<p>either way its a different city from where i live now. i know one kid at loyola from home, the rest i met through visiting him. they are great kids and ive had a connection with a good amount of them already. i feel at st joes id be a bit uncomfortable, especially due to my prior experiences.</p>
<p>Sounds like Loyola to me.</p>
<p>Loyola. It's right for you. You will do better academically if you are comfortable and aren't second-guessing yourself.</p>
<p>thanks for the replies guys. having different viewpoints is helping me a great deal.</p>
<p>You should call Loyola Fin Aid and see if you can get them to meet the St Joe offer.</p>
<p>call them and see if they will give me the 10k academic scholarship that st joes is? </p>
<p>has that ever worked in the past?</p>
<p>Sure...it's basically apples to apples. Is the $10K the nly thing holding you back from St Joe? Call them up and tell them that. Heck--even if they split the difference--you'll have a lot less guilt.</p>
<p>btw Have you looked at the proportion of commuter students at each? Is that proportion similar?</p>
<p>lot more commuters at st joes</p>
<p>Ummmmm.....yeah..it is worth it to give your negotiating skills a work out. See if you can persuade Loyola to sweeten the fin aid offer by telling them about the offer from St Joe. </p>
<p>Then pm tlaktan about how to raise extra scholarship funds....</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>thanks very much...</p>
<p>any other hints as to what to say or how to persuade?</p>
<p>Call the Fin Aid office and establish a good natured phone relationship with someone--and then ask for their advice. Give them the enitre song and dance--including your guilt about your dad and your worry. Tell them how much you really want to go to Loyola--and why. Flatter them by praising the school. Tell them you don't want to arrive and be hamstrung by guilt. Ask them what is the best way to try to persuade the fin aid office to increase the package. ASk them if there is a specific person who makes those decisions--how they are made--wha t is the best approach...personal visit? email? Letter? </p>
<p>Be sure to write all of the suggestions down--including the name of the person you get on the phone.</p>
<p>Start out asking for the whole $10 k assuming that they will work you back to a lower figure--but don't start out at a lower figure and don't give that away too early.
<a href="http://admissions.loyola.edu/admissions/introloyola/missionandvalues.asp%5B/url%5D">http://admissions.loyola.edu/admissions/introloyola/missionandvalues.asp</a>
These are Jebbies you are talking to. They have a mission. Look over that mission and make sure you always speak to their goals...speak to what you will add to the University to help them achieve their goals...Let them mentor you through the process.</p>
<p>cheers: you have been more help than you needed to be. thanks so much. i will try on monday.</p>
<p>Do not be afraid to call them! Matching scholarship offers is more common than you think.
A friend of ours daughter is at Loyola and loves it.</p>
<p>yea ive visited on a few occasions and have had a great time. im really hoping they can match it, that would be GREAT</p>
<p>Lucky, lucky applicant, you know.
Because you really can't go wrong either way.
Congratulations on having such wonderful choices.</p>
<p>really? im that lucky? haha</p>
<p>rightcoastsurf,
Frankly, it sounds like you made up your mind when you first posted but just wanted confirmation. If you were my son, I would want you to go where you were most comfortable and I would encourage you to do study abroads and an internship a little further from home. However, I would be quite concerned about the money aspect and would be right on that financial aid aspect myself. Most of the books on the market that talk about the application process also talk about appealing for more money. It's also been brought up on this bulletin board before. To the other parents - is this really something that the students do, or is something that parents (the people that actually pay for college) do?</p>
<p>As far as commuting, once a student is not in a dorm or school owned housing, they are considered commuting. I'm guessing there really aren't more commuter student at St. Joe's then Loyola.</p>
<p>no, st joes used to be considered a commuter school. i really think there are more commuters there.</p>
<p>good question about the financial aid, would it be more beneficial to have my parents call?</p>
<p>Lots of good advice including looking for matching scholarships.</p>
<p>I think though that the general experience is that once you get to a college you tend to quickly dissasociate from your HS friends, or at least most of them, as each person goes his or her own way, making new friends with people in their dorm, in their classes and in their EC activities. I went to college with ten HS classmates and saw almost nothing of them in college - and they also saw almost nothing of each other. So I would not recommend making the presnce of friends a major factor in your decision. You can always keep in touch with HS friends while you are at a different school.</p>
<p>There are pros & cons of having student vs. parent make the call for FAid. In our family, I've done most of the contacting of the schools on behalf of my S. Not sure whether it's hurt or helped, but I was able to get the school we & S wanted to attend to increase their merit offer to match what a competing school offered him (we don't qualify for & never applied for FAid).</p>
<p>If your award will be strictly need-based, you will need to complete paperwork to PROVE why your award should be increased. If the awards is strictly merit-based, it is up to each U to decide whether to match or ignore offers by other Us. It seems that schools are more likely to match or at least be interested in schools they consider equivalent or competitors than schools that they consider less selective.</p>
<p>If your parents make the call, they can say that they recognize the you really like Loyola but they are concerned about the bottom line & are hoping they can help with some merit aid so the out-of-pocket costs between the two Us aren't SO different (you can say something similar on your behalf, like what you wrote in 1st post of this thread).</p>