<p>Has anyone gotten theirs? I thought they were supposed to come out with admission letters. I’m kind of nervous, because I applied for financial aid but didn’t receive anything regarding aid in my Barnard packet.</p>
<p>Last year the financial aid packets came about a week after the admission letters.</p>
<p>My mother called yesterday and they already sent them out. we should probably get them by the end of the week.</p>
<p>I actually just called the admissions office about this. The woman I spoke to was incredibly kind and friendly, and she said that fin aid packages should arrive one to two days after the acceptance.</p>
<p>Hope that helps! :)</p>
<p>yeah people around nyc got them yesterday. i was expecting mine in DC today but it didn't come so probably tomorrow. they're probably not mailed priority mail so it might take a bit longer...</p>
<p>AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! My fin aid award package just arrived in the mailbox 10 minutes ago and IT IS AMAZING!!! I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to afford to go but it is exactly as generous as I needed and more so than I had hoped for. Hooray!!!</p>
<p>yay! i'm so happy for you ohparade! i hope mine's just as good. i'm worried though b/c i didn't send my tax forms in on time and i hope they don't penalize me for being late.</p>
<p>Thanks, bad1017! I didn't actually have all of mine in by the deadline either (it was in early February, right?) because it took so long to get everything I needed, but they were still pretty darn good to me.</p>
<p>I hope you get as much as you need and that I see you next year. :)</p>
<p>thanks for the info! :-)</p>
<p>I just got my financial aid package today!</p>
<p>Along with NYU's which doesn't even compare.</p>
<p>my parents will only pay 15000-which leaves me with 10000 (including loans, but not including work study). how am i supposed to make 10000 in one summer?</p>
<p>audra- have you received your package yet? barnard has been especially generous this year (compared to previous years and to other sister schools) and perhaps you won't have to carry the 10000 tuition by yourself. if you need, i'm sure you can work out a loan with barnard or even a payment plan throughout the school year where you can make monthly payments to the bursar. that way, you have more htan two months to come up with the money</p>
<p>Does the financial aid office consider the fact that some parents won't give students any money? My award package said that my parent contribution was 40k, but my parents are all "we can't afford to give you any money". Is there any way to get more aid so I can afford to go on my own? I can pay for maybe half thanks to savings and a generous gift from my late great-grandmother, but I'm stuck after that. I don't want to go into massve debt, but I really want to go to Barnard. Help!</p>
<p>bad1017, the answer to your question is no, and it would be the same for any college -- "won't pay" won't fly with the financial aid department -- if it did, everyone's parents would just refuse to pay and all kids would suddenly be eligible for Pell grants.</p>
<p>Did your parents every talk to you about finances before you applied? Are they now refusing to pay anything, or is it just that they don't want to pay the difference between a private and public college? I find it hard to believe that parents with enough money for an EFC of $40K are unwilling to pay <em>anything</em> even if $40K is out of line --- so you may want to try to talk to them about what they <em>ARE</em> willing to pay. </p>
<p>What was your FAFSA EFC? Is there a big discrepancy between FAFSA EFC and the amount of parent contribution in your award package? If so, you might want to talk to the director of financial aid and go over the figures -- try to find out why your EFC is so high. There may be financial issues that were overlooked that would qualify you for more money. </p>
<p>In that respect, <em>why</em> are your parents saying now that they don't have the money? Is there some sort of unusual circumstance or change in their finances that has recently come up? (such as high medical bills, etc.) If there is, these may be factors that Barnard will take into consideration. </p>
<p>Where would you go to college if you couldn't afford Barnard? What would be your source of funding for that? </p>
<p>Sorry for so many questions... sometimes asking the right questions can help lead to some good answers.</p>
<p>The problem is my family looks really well off on paper. We have money saved, own two houses, both me and my sister have money from my great-grandmother. However, we live in an expensive area, we have mortgages on both houses, and my parents don't want to spend their savings (set aside in case something bad happens) on me.</p>
<p>My parents were pretty much on their own for money for college (both were the last to go to college in their families of four/five) and now they think that I should pay my own way too.</p>
<p>They also got married and had me right out of college when they were swimming in their own college loan debt and never saved any money for me. They kept telling me I needed to get a job so I could pay for college, but I never took them seriously because we kept going on nice vacations and they bought a beach house (talk about mixed signals!).</p>
<p>I finally did get a job this past November, and with the money I've earned, combined with the money from my great-grandmother and financial aid, I can pay for just over a semester at Barnard on my own. Maybe I just have a bad sense of money, but I wasn't expecting asking them to pay $2000/month to be a whole lot. When I talked to my mom though, she started talking about how she would co-sign a loan to pay for the rest instead. I'm going to talk to her again (b/c I think my parents should at least pay for Room and Board - parents are in charge of feeding, clothing and sheltering their children) but I'm at a loss.</p>
<p>I also got into UVA, which is much cheaper. I also have a feeling that if I went there (my parents' alma mater), they might shell out some money. Maybe. I just wish my parents had been more upfront with how much money they would contribute to my education. If I had known off the bat that I would be completely on my own, maybe I never would've explored private colleges. Then I wouldn't be in this crappy situation.</p>
<p>I agree with you that your parents should have been more direct about discussing college financing, though it sounds like they weren't the only ones avoiding a discussion -- since you say you didn't take seriously their repeated admonitions to get a job. However, parents are only obligated for feeding, clothing & sheltering their kids until age 18, and if your parents did not get support from their own families, it might simply not be part of your family's culture and expectations for parental support to continue into adulthood. </p>
