<p>D got Fin Aid packet from her top choice yesterday...
Don' have it right in front of me, but it goes something like this</p>
<p>Total Costs: $37,000
Dean's Scholarship $15,500
State Grant $900
Univ. Grant $2500</p>
<p>Perkins and Stafford Loans $6500 total</p>
<p>Plus Loan (or in my opinion our pocket costs) $11,000</p>
<p>Our EFC was just over $13,000. They didn't list "our" costs, but assume that's where we'd put our money - in place of the Plus Loan</p>
<p>So about 1/2 costs covered by scholarship/grants
About 1/2 to be covered by loans/out of pocket.
D was disappointed - thought somehow we'd get more.
Husband will be disappointed at first at least - he doesn't get the private ed/small schoo thing.<br>
I was more prepared - thanks to CC.</p>
<p>So, now some decisions. $26,000 is still a lot of debt over 4 years. Her current major of choice is Comm-PR - don't know that she'll start out making mega bucks (?). She has one outside scholarship so far - $1500. Several others out...</p>
<p>What comes to mind for me is...
- how much will costs increase the following 3 years?
- if we spend out some of our assets (especially hers) will we get more grant aid next year or just more loans?
- has anyone "revisited" the packet with fin aid offices? Any chance I can get them to give a little?</p>
<p>Also her packet included $300 of D's "work" income. Is that considered work study - and why would they only give her $300 over the course of a year? I'll definitely ask if that can be increased...</p>
<p>Did she apply to a financial safety school, like a state school, that she also likes? </p>
<p>I know from my own research (I write careers articles freelance) that a PR/media job has very low pay to start - only about $35K to $40K in the NYC area. You'll need several years experience to work your way up to a higher paying job.</p>
<p>You'll probably need all of your other acceptances and scholarship offers to make a decision. Making a spreadsheet is one way I'm dealing with a similar issue. My son will have law school tuition on top of undergrad debt, so we're trying to keep the latter to a minimum. </p>
<p>How much will she earn from summer employment? How much, if any, have you saved for college? All things to consider. Good luck.</p>
<p>summer employment can contribute $3,000 or so- that would be applied to EFC
Our EFC was similar-and expenses were a bit higher.
We paid EFC with Ds summer earnings- with some money withdrawn from retirement/equity loan as our college savings disappeared pretty quickly.
While you might be disappointed in teh loans, I assume they are subsidized and she won't have to pay interest till graduation.
Perkins loans are especially good, as they can be "forgiven"</p>
<p>She was accepted to her 1st choice school and with a package that meets full need, I think it looks pretty good. She may be able to get workstudy increased to cover all her personal expenses/books, but EFC is expected to be paid from loans/savings and income & there are also ways she can find to reduce costs further ( save on transportation/work as RA- save on housing etc)</p>
<p>For private colleges and universities it is prudent to expect annual increases in tuition and fees to be about 5% each year. You might want to ask the fin aid office if they will increase financial aid to compensate.</p>
<p>Also, the EFC formula gives a heavy weight to the student's financial assets. I would think it makes sense to spend down the college saving assets that are in the students name at least as quickly as the EFC formula assumes -- use at least 25% or maybe 33% of the money in those accounts in the first year.</p>
<p>Summer employment does not have to go to EFC. That's a family choice. If you can make your part, (the 11,000), then she could put her 3000 summer earnings toward her part (the loans) and not take out all the offered loans.</p>
<p>There are also lots of part time jobs on colleges besides work study, so again she could put them towards expenses to cut down on the loans.</p>
<p>We have received 3 packages and they were similar to yours. We will pay EFC plus the loan amounts.
