Hello everyone,
My family makes a decent amount of money (between $125,000 and $150,000), but live in somewhere with a high cost of living. I really want to attend a private college, but my parents aren’t sure we can afford it. Two of my top choices are Reed and Claremont McKenna. Stanford is another, but its VERY doubtful I will get in. What type of financial aid will I get at these schools? Also, is it true that you can get more aid if you apply ED???
Run the Net Price Calculator that every school will have available on their website to get an idea. But remember: garbage in = garbage out. Make sure you enter accurate information.
No.
Run those net price calculators now…but so understand that they will be updated in late August or so for the students who are currently juniors in HS.
Stanford has very generous need based aid…and you probably would get some if you are amongst the 5% of accepted applicants. Your 32 ACT really needs to bump up.
CM and Reed do not have as generous need based aid awarding policies.
How much will your oarents pay annually for you to attend?
I gather you are a CA resident.
Yes, I’m from California. And I know my ACT gets me consideration, but definitely could be better. I can definitely improve on math and science; it has been many months since I have done basic algebra and pre-cal problems. I know that no one has as generous as FA as Stanford and the Ivies, but CMC does give pretty good aid. My mom said that they would be willing to pay $20,000 a year, but not $30,000. Not sure how they feel about $25,000 lol
If they will pay $20,000 only, who,will pay the balance at any of the UCS?
Your FAFSA EFC with a $120,000 income would be likely in the $30,000 to $39,000 range. Not likely that you would get need based aid to bring the cost of CMC down to $20,000.
But run the net price calculator…and see what it says.
More aid if you apply early?
Doubtful…but your chances of admission are considerably greater.
And, when applying to schools as selective as Stanford (most selective school In the country)
or Claremont (2nd most selective LAC In country), that is nothing to sneeze at.
Although I want to apply ED for that reason, I’m afraid the aid offered will be too little, and I will be stuck going to a school I can’t afford.
If you have significant financial considerations, please do not apply ED.
Suppose you apply and get accepted ED to CMC college with your financial aid package. You will have NO other packages to compare it to. The CMC offer could be the very best…or maybe not. You just won’t know.
It could be that Reed would offer you more…or Oxy or someplace else.
If finances are a serious consideration, you need to be able to compare net costs amongst a number of accepted college offers. Not the actual aid amount…the NET cost to your family.
Maybe… maybe not. Depends on the school and lots of other factors.
If OP is worried about the amount of aid that might be offered, applying ED and not being able to compare aid offers among all schools at which OP is accepted is probably not the way to go.
(1) Need-based aid at a school that meets full need will not be any different if you apply ED.
(2) If the FA award you receive isn’t enough to make the school affordable, you are not obligated to attend. Not being able to afford the school is a valid reason for turning down an ED offer of admission.
(3) Given that your best shot at affordability is likely going to be schools that offer generous merit aid, you should absolutely wait until you see ALL offers before making a decision. In your situation, applying to any school ED would be a bad idea.
Finally, although there may be schools where your chances of admission would be “considerably greater” if you apply ED, Stanford is certainly NOT one of those schools! Stanford, like the Ivies, has no concerns about being able to fill its freshman class - it doesn’t need to lower its admissions criteria in order to “lock in” a bunch of early admits.
You need to look here for some merit aid options: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Also since you live in CA you have the CCC to UC track you can do to save $ for the two high cost years.
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Although I want to apply ED for that reason, I’m afraid the aid offered will be too little, and I will be stuck going to a school I can’t afford.<<<<
You are not required to attend an ED school that you can’t afford. If you aren’t given the aid you need, you can decline the acceptance.
You need to ask your parents to run the NPCs on various schools’ websites. Stanford gives super aid, so don’t use them as a guideline.
Do your parents have any assets?
Do they own a business or take business deductions?
Do you have a non-custodial parent?
Actually, i agree with the above posts. If financial considerations trump getting in to a specific school, then by all means DO NOT apply ED anywhere…you would be limiting your options.
But, i do take issue with Dodgersmom on one point:
"Stanford, like the Ivies, has no concerns about being able to fill its freshman class - it doesn’t need to lower its admissions criteria in order to “lock in” a bunch of early admits. "
You are right, in that Stanford has the lowest variance between ED and RD (i.e., ‘easier’ to get in,but not by much)
I believe the Ivies do show a significant difference between ED ad RD rates…I know Harvard, with an overall acceptance rate of just over 5%, had ED rate (I think its referred to as SECA) of around 21%.
So, FWIW, if CMC were in the Ivy League, its admit rate of 9.4% would place it behind Harvard(5.2%), Columbia(6.1%), Princeton(6.46%), Yale (6.49%), and Brown(8.49%)…but ahead of Penn (9.9%), Dartmouth (10.3%), and Cornell (14.9%).
Just remember…at some of those schools…the ED acceptance rate is higher because of legacy, developmental admits, recruited athletes, and the like.
Exactly… the ED applicant pool is not the same as the RD applicant pool. That is why it is hard to make straight comparisons between the two regarding acceptance rates.
Applying ED definitely does make a difference at some schools, but for the average, non-athlete, non-legacy candidate, I don’t think it makes any difference at all at a school like Stanford.
Stanford is kind of a daydream for me lol
Run the NPC’s on all the colleges you are interested in.
Re: ED…
First off, as others have already said, if you have financial considerations you shouldn’t even think of ED. (EA is okay, but NOT ED). It’s just a bad idea because you need to compare packages. And technically, as others have pointed out you can decline if you can’t afford it.
But there are two general thoughts on this board. Some think it’s okay to apply and just hope for the best and decline if you don’t get the miracle. Others, (me included) feel you must make an honest effort to determine affordability before you apply ED. If you run the NPC and it is an amount you feel you can afford, then fine, if it’s not then you shouldn’t apply hoping for a miracle. If it’s fine but then the actual package comes in and your net costs is significantly higher, then you have a valid reason to decline.
That said, you probably shouldn’t be doing ED anyway.
The problem with ED is that it’s quite often not as straightforward as you imagine. Let’s say your family can afford $20k/year, but it would be a real stretch, and they’d have to forgo repairing the house, etc., etc. Then “Dream College” admits you ED with an award that would leave you having to pay $25k/year. What do you do?
It’s so close to what your family can afford . . . but it’s really more than they can afford . . . but it’s so close . . . and you don’t know if you’ll do any better anywhere else . . . so maybe you should take it . . . or maybe you shouldn’t . . .
And the problem, in the end, is that you really don’t know if you’ll do better somewhere else - maybe you will, and maybe you won’t. And if you apply ED, you have no way of knowing.
ED at Stanford is non-binding and allows you to apply to other schools RD, as well as early to public institutions and those with non-binding rolling admissions. It’s pretty risk-free.
http://admission.stanford.edu/application/decision_process/restrictive.html