Financial Aid Sucks!!!

<p>Wow, I just found out my financial aid, and all I get is $7000. Not much when it costs 46000 a year to attend. Whatever, I guess I'll just go to Berkeley.</p>

<p>Yes, financial aid here sucks. This is a commonly known and accepted fact. Be glad you got 7k; I didn't get nearly that much.</p>

<p>what was your efc?</p>

<p>i got like 17000 from them!</p>

<p>I STILL haven't gotten my financial aid package - but it's too late now. I already enrolled somewhere else. I'm just curious to see what I got. It's such a pain in the tush waiting for it.</p>

<p>i got 18K total grant + loan + subsidized loan + workstudy, which amounts to about 11.5K stuff I dont' have to eventually pay back. Shoddy, but oh well.</p>

<p>wow cmu gave me the most money out of all my other colleges so far</p>

<p>22 thousand all together and 17 that i dont have to pay back</p>

<p>my efc was like 16 thousand</p>

<p>When comparing colleges as a parent, I compared how much FREE money was given (scholarships or grants, which don't need to be repaid.) I realize that work-study and loans are considered to be financial aid, but I can take out loans on my own and my kid can find a job on his own. To make an accurate comparison among offers, you need to break down the financial packages into the way the money is "given".</p>

<p>CMU was the only school that gave me any free money (grants and work study). They also gave my girlfriend more free money than any other school (i forget the figure but 21K + in grants, plus scholarships and work study).</p>

<p>Wow, congrats Rmac2188...that's a nice offer!</p>

<p>hm... I didn't receive any financial aid pakages in the mail yet but I did get the estimate sheet when I went for an April visit. I got absolutely nothing... my parents' reaction was... interesting...</p>

<p>What exactly is work-study?</p>

<p>I got $42K total.</p>

<p>ehhh.. i got only $18,000 in grant and $13,000 in Loans, etc. Not enough</p>

<p>I only got $9500, which means next year is going to eat a hole in my/my parents respective wallets.</p>

<p>i'm in arch (5 years), efc of 14,000 got 12,500 in grants, the loans (yes even for efc) will be all mine, as my parents arn't able to pay even the efc, let alone the 46,300 - 12,500 a year.</p>

<p>we've sent a re-consideration appeal page, along with other school's monetary offers, but they are pretty comperable (though the schools are all less expensive to attend)</p>

<p>I got nothing.... You guys should be appreciative of what you got...</p>

<p>Princess, I am in the same spot. CMU was the only school to not give me merit aid. My lowest offer at other schools was 7500 and that was at a libral arts school. All the other strong engineering schools gave me 9,000 or more. I appealed and am waiting and praying to get some money as 46,000 is a huge amount to pay.</p>

<p>Then again, some $46k, is such a small sum. Princess23 is correct. I will add that there is probably a long waiting line of foreign students who are willing to pay 100% to attend CMU.</p>

<p>with an EFC of about 4500, i got 20,000 in grants and workstudy with like 12,000 in loans. decent</p>

<p>I still have not received my finaid package from CMU...</p>