, 720 W
Oct 2009: 670 CR, 750 M, 800 W (78, 11)
Mar 2010: 720 CR, 770 M, 710 W (75, 8)</p>
<p>Superscore 1490/2290.</p>
<p>I also want to take the SATs in October to get 2350.</p>
<p>GPA - 4.45 (weighted, 7th rank out of 330), 3.93 (unweighted, 23 rank)</p>
<p>SAT IIs - 700 M Level 2 (I plan to retake in June to get a 770+), 740 Bio
I plan to take US History and Chem*</p>
<p>Your stats are high enough that you could get some big merit scholarships at some schools. Protect yourself and apply to some of them as financial safety schools.</p>
<p>What are your financial safety schools?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>University of Pittsburgh and PennState</p>
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</p>
<p>I just used federal methodology. My parents did help me out w/ the assets. My parents are married. I used adjusted gross income. And, my family can pay its EFC.</p>
<p>Federal methodology doesn’t consider everything that insitutional methodology considers. Definitely run your number using institutional methodology. Even then it’s a guesstimate since it’s not necessarily using the same formula UPenn uses… but it’s a better guess than federal methodology.</p>
<p>My kid applied ED to a meets-full-need school, and he had (has) very high financial need. It worked out just fine for us.</p>
<p>I don’t like the idea of anyone who needs financial aid to apply ED. Too much can go wrong. You are working with estimates instead of actual numbers and that can be a problem. You cannot compare offers. Backing out of ED is a pain in the neck at a very bad time of the year and can cause all sorts of problems.</p>
<p>That said, if this is a burning desire, talk to your parents about the situation. Find out what they are willing to pay. Work with them to fill out the PROFILE calculator for PENN. THey need to be very involved in this process because if the financial estimate are off, your final package will be off, and it can be a big problem if you need that money. If they understand the risks and drawbacks of ED and support you in this endeavor, you can give it a whirl. Do understand yourself what these issues are.</p>
<p>Browman, One of my kids needed a lot of financial aid and applied ED to a top LAC that meets full need. Kiddo did not get in (deferred and rejected)-- but, through some mistake, was sent the financial aid award. It was fantastic. </p>
<p>So it is possible to apply ED to a school that meets full need if you can meet your part of the <strong>Institutional Methodology</strong> contribution. However, the more complicated your paperwork, the more room there is for a university to come up with a very different number than the online calculator. Examples of complications are: owning a business with substantial assets or income or having a lot of assets including additional properties.</p>
<p>** Originally Posted by mom2collegekids
What are your financial safety schools?</p>
<p>Answer…<br>
University of Pittsburgh and PennState**</p>
<p>**With an EFC of $5000, how are these your “financial safety schools”??? ** From what I understand, neither of these schools “meet need,” will likely gap you big time.</p>
<p>You may be certain that you’ll get accepted there, but how are you certain that they will be affordable?</p>
<p>Unless you KNOW FOR SURE that a school is affordable, then it is NOT a financial safety. That means that you must know for sure that you can pay all costs by assured gov’t grants, assured merit scholarships, small federal loans, and/or personal funds. </p>
<p>I don’t think you can know that Penn St or UPitt will be affordable. Can you??</p>
<p>For instance…Penn State instate COA is about $26k per year for the 2010-11 school year.</p>
<p>It’s doubtful that Penn State will give you an award package that comes anywhere close to that amount. </p>
<p>You would be offered a $5500 loan,
maybe $2500 in work-study
maybe a small scholarship if you’re accepted to their elite honors college.
but, in the end, you’ll likely have a big ole gap.</p>
<p>You need to apply to some financial safety schools that you KNOW you can afford. Apply to some schools that you KNOW for SURE will give you big merit.</p>
<p>What is your major?</p>
<p>This OP says he is applying to UPenn. If he REALLY has the stats to be a competitive admit for UPenn (which is very competitive) then he would likely receive decent merit aid from Pitt which has some great merit scholarships for high achieving students.</p>
<p>My daughter had virtually identical stats to the OP and got 10K in merit aid from Pitt as an out of state student (to whom they are supposedly more generous). I thought she would get full tuition there as I had seen many posts from students with lower stats get that. I’m not sure why she got the lower award but in the end her ED school ended up being a much better deal for us financially.</p>
<p>“What is your major?”</p>
<p>mom, just curious, why do you want to know?</p>