<p>I doubt that because “multi-year outside scholarships” are usually only for lowish-income students. A principal’s children would not be low income…especially if their dad is employed as well. </p>
<p>MOST outside scholarships are for ONE year only…frosh year. And, most are for rather small amounts. </p>
<p>Syracuse “strives” to meet the full need. That is not a promise to meet 100% of need.</p>
<p>And, according to Collegeboard, they don’t meet 100% need on average. They do seem to do well with need, but not meet 100% of need. </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.</p>
<p>** 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>
<p>In one of your earlier posts, you said that you need to stop assuming…well, you need to stop assuming…</p>
<p>If your parents will only pay $15 and the “cheapest school” that accepts you costs $15,000, then how will YOU pay the nearly $15,000?</p>
<p>YOU can only borrow $5,500. Where will you get the almost other $10,000??? </p>
<p>You’ve assumed that it isn’t relevant to ask them at this time. It is relevant. You seem to be assuming that you can borrow a lot of money. YOU can’t. And, most parents won’t cosign. Since you haven’t talked this over with your parents, you don’t know if they will cosign (which is a bad idea and bad risk anyway.)</p>
<p>If your parents pay $15 and your school has a net price of $15,000, that is beyond what a student is typically expected to be able to self-fund ($10,000 is the outside edge of that, from $5,500 of federal direct loans and $4,500 in work earnings).</p>
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<p>You might not be in a position to be that picky about location, given your financial constraints.</p>
<p>“bman4jets wrote:
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>
<p>but you won’t be able to go to EITHER school if you don’t have the money. That’s why you need to ask your parents how much they’ll pay.</p>
<p>Your thinking is rather naive. If I only have $10,000 to buy a car, but I go out and look at 15 cars and the cheapest one is $20,000, that does NOT mean that I have to spend $20,000…because I don’t have $20,000. That means that I was looking at cars that I cannot afford. That means that my list was wrong. I need a different list.</p>
<p>If I went out and looked at cars without EVEN KNOWING how much I can spend, then that would be very naive. What if I only looked at Lexus, BMW, Acura and Jaguar…and then found out…oops…I only have $10,000??? Do I buy the “cheapest one” because it’s the cheapest one out of THOSE cars? No. </p>
<p>Your list was poorly advised. You may end up with no affordable schools if your parents won’t pay. Then it could mean commuting to a local public, starting at a CC, or taking a gap year and applying again to more affordable schools. </p>
<p>Poorly advised? No one really advised me. I told my guidance councelor my list of shools an he’s like “sounds good, sure you dont want to apply to an ivy?” And who says I can’t take out 10k in loans if I rlly want to. And it’s not like my parents are only going to pay pennies, mainly because they’re always like it’ll work out. Plus I have a decent college fund. </p>
<p>"And who says I can’t take out 10k in loans if I rlly want to. "</p>
<p>uh…the lenders. Do you think banks loan money to young people who don’t have incomes to justify? You can’t borrow that much by yourself. You’re too much of a risk.</p>
<p>Your FA pkgs will already have full loans in them. That’s what you can borrow. If you have uncovered gaps or uncovered EFC, then lenders aren’t going to lend you the money. </p>
<p>But, if you have a decent college fund then super. Our responses have been because you’ve acted like you have no idea how much your family can spend because you haven’t thought it was necessary at this time. </p>
<p>I’m glad that your parents have said that they will work it out. I hope they’re not doing the same magical thinking that thinks that your “transcript will make up for” your SAT. </p>
<p>I forgot to answer…the word “frosh” has been around for many, many decades…even before I was born which was over 50 years ago. I’m surprised that you thought it was rather new. Many schools refer to their grade 9/10 football and basketball teams as frosh/soph teams. </p>
<p>BTW…does your mom work, too? I think you’re going to find that your EFC is more than $15k per year …unless you have sibling(s) in college.</p>
<p>she does work. my EFC is actually around 17k. and im the oldest of 4 soooo I’ll be the first for the generation.</p>
