<p>My D was accepted and wants to attend. We too love the school. But, I am struggling to understand how we will send her. We both work and so according to the FAFSA formula we can afford it - something I have never understood - do they expect us to sell our house? we can't use the $ in o ur 401K plan thru work - etc. We do not live in the states that participate in the MEFA schoalrships or whatever it is AND of all the schools she applied to, this is the only one where she was offered NOTHING for merit/ academics. At all other highly-selective schools she was offered 15-18K per year.
Does HC not have academic $ to give ?- I only found about 3 or4 scholarships mentioned on their site and seeemd to be for minorities and specific criteria that we do not meet. Also, is the only athletic $ available for basketball? ( looked that way on their site).
Do only students from wealthy families go here?</p>
<p>Holy Cross was the school I really wanted to go to, too. My parents saw my financial aid before I did, and when they approached me about it, they said that it would all "work out." Needless to say, I am certaintly not rich, but I got an Ok amount of scholarship money. Still, I will have plenty to pay in loans when I get out, and my parents are working extra just so I can go (which makes me feel absolutely horrible). Did they not give you ANY aid at all?</p>
<p>I do think they aren't too big on aid. My boyfriend got nearly all expenses paid (tuition and room and board) to Brandeis, Bowdoin, and Williams, but just got a normal financial aid package from Holy Cross.</p>
<p>HC has VERY little money allocated for merit based scholarships. Personally, the higher the school is, the more it makes sense. I mean, at a certain point, how do you decide who gets a scholarship when deciding between so many well-qualified apps with excellent reccs or whatever. Most of the scholarships are one or two for very specific goals/achievements. So.....unless you play the organ, and want to do that for for years and work like crazy to be good at being the college organist (seriously, that's a scholarship) then non-need based aid isn't too likely. Anyways, they're usually not bad with need-based stuff....me being a prime example. Well, my family's EFC was VERY low, so I suppose that's not too surprising, but yeah. Best bet is probably to call financial aid. I know my dad is working with them and has so far been very happy with the way they're treating the situation. If nothing else the financial aid office can help you plan things and decide.
Hope things work out...at HC, if that's where she wants to go haha.
Best of luck,
Taylor</p>
<p>My daughter is finishing up freshman year at Holy Cross. We also did not qualify for ANY financial aid, even after I spoke at length about it with the Financial Aid office and let them know it might make a difference in whether she attended or not. It was painful to us as parents to turn down substantial academic scholarships from a couple of other really great schools, especially since we have two other children close in age. But.. Holy Cross was the school she really, really wanted to go to so we've made some adjustments. New furniture will have to wait, exclusive family vacations will have to wait, etc, etc. The only thing that makes it easier to swallow is knowing how very happy she is at the school. She's had a great year and I wouldn't trade that for anything. As far as I know only a very small percentage of students qualify for merit scholarships and they have to be truly outstanding since everyone who goes to that school is academically gifted. Good Luck</p>