<p>But I know how badly you wanted to get into Barnard, and it is a disappointment to come face-to-face with the reality that you cannot pay for it. Obviously you cannot afford to borrow the full cost of attendance. </p>
<p>I really do wish more families would have these discussions before the kids start to apply to colleges. I know that I was very clear with my kids, and my daughter knew very well that attendance at Barnard or any other colleges was contingent on financial aid. Both of my kids had to turn down their top choice colleges because of inadequate aid packages, but at least they were prepared for that possibility all along.</p>
<p>Well, I did get some aid from Barnard, and I have some money from my great-grandmother. Those combined with the money I've earned this year will pay for a little over a semester. My parents said they'd cosign a loan for the rest, but I'm still gonna lean on them to pay for Room and Board. Now I just have to make the difficult situation of whether all the debt is worth it.</p>
<p>I disagree with your statement that parents are only obligated for feeding, clothing and sheltering their kids until 18, b/c it just doesn't make any sense. No good parent would leave their child starving, naked and homeless on the street just b/c they're 18.</p>
<p>This is an example of two people talking past each other --</p>
<p>Calmom is talking about legal obligation. bad1017 is not referring to obligation, but what, in her view, a "good parent" would do. These are not the same thing!!</p>
<p>In terms of legal obligation, sure my parents don't have to give me any money to go to college. But it's their finances that are giving me crappy aid, so doesn't it make sense that they should contribute SOMETHING since thanks to them, barnard says they can pay 40k? i think yes.</p>
<p>and maybe I'm just being spoiled and stubborn and part of all this is because I'm frustrated with the fact that I might have to turn down this amazing school that so many people wanted to go to and only 28% got in solely on the fact that I can't pay for it. and that sucks.</p>
<p>
[quote]
No good parent would leave their child starving, naked and homeless on the street just b/c they're 18.
[/quote]
Sorry. I raised my kids to be perfectly capable of feeding & dressing themselves by the time they were 5, able to leap tall buildings and do their own laundry at age 12, and able to find and hold down employment well before the time they graduated from high school. My son has been entirely self supporting since age 20 (his choice to quit college for awhile.). </p>
<p>I would have considered myself a poor parent if my kids weren't capable of supporting themselves, if necessary, at age 18. If either had opted for anything other than college (gap year, etc.) - I would have expected them to support themselves. </p>
<p>I happen to be willing to give my kids financial support to attend college, up to and limited to the cost of attendance at our in-state public. (My d. has generous financial aid at Barnard). However, that makes me unusual in our community -- most of the kids around here attend community college after they graduate from high school; some enter the military. I come from a family that values education, but I am very glad that my kids have attended public schools and grown up with this model around them -- they don't think the world owes them a living. And my daughter truly appreciates what I am giving her -- she works very hard at her jobs and at school, and definitely lets me know that she is grateful for the financial support. </p>
<p>I'm sorry if you can't attend the college you want for financial reasons, but that is the way it is for the vast majority of kids growing up in America -- probably at least 90%. The kids who are at Barnard or other colleges, whether there because of parental support or generous financial aid, are extremely fortunate and extremely privileged. </p>
<p>I do not give my d. any money beyond what Barnard bills me, by the way. She has a work-study job on campus and also works via the Barnard off-campus agencies for more money, and she puts in a lot of hours working. </p>
<p>I think it was wrong for your parents to fail to make clear to you what their limits were -- if in fact they failed to do so. (I'm not sure whether the problem was that they weren't saying what needed to be said, or that you weren't listening to what they said). But I don't think that they have an obligation to pay for a college education -- I have many adult friends who are not supporting their kids through college, and they are good people who just happen to have different priorities than I do.</p>
<p>I don't think I have a moral obligation to support my daughter through college, either - it is something I have chosen to do because I want to give that to her, but I can imagine circumstances in which I would not make that choice. </p>
<p>It is not your parents' fault that the financial aid system has been set up to take their finances into account -- that is simply the way the system works. I think its unfair, too. It was particularly unfair to my son, who is paying his own way to college after spending 3 years living and working on his own, and had to pay the full cost of attendance at his public university this year because the system still viewed him as a "dependent" even though his and my tax records would have made it clear that he he truly has been on his own for awhile. </p>
<p>I am sorry that it looks like Barnard will be unaffordable to you. I know that is painful for you. But you have a sibling, and maybe your parents are looking at the costs to educate TWO kids and realizing that they can't pay the cost of a private education for both. If you are paying in-state rates for UVA I can see why they would prefer that. </p>
<p>I set these rules for my daughter at the beginning: (1) She was required to apply to the UC system, where she was guaranteed admission - if she did not apply to the UC's and also obtain a financial aid award from at least one campus, then I would not pay for anywhere else; (2) Among the UC campuses, she could choose to go to whichever college she wanted, no matter what the financial aid was; (3) She could apply to private colleges if she wished, but could only attend if financial aid permitted -- I promised her that I would pay whatever the full cost of attendance was, taking into account financial aid, at whichever UC campus would have been the most expensive. Anything beyond that was in "we'll see" territory. </p>
<p>So quite frankly: if I was your mom and it was my money, I'd be telling you no-go as well. Barnard is an excellent, wonderful college. The problem is: so is UVA. You can get a wonderful education there.</p>