<p>Forget BU, there financial aid service is horrible. It takes them two months to work out whether i’m a US citizen after repeated efforts on my part and when they finally get that done i get a message saying they have no more funds to give me. Haha, guess who’s not going to BU next year?</p>
<p>Great article. I am surprised at how little aid they gave the family with the widow and the family with $22K annual income. </p>
<p>I found it interesting that they rate the students on desirability. I’m not surprised but it’s the first time I’ve seen a financial aid office admit to that.</p>
<p>Old Yesterday, 09:58 PM #15
hmom5
Senior Member</p>
<p>Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 4,602</p>
<p>The 2 things about the story that I found my interesting were:</p>
<p>-That they gave more to half that appealed
-That ‘more’ was between $500 and $2K, a drop in the bucket for most.
hmom5 is offline Report Problem Post Reply Reply </p>
<p>==</p>
<p>The $500 to $2k dollar gap was interesting.</p>
<p>I can’t speak about this year, but in recent years BU has given very good merit aid to lure good applicants away from more academically prestigious schools. It’s no longer a possibility for the financially challenged.</p>
<p>That should be required reading for all posters who whine about how easy poor kids have it.</p>
<p>This is why I don’t like BU (this, and the fact that I’m a BC eagle). BC’s financial aid might be terrible for people with means, at least it tries to take from the rich and give it to the needy. BU takes from everybody and gives it to the over-tested (“Did your parents just spend $4000 to improve your SAT score by 300 points? Well here’s some cash to say we love it.”)</p>
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<p>Agreed.</p>
<p>Although much of this article was interesting, Boston isn’t sneaky about this. They even send you a financial aid/merit aid matrix if you request information, as someone else stated. I wasn’t surprised at how much the widow got, though. She gets $22,000 per year PLUS $100,000 a year in Social Security, AND equity and savings. It was pretty fair. Income isn’t everything. I don’t understand the equity thing, but everything else is fair game.</p>
<p>I did look at BU’s web site and they WERE very upfront about aid awards. Unless you are a top scorer, forget about getting any money, need or no need.</p>
<p>I guess that’s why I object to calling Financial Aid AID when its really a recruitment tool.</p>
<p>The widow’s annual income is $57K ($37K wages and $20K soc security). Her total savings is $100K and home equity. That’s for 4 people, including 3 kids. The social security income will probably go down when the oldest enters college. (I believe survivor benefits are until age 18yo or 19yo if in high school.) I have trouble seeing how they could afford $16K + loans unless she has separate retirement savings. </p>
<p>The family that earns $22K was not only gapped $16K, but was given $11K in loans and work-study which is high with that low an income. </p>
<p>Idk… I had been thinking of BU for my son in a few years because he’s a musician, but this certainly puts it in another light. I’ve never looked at their fin aid website until now. It <em>is</em> very clear-- clearer than many schools. </p>
<p>Last year, my daughter applied to a bunch of lacs, most of which meet full need. One of her colleges was an academic safety but not a financial safety since it doesn’t meet full need and isn’t need blind. My daughter was a strong candidate for the school (stats over 75% and urm) but we have a lot of need and I was scared it would affect admission. Not only did she get admitted, but the school offered her a no-loans package and it’s not a no-loans school. We were very impressed. Truth be told, she loved the school-- but she did get into schools that were stronger academically. The same school not only rejected her friend (it should have been a match and the student was a poster child for this college’s typical kid) but never even responded to another friend’s application. (That school was a reach for that friend.) The treatment the 3 got was very different.</p>
<p>BU doesn’t meet 100% of demonstrated financial need.</p>
<p>For the schools that do, I’ve noticed that desirable poor kids can get great deals. I see CC kids posting that their cost at private schools is less than their EFC on FAFSA. This need-based aid doesn’t appear to be blind, though, at least to color. There must be affirmative action for financial aid.</p>
<p>I have seen some great deals for BU. I know a couple of kids who went there over some highly selective schools because of the merit package. I’ve never seen them on the great financial aid list.</p>
<p>Some people posting here assume that your kid is the smartest person in the world and BU needs him to be a student there. That isn’t true… BU has 40,000 applicants for admission and if your family can afford to pay $100,000 a year for your kid’s education, you shouldn’t be complaining that your kid didn’t get a merit scholarship. BU is using their funding for students that are smarter than your kid and whose parents couldn’t pay $100,000 in a lifetime for their kid’s education.</p>
<p>Financial aid is not an “entitlement”. It is a “priviledge”. Coming to BU is a “priviledge” and not a “right”. BU chooses specific types of students that they want at their institution and if your kid doesn’t like the award he’s offered, they’ll find someone else exactly like him… your kid is a dime a dozen!</p>
<p>If you want to pay $5000 a year for your education, go to a community college. You wouldn’t walk into a BMW dealership and tell them the deal you were offered on a Honda Civic to see if they could match it. When you walk into a BU financial aid office and tell them you have merit awards at other colleges in Massachusetts that aren’t Tufts, Harvard, or MIT, you’re doing that very same thing.</p>
<p>BU’s policy is a little weird but I’m not complaining. I come from a Middle Class family so i expected next to nothing for Aid, but BU gave me best package out of all 11 schools I applied to.</p>
<p>$33k a year, $23k in Grants alone
and I’m an “average” student - 3.4 GPA, SAT scores in the 1700 range</p>
<p>I did have excellent essays, recommendations, and and lots of extracurricular activities though… and as I Graphic Design student I was required to send in a portfolio (so maybe mine won them over).</p>
<p>Don’t disregard BU - there’s still hope :)</p>
<p>I don’t understand why some of you think their policy is a little weird, unconventional or unique. From my limited experience, I think this is how most private schools operate - save the Harvard’s of this world who have enough money to satisfy all.</p>
<p>They have limited funds - the problem is how to direct them. On the surface, it may seem “unfair” to distribute solely by need but - they need to fill a class as well.
