Financial Aid at Holy Cross?

<p>Have others accepted at HC received their financial aid award packages? My D was fortunate enough to be accepted, but we still have not gotten any other information. Thanks!</p>

<p>Received envelope today in MA</p>

<p>Checked the mail today and there was no FA package yet, but I’m assuming I’ll get mine tomorrow if MA people received there’s today. I live in NH sooooo, hopefully it’s tomorrow!</p>

<p>Are Holy Cross generous with their FA?</p>

<p>Do they even hand out merit scholarships?</p>

<p>Fin Aid was almost dead on with what I had calc’d from the EFC calculators so yes in that respect they were generous. Also had a few loans. They don’t do merit…from their site in answer to the merit aid question:</p>

<p>No. Holy Cross is firmly committed to allocating resources to sustain our policies of need-blind admissions and need-based financial aid. Furthermore, our talented students are chosen in a highly competitive admissions process, which would be complicated by trying to determine a fair way to distribute merit-based awards.</p>

<p>Ohh, okay. Thanks LACSearch!
I wish there were scholarships, but all is well.</p>

<p>Received FA package today.
And they do have scholarships, but it’s probably not merit.
I received the Holy Cross Scholarship.
But even with the generous offer, we’d still have to pay $20,000 out of our pocket …</p>

<p>They do have a few scholarships…it’s mostly “need” though. My daughter there got slightly higher in regular scholarships (much more from state school) but that wouldn’t have been a fit and the difference wasn’t too much with the others.
The only reason I liked merit was that income doesn’t effect it, but some GPA’s are high to obtain them, it’s a very mixed bag among colleges. We had a 3.0 to 3.5 depending on the school with merit aid.</p>

<p>Received FA package here in NY today. Is HC Scholarship the same as HC Grant? Most colleges listed as institutional grant. I don’t see any grant offered.
I also received a sheet that said “Non Filer Statement”. D didn’t file income tax in 2010. Will this make any difference if we submit this statement. Lafayette told us to submit the same form before decision, and we got 20k more than HC. HC only offered 23k+ including 8k in loans and 1.8k in work study, but our EFC under FAFSA was about 7k only. Any advise?</p>

<p>I’m not sure of the tuition this year, but 23 and 8 is 31000, 32,000 if you count work study. If it’s 40.000 I’d call and ask them about it. Ours was pretty close to EFC, although it was somewhat high to me. </p>

<p>My D had a non-filer statement, I don’t know if it would change anything, but it states she didn’t earn or file for that year. I know you have to send that, it was part of their package for IDOC.</p>

<p>They were very nice when I had questions last year, call early and ask to speak to someone about it.</p>

<p>Thanks Debruns.
Will call Monday & try to fax the statement if that’s an option. Total cost of attending HC is about 53K, and we only got 23K (scholarship,loans,work study). That means 30K out of pocket. There is no way we can afford consider our EFC is under 7K.</p>

<p>Similar situation here ognyusa, except my parents are probably thinking I should go here anyways even if the cost is over our EFC. My FA package was $34,800. I looked over the booklet, and it mentions we have to send our 2010 tax forms. We’ve already sent them once before during this whole FA/CSS/IDOC process a couple months back… Do we really have to do it again?</p>

<p>I was shocked at how they advertise themselves as a school that claims they want to bring the best students “no matter what their financial circumstances”, yet their financial aid office has been of very little help. Holy Cross is my top choice school and I would go there in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, my parents don’t qualify for loans either so it makes it impossible to actually go there. </p>

<p>Any suggestions as to what I can do?</p>

<p>Unfortunatly, although you can appeal, and should, not many schools meet need without loans (Yale is one of the few) Holy Cross doesn’t have very many merit awards but usually meets need with a combination of loans, workstudy and grants.</p>

<p>You can get staffords, but if you parents need a loan and can’t get one, usually the only alternative is that you can to borow more stafford loans or maybe get increased work study.
I think what they meant, was that if your EFC was low, and there are students there that are poor, they will meet full need, but how they do it, isn’t always the same, student to student. </p>

<p>I would have your parents call the Financial aid office and talk to someone there.</p>

<p>Thanks Debruns. Yeah, the past two weeks I along with my parents have been calling the financial aid office and they are pretty firm on what they give out. What do you mean by appeal?</p>

<p>What you did, but to appeal, you usually have to show them how unworkable it is as a start. That said, it doesn’t always work. I don’t know your financial situation at all, but certain debt isn’t considered. My son years ago, didnt get enough to go there and they really wanted him (well they had an alumni call anyway) and we just couldnt’ do it. Lucikly he liked other schools just as well and it was fine.
Did they offer any governement grants?</p>

<p>Yes, they offered me 5500. As grateful as I am for that, it just isn’t enough. It’s too bad I can’t go there.</p>