<p>Hello, I'll try to make this short
African American Female
From New York City
SAT: 1320/1600 2000/2400
EFC: About 3,000$
GPA: 3.77
Rank (school doesn't rank)</p>
<p>Want to go into STEM majors.</p>
<p>List as of now:
Swarthmore (oddest school on list, I've been kind of "recruited" by them)
Denison (one of my financial safeties)
SUNY Binghamton (in-state safety)
Vanderbilt
Duke
Rice
Case Western Reserve
University of Rochester (my match)
Emory</p>
<p>Ultimately my guidance counselor stated that my list was fine, however, I need financial safeties just in case things go horribly wrong (so she wants me to pursue schools with merit aid and generous need-based aid). Can anybody think of good ones for me?</p>
<p>Generally I am looking for schools that are not too big, not too small and not too homogenous and as a city dweller not too far from a city.</p>
<p>Also what do you guys think about my list as of now? Too many reaches? Not enough matches? Etc?</p>
<p>I think your list looks good!
The only cheaper school is to add a CUNY that you could commute to. Does Binghamton provide FA to meet your need? If Swarthmore wants you, I’m sure Binghamton does too.</p>
<p>if you want to be in Chicago, [Illinois</a> Institute of Technology](<a href=“http://www.iit.edu%5DIllinois”>http://www.iit.edu) is a tech school like Case Western and has a lot of good financial aid packages, including full tuition ones such as the Camras and Duchossois Scholarships.</p>
<p>That’s the problem, Bing will not meet my full aid but for sure they will accept me. And well I have been trying to avoid CUNYs… Because well they are … CUNYs, but if I must have a school that makes the most financial sense I guess I will have to get over it.</p>
<p>Your list is fine - - but NOT for financial safety if Bing (your state school) will not meet your need, or will cost more than you and your family can afford. A financial safety is one where you KNOW you can afford tuition. Even if a private school promises to meet full-need, that amount may still be more than your family can handle comfortably - - so for financial safety, add a CUNY (has the deadline for the honors prgm passed?). With any luck, you’ll get a good package (which will include loans and work-study) from one of the private schools and you won’t have to attend a CUNY. But to attend better a CUNY than to have a bunch of acceptance letters from schools you can’t afford to attend.</p>
<p>Just re-read OP. I disagree w/ your GC re: pursuing or considering schools that award merit $$ as financial safeties because there is no GUARANTEE that you will get ANY scholarship, much less one of the top awards. And, if the in-state cost of attending (COA) a SUNY is beyond your means, you will need AT LEAST a full-tuition scholarship to make a private school affordable. Competition for top scholarships is quite keen, so you can’t count on being awarded that $$, even if you are in the to 25% of a schools applicant pool (as w/ Denison). A school may award only one or two top scholarships each year, and that money will likely go to students in the top 1%.</p>
<p>In-state COA at Bing is $19K, with fed loans (ie: no need-based grant awarded) alone, the out-of pocket drops down to $13.5. To get down to $13.5k at a private school, you’d have to receive approx $35-36K in merit $$ - - and schools don’t hand out $35K grants just for the asking. </p>
<p>If the case of need-based aid, your $35K package will likely include additional loans (ie loans in addition to the $5.5 fed loans). This would be the case even at schools that promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need AS CALCULATED BY THE SCHOOL (on your list, I believe Swatty is the only one that makes that promise; maybe URoch, but I’m not sure). A $35K package w/ loans may make a private school affordable in terms of out-of-pocket cost for your family, but loans must be re-paid and in this economy, I’d think twice about incurring signif undergrad debt.</p>
<p>I stand corrected. I see that Vandy, Rice, Duke, Emory and Swatty are all limit the amount of loans in need-based finaid packages - - replacing all or part of the $5.5 fed loan with a grant from the school. A family earning $40k may have to pay only $6K per year ($14K for a family earning $60K). Of course, at $40K, depending on the number of members in the family, as NY student could qualify for HEOP, which would not only assist GREATLY w/ admission to selective NYS schools (Columbia, Cornell, NYU, etc.), but also comes w/ a large grant.</p>
<p>(NB: Dennison is NOT on the list and unless the school has a matrix that promises a certain award to ALL students satisfying a specified gpa/SAT, you can’t count on getting a particular award and it is not a financial safety.)</p>
<p>Also, even if your EFC is $3K and the school limits loan debt, you acatual family contrib may be $6-9K if the school requires self-help in the form of work-study ($1-2K per semester) and a contrib from summer earnings ($3K).</p>
<p>I am still a little bit confused about the family contribution and if someone could clarify it for me that would be great. In the last post NYC mentioned that the family contribution for a family making 60k is 14k. Is this per year? Also assuming that the family income does not change much, and the EFC does not change, can one assume that the parents will need to pay approx 60k in loans for 4 years? Do most parents take out large loans like this each year?<br>