<p>regarding the lender stuff, my economics has been saying “Have you ever heard of someone getting denied a student loan?” in making a point about why the cost of college is so high (his answer obviously being no). If my thinking is naive it’s because it’s based off of what everyone around me is telling me.</p>
<p>Loans have to be repaid. Graduating with a lot of debt will constrain your options (e.g. you may have to take the highest paying job offered, instead of a lower paying one that will develop your career better, or you may have to take the first job offered instead of waiting for a better one) and reduce the amount of your pay that you have available for saving, spending, or anything else.</p>
<p>Also, student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.</p>
<p>Loans co-signed by your parents (likely required for amounts greater than the federal direct loan amount) become their debt if you are unable to repay them (if you become disabled and unable to work, for example).</p>
<p>“my economics has been saying “Have you ever heard of someone getting denied a student loan?” in making a point about why the cost of college is so high (his answer obviously being no). If my thinking is naive it’s because it’s based off of what everyone around me is telling me.”</p>
<p>do you mean that your economics teacher said that? Nearly no one is denied for Stafford Direct Student Loans, which are the ones that I mentioned above. But those are for SMALL amounts. For frosh year, you can borrow $5500 and not get denied.</p>
<p>PLENTY of people are denied for student loans that are for larger amounts. PLENTY. And…those require cosigners.</p>
<p>So, an economics teacher gave misleading info. Don’t know how that is “everyone” around you. </p>
<p>Since your parents have three other children to consider, it would be very dangerous for them to cosign your loans. Those loans would still be outstanding when the younger kids go to college. That wouldn’t be fair to them. </p>
<p>If your dad is an ass’t principal and your mom works, then your EFC seems too low. With four kids with college funds, and two parents working, your EFC seems like it should be much higher. </p>
<p>Please ask your parents how much they’ll pay each year. Does each child have a college fund or is all the money in one account? If you have your own acct, then if you divide it by four, how much can be put towards each college year? If all kids’ money is together, then you need to find out how much can be spent on you.</p>
<p>I guess I’m missing where you think the extra money will come from. Using your example that Hoffstra costs $50k and it has offered you $25k, you need $25k more. It is unlikely you’ll get any need based aid (from any school). If you take out $5,500 in loans, and your parents pay $15k, you need $4,500. Yes, out of your pocket, from working. An alternative is to try to get $5k in scholarships. That is do-able. There are private engineering scholarships, Elks club, high school, department at college.</p>
<p>A different school might only give you $10k, then you’d need $40k to attend. If you get no Pell grants, state grants, etc., you still have the same $5500 in your loans, $15k from your parents, and you need $19.5k from YOUR pocket. How? Parent plus loans, more scholarships. Less likely you can do it.</p>
<p>My daughters were told I would pay $15k each, as that’s about what an in-state school would cost. One chose a very inexpensive OOS school, got $5k in scholarships, working toward another $3k (but she’ll have to borrow if she doesn’t get it), and my $15k gets her R&B, tuition. She has to pay for books and expenses from her earnings. Second daughter picked a school that is $51k. She’s received $37k from the school, $6.8k in outside scholarships and grants, so only needs $7.2k from me (yes, I’m ‘saving’ $7.8k on this school over a state school). They get no need based aid.</p>
<p>You didn’t want suggestions that you look at the schools that provide full tuition because they aren’t near your home. That’s a choice, but it’s going to cost you. You’ll either have to pay more or get more in scholarships. You asked how scholarships will affect your need based aid, and the answer is it is unlikely you’ll get need based aid at any of the schools you listed but you can certainly try. If they don’t give enough in merit aid, you’re going to be in debt or have to pick another school.</p>
