<p>I'm a regular poster here but registered a new account to ask this question.</p>
<p>After I submitted my ED app to Johns Hopkins, I thought I was done with everything until decisions came out - it did not even cross my mind that I did not turn in a financial aid application, which was due Nov. 15 (this was 100% my fault, as I went through the application process largely on my own). </p>
<p>I did not realize this until I received my acceptance letter - along with the tuition cost of 50K a year. I believe my brother who is at Columbia applied but didn't receive any financial aid, but this year my parent's business has been slow, and I'm worried that they won't be able to pay the cost without going into debt.</p>
<p>So I come here for advice. Has anyone been in this situation before - would financial aid officers take pity and accept a month-late application? Should I be looking for outside sources of aid? I have decent test scores but below average grades and ECs, so I doubt I can get any substantial merit aid.</p>
<p>With 2 kids in college, you both may be eligible for some FA this year when your brother may not have been eligible last year (he should also apply for FA next year at Columbia).</p>
<p>The only way to find out is to contact the FA office at JHU this morning. Also start filling out the CSS profile and whatever other forms they requore. Be prepared to fax over copies of your parents W-2 and tax forms (allong with sending signed copies overnight mail).</p>
<p>I am surprised your parents didn’t tell you how much they could afford. They just left it up to you on how to finance a college? Did you even check off the box that ask you if you are applying for FA? You could very well have gotten into JHU because you didn’t need FA. My gut tells me that you wouldn’t be eligible for FA even if your parents’ business is slow this year. I am sure they have other assets that FA office would expect them to liquidate to pay for your tuition before they would give you any aid. I think your parents would have been a lot of proactive with your FA if they thought they were eligible.</p>
<p>I think the first thing for you to do is to have a conversation with your parents to get the full scoop. Ask them how they are planning to pay for your college. After that conversation, THEN contact JHU.</p>
<p>Make sure they do it NOW. Don’t wait for your sophomore year. At some schools, if you do not apply for institutional aid as a freshman, you cannot do so in subsequent years. I do not know if JHU is one of those schools.</p>
<p>Did your parents KNOW you were applying to JHU Early Decision? Have you accepted the offer of acceptance and withdrawn all you other applications? Do your parents know what you are doing or have done? </p>
<p>Please…sit down with them ASAP. AND as others have mentioned, call JHU and find out what they say. If you checked the box that said you were NOT applying for financial aid, that is a very different story than if you checked the box but didn’t complete the forms.</p>
<p>JHU will give you the answers you need…call ASAP…and also sit down with your parents and their financial info and submit the Profile ASAP.</p>
<p>I did not even address the parents because common sense who dictate that the family has already discussed the financial implications of applying ED (HA!!, in a fantasy world I know). I would also think that common sense again that OP & family realize that in exchange for an early decsion that the student commits to attend regardless of the money (it’s the holidays one can be hopeful)</p>
<p>Op should still talk to JHU because even if he is not eligible for institutional need based aid he may still be entitled to loans, which he cannot get unless he applies for FA.</p>
<p>I hope you have applied elsewhere as well. If the FA office refuses to provide financial aid and if you cannot afford JHU, you should be allowed to turn down JHU and apply elsewhere (and do so ASAP).</p>
<p>It shouldn’t be too late. The colleges shoud be very understanding that most people don’t receive their W-2 until late January. There were times I didn’t get my papers and tax forms in until late February (hah!). Register right now (especially if you have to do the FAFSA and CSS Profile). The financial aid offices should be open today and tomorrow.</p>
<p>Tenis…this is an ED applicant with an acceptance in hand. She/he did not fill out the priority Profile so they could get an estimated financial aid award with the acceptance. What you write is correct for RD applicants…but this kid need to know the finaid situation NOW…</p>
<p>Marite is right…but you will only be able to apply to public institutions that where cost is not an issue. Someone who backs out of an ED contract due to finances is not supposed to be able to apply to other more costly schools.</p>
<p>private institutions where merit aid might be available or where the applicant would be eligible for finaid (eg. family making less than $180k at Harvard) would be possibilities.</p>
<p>Marite, this student would be backing out of an ED agreement with Johns Hopkins. I don’t think the Ivies or similar competing schools would welcome an applicant who backed out of this agreement. Students who want to compare financial aid packages between schools should not apply in the ED round. When they apply, they are saying they WILL attend and the schools are making a commitment to them early as desired matriculants. </p>
<p>My understanding is that if you back out of ED for financial reasons, you cannot then turn around and apply to a bunch of similarly expensive schools. You COULD, however, apply to your own instate public.</p>
<p>I agree with others about talking to your parents first. They allowed you to apply ED and did not ask you to file for FA I assume (they would have had to have provided you with information for the forms). And it doesn’t sound like they told you that they can’t afford for you to go to JHU but simply that you are worried about that (and I commend you for your concern on behalf of your parents). You already got good advice and so I am not going to bother to repeat the same stuff. But I want to point out that just because parents can’t pay for college out of pocket from that year’s income or previous savings, doesn’t imply that they can’t afford to send you. You said you worry that they may have to go into debt. In my view, due to college being so expensive, it is reasonable to have to pay for it over time and so even if your parents don’t have the funds on hand in a given year, they may very well be able to pay it over time. We do that and many others do as well. Your parents can get Parent Plus Loans.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize the ED applicant was accepted into JHU.</p>
<p>Almost everyone has college debt nowadays. To graduate from college WITHOUT debt is for the lucky few and very rich. Many of the CC parents have college loan debt but they don’t regret sending their children to their first (or best) choice schools. Apply for the FAFSA immediately and send it to JHU so they can reconfigure your financial aid award.</p>
<p>NO!!! The FAFSA for next year is NOT available until January 1. If JHU requires the Profile for ED priority financial aid consideration, THAT is what should be done ASAP. It is available for submission now (and has been since late October).</p>
<p>Yikes, I’m sorry. Follow the directions for ED Applicants (I admit I was an RD applicant and we had to do both years ago). If they request the Profile, do that immediately.</p>
<p>“Almost everyone has college debt nowadays. To graduate from college WITHOUT debt is for the lucky few and very rich. Many of the CC parents have college loan debt but they don’t regret sending their children to their first (or best) choice schools.”</p>
<p>Very true. Even middle class students who for financial reasons had to pass up their first choice private colleges and go to in state publics graduate with debt – or their parents carry debt for them to attend college.</p>
<p>I know very few families who don’t take on debt for their kids to go to college. After all, college is a major purchase – even much more costly than a car. Most people take on debt to buy cars, so of course they have to do the same to pay for college.</p>
<p>My parents told me during the college application process that they would be able to afford any college - which isn’t to say that we couldn’t use any financial aid at all, just that it’s not drastic to the point where I would have to withdraw my ED acceptance if we don’t receive any.</p>
<p>On my application, I checked “will not apply for FA”. It was the default choice and it did not catch my attention when I was submitting my app (which is again, my fault).</p>
<p>My family has some assets - three houses (two rented out), two cars, etc. I’d like to say this is a lot but I’m not sure. I believe they said last year’s income was 100k. My brother will be out of college the same year I enter college, so there will never be two concurrent tuitions, if that matters.</p>
<p>I will contact FA offices today. Thanks for the advice everyone. My dad told me not to worry about it, but if there’s any chance for some aid I want to take it.</p>
<p>those 2 rented out houses… those count as assets on the Profile.
and the rental income counts in there somewhere too (as income?)</p>
<p>If you don’t file a fafsa, you can’t even get an unsubsidized stafford loan (max for freshman is 5500), you don’t have to have demonstrated need to get it.</p>