Hah. Is this a sign of things to come?

Paying for College
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<p>Hello all.</p>

<p>I just got my first financial aid award back, from Drexel. My FAFSA EFC was around 8000, and even that is a stretch for my family. Drexel, after a 20K presidential scholarship, work-study, and various loans, expects a payment of 22,000/year and a total cost of 26,000/year. Yeahhh I don't think so.</p>

<p>All it really means to me is I am throwing everything I have received from Drexel into the shredder (not to be dramatic, but because they are private documents of course). Not that I care; their app was free, and I was not interested in attending anyway.</p>

<p>What I'm worried about is the rest of my applications. Schools like Princeton, Rice, Vandy, WUSTL, Cornell, UVA, etc. Acceptance is a long shot as it is; am I being unrealistic hoping that I'll get offers for lile 10k/year at these places? Or is there a good chance I'm going to keep getting similar letters? I know some guarantee 100% need, but I am worried that the numbers could still turn out all wrong.</p>

<p>Also, any idea what a highly qualified in-state at UT Austin would be looking at in terms of aid? I originally thought this was a financial safety, but I am not so sure now. I guess I can always fall back on Bama, who offered full tuition plus an extra like 3k/year, but even that isn't too impressive...</p>

<p>Any words would be appreciated.</p>

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<p>These schools guarantee to meet the full need of all accepted students (the school determines your need). All require the Profile in addition to the FAFSA so your family contribution might NOT be $8000. It all depends on what is on your Profile.</p>

<p>Drexel does NOT guarantee to meet full need…and as you can see, they didn’t.</p>

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<p>Is your IM expected contribution higher than your FAFSA EFC? For some reason, I thought from an earlier post that you thought that your family contribution might be higher for IM methodology.</p>

<p>Are your parents self-employed? Do they have a lot of home equity?</p>

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<p>UT generally awards incoming freshmen in mid-March.
What is your planned major? Some students received departmental scholarship offers with their Honors admissions letters.
UT probably won’t award state-based grants until mid-summer, once the Texas Legislature session is over.</p>

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<p>*UT probably won’t award state-based grants until mid-summer, once the Texas Legislature session is over. *</p>

<p>Really…that is too late for students who need to know where they will be going to college.</p>

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<p>It IS too late!</p>

<p>Like many other states, Texas is facing a huge budget shortfall. The Tx Legislature sets budgets every 2 years and is currently in session -it ends in June. They are considering major changes to college and financial aid funding. Some of the proposals include reducing and even discontinuing several of the state aid programs. </p>

<p>Although the uncertainty impacts state schools equally, it really hits seniors trying to choose between state universities, community colleges, private schools in Texas, and leaving the state.</p>

<p>The Texas financial aid organization recently surveyed member schools to see how everybody is handling awarding this year. Most are not awarding any state-based aid to incoming freshmen until allocations are set. </p>

<p>It is a tough decision -do we make a tentative offer that we may not be able to deliver, or risk losing highly-qualified students to private or OOS schools?</p>

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<p>I have no idea what my IM EFC is.</p>

<p>Parents not self employed. Income around 110K. Home was purchased @140, valued @160, 100 left to pay. We essentially have a grand total of zero in savings of any sort due to debt.</p>

<p>UT did offer a 5k/year scholarship when I was accepted to Engineering honors, but that’s all I have heard.</p>

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<p>Please run and get a “How to pay for College” guide. You and your parents need a ton of information ASAP. I like the one by Chany but there are others. You need to know a ton and right now so that you can understand the offers as they come in. </p>

<p>I am stunned that you don’t think the “Bama” offer isn’t stellar. It sounds darn fine to these ears. What, you thought you’d make a profit being a student?</p>

<p>Please, please, please get your family up to speed. What were they thinking that they have no savings and NO PLAN for your college? Haven’t they noticed that the economy is in the toilet and NO ONE has dollars to hand out to handsome kids? </p>

<p>You have . . . about thirty days to do a crash course in what college costs and how people navigate the system. Hopefully you’ll have several acceptances at the end of March but even then you’ll have some heavy work ahead to figure out how the acceptances compare. </p>

