How will scholarship affect need based aid???

Paying for College
21

<p>You might not get $50k in scholarships/merit, but often the outside scholarships are taking away loans that you’d have to repay, and that’s always good. Many schools don’t cost $50k, so the smaller scholarships help more.</p>

<p>Say you have an EFC of $4000 so you’ll get some Pell money and loans. If you get a $5000 scholarship, yes, you may lose the ~$2000 Pell grant, but you still come out ahead.</p>

<p>Need based aid is just that - need based. If you take away the need with scholarships or earnings, you are paying your own way and I think you should feel good about that. And the fact is that need based aid is not very generous, and students almost always have a gap. Would I like it if the government offered to pay my daughter’s tuition? Sure, but they aren’t going to do that and are only going to offer loans, so I’d rather get scholarships/grants and not take the loans.</p>

22

<p>“But c’mon now. I’m rlly gonna find 50k in scholarships?”</p>

<p>From private sources for all four years? not likely…not even close.</p>

<p>But, you don’t have to attend a $50k school. </p>

<p>You seem to have an unaffordable EFC that you’re trying to reduce. </p>

<p>Your EFC is $15k. That’s about the cost of Room, Board, Books and Fees. </p>

<p>So, if you were to get a Full Tuition scholarship and take out a $5500 student loan, then your remaining costs would be under $10k. You can work/save over the summer and reduce that by another two thousand. You can work part-time during the school year for “pocket money.”</p>

<p>How much will your parents pay?</p>

<p>If that amount is much less than $10k, then you need to identify schools that will give you near free rides.</p>

<p>If that’s not possible, then you may have to commute to a local public…which MOST kids do.</p>

23

<p>"White Male, Resident of PA</p>

<p>Major: Civil Engineering</p>

<p>Weighted GPA: 97%
Rank: 24/445,</p>

<p>Honors classes:Algebra II, Trig/Precalc, Bio I, Chemistry
AP classes: Calc AB/BC, Bio II, English Language, English Literature, Physics B, Microeconomics
got a 4 on AP Bio Test</p>

<p>SAT: Total-1820 M-670 CR-590 W-560</p>

<p>Extracurriculars and Leadership:</p>

<p>Music Honor Society - Vice President
Jazz band - Section Leader
Marching Band - Section Leader (11), Drum Major (12)
Pep Band - Drum Major
Altar Server - Head Alter Server
Brass Ensemble
Recreational soccer
Recreational basketball as freshman
School basketball team as sophomore
National Honor Society
Math Tutor
“Mentor” at summer camp
“Buddy” at sports league for disabled kids
Member of relay for life team
Soccer Referee (job)</p>

<p>Applying to:
Penn State (and schreyer’s)
University of Delaware (and honors college)
Lehigh (Legacy)
Lafayette
Villanova
Bucknell
Hofstra
Syracuse
The College of New Jersey
"</p>

<p>??</p>

<p>I don’t know who advised you on your list, but none of these may be affordable if your family can’t pay the amount schools will expect them to pay.</p>

<p>UDel and CoNJ will not likely be affordable. You’re OOS and your test scores will not get merit. </p>

<p>Did you run the NPCs for these schools??</p>

<p>Did you apply to any PSU-branches near your home? </p>

<p>How much will your parents pay each year?</p>

24

<p>If the unweighted GPA >= 3.5, then there is an automatic full ride at Prairie View A&M:
<a href=“http://www.pvamu.edu/pages/2154.asp”>http://www.pvamu.edu/pages/2154.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>There may also be a decent automatic scholarship at Howard, if they have not run out yet (first come first served):
<a href=“http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Freshman”>http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm#Freshman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Yes, they both have ABET accreditation for civil engineering.</p>

25

<p>I suggest looking up the state schools in PA that have engineering. If any are within commuting distance, they could make nice financial safeties. Also please look at Manhattan College in NY. They do have some nice merit, an engineering program and a lower than usual sticker price for a private college.</p>

26

<p>The only PA state schools with civil engineering are Penn State, Penn State Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Temple. Additionally, the PA state schools tend to have high costs and poor financial aid, even for in-state students, so even commuting to one would be a financial stretch. Starting at a PA community college would be cheaper, but PA community colleges are not as cheap as in some other states (about $6,000-$7,000 tuition+books per year, not including living and commuting costs).</p>

<p>If the OP can get the full ride, Prairie View A&M is much more of a financial safety.</p>

27

<p>Guys I was really just complaining about the ridiculous price of college. The fact that I received an almost 100k scholarship over the course of 4 years and it still isn’t even half the cost is just mind blowing! I can’t even comprehend how much a 100k truly is. And yea as far as civil engineering goes, there really aren’t any cheaper schools. </p>

