Hi, I am really sold about applying to UPenn. However, the one thing that is worrying me is the financial situation. My parents make over 150k combined, however I do have three other siblings who will be attending college while I’m in college. I have tried Net Price Calculators, but I’m not sure I can trust them. If I’m worried about getting enough aid (especially since I plan on going to either grad school or med school), should I apply to ED? My biggest concern is that I lose the admissions boost from applying ED. I am from Nevada and my state isn’t an Ivy/top school feeder.
As a very general rule of thumb they would be contributing about $38K a year for you to go to Penn, are they good with that? 1/4 of gross income is a good rule of thumb for EFC
@CU123 Unfortunately, I don’t think that would be very practical for my family’s financial situation. With four college students and a retirement to worry about, I don’t think my parents could afford that. Plus, like I said, I have grad school/med school on my mind too
Do not trust EFC, It is just an estimate, and can be very inaccurate. If you worry about money, just do RD and compare FA.
You say don’t trust EFC but Penn’s NPC is going to put OP in the $40k range. I would trust the NPC as starting point. It may be more expensive but doubt it’s cheaper.
Net price calculators are much more reliable than any generic EFC if there is no business, noncustodial parent, etc. Two parent household with W-2s and investment income will be fairly close.
OP, we ruled Penn out all together because they just don’t offer the same aid as HPY. Sorry for bad news.
NPC is very inaccurate too. and Penn will not honor its own NPC.
@f2000sa is it worth giving up the ED boost?
@tt8082 This is a question that only you can answer. It depends on whether you need the boost and whether you can afford, whatever aid they might give you.
Are your siblings currently in college? If so, that will help to reduce your EFC. If you are the first to go, having siblings won’t effect the EFC that much. But it would then help to reduce their EFC when they apply.
@wisteria100 My siblings will enter college by fall 2017 (my senior year in high school)
I know it is recommended to not apply ED if you don’t know for sure if you can afford it, but can’t you back out of an ED agreement if financial aid isn’t substantial enough?
I think that it is a huge risk to apply ED. If you get in but can’t afford it, then I think that you hurt your chances at other schools. Also, it can be emotionally very tough to get into your dream school but not be able to go there for financial reasons. This is a very common occurrence.
Also, if you apply ED then you are pretty much saying that you are willing to take on large loans to go there. If you have any chance at all of getting into U.Penn, then you should also be able to find a very good alternative that requires little or no loans. If you take on too much debt for undergrad this might prevent you from going to grad school or medical school. It is much better to find a good undergraduate program that you can do without debt, then go for the more prestigious university for graduate or medical school.
150k salary might sound like a lot, but with multiple kids in university plus a household to support and retirement to plan for, it really isn’t.
It is not good idea to think about backing out of ED due to FA. It is possible to do so. But Penn is too good to give up. You will be in a very difficult position.
If you want/need the opportunity to compare financial offers then it is best not to apply ED. It sounds to me like RD would be a better route for you to go.
My parents told me that they won’t be helping me that much with the cost… I know Upenn has a large endowment, but even with 4 kids in college, I’m worried that my parents make too much to get a reasonable tuition
Btw I just found out they make closer to 200k combined
With that kind of income, you may not get any FA from anywhere with need-based FA. It does not matter how much your parents are willing to pay, and how many siblings that will attend college.
On the other hand, if you and your siblings are in college at the same time, They may give you some FA based on their calculation. Again, if you want to compare FA, do not do ED.
Your best option to have good choices and graduate without a ton of debt is to get significant MERIT aid and not count on FAid at all. Your folks make too much, sorry. Look for Us that provide automatic merit aid, like full tuition (or better yet full ride) for kids with your grades and test scores.
Don’t weigh yourself down with huge debt – you as a student are very limited as to what you can borrow and remember YOU will need to repay everything with interest.
alabama Honors college gives full tuition to high achieving students. You could go there with the right scores for very little. My S applied there as a financial safety.