<p>The biggest thing to know is that many schools will offer you “financial aid” – but that will come as a combo package, including loans for you, loans for your parents and grants, scholarships, work study, and other stuff. What you have to comb through is what the BOTTOM LINE is and how great that bottom line is compared to the other offers. What is absolutely a total waste of time is comparing your offers to what some other kid got (now or in the past). </p>

<p>That’s what I’m afraid of here. That you know of somebody who got a great deal four years ago and you are hoping the same for you, now. </p>

<p>Good luck. I’m glad you were able to let go of the first offer. But it sounds like there’s a lot to sort, fast for you to be a grateful, shrewd consumer (Please get there. Being an entitled, ignorant consumer is very, very costly). </p>

<p>I hope it all pans out well.</p>

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<p>I know the Bama offer is nice, but it’s Bama. If I wanted to go to Bama I would have put less effort into school, no offense to Bama. Why you think I’d take Bama’s offer over in-state UT Austin is beyond me, unless you know something about UTA’s financial aid that I don’t, which is what I asked in my first post.</p>

<p>The economy is in the toilet?! We were totally unaware. Yeah you should send my father a note explaining that the economy is in the toilet. He was wondering why a highly qualified software engineer was unemployed for 18+ months in the last few years. He was wondering why he was required to train his own offshore replacement when he was doing just fine at his job. He was wondering why after huge health bills (without employment benefits to cover them), college bills from two others sons, severe roof damage from a hail storm, a water main leak that destroyed our bathroom, and the expenses of my brother’s stay in drug rehab, that he had to drain all our savings and our 401K, and that there still wasn’t enough money left at the end. He was wondering why, after years of surviving bill-to-bill and barely keeping out heads above water, that there wasn’t money in my college fund when I needed it. He thought it was maybe because some fairy floated along and stole our money. Please explain to him that the economy is the problem and tell him how to manage money. </p>

<p>I’m not hoping for a great deal. I’m hoping that I will be able to attend a college, given the maximum loans both myself and my parents are qualified to take, that satisfies my intellect. I’m going to take the best offer from the best school and find a way to make it work. My question was if coughing up 10k/year at those schools after the financial package was a reasonable expectation given an 8K EFC at schools that meet 100% need.</p>

<p>Thanks for… I don’t know, the book recommendation I guess. My advice to you is to try not to make sweeping generalizations about a family’s finances unless you have been a fly on the wall for 20 years. Contrary to your belief, my parents have not been blowing my college funds on Corvettes and Caribbean cruises. </p>

<p>Sigh.</p>

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<p>Parents not self employed. Income around 110K</p>

<p>*My FAFSA EFC was around 8000, *</p>

<p>How can your EFC be that low? Do you have siblings in college? If so, how long will they be in college? ** If you have siblings in college, keep in mind that as each one graduates, your EFC will go up and any financial aid you receive will go down. That could be a serious problem for you if your family can’t help out much.**</p>

<p>If you don’t have siblings in college, then your EFC may be a mistake. Your EFC wouldn’t likely be that low with that income.</p>

<p>Your family income is probably too high for Texas aid.</p>

<p>BTW…I’ve seen your stats. Yes, they are good. But, don’t think that your stats are unique at Bama. I have 2 kids at Bama. Both kids have stats similar to yours. Bama has over 500 National Scholars on campus. It also has over 1500 students on the Presidential Scholarship (which is what you’ve been offered along with the engineering scholarship). Those students are largely concentrated in STEM majors. Don’t think that you won’t be challenged in your classes. Don’t think you’d ace all your classes. </p>

<p>I don’t know if you’d come in with many AP/IB/dual credits, but if you do, you could probably get your BS/MS all on your scholarship. The program is called The University Scholars Program and it’s designed for those who come in with AP/dual/IB credits. <a href=“http://graduate.ua.edu/info/scholarsprog.pdf[/url]”>http://graduate.ua.edu/info/scholarsprog.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Have you visited the school? met with the CoE dean and/or profs? seen the labs and facilities? I think you should…you would be amazed. Bama’s new Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) is huge and state of the art. Phase III will be finished within weeks. Phase IV is beginning this summer (Bama doesn’t have the sad budget woes of other schools). Senator Shelby (who has been a significant driver behind the money for the entire SEC Complex) has said that when Phase IV completes, the SEC will be as good or better than what any other campus has. </p>

