<p>So in a couple of days I either will or will not apply to CMU under the EDII plan.</p>
<p>The financial aid estimation that I recently received said that my personal contribution will most likely be around $24,000 yearly.</p>
<p>What I'm afraid of is that I'll apply EDII and be accepted and all of the sudden CMU will turn into the evil businessman and try to get as much out of me as possible since I'm committed to going.</p>
<p>Please tell me my fear is unfounded, lol. Does the financial aid estimation accurately predict what EDII students will receive?</p>
<p>They say it’s accurate but I would wait for a past ED student if I were you.</p>
<p>“They say it’s accurate but I would wait for a past ED student if I were you.”</p>
<p>They say it’s accurate but I would wait for a past ED student to post if I were you.</p>
<p>Timely question. I’m contemplating submitting the estimate form. I think it has to be done before Jan 1st. </p>
<p>The issue for us is that we think there would not be a sibling in college next year, but that is still TBD.</p>
<p>Thanks LongPrime, that’s a helpful link. It looks like CMU uses federal formula, and sibling is a big factor in that. Perhaps I will just fill out the form saying “1 (or maybe 2)” students in college. I can’t be sure yet of plans for the other kid. </p>
<p>I’m wondering whether other folks found the estimates accurate. I’m trying to guage how much my son’s superb SATs will help. It seems like the estimate is based on need and merit.</p>
<p>Are you talking about your FAFSA expected financial contribution (EFC)? If so-- I wouldn’t count on CMU to match everything. My EFC was something like 16,000-- it was very low. In the end, CMU gave me roughly 9,000 in aid, most of that in loans and work-study, and only about 4,000 in a grant.</p>
<p>Oh, and I was an ED applicant.</p>
<p>I also had “superb SAT scores”, colorado_mom (2220)-- CMU does not give out much, if any merit aid. I asked around at the start of the year and couldn’t find a single kid with merit aid, so I’m wondering if it’s just a fairytale here.</p>
<p>CMU or [any school, has very little incentive to offer merit aid for ED’ers. [Admission</a> > Financial Aid](<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University) </p>
<p>^your informal survey may not have been big enough.
Data for 2008-2009 (item line n), indicates ~ 8% of all students got non-need based aid.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>I was actually surprised that the Financial Aid estimate even included fields for SAT and class rank. I thought it would be totally based on finances.</p>
<p>colorado_mom, it’s listed under optional.</p>