Email your admission rep (google “admission staff” and look for your county/region) and ask whether your financial aid package can be reassessed. Point out your EFC, expenses, etc. Indicate Uconn’s your first choice if it is, and you’d attend if it’s affordable.
@choirsandstages, one of my kids studied abroad at UHelsinki for a semester. Honestly, she found the courses very, very easy compared to her classes at a US LAC ranked around #50. She was direct enrolled, not in special study abroad courses. Not to knock Finland and free European education in general, but you might get what you pay for – the “free” education in that case wasn’t very high quality.
There are plenty of schools you can go to for less than $30k. If you’d like Finland, you probably wouldn’t mind the cold of South Dakota, Montana or Wyoming, all available to you for much less than $20k per year. They’d love to have you, would give you scholarships, will let you play in their world class gyms with climbing walls and lazy rivers; would Finland offer that? Prefer to stay in Connecticut? There are schools that cost less than UConn. My nephew attended community college in CT and now is finishing at UConn. He’s no dummy as he was accepted at Brown, NYU, Cornell, and Columbia but couldn’t afford them so took a cheaper route. He lives in a town about 2 hours away and now goes to classes on T-W-Th and works the other days. Pays for it all himself. Taking him a little longer to finish as he’ll be 23 tomorrow and still has a semester to go. It’s okay to do college an ‘untraditional’ way.
People complain that schools cost too much and they’d prefer a free system like Finland or China or Germany, but won’t actually consider campuses in the US that are sort of like Finland or China or Germany - no frills, large class sizes, basic education universities with no services and no sports teams. Some kids are lucky that their parents live in a state that has a good and cheap university system like California, but almost every state has a few options that are very affordable or there are a few states that want OOS students so make attractive offers to all (SD, Wyoming, Montana) or high stats kids (Alabama, PA (Temple), OK, KS).
Oh please. My husband and I make contributions to the annual funds at our college alma maters every year. Unless your parents are finding the construction of buildings that are named after them, their donations are just that…donations. They are not money given to secure you an admissions spot a UConn…or a nickel of financial aid.
Did you read this thread before you applied to colleges? These are less expensive schools. The money your parents are offering…plus a Direct Loan…plus money you earn at a job…would pay for many of them. Oh…and you might have even been awards some merit aid at some.
I didn’t mean paying into the system through donations, but through taxes. UCONN is one of the most expensive public colleges for instate students around. I understand cost of living in CT is quite high compared to most places, but it just seems like a little much for a state flagship.
I am aware there are cheaper options instate (Southern, Central, ect.) as well as out of state (Wyoming, Montana, etc.). To be honest I would prefer to go to a CC before attending any of those schools though. I just don’t see them as being an environment that I can use to develop myself; call me arrogant if you want.
I will be asking UCONN to reassess the aid package, and hopefully that at least lands me a few grand. UCONN this year is totally possible, the concerns are really just for once my brother and sister graduate because then that 18k will be going 3 ways. Also, I had no intention or expectation of attending a pricey private university UNLESS they gave me a large amount of financial aid.
We are Connecticut residents who also pay taxes to this state. Neither of our kids went to UCONN, or to any other public university in this state. We never…not once…thought that our kids should get more need based aid because they were residents of this state…and we taxpayers. The break you get…you pay instate costs to attend rather than out of state costs.
In addition to UConn, there are also the four CSU campuses…Southern, Western, Eastern and Central Connecticut State Colleges. They are much less expensive than UConn, and there is one that is within commuting distance of almost anywhere in this state…so one could commute.
In addition, there are UConn branches located around the state to which many instate students commute.
Lots of options that are more modestly priced.
I don’t think living in state should grant you a financial aid reward if you don’t need one. HOWEVER, I do believe that it should mean you aren’t paying over 30k a year. So the argument comes back around to being “Should UCONN cost 30k?” In my opinion, no. So the whole situation is unjust (yes, unjust) from the beginning. Financial aid would help alleviate that, since apparently the price tag is never going to drop.
They have an obligation to educate CT students, and since their obscenely high prices (for an instate state school) exclude a lot of qualified applicants from attending they are not fulfilling that obligation.
And again, I am going to sound arrogant here… but. I am a student who has a 3.5 (3.75 this year) at a school where it is quite difficult to earn a good GPA, I also had a 2100 on the SAT. I know that is nothing compared to most kids on this site, but definitely better than the national average. I have no interest in attending a school that is incredibly low ranked just for financial reasons. I recognize that I might have to, but at the end of the day I don’t see it as being fair to me, or anyone in a similar situation to mine.
I know that “It isn’t fair” sounds childish and weak, and I know that life isn’t fair. However, I can complain about it as much as I like; and hopefully the US will eventually figure it out and fix our broken university system.
I do disagree with you that Conn is not meeting its obligation to educate its residents. What if UConn didn’t exist and your only choice was to attend one of the lower ranked schools? Is this any different than living in a state without a top ranked flagship and going to the lower ranked flagship or (gasp) a State U? States set their taxes and school budgets to meet the minimum needs of their residents. Not everyone, even all the smart ones, can go to the high school he wants to, to the college he wants to, without paying more. Many parents choose to live in a higher priced school district because they want a better school for their kids. They are paying more. I lived on one side of a street, in the ‘good’ district. I paid more in school taxes (almost double) because of that ‘good’ district than I would have if I’d lived, literally, across the street (two school buses came down our street). That was my choice. Your parents live in CT with those choices of schools at the cost established by the state. If you want to pay the tuition price set by Florida or Georgia or California for their residents, you have to live in one of those states, where you may pay more or less for taxes and education.