<p>Which area of Engineering is your interest?</p>

<p>Anyway…if you haven’t visited the campus, I suggest that you do so. The Honors College could arrange for you to meet with faculty, sit in some classes, and tour the school. </p>

<p>Obviously, if one of your top schools come thru financially and you’ll be able to afford those schools even if your EFC rises as sibling leave college, then those schools will work out for you. :slight_smile: But, do talk to those schools about what your “family contribution” would likely be each year as your sibling graduate from college. It won’t do you any good to only be able to afford these schools for a couple of years.</p>

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<p>I think having absolutely 0 in savings across the board really brought it down. We first reported FAFSA with two sibilings in college and later changed it to one (one dropped out) and the EFC hardly budged, so that’s probably not what brought it down so far. Don’t ask me! Definitely will remember to ask about the sibilings though; never really considered how that would change things.</p>

<p>I’m not saying I’d ace my classes/not be challenged at Bama. I am saying that practically every other school applied to has a proven more highly-qualified ChemE program and higher overall school rank. Only thing I’ve done with Bama is talk to a MechE alum who said that his grad degree at New Mexico State made him severely regret choosing Bama as an undergrad. Granted, that’s just one guy, and things have surely changed, but meh. I’m sure its a great place, but UTA is undeniably better at almost the same price, as are most of the schools I applied to. It’s great that Bama has a new facility, but for obvious reasons, I’d prefer the facility that has been well established for several years. That’s how research opportunities grow, highly regarded professors are recruited, and alum networks are built! Anyways, no reason to go on about Bama; it’s a good school, but I am not interested in the least. Half of my highschool is going there which is reason enough to avoid it!</p>

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<p>I’ll put it another way…if you didn’t want to go there…in my opinion you should NOT have bothered to apply.</p>

<p>With a $110K income, your EFC for ONE kiddo should have been between $13K and $18K with the higher number being if you DID have assets of some sort. I’m not sure HOW you would have gotten $8K as an EFC.</p>

<p>Still…UT, and Drexel do NOT meet full need and they typically do not. Unless you are a Texas resident, you will likely NOT see a lot of aid for UT. BUT at some UT schools if you get a scholarship in excess of a certain amount, you also get instate tuition. Check to see if this applies to your UT school.</p>

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<p>OP, I suspect there was a mistake on you FASFA form. There is no way a 110 K income even without assets and savings is 8K. Yes, I suspect the other schools on your list, if accepted, will offer similar financial aid awards.</p>

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<p>According to IPED, Drexel has an average net price of around 31K. It doesn’t appear to have the best financial aid.</p>

<p>I’m sure that the other schools you listed are probably a bit better. Vandy, for example, has an averge net price of around 20K. But I would have to agree with the other posters–you need to be careful with your family income here–IPED lists the average net price for Vandy for families of 110K or more at around 30K. Now, the net price is the total cost of attendance minus grant aid, not loans.</p>

<p>Here’s another thing to think about with respect to Alabama. Given what you father went through, you should recognize how difficult it is to get job even for someone with a degree in something ‘practical’, such as engineering. The offer from Alabama is full tuition plus a bit more. If you choose to go there, you can graduate with little, if any, loan. That will certainly be a plus. Your hard work did pay off, in the sense that you were offered a full tuition scholarship. Not everyone has that opportunity.</p>

<p>Given that you said 1/2 of your high school is going to Alabama, I assume you are an Alabama resident. Why didn’t you apply to Auburn? I thought that Auburn had the better recognized engineering program in Alabama?</p>

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<p>The other schools the OP lists have costs of $50K or more. The family contribution (by MY calculations) will be $18K on the high end. That leaves a balance of $32K to fund. Drexel gave $20K…if the other schools gave $20K that would leave a balance of $12K. If the school packages the Stafford loan of $5500, that would bring it down to $6500. </p>