<p>OP, as I said before, your FAFSA EFC is likely to be the very least your family is going to have to pay. No school guarantees to meet full need according to FAFSA (if anyone knows of one, please share that info with me), so that’s a minimum for you right there, that is likely to be exceeded, since most schools that do guarantee to meet full need and tend to meet a high percentage of need also use PROFILE or other calculators that come up with even higher contribution requirements from the parent/student. So that FAFSA EFC is usually the rock bottom cost unless a huge merit award or a very low cost college comes into play. When you are looking at living at school and at private colleges, it’s hard to pay less than EFC when it’s at the level yours is.</p>
<p>AS for Syracuse, Lafeyette and Lehigh meeting full need, where they heck did you get such notions? They do not guarantee, nor meet 100% of everyone’s need. Lehigh doesn’t even meet full need for half of their students and that’s by their own definition, not FAFSA EFC based definition of need. </p>
<p>As for UDel HC giving you some nice money, good for you if it happens. The same if you get a big fat merit award from anywhere. People sometimes do win the lottery. I just would not count on it. Make sure you have some affordable schools, likely to take you and with a program that is close to what you want–you aren’t necessarily going to get exactly what you want, you know, even those who pay full don’t always get that, If a school comes up with the money, then you are lucky and good to go. You want to make sure you have some options if that does not happen.</p>
<p>“AS for Syracuse, Lafeyette and Lehigh meeting full need, where they heck did you get such notions? They do not guarantee, nor meet 100% of everyone’s need.”</p>
<p>Lafayette certainly guarantees to meet 100% of need. As with any CSS school, it’s probably their own determination of need, but they still promise to meet it. Their website is pretty clear about this. Lafayette also regularly appears in Full Need lists. </p>
<p>HYPS meet need using a definition of need that requires additional forms beyond FAFSA. Note that they all do have a student contribution as well.</p>
<p>Universities of California meet need based on FAFSA only for California residents only. Yes, they do have a student contribution as well.</p>
<p>Common Data sets say that Lafayette meets full need for 80 something % of their students whic is very good, but not 100%. THat is need as they define it too. I was a bit surprised that Lafayette meets more need than Lehigh does, as I thought Lehigh was more generous. Perhaps they have just begun to do this. </p>
<p>I’ve edited to add:</p>
<p>Very interesting about Lafayette, in that they do guarantee to meet full need (as they determine it) for all students who MEET THEIR DEADLINES And about 15-20% of the kids do not as they do not get full need met. They have a Jan 15 PROFILE deadline, A Feb 15 FAFSA deadlne, and a March 5 deadline for Fed returns to be reported through IDOC. We talk about what the penalties can be if one doesn’t meet deadlines as the schools set them. Well we can see that pretty clearly right here at Lafayette. </p>
<p>So if OP wants full need met by Lafayette, the PROFILE had better be filed by now, the FAFSA be filed in another week and those tax returns need to be done and IDOC completed by March 5. </p>
<p>However, need defined by PROFILE is not need as defined by FAFSA. Looking at the Lafayette aid profile, there will be self help in the package, loans and work study, so the Direct loans and some work hours during the school year will not be able to go to the expected contribution. My guess is that the PROFILE expected contribution will be higher that the FAFSA EFC and there will be a student contribution in the mix as well. OP should do a NPC from Lafayette’s web site which would likely come up with some reasonably accurate breakdowns of the expected aid package from them. </p>
<p>"Common Data sets say that Lafayette meets full need for 80 something % of their students "</p>
<p>Where did you get the 80%? Anyhow, that’s not the relevant number. It’s not the percentage of all students getting their need met that makes a school full need. It’s the average percentage of need met for students that have need. </p>
<p>The 2013-2014 Common Data Set for Lafayette, H2(i):
“On average, the percentage of need that was met of students who were awarded any need based aid: 98.7%”</p>
<p>Yes applicants have to meet deadlines. Yes Lafayette uses its own definition of need (as do most full need schools, which has been pointed out repeatedly here). But students with need getting 98.7% of their need met on average, is pretty darn close to “full need” in my view.</p>
<p>Anyway, splitting hairs isn’t the point; it was to show you where a student would “get such notions” that Lafayette is full need. They would get it based on reading Lafayette’s website, looking at Lafayette’s CDS and reading any number of full need lists that include Lafayette.</p>