<p>I just got mine (in suburbs of Chicago) in the mail today! I was accepted EA.</p>
<p>27000 in scholarships
6500 loans
2400 work study</p>
<p>all in all...im pretty satisfied with it i think. Just curious what others got? Also does anyone know the system in adjusting your financial aid or appealing it?</p>
<p>jennqt4 - Congrats! Do you mind posting your stats?</p>
<p>That's awesome.. hopefully mine will come soon, I've been dying.</p>
<p>What was your EFC (If you don't mind)? And are you an ND scholar?</p>
<p>My daughter got the same package. Our local alumni club gives out 2-4K renewable scholarships also, so hopefully she will get one of those also.
No she was not an ND scholar. EFC 11K</p>
<p>sorry, i'm new at these things... so how much will you have to pay out of your own pockets, jennqtf4?</p>
<p>i got a letter about two weeks ago saying that we needed to confirm two things on some of our forms....so i guess my package might come a little bit late.</p>
<p>Our EFC was $9,900. Package was $16,400 in scholarships, plus the $6,500 in loans and $2,400 in work study that appear to be the norm. So there's a $10,000 gap we're not quite sure about. I think the UTMA her grandpa established a number of years ago hurt us. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that's the problem. The amount we need to put up comes out to roughly 40% or so of her student-owned asset. </p>
<p>Regardless, we're sending her to ND anyway. </p>
<p>It's only money...</p>
<p>dd I thought ND met 100% of need. If the EFC is 9900 that must include the UTMA so why the gap do you think?</p>
<p>They do but they dont use the EFC calculated by the federal method, instead they use the EFC calculated by the institution method, which btw we do not see. Almost alway the institution is higher than federal way. My efc is 0 but by institution method its 4k.</p>
<p>Just like in December nothing in the mail today. The mail must take longer to reach NY.Bqwe how do you now what your institutional efc is?</p>
<p>I'm going to look into why the gap is there. The EFC does include the UTMA. I've gathered, as bqwe has noted, that the answer must lie in a means of calculating need on an institutional basis. </p>
<p>BQ, when you say the institution method came up with $4,000 EFC, is that because that's what your package turned out to be? Do you have any insight into what differing factors they use? </p>
<p>I kind of thought that the CSS Profile would be even more advantageous to us, because it includes the parochial school tuition we pay for our fourth grader.</p>
<p>Only other thing I can figure is we are being penalized for having quite a bit of equity in our house, mainly because it is an old house that we fixed up ourselves over the course of 12 years, paying cash for our materials as we went. </p>
<p>As it stands now, we'll crack into the UTMA funds--which will only last two years at this pace, and figure it out as we get there. What we will not do is change our decision to send our daughter to ND, nor will we bring her into any of the financial anxiety associated with this. She'll work and save money, she'll work on campus, she'll take on the debtload of the federal loans...we'll worry about it from there. She's earned the right to an education without feeling overwhelmed by the money aspects.</p>
<p>If I can figure out who to contact and what to ask as far as appeals go, I figure I'll contact the Financial Aid office to try for Plan B.</p>
<p>"I kind of thought that the CSS Profile would be even more advantageous to us, because it includes the parochial school tuition we pay for our fourth grader."</p>
<p>NOOOOO WAYYYY CSS/PROFILE will never be advantageous to us. First they take the amount ur house is worth minus the mortgage and call that ur "money" for most of us that is a bad thing, do i need to explain further? So if ur house is worth 300k. to them u can spare 12% of that amount toward college tuition. Although the institution method allow up 50k worth of assessment so u could own some property. So that 300k is really 250k as if that make it any less.<br>
next yes it does provide the colleges more detail regarding ur family situations, but the harm it does out weight the good. Plus the institution method will say 4k efc regardless how poor u are.
To check how they do it use this weblink finaid.com they will explain how college generally read ur numbers.</p>
<p>using the institutional method on finaid.com my efc is either 8653 or 10878 depending on whether they count my daughter who is in a 5 1/2 year healthcare program as a third in college cause she will actually have her bachelors degree in May and will be a graduate student. The fed efc was right on what fafsa said so I hope this is as accurate. I can't wait to hear as I am exhausted working as much as I am now and I too will send my daughter to ND I just need some sleep</p>
<p>Heh, you guys are lucky to get your packages. I still doubt I will be accepted. My 26 ACT is way too low for Notre Dame my dream school even though everything else is pretty good. Good luck with the financial matters everyone.</p>
<p>RunRinCT- yours shouldn't be late, because I had to send in additional documents two weeks ago as well. =]</p>
<p>Also for the others who are curious I was NOT an ND scholar and I dont believe stats matter in determining financial aid... </p>
<p>As for how much out of my own pocket..about 8,500ish to cover the rest of the Room and Board fee. Since I live in Chicago, I didnt factor in transportation..but I'm sure books and fees will be another 1,000. My EFC for Fafsa was actually 0...so I'm actually just waiting to hear from a few other schools to try and figure out what the best deal will be in terms of money. =]</p>
<p>jennqtf4 are u serious ur fafsa efc was 0 and u got this kind of package, what happen to "we will meet 100% demonstrated need." Or what do u think was the reason y ur package is the way it is.</p>
<p>It could have been caused by Profile.</p>
<p>but still her parents are only making so much a year if her efc is zero so regardless how the Profile was worded and everything she still shouldnt have to pay close to 10k in gap. Plus with her package she will graduate ND if with 26k debt. ND say that its students usually graduate with 16-18. I am being this defensive because my efc is zero and i hope i will not be in the same situation as jenn.</p>
<p>Yes!</p>
<p>ND Scholar, EFC 17000</p>
<p>21,000 Scholarship
5,000 loans
2,000 work study</p>
<p>we can do that :)</p>
<p>I'm thinking we got nailed on the home equity thing. We paid $92,000 for an old house that required major renovations, most of which we did ourselves, all of which we paid for as we went. It's worth about triple that now, but we live in the thing--are we supposed to sell it and downsize our home to pay the tuition bill? Seems kind of goofy to me. Certainly, our income figure should show them we can't swing any additional debtload...</p>
<p>Some things never seem to change. I remember in the early '80's--when interest rates were high in the double-digits, there were kids actually bragging that they got 3% student loans, which their parents invested in 12%CD's, pocketing the spread. Bragging, mind you, like it was rocket science to take advantage of government. This abuse, by the way, is why such loans are now means-tested and hard to get.</p>
<p>I also remember that the aid system favored those heavily in debt over those who buy used cars with cash and save. </p>
<p>Bottom line is same as it is with taxation--those who know the system and structure their finances to maximize it reap the greatest rewards. Those who don't, even if they have greater need, don't always get it....</p>
<p>By the way, it was good old all-American ethics-conscious Domers who were bragging about "pocketing the spread" on subsidized student loans in the '80's, as if their parents were Wall Street barons.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, my dad opted not to turn in a FAFSA, despite me being a Notre Dame Scholar, because he wanted the aid to go to "someone who really needed it." He was a high school dropout--forced to do so during the Depression to help the family of 8 kids keep a roof over their head and food on the table--who ended up earning a degree in engineering on the GI Bill after having served in World War II. He felt like the money was there when he needed it, so he should leave it for the next generation. Obviously, not everyone, even then, thought as he did...</p>
<p>Of course, tuition back then was $6,000 a year--room and board was under $2,000. We weren't what you'd call rich, but it was money he could afford to pay given that we lived in a modest house that was paid off a decade before, and none of us ever drove a new car off the lot.</p>