<p>Can more graduated seniors post where they will attending and how much aid they received to show that college can be less expensive than you think. Thanks all:)</p>
<p>Are you talking about need based FA?</p>
<p>If so, posting just the school and FA received is totally irrelevant without also posting financial information, family (parents ages, # of siblings, etc.) and other factors taken into account in determining FA.</p>
<p>Also, posting just the schools students are ATTENDING is by definition biasing reporting towards your purpose of demonstrating that, “college can be less expensive than you think”, because people won’t be posting all of the schools they’re NOT ATTENDING because they can’t afford them. And in addition, don’t forget all of the schools that students DON"T even apply to because they and their parents are informed enough to recognize that they will not be able to afford to attend even if they are accepted.</p>
<p>True, but I think the OP is just trying to make the case that students shouldn’t necessarily be scared off of a college by the sticker price alone. In our case, we could not possibly have paid the official COA – and we aren’t. Through a combination of scholarships, grants, work study, and federal loans, we are only paying about 1/3 of that figure.</p>
<p>Well, regardless of the purpose, I’ll just say:
- Attending UArizona, getting $60k for National Merit + $1k book scholarship + $5k outside scholarship. [I’m paying $1500 per year, and that’s mostly just my mealplan.]
- Accepted at Yale, could have covered it with outside scholarships but didn’t go for reasons unrelated to cost.</p>
<p>None of the aid I got was need-based, by the way. I qualified for it, but scholarships ended up covering everything without loans or anything else. I could pay for college out of my own pocket if my family didn’t want to.</p>
<p>I’m attending Arizona State University getting $23,000 a year National Merit Scholarship, but with OOS tuition, so I (well, my parents) pay around $8,000 a year, total, and all that towards room and board. I do not qualify for need based aid.</p>
<p>What good things can you tell me about Arizona?</p>
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<p>Yes, but did you reach that point by researching college FA policies and running EFC calculators or by reading about what great deals other people got regardless of their financial situation?</p>
<p>Each year on this forum we see the result of the point that the OP is making…kids who got into but can’t afford their schools (swallows to Capistrano syndrome).</p>
<p>I’m also attending Arizona State Univeristy and I’m on 15k/year national merit scholarship, I have 2 other private scholarships, and 1 from the government. I end up receiving a little more than 4k a semester in refunds from the school. </p>
<p>I also could’ve gone to Washington and Lee in Virginia or Brown University for between 2k-5k a year, but couldn’t make myself leave the Pac-10.</p>
<p>My D is attending a public college; with grants, she is paying about 20% of the tuition, room and board cost (about $3600). She also pays for books and any needed supplies, clothing, etc., and works 10 hours a week in a bookstore near the college.</p>
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<p>Maybe those who are posting what they got thru “need” F/A should also post their EFCs (and possibly family income), so that others whose families are more affluent aren’t misled into thinking that those sources are available for them, too.</p>
<p>LOL…I’ve never heard that swallows analogy…is that from a past thread???</p>
<p>That’s why I’m a believer in…Love thy (financial) safety.</p>
<p>From long time member, curmudgeon:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/492777-swallows-capistrano-financial-aid-myths-realities.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/492777-swallows-capistrano-financial-aid-myths-realities.html</a></p>
<p>Yes, I keep trying to tell people that while admissions safeties are important, financial safeties are essential.</p>
<p>I think this is a valuable thread. I wish that we had had such a thread available to us last year when we were in the thick of the application/decision process.</p>
<p>My daughter is attending the University of Miami</p>
<p>$16,000.00 a year Dean’s Scholarship (3.96 UW GPA 4.42W GPA, 2100 SAT)</p>
<p>EFC = $3,990.00</p>
<p>Total aid (with scholarship) = $39,740.00, which includes $3,000.00 work study and $5,000.00 in loans. </p>
<p>She also received about $5,000.00 in private scholarships.</p>
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<p>You did. At the top of this forum are 2 merit aid sticky threads that were started in 2005 & 2006. There is no school mentioned in this thread that as not already been extensively discussed in those threads as well as many others on NMS, etc.</p>
<p>SVMmom…</p>
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<p>$16,000.00 a year Dean’s Scholarship (3.96 UW GPA 4.42W GPA, 2100 SAT)</p>
<p>EFC = $3,990.00</p>
<p>Total aid (with scholarship) = $39,740.00, which includes $3,000.00 work study and $5,000.00 in loans. </p>
<p>She also received about $5,000.00 in private scholarships. <<<</p>
<p>Congrats to your D! I hope she’s having fun at Miami!</p>
<p>What else did your D receive? If I add up what you’ve listed, I think I only see $33,000 accounted for (scholarship + EFC + work/study + loans + private scholarship). What was the source of the rest of the F/A money so that she’d end up receiving $39,740? Was the other F/A given to her as some kind of institutional grant money, fed grant money, or other?</p>
<p>It’s nice to see that someone with a rather low EFC managed to get such a nice package to cover all the costs 
I wonder how her package would have been if her stats had not been so high?</p>
<p>My son is attending Northwestern. He received a NU scholarship (grant) for about $32,000. My son took $7,500 in loans ($2,000 perkins, $5500 in Stafford), mom and dad took a $12,500 parent plus loan. Our EFC was $14,500 and our AGI was $85,000. He paid for books, computer and such from savings - not loans.</p>
<p>Entomom</p>
<p>You are right. For some reason I always just go right past the sticky threads and forget to look at them!</p>
<p>^Yes, that happens a lot. They really have some great information, but often get very long which keeps people from wanting to wade through them. Sometimes just reading the first couple of pages really helps.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids</p>
<p>She got the following:</p>
<p>$16,000.00 Dean’s Scholarship
$5,000.00 In Subsidized Stafford and Perkins loans
$3,000.00 Work Study
$4750.00 From Pell Grant, Acad Comp Grant, and Supp Ed. Opp Grant from Feds, total
$3,000.00 UM Founder’s Grant
$8,000.00 UM Kay Unrestricted Scholarship
$5,000.00 Various local scholarships </p>
<p>Total of $44,750.00</p>
<p>We were very pleased with this generous package from Miami. I do believe that her stats and applying Early Action were factors in producing such a favorable award. </p>
<p>I do not know what next year’s award will bring. I am afraid we might all be in for a shock as that will be the first year where the economy will really come into play.</p>