<p>Basically it tells you Carnegie Mellon has their own way of calculating your financial need. However, it doesn't quite tell you how EXACTLY it works.</p>
<p>My questions are:</p>
<p>1) For those who got accepted, how was your financial package compared to your EFC (expected family contribution)?</p>
<p>2) For those who got accepted through/know about early decision, do you get less financial aid applying through ED? (although the website claims that "While early decision students are not eligible to participate in this aid review process, we will meet their full demonstrated need as calculated by the university.") </p>
<p>if you think you can get in by ED, you’d be better off by applying RD and see what type of competitive FA you may get. This may sound cryptic, but it is how it works.</p>
<p>I’ll second that and put it another way: If you apply ED, CMU will usually meet your EFC. If you apply RD, CMU will usually match the offers of other schools. This is often a better deal, depending on those other offers. You’ll want to apply to at least one or two schools that you think will really, really want you.</p>
<p>Aid was not at all what I expected…EFC near 3800, yet have to take out close to 34K in loans a year? Hello, in-state school! I want as little as debt as possible. What a hype!</p>
<p>I got 40k in FA. 30k of it was grants. 4kish was work study/scholarship, and 5500 loan.</p>
<p>My EFC is 20k. 57k - 40k = 17k out of pocket. They did alright by me.</p>
<p>And no, I did not need to barter for this FA with other offers, since I didn’t get into the other school that could be used as a peer institution anyway.</p>