Is this fair?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am a high school senior who has worked hard in high school, and could have chances at admission into very competitive schools. However, my parents are limiting me to apply to schools that I could recieve merit aid from or schools with state level tuition. The situation is that we are too rich for financial aid, but too poor to plausibly fund four years of 45,000 per year. I don't care about prestige, but I am having a hard time finding a school that I actually like within these parameters. My parents are also limiting me geographically within the Northeast/Middle Atlantic. Before they told me my monetary limitations, they took me to visit Tufts, a school that I loved for its size, atmosphere and student body. It wasn't until after that they began to tell me what they expected of me. I realize college tuition is a lot of money, but I feel so stuck. I would feel so much guilt and worry over taking that much money from my family, and my mom has made my head swim with warnings of future debt and regret. Is this fair of them to do to me?</p>

<p>What schools within the NE/Mid-Atlantic do you think fall within my enforced price range, are academically challenging and of medium size?</p>

2

<p>First I think you should talk to your parents about your frustrations in you college search. Ask them if it is possible for you to apply to a variety of schools and then determine which is most financially feasible. It's my opinion that no one should limit themselves because they couldn't afford to go to a better school.</p>

<p>Go through the regular process of looking for schools that appeal to your interests and then decide after you have your list.</p>

3

<p>Why are they limiting you to schools within the NE and Middle Atlantic? There are plenty of good state schools outside that region with reasonable (read, not $45k a year) out-of-state tuition.</p>

<p>If you're really interested in going out-of-area for college, I would encourage you to push your parents on this issue, because it's your life to live, not theirs.</p>

<p>However, I think the financial issue is reasonable. Apply to the moon, but do you really want to leave college with $100,000 in student debt? If your parents can't afford $45k a year (and honestly, most can't) there are many good places to get an education that cost much less.</p>

<p>Look for colleges that have a reputation for granting a lot of merit aid - I don't know which they are off the top of my head, but I'm sure some other CCers do know a few.</p>

4

<p>It sounds like your parents are being parinoid. Sorry, but I don't believe that they aren't eligible for financial aid and yet they cannot afford an expensive college. Did you even apply for fafsa, or did you assume you're not eligible? You have to give these things a chance, almost everyone is eligible.</p>

<p>I was a terrible student who had to repeat 11th grade and I got accepted into tufts with enormous scholarships. I didn't get accepted into the regular program though, I got into a program that allows you to get a degree from both an art school and tufts. Still, I can't imagine that it's difficult to get scholarships from the regular program.</p>

<p>If your first choice school doesn't give you money after accepting you, talk to them, explain your situation, and see if they give you money. This worked for the school I'm attending, which is more expensive and stingy than tufts is.</p>

<p>You will do the best at the college you like the most, and the better you do at college the more money you'll make. Even if your parents refuse to support you financially, if you're actually as hard working as you say you are you will pay off your loans by yourself. Sometimes they will give you up to 20 years to pay off your loans, in very small amounts. I can even make my payments income sensative, meaning they won't charge me too much if I end up with a low paying job. Talk to college graduates, most of them don't regret taking out loans at all.</p>

<p>And no, it's not fair of your parents to do this. They're bullying you. There's no way they can know how much financial aid you will get before you have even applied. The more colleges you apply to, the more likely you are to get an enourmous financial aid package. The bigger endowment the school has, the more likely they are to give you a lot of money. Tuft's endowment is $1.5 billion.</p>

5

<p>Linzoy, OP says won't qualify for need-based financial aid, only merit aid potentially. Does Tufts give any mert aid, or only need-based? What are these enormous "scholarships" you were offered? If merit based, how does one apply for them?</p>

6

<p>He doesn't know if he qualifys for need based aid until he applys! Different schools have different ideas about what "need" is. And if he doesn't qualify for need based aid, well, he doesn't really need it. </p>

<p>College tuition is negotiable, espeically with rich schools. At the most expensive schools like harvard, they can afford to be extremely generous with their financial aid (unless they are in debt.)</p>

<p>I got both merit and need based scholarships. You apply for the scholarships when you apply for college, they are offered by the college.</p>

<p>Your parents don't decide what schools you apply to, you do. After you apply you might find that you can't afford tufts after all, but you will not know for sure until you apply. You should have as many options as possible availible before you choose a college.</p>

7

<p>Clark U. in Mass. and Union College in NY would seem to fit your criteria.</p>

8

<p>If you want some suggestions, it might be helpful if we have some more information about you. What type of schools, environments, and majors are you looking for? What's your GPA, class rank, SAT scores, interests, etc?</p>

<p>Your parents are stating that they won't receive financial aid and they don't WANT to pay FULL cost. They have the right to say that. Seems like they're saying they'll pay for a state school or its equivalent expense (more expensive school subsidized with merit $). That seems to be a very popular parental position. It's better to know now than after acceptance packages arrive. You have choices here. You can find schools that will work within their parameters or you can take huge loans to make up the difference. Many parents here agree with your parents in saying to avoid the large loans if possible. If you're a good student, you should have plenty of options available - much depends on your statistics. </p>

<p>I briefly looked on Tufts website and it doesn't look promising. "The University does not offer merit aid, with the exception of National Merit Scholarship Corporation awards. ROTC program scholarships also are available."</p>

<p>Here are some schools that I believe offer merit $ (some even have charts to see what you might qualify for) - BU, Northeastern, Brandeis, U Rochester, Syracuse, Fairfield, Marist, Bucknell, St. Joe's, Lafayette, Lehigh, RPI, Fordham, Pace. There are plenty more - just start researching. There are also schools with less expensive tuition, such as York College or some PA or NY state schools.</p>

<p>You can sometimes find out if merit $ is available by going to a college website and doing a search for "merit" scholarships - or click on undergraduate admissions, then look for merit scholarship information. Grants are usually FinAid. </p>