MY D has applied and has been accepted to state schools in state and out as an engineering major. There are some scholarships she has been awarded and am still waiting on poss others she is applying for. She understands that she will have some student loan debt at graduation, 20-30k and that we can only pay about 5k per year out of pocket…no loans. is it hopeless??</p>
<p>The EFC is only a FEDERAL calculation of eligibility for federal student aid such as Pell Grants and Stafford Loans. It does not necessarily bear any relationship whatsoever to your family’s out-of-pocket costs for college.</p>
<p>No, you should NOT be taking out $60,000 in loans - most parents do NOT do that. But your family will have to budget a significant contribution to college costs unless your daughter is lucky enough to earn a full scholarship somewhere.</p>
<p>Your daughter needs to consider affordability first. Your home state’s public colleges should be the first option. Out-of-state public schools should effectively be off her list unless they are some of the few that offer good aid to non-resident students.</p>
<p>I don’t even qualify for HEOP, my GPA and SAT scores are too high and in terms of income I’m off by a couple thousand dollars. Last year my mother made 72,000 dollars a year but keep in mind that is for a family of 8 and one of which is already in college.</p>
<p>Should I just forget about looking for merit aid and start looking for significant outside scholarships?</p>
<p>@Erin’s Dad I am guaranteed admissions to Bing, my high school has a relationship with them that they take any of its students with a 3.0 and above. As for CUNYs I feel like it may be a waste of time and money to apply to it when there is a likely chance that I may end up somewhere else for the same price ($6,000) due to need-based aid. </p>
<p>Also not to mention that for a CUNY I will end applying as a transfer student (I am in a program where I finished high school in two years and now I am working on my associates degree (60 college credits by June 2012)) Therefore I will receive my acceptance to a CUNY after I have to put in my deposit for a school (all of the other schools I am applying to as a freshmen), so again I just see it as a pointless endeavor. </p>
<p>Anyways,
For the four years total what would you guys say is a reasonably amount of loans to take on, especially in this economy?</p>
<p>Have you considered Stony Brook? They have a program called WISE that is specifically geared to women in STEM fields which includes scholarships. According to their literature, outside companies also sponsor scholarships for their WISE students:</p>
<p>Full Undergraduate Tuition Scholarship (excludes fees)
Laptop computer
$7500 Opportunities Fund to pursue global research, service, and internships
Cultural Passport to NY arts and cultural venues</p>
<p>I won’t out what hs, you attend, but have you considered applying to the college associated with your high school.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters who state while you may have a low EFC for the FAFSA, it will not necessarily translate to a low EFC at many of the schools on your list because they also use the CSS profile to determine how they distribute institutional aid. In addition, they will ask for the non-custodial profile, so your father’s income and assets will also be included in the calculation. </p>
<p>The fact that your mom makes $72k may end up putting you out of the running for schools that have a an income cap (example: Duke) .</p>
<p>
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<p>I would recommend adding Dartmouth (while still a reach) to your list. If accepted, they give free tuition for families whose income is below 75K
I also think that you should run your numbers through the net price calculator to see what kind of money they will be requesting from your family.</p>
<p>Ready2go-- are you talking about BHSEC, and if so, they have that relationship with Bing? Asking, because my daughter is in high school there, and I didn’t realize this. Thanks.</p>
<p>I don’t want to do Bard College for another two years, so that is out of the question.</p>
<p>Also let me reiterate. My EFC in terms of FASFA is about 1600$, however I realised that after plugging my information into numerous schools calculators it was coming out to be a range of about 3000$, so yes I understand my EFC is not going to be the same as what the govt. says it will be.</p>
<p>Also my mother is the only source of income in my household (father is unemployed and they are still married)</p>
<p>I will definitely look into Stony Brook and as for Duke I am going to replace it with University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>My mom’s been unemployed and had no income for all of 2010 She is not married, and I’m her dependent. She does not plan on filing a income tax return, because she had no income from working in 2010. Her boyfreind helps her to pay rent.
if I get requested to verify family income (which I did for my incoming year to college), what would I do since she will not fill out it for 2010?
I don’t know how to approach in this situation.</p>