We went to a presentation with a college fin aid officer and he said that if your child gets it down to 2 colleges and cost is THE final deciding factor to contact the colleges and ask it they can do anything. He warned against trying to play one school against the other and said that most schools will be very close in aid amounts but they will try to adjust if they really want your child. The worst they can say is no.</p>
<p>From the many financial aid packets I have seen (4 kiddos) it seems to be just about average. It's not super heavy on loans and the plus loan for $11K is $2K less than your EFC, which works out to be $8K over 4 years. We have seen some with substantial gaps between what is offered at the EFC and have seen ones with no loan component at all. We were surprised at some which offered the no-loan component, ones that did not "advertise/broadcast" a no loan policy.</p>
<p>Again $26K in loans isn't small but it is not astronomical either. She might as others have suggested look into a RA position as an upperclassman and also looking for part-time on-campus employment to help defray some of the costs.</p>
<p>Also the total COA has some play, books can be bought cheaper elsewhere, travel and personal expenses mitigated, and possible outside scholarships. Middle DD just last week re-negotiated her pay rate for her FWS so she still works the same for more pay per hour but less hours.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>ps. Make SURE your child is familar with the terms of maintaining the merit award before deciding!!! Check GPA and course progress requirements.</p>
<p>Well, this is the first child out of three so we're only beginning!</p>
<p>The $11,000 - we can come up with that between our help, D savings, and of course she will work summers and if possible during the year some. It's the loans that I really hate....I'd just like to be able to knock off some of that $$$</p>
<p>You don't HAVE to take the loans -- you always have the option to turn those down, or to take less than the full amount offered. If your daughter can earn an outside scholarship, then most colleges will apply the outside scholarships to reduce loans before any reduction of grant money -- so basically your daughter probably can make up some or all of the $6500 gap with outside scholarship money -- or anything else she can do to raise cash.</p>
<p>It sounds really good to me too. Just remember, student has to maintain a certain gpa to keep the scholarship . Another thing, the tuition may go up while student is there unless the school has a policy of not raising tuition for currantly enrolled students.</p>
<p>abasket, We said good-bye to a school that son would have attended. He did go classes there and spent a day with current students. He really liked the school and felt very comfortable. We turned it down b/c of the ~7,000 in loans. I did not want him to have such huge loans. I knew that the amount of loans that they would offer to meet efc would just increase.</p>
<p>Put in perspective, $26K barely pays for a new car. It's not that huge of a debt for a college education and she doesn't need to start paying it off until she's done with college and earning an income. Think of the character it'll build in your D!</p>
<p>One thing to understand is the terms of the Dean's scholarship - i.e. whether it's guaranteed for 4 years and what the criteria (usually a minimum GPA) to have it renewed is.</p>
<p>Abasket - There must be a formula because our first aid package came in virtually identical. Ours is for D#2 though. Experience with D#1 suggests that costs may be higher than anticipated. Being close to the financial limit may mean no year abroad, no spring breaks with classmates, etc. Just something to consider.</p>
<p>Abasket, if you haven't already, do start a spreadsheet and list these things out in detail so that you can make comparisions as acceptances come in, and, I would suggesting adding some rows for travel and other "soft costs", plus any mitigating circumstances (will there be a chance of increases in merit money in future years? could merit money go away if GPA isn't met?). Anyway, creating a spreadsheet so you can look at everything with fresh, evaluatory eyes over a period of time before commitments must be made will help some with this.</p>
<p>In future years her loans will most likely go up, and the grants will go down; she is more likely looking at more than $26,000 worth of student loans. You need toask the college if they cap total loans, and if so to how much. You should also ask the average amount of loans for students who have loans. that will give you a good estimate of how much personal debt your child will need to assume. And I agree with the poster who asked if your kid has a state school in her pocket -she needs at least one financial safety... :)</p>
<p>The spreadsheet is a good idea. I'll try and work on that. </p>
<p>She does have a state school safety, but it's her last choice and even her dad and I admit not a great choice. She's been a toughy because she really likes small and she wants to go away from home (I agree) but doesn't want to be far from home (less than 2 hours). After visiting several smaller schools, the campus of even mid-american schools seem huge and impersonal to her.</p>
<p>Can someone clarify something I am confused about...scholarships $$ offsets what element in the financial aid package---student loans, or ? Our EFC remains the same, regardless of scholarships, correct?</p>