I’m really not a regular on Q/A sites like this, but I see how helpful this community is and I hope that someone can assist me.
Okay, I just graduated high school and I’m heading to Pomona College as a Freshman in the fall. My parents make a total of about $92,000 a year. My bill from Pomona is $9,900 (about half room+board) with $2800 in student employment which if I meet will still leave me with $7100 a year to pay off. I think college is my responsibility so I expect to pay it off myself.
I want to understand if my financial aid offer is reasonable. The college’s tuition is expensive as hell, and I’m not paying at all for it, but I want to understand if relative to my family’s income if that is a good deal.
I’m hoping to enter the medical field and be a charity trauma surgeon which might not pay the bills very well what with all the travels and working in impoverished areas. However, I plan on completing a CNA program over the summer for free due to Hurricane Harvey, before attempting to acquire VN certification to use during my gap year before medical school. I provide this information as I understand that all debt is relative to the program u study.
Also, i have high stats like : top 11% 35 ACT, and I want info on public college offerings, but I understand that the merit scholarships end up being incorporated into the aid you get which mean that there really isn’t that big of a boost.
I was also admitted to Amherst which offered me aid until about $9100 with student employment of $2500 so $6600, but I made friends so fast at Pomona that I just felt to go there.
Lastly,I tried major scholarships, but I was denied to all except one which I used to buy this laptop, so that money is gonna have to be my blood money.
Again, thanks and I hope that this site continues.
The cost of Pomona is about $70,000 a year. Are you saying that you received about $60,000 in grants to attend Pomona? Your balance being under $10,000?
Your parents earn $90,000 plus a year.
The amount Pomona is asking your family to contribute is your family contribution and frankly…this is an excellent offer for a family with a $90,000 income.
You, the student, can take a $5500 Direct Loan for the year. That means you only have $4500 left to cover.
Get a summer job and you should be able to earn $1000 or so.
Now you are down to $3500.
Are you saying your parents can’t or won’t contribute to college…at all?
It’s a little late to be looking for more money from other colleges now for fall 2018 enrollment. If you had wanted to look at less costly options, that should have been done LONG ago.
Other than the $2800 work study, what WAS your Pomona award? All grants? Loans? What?
I got 59,600 in grant money. Pomona doesn’t package loans, but I qualify for the $5500 Direct loan.
My parents are disappointed, because they expected me to go to college for free with my grades, but I failed them so I’m gonna have to foot the bill. I could probably have gotten really good merit aid at a local college, but I only applied to 12 super selective colleges and got admits from 2 and waitlists from 2.
Colleges do not expect students to cover the cost on their own these days. They give you FA based on both yours and your parent’s income and assets. Every school does their own calculations, which is why the offers varies. The colleges don’t see it as all your responsibility (I am not sure why you do, either – you don’t give any reasons why your parents can’t contribute a few thousand dollars a year). If they expected free college, then you should have taken a different path at schools with guaranteed merit. As it is, you are getting a GREAT deal at Pomona. Many of your classmates are paying far more per year than you are (and some of them, at full pay, are probably helping cover your expenses). So no… I don’t think you have anything to complain about. And your parents are kinda being jerks if they think this is a bad deal, honestly.
You have your work study job, you can borrow federal loans of $5,500/year, and you should be able to come up with summer earnings of ~$2-3K if you hustle.
You didn’t fail your parents. You have gotten great grades and scores which allowed you to even be accepted to selective schools like Pomona and Amherst.
Each college determines need based aid differently, and not all meet 100% need.
You received a lot of aid considering your parent income.
Amherst has much deeper pockets and more generous need based aid than Pomona. That’s why Amherst cost less.
Will your parents pay $4000 a year for you to attend college? If not, where is that money going to come from? Remember, you won’t receive work study money until you work and earn it…like any other job.
Will your parents co-sign a loan for the remaining costs…because! If not, you won’t be able to get a loan to cover what the Direct Loan doesn’t cover…about $4000 or so.
Completely free rides are not very common…at all. Even if you got a full tuition scholarship someplace, you still would have had living costs (room and board) to pay.
Even at schools that give full need based rides, there is usually a student contribution which can be several thousand dollars.
What exactly do your parents expect you to do NOW? If you have accepted the admission at Pomona, you have a few choices.
Attend Pomona and come up with that additional family contribution (which frankly for need based aid would have been about the same in a lot of places).
Take a GAP year and apply again to far less selective schools in hopes of getting a full ride...but keep in mine...there are few schools that have guaranteed awards like this even with your stats.
Talk to your parents. Find out what they are thinking you should be doing in the fall.
That expectation would be valid for lower prestige (relative to Amherst and Pomona, not trying to offend anyone here) schools that actually give out full rides based on stats.
Sticker price is not the price you’re buying at. Think about it this way: when one buys a car, no one buys it at the MSRP. Everyone haggles with the salesperson to bring the price down.
As @thumper1 has said, you have a very good offer from Ponoma.
Most highly selective colleges/universities give little to no merit. They primarily give financial aid help. For your costs to be so low, that’s a very very generous package. Your parents may not realize that most highly selective colleges don’t give merit.
Pomona did well by you.
At this point, it is what it is since it is June. Is your actual bill from Pomona going to be $9900 or is that your full cost of attendance? If you are going to be billed $9900 and your parents won’t help, how will you pay it? You can’t use work study toward the bill. Plus you need money for books, travel, and living expenses, but the $2800 may be able to cover that.
Hopefully the $9900 includes everything, otherwise you need to be able to save $4400 this summer to make it happen. Is that possible?
It seems like your parents would be thrilled. You are attending a great college and if you assume the responsibility of the loan and work study it will only cost them $4400 a year to house, feed, and educate you. How is that not an incredible deal?
If this student has a $9900 total bill and takes the $5500 Direct Loan…there is a balance of $4400 and who is going to pay for THAT…if the parents won’t.
My parents really only know schools like HYPS, because they’re not from here. So when I got denied, they told me to look at a local colleges like Texas Tech that they believe would give me a full ride. I really like Pomona though.
My parents will probably help with miscellaneous stuff, but they’ve been really clear about the whole Pomona bill thing which is not the coa.
Even Houston Baptist University isn’t going to give me a full ride. I don’t feel special enough for one of those.
This is really sad. I wish you had been on CC 6 months ago because you would have received a lot of great advice. Your parents do know that your FA would have been similar at HPYS, correct? Or do they feel those are the only schools worth a contribution?
Do you have any savings? Graduation gifts? Grandparents willing to help? How much can you earn this summer? Will your parents loan you money? What do they want you to do at this point?
Is this projection or are your parents actually balking at paying the 5K a yr or so? Sit down, ask the question, don’t be dramatic about your paying for what you actually can’t pay for. Also what is the free CNA training? Do you have a link for that? Does is use CC classes? Will that affect your freshman status at your college? Make SURE this is acceptable.
The problem is that you have to pay the bill in August so you will need $2200 by then plus money to get you started with books, airfare, misc. before you even start your work study job. 20 hours per week is also pretty unrealistic as a premed at a school like Pomona, especially for a freshman.
your parents financial expectations of US colleges is utterly unrealistic.That is NOT your fault.
instead of asking you to go a decidedly inferior college like Texas Tech, they should be bursting at the seams with pride AND gratitude that you were accepted at Pomona AND that your college education will be so affordable.
Just ask them to lend you 4400 / year and tell them you will pay them back.
Surely they can do that.
graduating from Pomona will enable you to be JUST as successful AND employable as graduating from HYPS.
well done!!!