<p>Hey guys,
I’m thinking of applying to Boston College next year, but I dont know if the financial aid will be generous or not. This year when I got accepted into USC I could not go because my family just could not afford the 41k a year tuition (+ more for room and board).</p>
<p>My dad makes around 130k and we take in around 70 after mortgage, retirement fund, and car payments. In the eyes of USC my family is well off and I get no financial aid. Is BC the same? Do they calculate financial aid by the CSS profile? I know my fafsa EFC is around 25,000 while for USC it was upwards of 50,000.</p>
<p>Dear giantsfan101 : We have often suggested the following from the Ivy League calculators : $150,000 in annual family gross income, $100,000 in cash assets, and owning your own home is roughly the break point between receiving financial aid and not. In your specific case, retirement funds and car payments are somewhat discretionary and will not radically alter your financial aid picture. If your effective family contribution was in excess of $50,000 at USC, you can expect a similar treatment from Boston College. While you should certainly pursue the Boston College option, you are best advised to speak with the financial aid department sooner rather than later to validate the input that we have offered.</p>
<p>to my understanding, BC provides great financial aid for students that it deems are in need. the fafsa efc calculator means essentially nothing to bc, because they recalculate a student’s financial aid based upon their own metrics. if they decide that you need a lot of money, they will give you a lot of money. if the school decides that you do not need much aid, you will not get a very large package (if a package, at all). however, it seems that you may not get as much as you are hoping for.</p>
<p>I get very little. I had much better packages from other schools that I applied to. My brother received double what I got from Holy Cross. Its a lot to pay almost full tuition with two kids in college.</p>
<p>The short answer is No, BC is not “generous”. That being said, BC meets full need – as they define it – while most other colleges in its ~ rank (USNews’ 30’s) do not. So in that respect, they are ‘generous’ for a 30’ish ranked college.</p>
<p>In the hierarchy of most generous need-based money, first tier is HYPS. Then the other Ivies (with Cornell lowest), and top LACs.</p>
<p>Besides income level (HYP considers up to $180k as ‘needy’), the other primary differentiating factor for the most generous colleges is treatment of home equity; the most generous colleges cap home equity used in the need calculation.</p>
<p>As ScottJ notes, if you received little aid from 'SC, you will likely receive little from BC. Definitely apply, but don’t pin your hopes on it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For only the second time, I disagree with scottj. It has been my experience, that no college will do a financial aid preread (they don’t have the resources, and you don’t have your 2012 tax return completed), so speaking with them prior to the app is a waste of your time. (Of course, they will preread for recruited athletes.)</p>
<p>They were for my first two years at BC when my EFC was about 5-10k. First year I got nearly $40k, second year I got about $25k, then BC switched my financial aid counselor and now I’m at $0. My dad got a new job and basically his entire salary hike is going back to my education unfortunately</p>
<p>^^^Fraire, what they took away from you, was it grant money? I didn’t get a BC grant, but rather a BC scholarship and it is my understanding that scholarships they can’t take away, but grants they can. Doesn’t BC meet 100% of demonstrated need as shown by the FAFSA? maybe not for transfers but I thought they did for freshmen? </p>
<p>Anyways to the OP, I experienced that the “Collegeboard Net Price Calculator” was pretty spot on for what I would be paying at most schools. You should try it.</p>
<p>Good luck with your transfer! What school are you at now?</p>
<p>@blue bayou. Do you know how they your calculate your contribution from your home equity? Our federal EFC is 15k but our contribution using the institutional formula is around 38k (based on our financial aid package of $21k)?</p>
<p>sorry scottj, but if we always agreed, it would be an extremely dull thread and one of us would be superflous. :D</p>
<p>3younguns: unfortunately, I never asked, so I don’t know specifically. But since only the tippy top colleges cap home equity, I assume that BC does not; in other words, 5.6% of all of your home equity is used in the calculation of ‘need’. But that is just speculation on my part.</p>
<p>Actually, if you ask if they use the CSS, perhaps you should look at the entire BC finaid web site.</p>
<p>Fafsa is only about your eligibility for fed aid. Each college that uses the CSS calculates your need based on it’s own private formulas. It is not uncommon to see a jump from the Fafsa. The only IM calculators I know of are also general approximations. Our IM happens to come reasonably close, but each college determines by its own priorities.</p>
<p>ps. If you were admitted to USC and believe you could be at BC, why not apply to colleges which offer large merit awards?</p>
<p>@prepurm, it was the BC Grant (I swear they used to call it a scholarship, but it’s whatever they give as the ‘need’ I believe). Its just a bummer going from saving a relatively good chunk of change to going to absolutely nothing and having to take out more loans.</p>