<p>So for a school that costs $50K…subtract $18K for the family contribution, and you get $32K. Subtract the Stafford from that and you get $26500…I believe that is the most you could expect from the other schools…UNLESS they compute your family contribution to be LESS than my estimates.</p>

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<p>If you had done research on your schools, you would have seen that Drexel does not tend to meet student’s needs. Not sure why you think Drexel is so much better that UAlabama. I would take the latter over the former any day. </p>

<p>Some of the schools will meet your need more generously but you have to get accepted. Like the others, I don’t see how you got such a low EFC on the FAFSA. It is pretty much a set formula base on income with other asset information then added to the number so having zero assets still does not explain the low EFC based on income only. Maybe with 3 in college… that might work out. My opinion is that even with the full need schools,you may get comparable aid offers unless there is something major here that we are missing. </p>

<p>UT is a very fine school, and that will probably be your most affordable choice unless you go to a state school and commute.</p>

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<p>OP - you have been overwhelmed by glossy brochures and slick college ranking guides. Take a deep breath, you have a good offer at Bama and most likely good in state options. Things could be so much worse (i.e. you could be the kid who didn’t put in that much effort into high school and flunks out of state U., as it is you are well prepared to succeed at the school you can afford to attend).</p>

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<p>I’m a Texas resident, as I said in my first post. My Engineering scholarship alone will cover tuition, and UTA is a better school than Bama, so it’s a better deal. I only applied to Bama because they offered me a free application, and my friend (female, ranked #7) was offered a full ride. Was kinda shooting for the same as a financial safety, but as it turns out, UTA is cheaper.<br>
I’m exaggerating when I said “Half of my school is going to Bama,” it is apparently the cool thing to do this year, and I have yet to meet a student who was declined.</p>

<p>BTW I never said Drexel was better than Bama, though I do believe it is for engineering, but that is totally irrelevant. I know Drexel’s aid policy, around 85% of need on average from the data sheets I’m using. That being said they did not meet 85%, but again, I don’t really care, I was just a little put off by the offer, given what I can actually afford. </p>

<p>We have checked and rechecked the FAFSA, we did not submit any data incorrectly. So either collegeboard did something wrong or you all don’t really understand the EFC as well as you’d like to think you do.</p>

<p>In fact I just ran through Collegeboard’s EFC estimator and with rough numbers these were my results:</p>

<p>Parents’ Contribution for Student = $ 8,548
Student’s Contribution = $ 40
Total Estimated FM Contribution = $ 8,588
Institutional Methodology (IM) Results
Parents’ Contribution for Student = $ 5,689
Student’s Contribution = $ 1,800
Total Estimated IM Contribution = $ 7,489</p>

<p>So it is really beyond me why you all think 8000 is totally unreasonable. Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to never have to run through the EFC calculators with absolutely nothing in savings and are merely making assumptions. Not really sure. Run the numbers for yourself if you want so you can validate/invalidate your assumptions.</p>

<p>Anyways, my original question was about the aid packages I could expect from these other schools. I realize you’d love to criticize me, my preferences, my ignorance, my parents, and whatever else, but I really just want to know if I can realistically hope to get a financial aid offer from a school like Vandy that will say “We expect you to pay <10,000 a year.” I wasn’t expecting an offer that low from Drexel, but I also wasn’t exactly expecting Drexel to say “We know your EFC is 8,000, and you may not even be able to afford that, but after loans and work-study and a presidential scholarship, we expect you to pay 26,000 a year. Please come to this school.”</p>

<p>From the overwhelmingly negative responses, I take it I won’t be able to afford any of them, which is fine with me, I’m just curious.</p>

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<p>Take a deep breath and just wait and see. At least you know you have some affordable options already. Those schools that meet full need might just provide you with enough aid to attend. Since the schools compute your need, and they have their own formulas for awarding aid, you will just have to wait and see what they offer you.</p>

<p>Please do let us know!! Good luck.You never know.</p>

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<p>Is it weird that I’m far more worried about financial offers than acceptances? Haha. I mean I don’t really care if I get rejected. But if I’m accepted and can’t afford it… like a dagger in the heart!</p>

<p>Anyways thanks for the help, guess I will continue to play the waiting game and hope for the best.</p>