When you are voting, you can vote for those who think like you, who promise a free education to everyone. Just remember that there will never be a scenario where everyone can go to his #1 choice for free, so if someone with an SAT 40 points higher than you or three more A’s in high school than you wants ‘your’ place at UConn, that could mean that you are out and the state will meet its obligation to you at a directional school. right now you have choices, but they cost different amounts. If school is free for all, you might lose your choices.
If your parents can actually pay the EFC, then you may be able to (barely) come up with the other $10,000 with a federal direct loan ($5,500) and some summer and part-time school year work earnings.
I actually agree that UConn’s instate costs are too high for a public university, as many are, but that won’t change till fthere’s better funding (and UConn isn’t in a dire situation in that respect). UConn’s interest when it has admitted top state students is to make sure they can attend, either through merit or need-based aid – which most states have in one form or another (even Illinois and Pennsylvania, which are the worst in the country in that respect.) So, in reality, because UConn has a high school public university but isn’t as bad as the previous two for financial aid/state grants, I’m guessing there was a mistake made when OP’s parents filled out FAFSA.
I’m guessing the FAFSA was correct. Uconn does not guarantee to meet full need…for anyone. This student is not low income…or did I miss that he qualifies for a Pell Grant? His family can pay $18,000 a year for his college education for the upcoming year. There are tons of kids whose families can’t pay anything.
CT does not have a program like Bright Futures or Calgrant or TAP for all lower income students.
But we do have a variety of public higher education options.
One I didn’t mention in my previous post…the community college system is extensive…and does have articulation agreements with many of the four year schools in the state…public and private.
Another thing some students do…they attend one of the CSUs for a year or two and transfer to UConn to complete their bachelors degrees. I will say, I know a number of students who intended to do this, but they actually liked the CSU campus where they were enrolled, and completed their degree there.
My advice is to chalk this up as a lesson learned. Publics don’t claim to meet need, and they don’t meet need.Even if they have pograms to meet need (esp for super low income folks), they aren’t obligated and the available funds vary from year to year.
In short, public schools are not financially friendly in terms of aid. They would say that the friendliness is already packaged into the low price (when compared to privates).
One thing to consider is that in future years, if you have a sibling enrolled along with you your EFC will go down. This likely won’t matter at a public, but may help at a private.
For in-state residents, it depends on the state / school. Some do better (e.g. CA), and some do worse (e.g. PA, IL). CT appears to be in the “worse” category, since the UConn net price calculator at http://financialaid.uconn.edu/pricecalc/ suggests a $16,018 net price for the highest need Connecticut resident student; that amount is not generally considered realistic for the student to self-fund with federal direct loans and summer and part-time work earnings.
How is your prep school being paid for?
Tthey have been quite generous with financial aid, covering slightly over 3/4 of the cost.
Again, I think I could scrape by at UCONN this year but the problems will come when that 18k has to support 2 college students at once.
Anyway, this has just become me complaining about something that will likely never change (at least not until the loan bubble pops). I will ask UCONN to review my FAFSA one more time and hope for the best. Thanks everyone
Also…for an estimate…run UConn’s net price calculator with TWO in college…and see what you get. Is it possible that you will get a Pell Grant, for example, or some other need based grant…when you have a second student in college?
And again…I urge you to look at the cup,as being half full instead of half empty. Your parents are offering you $18,000 this year…and what…half of that amount going forward? Many kids are offered NOTHING from their parents and somehow they figure out a way to get a bachelors degree…in Connecticut.
I hope you end up being able to afford college. But I agree that expecting a college to just hand you all the money you need is a mite greedy. Those who call for free college in one breath (essentially claiming the government owes them tens of thousands of dollars just for their existence) and deride institutions and rich people for having money are rather hypocritical. I understand the temptation to want everything to be free, but as others have said, you get what you pay for. And life isn’t fair - governments can’t artificially create a fair world.
RE: Finland. Finland only has 44 colleges. It’s a small country. I doubt that supporting the what, 4000+ colleges in the US would be as readily done without compromising the quality of education.
First, did you ever submit a FAFSA with the correct numbers or are the colleges still working from estimates? An accurate FAFSA might change your financial profile.
So UCONN offered you nothing in the way of financial aid, correct?
I looked on line and it appears that tuition, fees, room, board, books is about 27K. If you took a federal student loan of 5.5 K, that would bring it down to about 21.5K. Part-time and summer work could probably get it down to your dad’s number of 18K. So if you are willing to assume personal debt (maximum allowed for the four years is about 27K), it “might” work.
Are you able to commute to UCONN? That would reduce the cost for tuition, fees and books to a little over 14K. If not, would it be cheaper to live off campus in a shared apartment than on campus? I know that cost of living in CT is not cheap but you might be able to shave a few thousand dollars off the room and board costs by getting an apartment nearby and doing your own cooking.
Unfortunately, many state flagships in the NE corridor come in at 25-30K for state residents. It’s the going rate in a relatively high cost-of-living area.
Also, as your siblings enter college, your EFC as a family will be recalculated to reflect the additional costs to your father.
To reiterate what others have said - if none of your current options are affordable you could take a gap year and apply to places where your academic profile might get you some merit-based aid (Clark U in Massachusetts comes to mind). Also look at OOS options that offer merit money for your stats. This would involve expanding your geographical parameters a bit:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
If you nudged your SAT up a little bit more, there would be even more options.
Or you could do CC for two years and then transfer to UCONN or another CT state campus.
Do request a reassessment from UConn after checking everything.
All in all though, this year should be fine if you work and take on a loan.
Calculate what you’d get (FAFSA EFC PLUS UCOnn NPC) with your sibling in college: does that change anything for Pell? For Uconn?
If not, you may have to commute starting you 2nd year - but the transition year of being a freshman in the dorms would be done.
UConn also has branch campuses. Students can attend these for a year…or two, and then transfer over to the Storrs campus. These students live at home to save money for the time enrolled at the branch campuses.