28

<p>And I’m not going to Texas</p>

29

<p>"I received a $24k merit scholarship from Hofstra University. However, the cost of attendance is $52,250. "</p>

<p>“Guys I was really just complaining about the ridiculous price of college. The fact that I received an almost 100k scholarship over the course of 4 years and it still isn’t even half the cost is just mind blowing! I can’t even comprehend how much a 100k truly is.”</p>

<p>" And yea as far as civil engineering goes, there really aren’t any cheaper schools."</p>

<p>Well, that’s not necessarily true. </p>

<p>What are your parents saying? How much will they pay? If they’ll pay the $20k+ per year for you to go to Hofstra, then great (this assumes that you’ll take out a $5500 student loan). If your parents won’t, then where will you go to college? What will you do? </p>

30

<p>I don’t even really care for Hofstra, I only applied because they waived my app fee, actually had my major, and figured it would be another option. And I don’t even know. All I know is I’m going to the cheapest school with aid. I applied to a few schools who said they will meet need, I just havn’t been accepted yet. I guess I just assumed (should rlly stop that) that any college that sells a degree for $200,000 must meet need based aid, and figured that this scholarship would mean my family and I would be paying very little. Up until now I didn’t know anything about Hofstra other than that it had my major, was in long island, and hosted one of the presidential debates</p>

31

<p>Also you said Udel probably won’t be affordable. My father’s boss keeps telling him if I can get into the honors program money isn’t much of an issue. Both of her son’s went there for engineering.</p>

32

<p>The middle quartiles of the UDel Honors College has a SAT 2040- 2200. Your SAT is an 1820, which would be low for the lower quartile. Since you’re not a URM, I doubt that you’d be admitted with your SAT.</p>

<p>That said, I don’t know what your dad’s boss is talking about. I don’t see where the HC awards merit money to its members.</p>

<p>However, since members of the HC do tend to have high stats, then that suggests that UDel is awarding those students merit for their high stats. I suspect that your dad’s boss doesn’t know what your SAT score is. The boss may only know about your GPA, but merit isn’t based on that. Maybe the boss is assuming that if you’re applying to the HC, then you must have high test scores, and therefore would get merit from the school.</p>

<p>Have you ran the NPC on UDel’s site? If so, what result did you get?</p>

33

<p>"And I don’t even know.</p>

<p>All I know is I’m going to the cheapest school with aid. </p>

<p>I applied to a few schools who said they will meet need, I just havn’t been accepted yet. I guess I just assumed (should rlly stop that) that any college that sells a degree for $200,000 must meet need based aid, and figured that this scholarship would mean my family and I would be paying very little."</p>

<p>Ok, so you don’t know how much your parents will pay. Please ask them NOW. This is very late to be finding out this info. What if they say $5k per year? If so, then your assumption that you’re going to the “cheapest school with aid” may not happen if that “cheapest school” costs $20k per year after aid. </p>

<p>No, most schools do NOT meet need. Most schools do NOT have much money to give away. There are plenty of expensive schools that will give little aid.</p>

<p>Another thing about your dad’s boss…that person may have a different opinion about “money not being an issue” for college. Maybe she thinks paying $30k per year isn’t much of an issue, but it would be for your dad. Or maybe her kids had 2200 SATs and got large merit. </p>

<p>Ask your parents NOW how much they’ll pay each year for college. You need to know that since your list is a bit scary if they can’t pay more than EFC.</p>

34

<p>OP, my niece is in the honors program at UDel and is an Engineering major. She gets no merit money, no financial aid. Her family EFC is slightly more that what UDel costs, and so, that took care of that in terms of financial aid. She works a few hours a week and summers for her spending and discretionary money, and takes out the Direct Loans each year as part of her contribution to the cost of college since she really wanted to go away to school rather than commute which she could have done and her family could have then paid it all. </p>

<p>None of us know for sure, what will be affordable, what schools will give you what. That will be determined when the offer letters arrive. It doesn’t really matter how much a school gives you, just by that bit of information. It depends upon how much the bottom line cost is going to be for each school. </p>

<p>Get a notebook. write the names of all of the schools that are on you list. Write out what their COAs are. Then write down how much in grants you get. When all of the grant money is on the table, subtract this out from what the final cost is, and that 's how much it will cost you and your family to go to that school. You can fund that with loans, work study possibly but the bottom line is that you have to come up with the money. Some schools will include work study and loans in your package, but leave them out when you are looking at bottom line costs. Loans are just future payments you have to make, and you and your parents will likely have loan options at any fo the schools. Direct Loans pretty much guarantees you $5500 freshman year.</p>

