How would one describe the financial aid at NEU? Are they generous? I live in a single parent household- my mother makes about $40000-50000 a year, and we are a family of 4 (my older brother is in college and she is struggling to pay the EFC). And also how does high school performance influence financial aid as well? I have a GPA of of 3.6.
High school performance does not impact the merit based aid that they give. Northeastern gives both merit and need based aid, so if you are in the top 25% of the applicant pool (based on SAT/ACT, NMF/NHRP status, ECs, recommendations, essays, etc.), you can get anywhere from 2,000 a year to somewhere around 40,000. I know that USP scholars (top 1% of students) get full rides, but obviously that is nothing close to a sure thing.
As for need based financial aid, there is a calculator online. I also come from a single parent household with an older brother in college, but my mother makes around 100k - according to this calculator, I get about 35k in federal grants. I can only assume it would be much higher for you. They will give you any amount of money that they feel you need.
Link : [url=<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/aid/calculators/%5DCalculator.%5B/url”>http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/aid/calculators/]Calculator.[/url]
That being said! I have spent a fair amount of time on these forums looking at what people have been awarded and a very common issue I see is people who according to the calculator should be getting 20k or 30k off, and when they actually get their grants from NEU, they get nothing, or 10k. You never know what they will deem necessary. It’s also worth noting that they take the merit based aid they give you into account when awarding need based aid.
Considering your mother’s yearly income is lower than the yearly tuition, I see absolutely no reason why they WOULDN’T give you financial help.
Good luck!
Oh also :
Keep in mind that the NU.in program has financial aid set up so that only some of it transfers. I.e., if you get a 40k a year merit award, that money would not transfer for your first semester, and you would end up paying anything out of pocket that normally a merit award would.
@marijke You are incorrect on several points:
Scholars received full tuition award, not full ride.
No one gets $35,000 in federal grants, no one, anywhere.
High school GPA is a critical factor in determining merit aid, along with SAT/ACT scores.
If you are offered NUIn you will not be receiving merit aid.
Sorry I misspoke, I meant that high school performance wouldn’t impact need based. Thank you for correcting me though!
I would say that NU can be very generous in their financial aid. My daughter received a bit more than what their calculator showed which was great. In addition, NU has their Northeastern Promise which means that whatever FA you get your first year, esp need based aid, will NOT go down in the years you attend. This is not true at most schools. If your financial situation changes for the better, most schools will lower your FA. This makes planning much more predictable for your family I think.
NU also provides up to $30k for NMSF so that can be a range. University Scholars will not exist the same way for those entering Fall 2017 but that affects so few students anyway. Not sure what, if anything, will replace it in terms of other FA/scholarship programs there.
Northeastern considers the academic profile when awarding financial aid, meaning your package will probably be a bit better if you are towards the top of the applicant pool. I am an Honors student/Dean’s recipient, meaning I was lucky enough to probably get one of the better FA packages, but for what it’s worth I was wholly impressed. On top of merit scholarships, I was offered significant grant aid, work-study, and a subsidized Stafford (on top of a Perkins, which was really strange as we make over 150k, though I had a sibling in college.) With scholarships and grant money, NU cost almost exactly as much as my in-state option (SUNY Binghamton.)
The Northeastern Promise is absolutely amazing; it helps with planning, and for me at least was hugely helpful. My older sister was in college when I applied to school, so my financial aid package still reflects my parents paying two college bills, even though my sister has now graduated. In addition, I’ve become an RA and don’t pay room and board, but my grant aid wasn’t decreased because of this. My parents love it.
Nova gives a optimistic view of NEU’s FA–I hear a lot of my peers echo her sentiment.
Just a quick less-good aspect (which I don’t think anyone has mentioned before): merit aid is consitered when giving financial aid. So if a full-pay student and a student with a $15,000 merit scholarship both are eligible to recieve $15,000 in financial aid, they both end up paying the same amount to attend Northeastern.
For me, the impact of that policy is minimal–I would usually be eligible for work-study, but I am not because my scholarship covers my tuition.
It has had a significant negative impact a friend of mine though–she has a lot of financial need and is working to pay for her room and board on her own. She has a ton of outside scholarships (because she anticipated that she would need the money years ago), but most of them do not help her since they offset FA money.
Overall a great system, but that’s one annoyance
I think merit aid is considered when awarding FA at nearly all schools. If your need is $15k, and you’re awarded a $15k merit scholarship, why would they award more in financial aid when you no longer need it? The advantage is still to the student receiving merit aid/outside scholarships as that money will be all “free”, whereas the FA student will likely have at least a Stafford loan and work-study in their package.