financial aid problems

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>I was admitted into NU through binding early decision and I received my financial aid package in the mail today.</p>

<p>according to the package, I am expected to earn ~$834 for fall, winter, and spring (a total of $2500) through federal work study. this worries me because I hear the mccormick school of engineering (in which i was admitted to) is very very rigorous and i'm not sure if i'll be able to maintain a high gpa and work so many hours at the same time. i wanted a 4.0..</p>

<p>also, my single mother is very worried about the family contribution and how high it is. she is also worried that every year we are just going to have to pay more and more..</p>

<p>because it was binding, i'm supposed to withdraw all of my other apps...but we would really like to compare the financial aid packages from other schools.</p>

<p>if I contact NU, will they allow for me to not withdraw my other apps?</p>

<p>..or what is it that I should do?</p>

<p>at first i was really excited, but having to work so much, and having my family contribution relatively very high, with no guarantee that it won't rise in the years to come, really scares me..</p>

<p>thank you!</p>

2

<p>Well, if you wanted to compare financial aid packages, why did you apply early decision?</p>

<p>As for the work study, I was supposed to earn about 850ish but I the job I worked at scheduled me for only 3 or so hours a week and I ended up earning more like 300 dollars. How much you earn and the flexibility of hours depends on what sort of job you have. Also, more often than not, your job will require a small amount of work and mostly downtime during which you can work on hw and whatnot. I think having a job actually got me to do more work than if I haven’t had one.</p>