<p>As of right now, I'm in the process of completing my final Regular Decision applications. Among these applications is the application to Carnegie Mellon University. </p>
<p>During the summer, I visited the university, did a campus tour, and participated in an interview. I absolutely loved it. It was the right mix between my interest in them and their interest in me. I could tell that the university would nurture my many interests and allow them to grow, as well as challenge me to the best I can be. </p>
<p>In retrospect, I probably should have applied during Early Decision. It is my second choice, behind MIT (whose acceptance rate is not in my favor). However, after reviewing financial aid statistics, there is a HUGE difference between the aid given to ED students and RD students. I even submitted a financial aid early estimate to the Financial Aid office at CMU, and it came back that we would still need to pay around 25k a year just to attend, after aid is taken out.</p>
<p>With all of this being said, What can I do about this hefty price tag? Additionally, how can I overcome it, if I were to be accepted and offered such a financial aid package? Finally, what have been your experiences with CMU, and it is truly worth this price tag, despite the academic rigor and all it has to offer?</p>
<p>I apologize, also, if this is the incorrect forum...</p>
<p>It’s hard to say if CMU is worth $25K without knowing more about your financial situation and your alternatives. Have you run the online net price calculators for CMU and for other schools that interest you? How do they compare? Can your family cover the Expected Family Contribution? If not, how big is the gap?</p>
<p>If you cannot raise enough in “self help” to close any gap in your parents’ contribution, then look for a less expensive school, or for less selective schools that offer large merit scholarships to applicants with your stats. </p>
<p>My co-worker’s D went to CMU, turned down a full ride at UMDCP to do CMU bioengineering @ full pay. Co-worker said it was a sink or swim environment…his D ended up ‘sinking’ and with a 210K degree in Biology. He had already exhausted her college funds when she wanted to go to med school. He said CMU was pretty stingy with aid, extra charges each semester for different things</p>
<p>@tk21769 I never recorded our expected EFC (I calculated it a while back, just to get an idea, but it was never an official number), but I’m fairly sure it was around $12,000. From the office of admission, this is the information they provided:</p>
<p>Estimated tuition for 2015-16: $64,222 (includes both semesters)
Estimated financial aid: $23,697 (for both semester, includes loans)
Net price: $37,260 over both semesters</p>
<p>I’m not sure where they got the net price from, since if you subtracted the two numbers above, you get a higher number. Nonetheless, it demonstrates the point that we won’t be getting much in the way of financial aid from them. This number REALLY concerns me since, although my parents don’t say it, this is much larger than is even feasible. </p>
<p>@Iwonderwhere I see what you’re talking about; as the numbers I put above indicate, they don’t give much for financial aid. Of course this isn’t an OFFICIAL number, it’s a reasonable estimate.</p>
<p>The other thing I’m fighting with is a fact that my interviewer told me when I went to visit. Apparently the university was given a sum of money to distribute in the form of aid for the next year, but it’s more in the way of scholarships. They said that they plan to use it to seal the difference between EFC and net price for middle class students. Which is reassuring, since my family is middle class (around 90k annual income between my two parents).</p>
<p>Applying binding ED when the price you expect to have to pay is not possible doesn’t make any sense. It sounds like you very much need to compare packages. Apply to a variety and just keep in mind that colleges with those level of price tags are not really feasible for families in your income level. Sucks to be in that spot but there it is. Apply if you like but realize you aren’t going there, to take it on as debt isn’t anything anyone with financial savvy does. Now start to move on to your other options and just realize that things will be up in the air until results and packages, that’s just how it goes.</p>
<p>What is missing from your question is your list of alternative schools and their net prices. Also missing is how the $37,000 per year at CMU would have to be funded (i.e. would it severely harm your parents’ household finances, or require loans in excess of the federal direct loans?).</p>
<p>@rkepp12 They do not have to provide enough money to meet your full need so your parents might have to pay a lot more than $12k. How many kids in the family?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I do have a safety lined up already. I have already been offered $12,000 annual scholarship from them, which isn’t including any grants. I’m expecting it to be very affordable, and it is one I would be happy at for sure.</p>
<p>@gearmom I am the oldest of two. I have a younger sibling who is a freshman in high school (while I’m obviously a senior). The issue of paying for multiple children’s education won’t come up until really my senior year of college.</p>
<p>@PurpleTitan I’m interested in mechanical engineering, and I am from Illinois.</p>
<p>Would UofI be cheaper? What is the safety and its total cost?</p>
<p>If the costs are about the same, go to the place you like best. If the costs are significantly different, CMU is more expensive, and your family can’t really afford it, choosing CMU over UofI for engineering would be downright daft.</p>
<p>The reason I have kept away from U of I is because of it’s massive size. I am looking for schools around 15,000 students or less, and U of I definitely exceeds that capacity.</p>
<p>The safety is Milwaukee School of Engineering in Wisconsin. You could probably easily look up total cost, but I seem to remember it is somewhere in the range of 40k, including room and board. When it is all said and done, I would expect to have a fairly small amount to be responsible for paying, although I don’t have a good estimate at the moment.</p>
<p>CMU is one of the very few school that gives more financial aid to ED students. Also, if you cannot make it with what CMU offers at ED round, you can get out of it. But yes, in general applying ED is not a good strategy if you need aid and best to apply RD and compare packages. Also be aware that if you get a better offer from a college that they deem worthy you can ask them to match. They have a list on their website. No, no university is worth a lot of debt. My S is at CMU (totally different major though and one that will not be as lucrative as yours) and while he feels he is getting an excellent education/experience, I often get buyers remorse because of the huge cost. So, apply broadly and make a decision with cost in mind. There are so many good schools out there.</p>
<p>Stuff like size is kind of a luxury consideration. Frankly, unless you attend a LAC, you’re unlikely to know more than a small percentage of the population, whether the school has 6000 or 15000 or 30000 undergrads while you’re likely to know many people in your department, regardless of the school size (a school like What should be of premium consideration is
Net cost.
