<p>This will all sound really naive and a silly problem, I'm sure, but here's my situation. I've been offered a full tuition scholarship to Denison, but for years I've wanted to go to Allegheny College. It's a distance from home I'm more comfortable with, and the student body is much more appealing to me. I just absolutely love the school, and Denison doesn't particularly appeal to me in the same way.</p>
<p>So, anyway, Allegheny's FA office asked me to fax over my Denison award letter when I got it so they could try to make the bottom line cost more even and make it more realistic for me to attend. They ended up increasing my grant by $1,500 per year... which basically doesn't help at all.</p>
<p>You see, my parents aren't helping me pay for college. My cost for Allegheny per year is going to be $22,000, which would leave me with a massive debt of $88,000 at graduation!!!!</p>
<p>So what do I do? Ask for another review? The first time, I didn't mention my parents aren't helping me pay, so maybe mentioning that could help? I'd really appreciate advice here...</p>
<p>Honestly, the colleges expect that parents WILL be first in line to pay college costs. I seriously doubt that any college is going to increase your aid simply because your parents are not willing to pay. </p>
<p>If you don’t want to go to Denison, I hope you have another more affordable offer in your acceptances.</p>
<p>Well thank you. Do you think it’s even worth mentioning it to them though? I’m a very good student with an extremely high interest in attending Allegheny… do you think anything I can do will make a difference?</p>
<p>You could let them know that allegheny is your top choice but that you cannot attend unless your aid is increased. But really, have a plan B just in case they say no. They have already reviewed your request once.</p>
<p>You need to find another choice. I doubt they’ll give you more, and if they do, no way will it be close to what you want.</p>
<p>Maybe you could start at community college and transfer to Allegheny later? You don’t want to go to a school you don’t want to be at, you may be miserable. FIT is important and it sounds like you will be going in with a negative attitude if you choose Dennison. See if you can find a 3rd school to choose from. (if it’s not too late)</p>
I think what you have is a raging case of cold feet. Suck it up and go visit Denison again. They love you, you’ll love them, off you go. God has sent you a sign - do you have the courage to follow it?</p>
<p>Well, I would ask again, as I believe the worst they could say is no. We feel your pain. We just sent in the deposit a few days ago, and even with the help they are giving our daughter, yes, the final bill will be quite high. We are helping our daughter but she will also have to take out loans. She has saved money from her job over the last years and will use that too. Also, we are hoping she will sit out one semester (using her AP credits) and also possibly be a resident adviser for a year or 2. Don’t forget about campus employment too.<br>
That being said, the deal at Denison sounds fabulous. Aren’t they similar schools in many ways? It certainly sounds like it is worth checking out. Also, I agree with the above poster who mentioned the possibility of CC then a transfer. Our son did that, graduated on time, no debt. I can not tell you how often we hear from other people (parents and kids) that they wish they had done that. Our daughter finds that idea outrageous, she is a much more invested student than he was. Nonetheless, we have told her we would support her if she made that choice. Good luck, let us know how things work out for you.</p>
<p>You see, my parents aren’t helping me pay for college. My cost for Allegheny per year is going to be $22,000, which would leave me with a massive debt of $88,000 at graduation!!!</p>
<p>Well, then, you won’t be able to borrow that much either. Without your parents, you can only borrow the following…</p>
<p>frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500
and sometimes a little bit of Perkins loans will be awarded.</p>
<p>You’d need willing and quafied (and naive) co-signers to borrow more.</p>
<p>No undergrad is worth that much debt. At most, you should have about $30k in debt when you graduate.
What is your EFC? </p>
<p>BTW…while the free tuition is great, how are you going to pay the $10k-15k or so for room, board, books, fees, etc?</p>
<p>Ditto what mon2college said…what are the total costs for each school minus the free money and then compare…must compare total “true cost”. </p>
<p>As stated, no loss if you do what one poster said…explain in concise terms that All is dream school, #1 choice and without further help cannot attend and unfortunately parents won’t help…nothing to lose IMHO…</p>
<p>You have been accepted to both Denison and Allegheny</p>
<p>Denison gave you a full tuition scholarship ($41,380)
Is the scholarship automaticall renewable for all 4 years?