<p>As for outside scholarships, make sure you take into account whether they are renewable or not. Most aren’t. My one son got a nice little award that brought down the price of his school freshman year. Well, the cost went up sophomore year–school costs tend to do that, you know, and his award was only for one year, and that hike up really hurt,not to mention that upperclassmen housing cost more too. His sophomore year costs were the highest of all 4 years. (he moved off campus after that). </p>

<p>Just make sure you have some options that you know are affordable in your list. Can you commute to a state school, for example? Are there any private schools nearby that are within commutable distance that tend to give awards to kids from your high school? My one son got a full tuition award from a small Catholic school nearby which would have been his lowest cost option since even community college would have cost something in tuition and fees and this school would have been FREE in terms of tuition and fees even though their sticker price was more. That was his best cost deal. He did not apply to CCs or local state schools since he got that offer early on, and it was within price range even without the scholarship (it was a safety choice), so his next best deal was to go away to a state school without any awards. Anything else, even with awards, netted out more in costs.</p>

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</p>

<p>What’s wrong with the state of Texas, if there is a school there that will give you a full ride to study civil engineering, and nothing else is anywhere close?</p>

36

<p>“OP, my niece is in the honors program at UDel and is an Engineering major. She gets no merit money, no financial aid. Her family EFC is slightly more that what UDel costs, and so, that took care of that in terms of financial aid.”</p>

<p>I think that Boss’s kids have high stats and UDel (the univ, not the HC) awarded them merit money. The dad likely hasn’t shared his son’s test scores with his boss. The test scores are just too average for UDel to get merit. Frankly, they’re kind of low for eng’g.</p>

37

<p>Note that both of Delaware’s public universities are among the public schools with the highest average student loan debt. They are joined by many Pennsylvania public universities, which is not surprising, given that the Pennsylvania public universities’ in-state financial aid is quite poor.</p>

38

<p>Reguarding my SAT scores, I’ve told my dad that a million times an he’s just like “well your transcript will make up for it.” HA! And my dad and his boss are vice principal and principal respectively of an elementary school, the money isn’t that much different. Maybe them just having the title of “honor’s college” helped them receive outside scholarships? However you are correct in saying the boss’s children had much higher stats. My dad somehow thinks I’m just as good.</p>

<p>"No, most schools do NOT meet need. "
Lehigh, Lafayette, and Syracuse do.</p>

<p>There is nothing wrong with Texas, but I don’t want to live more than a few hours from home. Of course I also don’t want to live at home and be a commuter.</p>

<p>To cptofthehouse, I was planning on waiting for all the decisions and crunch the numbers when it comes time to do so.</p>

39

<h1>""No, most schools do NOT meet need. "</h1>

<p>Lehigh, Lafayette, and Syracuse do."</p>

<p>???</p>

<p>So? Those 3 schools do not make up most of the pricey schools in the US. Most of the $60k schools in the US do not meet need. </p>

<p>And, I don’t think Syracuse promises to meet need.</p>

<p>I doubt the principal’s kids got much at all in outside scholarships, besides, those are usually only for frosh year. </p>

<p>The “much higher stats” children likely got merit for their high test scores. Your dad likely hasn’t shared that with his boss. Or, maybe neither of them understand that test scores are what usually drives merit awards. </p>

<p>Your dad doesn’t seem to understand how most public univs work. Most don’t have very holistic admissions or merit. They tend to be very stats driven. </p>

<p>How come you haven’t asked your dad how much your family will pay each year? You need to know that. </p>

40

<p><a href=“http://syr.edu/financialaid/index.html”>http://syr.edu/financialaid/index.html&lt;/a&gt;
they do</p>

<p>and my point is that if they cover my need the spending 15k is better than the price without that need based grant.</p>

<p>“I doubt the principal’s kids got much at all in outside scholarships, besides, those are usually only for frosh year.” Why do you doubt this? and on a side note do you watch the show the middle? because that’s the only other place I’ve heard “frosh” lol</p>

<p>I have not asked because it’s not relevant at this time. It is to our understanding that each school will give a different amount of aid. Even the ones that guarantee to meet need, because they meet it as they define it. So when I finally know which colleges accepted me and what they give I will go to the cheapest one (unless they’re really close) regardless of what my parents plan on paying.
If my final cost of attendance at school A is $20,000 and school B’s cost is $15,000, regardless of if my parents plan on paying $15,000 or $15. School B will still be the cheaper choice. </p>