<p>You can also apply for private (outside) scholarships - it's generally easier to win several local ones than larger national ones. Also, check out the merit $ post at the top of the financial aid forum to give you some more ideas of schools' offers.</p>

9

<p>Just to clarify: Tufts does not offer merit aid money. Linzoy is an SMFA student which allows their students to take some academic classes their fine arts departments don't offer (in return, Tufts students can take some fine arts classes not offered at Tufts), but his aid money comes 100% from SMFA, as did his acceptance.</p>

<p>Pensare: You don't know if you qualify for need-based aid until you have the award packages in front of you. Tufts is fair in handing out its need based fin aid so my advice to you is to still apply, but keep your options open by applying to state schools, schools that do offer merit money, and then just generally more school that you love that -- who knows?! -- might end up offering you merit money. </p>

<p>Sometimes people are under the impression that middle class families never get offered merit based aid. If your situation is truly as you described it, where you could technically afford to pay 4 years of private university education but that it would really put a big strain on your family, most schools will be able to tell. </p>

<p>If Tufts is your first-choice school, as it sounds it is, I'd suggest already getting in touch with the admissions and asking some questions. They'll probably even put a finaid officer in touch with you. Good luck!</p>

10

<p>Have you looked at William and Mary in VA? That's probably a little more south than ideal, but it's still not considered (at least around here) to be southern. I would consider looking at it if you have accomplishments that really set you apart- normal involvement (or extra in normal activities) with great stats normally won't cut it.</p>

11

<p>pensare- follow the advice of jerxgrlmom. To get more ideas for more schoolls offering merit based aid, go to the CC Financial Aid forum. There are a couple of permanent threads at the top that discuss merit aid and give specific suggestions about schools that offer it.</p>

12

<p>thanks everyone!</p>

13

<p>First off, let me tell you that I understand how you are feeling. I am from California and really wanted to go out of state for college, however because of my parents financial situation I was unable to attend my 1st and 2nd choice schools. My parents too made enough money that I wouldn't get aid, but not enough to afford anything 30K and up. The worst part is that they told me this AFTER I had been accepted to my 1st and 2nd choice schools. It's okay though because I am currently loving the school I'm going to, but it did put a lot of unneeded stress on me this year.</p>

<p>You will need to post some stats and what you are planning to major in if you want people to give you a list of schools to help you. Umass-Amherst is a good school, though it is pretty large. Syracuse, Fordham, St. John, Bucknell, and RPI are private schools where you could get good aid.</p>

<p>If you can convince your parents to let you go farther out, here is a list of other schools that don't cost as much and good reputations.
Penn State (especially the honors program, though it will probably be more than 30k and is a huge school)
Pitt
Texas A&M
NC State
UNC-Chapel Hill (Not sure about tuition)</p>

14

<p>Tufts' financial aid is really good and gets better each year (for example I think for the class of 2011 they had $3 million more to give out than for the class of 2010). Tufts' endowment was the fastest-growing last year and the returns on the investments have been pretty good. So don't give up on your dream school just yet! Apply and see what they offer you. I agree with the suggestion to contact Tufts Admissions and ask to speak to a finaid officer -- maybe you could ask for a sample aid package for someone with your FAFSA profile.</p>

15

<p>pensare: I have a subscription to US News premium ed for best colleges. It cost around $14-15 for a year. One of the most helpful things on there is the Tuition & Financial Aid Section that is listed for each college. It shows merit money awarded and the percentage that get it. Its even broken down by in-state and OOS.</p>

16

<p>Any interest in Cornell? Agriculture and Life Sciences; Human Ecology; Industrial and Labor Relations are all state-assisted colleges with substantially lower tuition for NY residents than the other parts of the university.</p>

17

<p>Schools I am applying to as of now include:
SUNY Bing, Lehigh, Lafayette, F&M
And considering:
Marist, UConn, UMass, Delaware, Muhlenberg, Dickinson. Gettysburg, TCNJ, Fairfield, Fordham, Washington College (in MD), UMBC...and Tufts</p>

<p>As for the state part of Cornell, I'm not so interested in those areas of study and the school isn't really a fit for me anyway. I'm not looking more for fit than prestige which I why I am surprised I am finding the process so frustrating.</p>

18

<p>The University of Rochester is not extremely dissimilar to Tufts, and they offer merit aid to about a third of accepted students.</p>

<p>I don't know how strong of an applicant you are, but some very VERY lucky individuals are offered full-ride scholarships to Washington University in St. Louis, which sounds like it would be a good fit for you; trouble is you have to convince your parents to let you apply to a Mid-West school.</p>

<p>I see you are from NY. SUNY Geneseo is the most similar to Tufts, not Bing.</p>

19

<p>I've thought about University of Rochester, but along with SUNY Geneseo, I feel like they are a little too isolate upstate. Bing is too, but is at least a a couple hours closer to home (I live on LI).
Oh and the Midwest thing is not going to fly. I tried to make a case for Tulane, and it didn't fly.</p>

<p>Oh and I am also considering Brandeis, although like some of the others, the merit aid is hard to get.</p>

20

<p>My brother goes to SUNY Geneseo and we are from LI too =P It's not that bad for him up there. There isn't much to do but Rochester is near by. And you can fly home. SUNY Geneseo also has a bus service that comes down to LI at the beginning of all the breaks. So far my brother is loving it at Geneseo, there is a lot of clubs and his professors are really good. If you are going upstate, it doesn't really matter where cause it's going to be a long drive anywhere you go.</p>

<p>Brandeis is across town from me (I go to Bentley), we are in a really great area. It is a nice town that isn't actually in Boston but it is easy to get to Boston any time you want.</p>