<p>HYP are infamously stingy with financial aid for international students, I believe, though I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Duke’s promise of meeting “full need” would leave me with ~90k in debt at graduation. Although they do meet my “demonstrated need” I feel that whatever formula they use for calculating this is ludicrous as my parents cannot even come close to paying what they’re expected. State Flagship here I come.</p>
<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>For those of you with finaid packages that aren’t that great, don’t despair yet! You can definitely appeal after you enroll.</p>
<p>For instance, my first year at Duke, my parents had to pay ~20k, but then I contacted the finaid office after freshman year because my family was really struggling to meet that burden. </p>
<p>They recalculated my EFC and since then, I’ve had to pay ~10k a year, which makes a huuuge difference. I am super grateful to the finaid office for doing that and just wanted to say that they’re nice people who’ll do their best to help out if your family is really struggling.</p>
<p>@boogaloony: May I know where you are from? My gross family income is 10200 and Duke calculated my EFC to be 4800, which means they think we can get by with 5400 a year. We have no saving and we have to pay our mortgage as well. How they arrived at this number is a mystery to me,but they say on the FA site that inability to pay the EFC will not be considered (wth is this). After reading your post I can’t help but wonder whether they treat the country each student comes from differently, i.e. because I am from a poor country the cost of living must be really low.</p>
<p>And btw I am really confused with the fin aid package. The EFC does not seem to match any combination of billable or unbillable charges (it’s lower than the combined unbillable charges, which include books, miscel fees, and transportation) so I don’t really understand what’s going on.</p>
<p>@Ketty
Did your parents’ financial situation change from your freshman to sophomore year? Even if they recalculated I feel I wouldn’t stand much chance because my brother will graduate during my freshman year so my EFC was set to increase significantly anyways for my 2-4 years. I just don’t want to go for one year than have to transfer out to my State U and then be without the merit aid that I would have from my State U if I were to enroll there as a freshman this coming fall.</p>
<p>ArcadeEnFuego - No, my parents’ financial circumstances did not change very much after freshman year. In fact, my non-custodial parent was making big gains in the stock market at the time (this was before the financial crisis) so if they’d applied the same formula as before, my EFC should have gone up.</p>
<p>I felt that the financial aid office truly did listen to me when I voiced my concerns and that they did their best to alleviate my situation. I don’t want to give you the false hope that you’ll have more financial aid for certain - after all, my anecdotal experience is a sample size of one. But I do believe that the Office is sympathetic to individual situations.</p>
<p>Additionally, I want to emphasize that while finances are important, you should NOT reduce your college decision to dollar signs. As corny as it sounds, I think the Duke experience is worth so much more: *the academics, the incredibly inspiring and motivated peers you’ll be surrounded with, the opportunities available, the freedom you have to choose your own path * - it’s impossible to put a dollar sign on these things. </p>
<p>But I’ll try anyways.</p>
<p>From my personal perspective, I think that Duke is (without a doubt) worth 15k more annually than a state school. Beyond that 15k mark, it depends very much on your personal financial circumstances, future career prospects, etc. But the bottom line is that the package of the Duke experience offers so much more that what you’ll get at your state school.</p>
<p>For instance, in my three years here, I’ve had to chance to go to Rome (Focus trip), Mexico (student group), Guatemala (Duke-Engage), and Scotland (study abroad). As a student on financial aid, I absolutely would not have been able to afford it. But for most of these opportunities, Duke funded the vast majority of the costs and I am incredibly grateful to have gotten these experiences without being held back by my financial circumstances. </p>
<p>I know that this is a difficult decision, especially for a lot of you that do have merit scholarships to your state schools. But as someone who loves Duke, I hope you all consider the intangibles in addition to the math in your comparisons - because these intangibles will be important defining aspects of your college experience.</p>
<p>@catisthecoolest. I am from Romania. But I really don’t think the country one is from has any relevance. I probably received more financial aid than a regular intl would receive because I was elected as a merit scholarship finalist. So 10k came from this scholarship.</p>
<p>But you see, it is irrelevant whether I was a merit scholarship finalist or not. What really matters is that they wanted me to attend, so I was given a lot of money. This won’t happen with Princeton, apparently. Whether they want you bad or not, your financial aid offer will be the same, and mine was not brilliant at all.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck with your other options or, if you really like Duke, try to appeal the decision or something.</p>