<p>For those of you who are going to very expensive schools that cost like $40,000 a year, how are you going to pay? The reason I ask is because when I was younger (freshman in high school), I discouraged myself from even thinking about going to a selective college because I would have no means to pay for it. I figured I would just go to a state school that wasn't as hard to get into but could at least ensure me a stable financial future throughout college. So my question is, for those of you who need financial aid and you're EFC is right in the middle (not too low, not too high), how will you pay? Loans? Work-study? Applying for scholarships?</p>
<p>Your EFC will be pretty consistent no matter what school you apply to. For our family dollar for dollar we would not have been eligible for finanical aid at out state school so my D attending an Ivy was more affordable because of the generous need-based scholarship that was given as part of the package.</p>
<p>While loans and workstudy will be part of your package any outside scholarhips which you recieve will be first used to reduce your loans and workstudy. Collegebound I think that you are on the right track with trying to obtain as much outside scholarship money as possible. all the best</p>
<p>We are not eligible for aid; son's school is one of those 40,000 a year ones.</p>
<p>People underestimate the value of "outside" scholarships. S. has now won a total of $30,000 in outside scholarships (some are for the whole 4 years) and is applying for many more. Some are a LOT of money, but we do not sneer at the $1,000 ones either. We have to earn around $60,000 before taxes to come up with $30,000, so it's well worth the little time it takes recycling some old essays!</p>
<p>take out loans</p>
<p>I'm in the same situation. I got accepted to Georgetown last year and deferred my enrollment to find the money to pay for my education. Because I'm from Canada, I don't qualify for aid from the school. And it doesn't look my parents are going to qualify for many loans because their debt is sky high? Any suggestions for me?</p>
<p>I remembered reading this article several years ago. Perhaps it can give you some ideas & inspiration. It seems that getting scholarships is a numbers game. The more you apply for, the more likely you'll get money.</p>
<p>I'm applying to Penn ED... and it costs about 40,000. And my family makes 12,000 a year (no joke). I won't be able to contribute anything over 1,000 dollars to my college education a year. </p>
<p>If I get in, I'll get a fullride, theres no doubt in my mind about that. I plan on applying for the Philadelphia Mayor's scholarship program. Its for Philly students going to Penn. Basically, the city of Philadelphia pays off your loans, effectively making them grants.</p>
<p>Wow... I'm almost in the same situation as Chocoman. Hopefully I'll get this scholarship from BU, because I go to a Boston Public School. The best part of it all is that the average SAT for recipients of the full-tuition scholarship is 1270!</p>
<p>How am I going to pay for the Ivies? Easy.. I'm not! </p>
<p>Thanks, school-endowments! :)</p>
<p>lol in class when kids ask me why I'm applying ED if I might not get a full ride. I draw a line with a few tickmarks and point to the far right of the line, saying thats where the rich kids are that apply ed are because they can afford anywhere. then i point to the far left of the line and say im so poor ill get a fullride anywhere. and then the person laughs.</p>
<p>i make a lot of graphs.</p>
<p>I hear (and seen according to USNews) the Ivys give pretty good financial aid opportunities and the people who graduate from there usually have less to pay back from loans than most other universities</p>
<p>All financial aid at the Ivys is need based. So for a poor student who gets in , the aid is there especially for schools like Princeton who has done away with loans, Brown who is looking to do the same things thanks to a recent $100 million gift, and Harvard, which will lower the EFC of families making $40-60,000. Williams believes in no hidden cost so they offer a lot of perks to low income families little or no loans, free acccess to the library where you can borrow your textbooks for the semester (if they don't have the book you get a $60 voucher toward the purchase of the book). School with large endowments are in the position to make the school as affordable as possible. No matter what the situation, there will never be a "free ride" because there will always be a work study component (gotta have cash when you get on campus) and a summer work component (gotta buy books and stuff when you get there)</p>
<p>i'm in the middle class, where you get next to nothing. Outside scholarships are what i'm depending on even for my state school.</p>
<p>voronwe--</p>
<p>"We are not eligible for aid; son's school is one of those 40,000 a year ones.</p>
<p>People underestimate the value of "outside" scholarships. S. has now won a total of $30,000 in outside scholarships (some are for the whole 4 years) and is applying for many more. Some are a LOT of money, but we do not sneer at the $1,000 ones either. We have to earn around $60,000 before taxes to come up with $30,000, so it's well worth the little time it takes recycling some old essays!"</p>
<p>Wow, that's a large amount that your son won from scholarships! Could you give me advice for where to look for these, or any comments from your experiences with your son's scholarship search? Did he use mostly resources like his guidance counselor for potential scholarships, or did he use Fastweb and online search directories like that?</p>
<p>Also, I know that many schools allow you only to replace your work-study and loans with outside scholarships. Any more, and they decrease the grant from the university (thus, there's no point because it won't lower your EFC). Is that the case with your son's university, or does it allow outside scholarships to lower the EFC?</p>
<p>O'm also curious about the outside scholarships. Do they consider your income at all for merit based scholarships?</p>
<p>i am going to be attending a 40,000 school next year also. So according to my calculations, (40,000 x 4) college will cost 160,000. A gandparent left me a little over 100,000 for my tuition and working during the summers should give me another 10-15 grand. The rest will come from my parents so it shoulnd't be too bad.</p>
<p>Kirkum, some merit scholarships (which I'm defining as merit because they look at grades, scores, EC's, volunteer work) also have a "need" component.</p>
<p>voronwe, where did you guys find all those scholarships?</p>
<p>Veronwe:</p>
<p>That is very impressive! I looked hard for scholarships and best candidat was the Ayn Rand thing - but you would have to pretend to like the ideology.</p>
<p>To those who asked -</p>
<p>My son did not apply for any outside scholarships that consider need. And there was no problem about them reducing the EFC because we have no EFC - we aren't eligible for aid and didn't apply for any.</p>
<p>He found most scholarships himself, though he found some through his guidance counselor. Some local ones had hardly any one apply, and so not only did he get the scholarship, but so few people applied the next year that several places just renewed his scholarship!</p>
<p>I won't say which national ones he won, to avoid identification, but check out the big ones and even ones with small fees. For example, the Carpe Diem foundation pays $20,000 over four years for just a minimal (I think $15) application fee. Others were based on his interests - if for example, (not his example, which might identify him), if you ever did a project on polluted water, try places like the American Ground Water Trust. Just do searches.</p>