How do/did you plan on paying?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Notre Dame
1

I was accepted to ND REA. But, as everyone knows, ND is a very expensive school. Outside of financial aid, what did/will you do to make attending more affordable? What options are out there?

Thank you.

2

You can apply for outside scholarships, both nationally and locally. If your stats are good enough to have been accepted REA to ND, you’re probably a competitive candidate for at least some scholarship money. The more you apply for, the better your chances. Your local ND Alumni club might also offer scholarships. Other than that, you just have to crunch the numbers and see if it’s affordable for you. Although we had a college fund set aside, we could not comfortably afford ND without making some sacrifices. After much thought, we decided that ND was worth those sacrifices. Obviously, that might not be the right decision for every family.

3

@Jea828 Thanks for the response! As far as the scholarships, how many did you/your child apply for? How many did you win?

4

I would wait to hear back about FA: Notre Dame meets 100% of demonstrated need, and I personally found them to be very generous.

Also, the way most colleges deal with outside scholarships is important to look at. Say Notre Dame offers you 10k in loans+work study, and 20k in grant money. That leaves about 30K for your family to pay. If you start receiving outside scholarships, those are first deducted from your work-study, then your loans, then your grant. Therefore, after receiving 10k, until you get another 20k, It won’t actually change the amount your family is paying out of pocket, because for each dollar of outside scholarship, ND (or any college for that matter) will deduct that from your grant. This doesn’t apply to merit scholarship, only need.

Best of luck!

5

@EricJL My daughter only applied to local scholarships. Not sure how many total, but she won 4 or 5. It wasn’t a huge amount, but it’s definitely helped! I wish I had encouraged her to apply for a lot more, but hindsight is 20/20. Our EFC was too high for any financial aid, so IliketoFence’s point (which is a good one) wasn’t an issue for us.