Education and post-grad opportunities.</p>
<p>You seem to have a weak grasp on the net costs of your options and you need to work on that.</p>
<p>In terms of post-grad opportunities, reputation and all that, CMU and UofI are the same. Many other schools are also good in that respect.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus One thing to consider with MSOE, however, is that the scholarship is independent of grants and other aid. This was an award given purely on a merit basis. Additionally, I am working on an essay for their presidential scholarship, which gives a full ride to around five students in each incoming class. Given my statistics, I feel as though I have a decent shot at this. With CMU, however, the estimate I received was based only on aid, since their scholarships are very slim. Additionally, their tuition/room and board is significantly larger than MSOE. I honestly consider MSOE a safety school when you consider everything else that will come up when filing for financial aid with the school.</p>
<p>@PurpleTitan I completely understand what you’re saying. While it seems a luxury, size is actually quite important to me, mainly because I feel I would be dwarfed at the extremely large schools. I can honestly say I would not enjoy going to one of those 30,000+ population schools.</p>
<p>In terms of net cost options, it’s not necessarily that I have a weak grasp on them, it’s that I don’t find the available net price calculators reliable. Many of them ask for a limited amount of information, which makes it difficult to completely trust them to give an accurate estimate. I do agree though I will need to research even further to get a better idea. Thank you for the information!</p>
<p>When both merit scholarships and financial aid grants are awarded, they are not necessarily added. Some schools will use merit scholarships to replace student contribution (loans and work study), but others may simple substitute them for financial aid grants, meaning that the merit scholarships may not actually reduce the net price until they exceed the financial aid grants you would otherwise get. Also, not all merit scholarships “stack”, so, for some multiple merit scholarship situations, you may get only the largest one, not the sum of all of them.</p>
<p>In any case, it looks like MSoE is not assured to be affordable, so it should not be treated as a safety unless you actually do get the full ride (which should probably be considered a reach now). If you do not get the presidential scholarship at MSoE, then you may find yourself in April with no affordable schools to choose from, so you may be starting at community college (not necessarily bad, but could be a let-down if you had not planned on it being your safety).</p>
<p>Cooper Union. Olin. Also Webb, but they have a specialized curriculum.</p>
<p>Though even CU and Olin may be unaffordable to you. We still don’t know what your family can afford. @ucbalumnus is right. Come April, you may have no affordable options (though frankly, CC to UofI Engineering through their Pathways program isn’t a bad option).</p>
<p>As for size, all I can say is that 20 years after graduation, you’ll have a better perspective on what’s really important, and you would consider silly some things that seem really important to you now.</p>
<p>Thank you @PurpleTitan and @ucbalumnus for your input! I feel as though MSOE may be more affordable than the website makes it out to be (I have a friend who attends he told me many things about how their financial aid is done that makes it affordable). </p>
<p>I also have not mentioned yet, but one school that I’ve applied to is Iowa State University. I have been accepted already, and just need to submit my application to their Honors Program. Even though it is OOS, its tuition is still approximately the same as U of I’s for residents. I have already been offered their $6500 annual scholarship (although it should be $8000; I need to contact them), not including any other offers I may receive from them. </p>
<p>Evidently, I need to continue looking for more affordable options. Thank you all for your input!</p>
<p>Why don’t you run the NPCs for a number of schools and see what the expected contributions are from them? You know what you and your parents can pay, so you can see where the gaps are. It doesn’t matter what a school gives you in aid, scholarships, but what you end up having to pay and whether it’s doable.</p>
<p>What do schools like RPI, and other tech type schools say you should pay? If you come up with some schools that are close competitors, CMU will sometimes ante up more money to bridge the gap between their aid package and another. Not always, not necessarily complete, but they do this. So do look for some generous peer schools and throw them in the mix.</p>
<p>Iowa State is about $32,000 per year for non-Iowa residents. Minus the scholarship you already got, the price would be $24,000 to $25,500. Is that affordable for you and your family? If it is not affordable at that price, then you still need to look for other safeties.</p>
<p>If you need a really low cost safety, look in the list at <a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a> . In another thread, you mentioned a 33 ACT. If your GPA is high, then that makes schools like Alabama, Alabama - Huntsville, Tuskegee, Howard, Florida A&M, Lousisiana Tech, Temple, Prairie View A&M, and Utah State possibilities for large merit scholarships that can bring the price down to $15,000 or less. If you have National Merit status, also look here for those large scholarships which are automatic (not competitive) for your National Merit status.</p>