They want the brightest and most talented so they get more money if they need it.</p>
<p>This article should also demonstrate to parents and students that if you need financial aid - you reach school will probably not be your best bet. Look strongly at safeties.</p>
<p>DH attended an Ivy which offered preferential packaging. It’s not unusual. S2 visited BU last week – will have to visit the FA website. Interesting article – and yes, the realities are as harsh as I suspected.</p>
<p>Count me in as one who doesn’t see why any of this is surprising. It seems to me from the article as well as from the matrix, which can be found on BU’s financial aid website (they’re not hiding it), that the best financial aid packages go to those who are at the top of the applicant pool and have demonstrated great financial need. At least they are upfront about it. And here’s a link to the matrix if anyone’s interested. It makes since that they’d give more aid to those they want to attend.</p>
<p>[Boston</a> University - Office of Financial Assistance - Applying for Financial Aid](<a href=“Undergraduate Students | Financial Assistance”>Undergraduate Students | Financial Assistance)</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, preppy.</p>
<p>I wish more schools with mysterious policies would put out that sort of info so people could plan ahead and not be surprised, to see it in a rubric makes it very clear, even top of class with lowest income may only get $35k out of $50k+ COA</p>
<p>^^
Totally agree. Had I known what I know now I could have saved myself money, time, and disappointment.</p>
<p>Six schools, six entirely different “packages.” Most similar in ranking.</p>
<p>Why are all these “formulas” so secret?</p>
<p>When you ask why they lower your grant when they added the Pell they claim they are following Federal regulations? (even though I was no where near the COA?)</p>
<p>It’s all a game.</p>
<p>“Thanks for the link, preppy.”</p>
<p>No problem. :)</p>
<p>“I wish more schools with mysterious policies would put out that sort of info so people could plan ahead and not be surprised, to see it in a rubric makes it very clear, even top of class with lowest income may only get $35k out of $50k+ COA” - somemom</p>
<p>True, but one thing to remember about the matrix is that it’s only taking into account need, class rank, GPA, and standardized test scores. They also consider “School/College of admission, geography, ethnicity, artistic or athletic talent, and alumni affiliation.” Also, the matrix only shows the middle 50%, so 25% get below and 25% get above what’s indicated.</p>
<p>Well, I’m like the widow in the article, but with less income including 2 kids getting SS survivors benefits. I have a smart kid, but in an affluent school district with lots of ‘SAT Prepped’ prepped kids, and a zillion taking tons of APs, she is not in the top 10%, even with a GPA of around 3.8. She got 670/650/620 on SATs. She is just not stellar, and got waitlisted at the LACs. She got into Pitt, but go no merit scholarships. So with state and federal grants, work study and loans, there is still a 5k gap, and the loans would just themselves equal 30k after 4 years. The decimated 528 would pay for the gap, but she will need to go to grad school and I just don’t want her burdened with that much debt going into grad school. The FA award was 19900/yr with 7k of that being loans. Pitt costs around 25k/year for instate students. </p>
<p>So she will be going to one of the PA state schools, which, between w/s, grants, and the 529, she will attend with no debt. Just might be able to afford a car, or a semester abroad. </p>
<p>When your major is anthropology, undergrad debt does not make sense. Luckily the PA state school has a surprisingly wonderful anthro dept. And NO grad students. If she earns top grades, she will have a bright grad school future. </p>
<p>She doesn’t mind alot, since she feels like the ‘where you go to college’ thing is overrated. </p>
<p>I learned earlier in this process that the privates, esp. LACs only want extremely bright needy students. They’ll take less stellar students, but they better be full pay.</p>