<p>Montegut - appreciate the thought (you too of course heltonmom) but D is here! LOL, Tulane is on spring break. Figures, eh? We are fine, although we did have to cancel a trip to Boston tomorrow because roads are still going to be closed.</p>
<p>Wow. That is very confusing. My son’s Admissions counselor told me if we don’t hear by the END of next week to contact her. We have had no mix-up and our info was in by the end of January. My son was accepted in November. It is all very upsetting.</p>
<p>OK, I am going to go back to my “deep breaths” mantra. In…Out…In…Out…</p>
<p>They will be up very shortly for sure and there is still a month to make decisions. I know for people hoping to travel and basing that decision on the aid package it is bad. But it will all work out, absolutely.</p>
<p>Wow heltonmom, I thought I couldn’t like d’s financial aid counselor more, but after hearing your story I guess I do! Jennifer McNeel has personally responded to every email - usually within an hour or two, and once I faxed the additional info she requested, d’s award was posted the same day! I am sorry your experience has not been as easy - but hopefully the results will be worth the wait!</p>
<p>Hey guys, how would you know if you’re even being considered for no loan tuition assistance? I’m getting awfully paranoid and thinking that I messed up in my application somewhere…</p>
<p>LamTran - That’s one where you really do want to call or write your FA counselor.</p>
<p>My kid received the package if you can call it that. We fall below that $75,000 mark.
Didn’t matter. It is Tulane’s Family contribution that is going to kill Tulane as a possibility.
It is an unbelievable number almost half the tuition. They add in the scholarship money and then they give you Tulane Financial aid. When Tulane adds together
the family contribution, their own aid (a few measly bucks) and the scholarship it will disqualify you for the NOLA no loan. Can’t see how anyone could qualify for NOLA.
The parent contribution is arbitrary and not based on disposable income or rational savings or current financial picture. It is based on what Tulane believes you should have saved.
They then offer you 4 different loans to take out instead. </p>
<p>Our Family contribution was just shy of $30,000.00!!! Half of our income.</p>
<p>I am really not trying to argue with you, so if this comes out wrong I apologize beforehand. I don’t see how any school would ask you to pay $30,000 a year out of a $60,000 gross income. If your child received a $25,000 merit award (and clearly I have no idea if they did), then if they are saying that your $60,000 + the $25,000=$85,000 and they are expecting you to pay $5,000 more, or about 8% of your income, then that makes more sense to me. You still may not like it, and that is your perogative. But it isn’t crazy at least.</p>
<p>Do I just have this wrong? In any case, no school expects you to pay half your income for college. Unless you just want to blow them off, I would call your FA counselor and ask them to explain the package in detail.</p>
<p>I am not disappointed with our financial aid counselor at all. She does respond to my emails and is alway apologetic about it taking so long and all the confussion. Now the girl answering the phone is another issue. I do feel she could have put me on hold and asked Ms.whateverhernameis…LOL…if she was expecting a call from me but it was probably a student answering the phone, so I kinda look over that also. I know college students are very busy on their jobs. Can you imagine trying to answer all those calls all day long and keep up with all their personal text messages…LOL
I so think if college board had not entered the ss# wrong on his CSS Profile we would have our aid package by now. If I have waited all this time and used my whole prescription of xanax and get a package like gabeone1 I just might not have such an understanding attitude at that time. Our income qualifies us for the NOLA but I don’t think that means you automatically get it. My son received $22,000 merit scholarship and is in Honor’s Program so maybe we will receive something decent. If nothing else comes out of this whole process for my son to be able to attend Tulane we have at least found a great city that we will be visiting often. A new vacation spot for a while because we love it.</p>
<p>Family contribution is $30,000. The FA explanation was it had nothing to do with what our income was more what we should have available do to college planning. They cannot or will not explain how they arrive at that number as it is a ‘complicated equation’, yea right. Not exactly the master plan for many. The scholarship was $15,000. While 15,000 is nothing to sneeze at for Merit, the actual FA $5,000.00 </p>
<p>Considering all their recruiting sells the NOLA for students from families of less than $75,000 making Tulane appear they want to help high achieving students. Finding that not to be the case. </p>
<p>They accepted about 10,000 need to wittle that down. Guessing this is how they can find who can afford it mostly on their own so they do not have to use the endowment money on NOLA students.</p>
<p>I had not even thought of that heltonmom, there may be a very stressed workstudy student thinking “note to self - nextyear find workstudy job ANYWHERE but financial aid office!”</p>
<p>I cannot call again, but now my son’s Gibson says he as been awarded both the Distinguished Scholar and Presidential Scholarships for a total award of $47,000!!
He accepted both. If only they don’t have to correct this we are all set and ready to commit. While we are quite sure this is a mistake it is nice to dream. Still no other FA listed. Maybe today?</p>
<p>momwithpride - That’s a new one! It is nice to dream for sure, but…</p>
<p>Hope you hear today.</p>
<p>Thanks. It’s not possible. Right?
I do hope we hear today too. We do love Tulane.</p>
<p>No, it is not possible. There are a bunch of disclaimers on all the scholarships:
</p>
<p>So pretty much says it right off. I would let them know about it after they post your FA award. They might see it then and fix it themselves, but if not you don’t want a rude surprise bill when they do finally catch it! Not that you wouldn’t tell them out of principle anyway (although that is a lot of money…kidding!).</p>
<p>So I broke down and called FA. I knew I would not get any type of satisfactory answer. “His file is in review” and the fact that it says “you have been awarded $47,000 in scholarships”
is not a FA issue, it is an admissions issue and no she will not be able to tell anyone or let me speak to his FA officer and we hope to have the information before May 1st.</p>
<p>“We hope to have the information before May 1st”??? That’s crazy. This was a student assistant, I take it from what you say. This system snafu has really created chaos, it seems. They really better get it cleared up fast.</p>
<p>Nothing for us yet…but some of the items that said received and under review now say received and satisfied or something like that…so maybe later today we will have something posted…I would settle for a “shut up and leave us alone” package at this point…LOL</p>
<p>I do not believe that I spoke to a student assistant and when I said my son would like to make a decision, she said there is no advantage to committing early, before May 1st.
This glitch may cause Tulane some really good kids. I just checked again and still nothing, except the 2 scholarships :-)</p>
<p>momwithpride - when I called FA to ask about the incorrect amount of my scholarship she (not very nicely) said whatever it says that’s what it is. She went on to say that it’s not a FA issue, it’s an admissions issue. I sent an email to my admissions counselor, who got back to me within the hour saying that it would be corrected. The amount was changed the following day.</p>