On average Denison meets 96% of need</p>
<p>Perhaps Denison gave you both merit and need based aid.</p>
<p>allegheny college on average meets 91% of need So if they left you with a 22K/year gap,. If your EFC is 22k, then they expect your parents to pay.</p>
<p>You filed your appeal, and Allegheny only increased your aid by 1500. Keep in mind that your parents are first lin line when it comes to paying for your college. If Allegheny feels that they have met your need and your parents are not helping you pay, that will not be grounds for a successful appeal to get you more $$.</p>
<p>I think you should visit Denison and try to remember what it was about Denison that made you want to apply there.</p>
<p>If you don’t like Denison and Allegheny is not a financially feasible option for you/your family, what is your plan B?</p>
<p>@Sylvan8798… very good insight. I’ve wrestled with whether that’s the case.</p>
<p>@icebat, I just don’t know if I could do community college. My local one, Butler County Community College, is actually quite good but I’m a very very academic person. I will, however, let you know how this all turns out. :)</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids, I think my parents would cosign for either and trust I can manage. The remaining costs for Denison would be around $10,000 per year not counting any outside scholarships, which I think could be manageable?</p>
<p>@Sybbie719, my EFC is $11,000 or so, while the gap Allegheny has left for my family to theoretically cover is around $17,000.</p>
<p>Are you out of your mind? Run the pay-back calculations for $88k through this handy calculator from our friends at FinAid.org:
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Loan Calculator](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Loan Payment Calculator - Finaid)
You will quickly see just exactly how miserable that kind of debt will make you.</p>
<p>Then run your Denison and Allegheny aid packages here:
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid)
There are columns for three institutions, so feel free to fill in the numbers for BCCC or any other place you have in mind.</p>
<p>Still can’t bring yourself to like Denison? That’s OK. Take a gap year, work on your resume a bit, save a bit of money, and draw up a list of places that you can not only afford, but that you actually are willing to attend, and apply in the next admissions round.</p>
<p>Notaniowan, if Allegheny has not already included Stafford loans in your package, as Mom2collegekids says, you will only be permitted to borrow $5500 on your own. Your parents might as well borrow money elsewhere like through PLUS or home equity and pay up the difference and do a separate loan deal with your for the amounts, as having them cosign puts them just as much on the hook for the amounts, and just gives the loan company 2 people to hit for the amounts. Even if one of you passes away, the other is responsible for the payments. If one of you is out of a job or has no money, it can hit up the other. PRetty good deal. So basically, it comes down to whether your parents want to borrow to pay for the difference between Allegheny and Denison.</p>
<p>Personally, I think you are being selfish and putting a lot of pressure on your parents. I’m glad my kids did not do this to us because, it really hurts when your kid wants something. Too many parents will do themselves damage to give the kid what he wants because, we parents love our kids. So do keep that in mind. I could see some of the quandry if the schools were so different like East New Mexico State vs Allegheny, but Denison vs Allegheny? GIve me a break, please. I know both schools, and they are similar enough and close enough that the difference in cost for them would make the deal for me in an instant. </p>
<p>I would give Allegheny a call and ask if there is any possible way that they can bridge the gap more closely and if they cannot, I would not ask my parents to borrow to make up that difference. It isn’t worth it.</p>
<p>@happymomof1: You’re absolutely right. I ran that the other day and came to a pretty clear conclusion myself. At this point I think it’s fair to conclude that, barring any further assistance from Allegheny, I’m going to Denison. I’ve sent another email to Allegheny about my concerns with their reviewed package and we’ll see where it gets me. I have a Denison visit scheduled soon.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse: I don’t disagree with you, financially speaking, and I’m certainly not selfish enough to in good conscience saddle my parents with another mortgage! Could I go to Denison if that’s what I have to do? Sure. To tell you the truth my biggest catch is the distance from home. I have a 7-year-old brother I’ll feel like I’m kind of abandoning for most of his childhood if I’m in central Ohio, not to mention my girlfriend and the rest of my family. If I wasn’t so concerned about the power of the physical distance, my choice would be far easier. It’s not a matter of selfishness. I love my parents too, and I’m a rational person. It’s just a hard decision to have to make.</p>
<p>You’ll still see your brother during breaks. The same thing happened to my son when his sisters went off to college. He is still very close to them (and during breaks he has three moms to yell at him, DW and his sisters). I think you’ll like Denison.</p>
<p>Your location is listed as “Western PA” and you are concerned about attending a university that is in “central, Ohio”. Just exactly how far apart are these two places? Mapquest says it’s just under three hours from Pittsburgh to Granville. Granted, the mountains in PA can add significantly to travel time, but if the trip is under four hours, you can get home any weekend that you can persuade a pal with a car to make that trip.</p>
<p>Eh, around 4 hours. I’m a ways north of Pittsburgh. A car might be an investment to consider if I end up going there. It’s a long way to frequently travel, but weekends would probably be doable sometimes, I guess.</p>