Hey guys! So I got my Financial Aid from Fordham, and honestly, its not enough. I’m going to break it down for you guys, and afterwards I have some questions. Just a quick heads up, my EFC is 0 and I did both the FAFSA & CSS by priority deadlines.
Estimated Cost of Attendance $66,883/yr
Total Grants and Scholarships (Gift Aid) $37,830/yr
Net Cost (cost after gift aid): $29,053/yr
Federal Direct Subsidized Loan 3,500
Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan 2,000
Cost after gift aid & loans: $23,553
Ok so once again, my EFC is 0, and my parents cannot contribute to my college education at all, so thats out the questions. Fordham is my number 1 choice, so what are my options?? They didn’t put me down for work study, can I add that? Also, can someone explain work study to me? Can I appeal? I’m just very confused and need help because Fordham is honestly my number 1 and I really want to go here, but 23K is just too much to pick in loans (in addition to the 5.5K ill already take). What’re my options? Does Fordham give more money in appeals and if I make it obvious that I really want to go here? Any help will be appreciated thanks guys!
***I posted this on the Fordham forum too, so apologies if you’ve seen this twice.
Here’s the thing – I don’t think Fordham is a school that meets full need. It’s unrealistic to expect your family to try to borrow $23,000+ a year, and depending on their income and assets (probably not high with a 0 EFC) they may not be able to even if they wanted.
You can try to appeal for more gift aid, but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for that. Appeals are hit and miss; sometimes financial aid officers have some wiggle room to adjust packages (although $23000 of ‘wiggle room’ might be wishful) but they don’t have unlimited amounts of money.
Do you have any other, more affordable schools on your list as a back-up in case Fordham can’t help you?
@DmitriR thanks for the reply! I have some in-state financial safeties, so I’m not too worried about them. Do you know the process of appealing? Thank’s for the link to on-campus jobs! I’ll look into them
Work/study can run out, I suppose they didn’t have any more to allocate, but you can still ask for an allocation. But it, or taking a non work study job will only supplement for your personal expenses, a few hundred a month at most with going to school full time.
As stated above, Fordham does not ‘meet 100 pct need’ and you have been ‘gapped’ like many students. They do give some full packages for the most competitive students but everyone else is stuck like you with an unaffordable EFC. I can’t see that they will close the gap in any way that would be do-able. Even if you got it down to 10k a year, which is unlikely your parents still won’t have that with a zero efc.
You can write them, I doubt there is any formal appeal process.
Work study is very limited. Even if you got some, it would only be for about $2k…but you weren’t given any.
Fordham can’t meet need for most low income students since too much money is needed. The truth is that Fordham cannot afford to give you $220k+ to go to school there. It has very limited aid.
Did you run the net price calculator last fall? If so, what were the results.
You can try appealing, but it’s doubtful that you’d get much more.
YOU can’t borrow more (nor should you). To borrow more you’d need your parents to do it. Since they’re low income, it’s too risky for them, and they probably wouldn’t qualify.
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I wasn't planning on heading to wall street, but I was hoping to attend Gabelli as a BA major with a concentration in Marketing & Communications & Media Management. Does that make a difference?
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Yes, that makes a huge difference. Your salary potential is not going to be high as a newish grad.
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got in with a 3.7 GPA and 1220 SAT
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(BTW…don’t get lured by people telling you to take on huge debt for Wall Street. There are too many with those dreams, and many never make it.)
When you applied to Fordham, did you really expect all costs would be covered and you’d only need to borrow $5500? Just wondering where students get this idea - from guidance counselors? From parents?
That’s good. Hopefully Fordham works out but just in case it doesn’t at least you have some good safeties.
I don’t know if Fordham has any specific policies for financial aid appeals. It might be something that you can only start by reaching out to the financial aid office. Did you apply to any schools that Fordham considers a ‘peer’? If those schools gave you more money than Fordham did it might help somewhat (assuming Fordham gives out merit aid).
I think it’s definitely worthwhile for you to ask though, as long as you’re prepared for the fact that they will probably either say “no” or grant you only a small-ish amount of aid. The main issue that you have is that your ‘gap’ is $23,000. That’s a lot of money – it’s more than you can reasonably ask your family to borrow each year for four years, and it might be even more than Fordham is willing to part with. They knew your EFC was 0 when they gave you that package, so they must have reasonably inferred that it would be hard for your family to pay that much.
@mom2collegekids I ran the calculator a few days ago actually, and my net cost was actually more than what they gave me (30somethingK) so I got more than I expected, undoubtedly. Honestly, if I can bring the cost down even a little bit more I would be fine, I just applied to a lot of scholarships today so let’s see. I will give them a call on Monday morning though, and see what happens. Would it make a difference if I mentioned my brother (who’s a sophomore in college)?
@Madison85 no I didn’t expect that, however 1) Fordham was one of my reaches so I didn’t expect to get in, 2) when I got in, I still didn’t expect them to cover me 100%. No one gave me false hope or anything, I applied to Fordham knowing that they might ‘gap’ me.
@DmitriR as much as I love fordham, I would never ask my parents to pick up more than 15k a year in loans for me…and even that’s a stretch! No undergrad degree is worth thousands of dollars in loans. I’ll give a call Monday morning, and let’s hope for the best!!
Honestly, if I can bring the cost down even a little bit more I would be fine, I just applied to a lot of scholarships today so let's see. I will give them a call on Monday morning though, and see what happens. Would it make a difference if I mentioned my brother (who's a sophomore in college)?
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How would you be fine if you get the cost down a bit more?
Look at those scholarships that you applied for…are those ONE TIME awards? If so, that’s not going to help you for soph year forward.
Fordham should know that you have a sibling in college, since that would have been indicated on your FAFSA.
Fordham is an expensive school and they do NOT guarantee to meet need. Run their NCP with your numbers (OP) and with other sample numbers and it’s clear that that they do not.
Can you commute to the school? There was a $6K commuter bonus off the tuition, and then your room and board will be absorbed by your family. That is how a number of low EFC kids make a go of it. That and working summers and part time with an award your size would make it doable.
From what I understand, finding part time work at the school or around it is not that difficult, but the thing is, how much work study do you think you can even get? The awards tend to be $2-4K at most and you have a $20K+ gap. That isn’t where the issue is.
Yes, you can appeal. Is TAP and PELL in the package along with a Fordham grant? Fordham tends to focus more on merit awards than need except for HEOP students, from what I can see.
Congratulations on your acceptance. Affording private college is tough. As a student, you can’t borrow more than the $5500 per year. If your parents can’t help you pay for school, a gap of $23k gap is likely going to be too much to make up. You can ask the financial aid office for more, but don’t rely on them giving it to you.
thanks guys!