<p>Biding time before acceptance letters are send out and fin aid packages come in for ND and other schools. </p>
<p>S applied to ND and would be thrilled to get in, but is in no way counting on it in the least. He also understands that even if he should get in, financially it may not be a viable option. The cost of ND - over 50,000 - is hard to fathom. I am SO curious to know what kind of fin aid packages they can actually come up with to cover those costs! There are limits on loans, work study, etc. right? </p>
<p>Without sharing anything you don't feel comfortable with, I would love to visually see some of the breakdowns of fin aid packages current ND students have. If they offered you "grants" - how much is possible? A thousand or thousands? If they offered work study, how much and are the jobs there to find??? Are there any scholarships at all - individual donors or anything?</p>
<p>Just so curious to know what could possibly be expected to receive. Again, if you are willing, please share what kind of fin aid was offered to you.</p>
<p>Wow, over 60 views and no bites. I’m not asking for specifics if you don’t want to share. Just some clue as to what kind of aid gets offered. What kind of range have you heard from other people? </p>
<p>Maybe ND swears it’s students/parents to secrecy about fin aid packages. :)</p>
<p>abasket, I’ll bite, but cannot speak too much about financial aid. Try going to nd.edu, click on current students. There you will find links regarding financial aid, student employment, etc. No, you do not have to be a current student to view these pages, but maybe it will offer you some idea about some of the questions you do have. Hope that helps and sorry I couldn’t offer more personal info about aid!</p>
<p>i do not feel comfortable giving you a breakdown. but i might be able to help some. like you, we had no way to pay the cost of ND. like you, we had to wait and see. my wife was fine with this, while i was a wreck - the unknowns and chasms of need/reality seem so great. </p>
<p>in the end, things worked out fine. out kid ended up at ND for . . . . one hell of a lot less than we could ever have imagined. ND has a GREAT legacy of endowments, and is extremely well run. they know who they want, and why, and if you are one of those people you will know it. they know what they are doing. </p>
<p>couple things:1. relax. 2. do not listen to heresay - there is a LOT of it, quite a bit of it from seemingly credible sources, too. 3. GO to the campus if you can, and MEET f2f with a fin-aide counselor. meet with another. they are extremely helpful, and will make sure you know what it is the situation is - heresay will not !!! this is, obviously, a sensitive subject but some of the stuff you may read even here is flat out wrong. 4. relax. continue to strive for scholarships and accolades. when the time comes, have at it to the best of your ability and enjoy the ride. best of luck.</p>
<p>Bitti, thanks so much for offering that advice. It helps. :)</p>
<p>We visited one time last summer and if S would be lucky enough to be accepted, we would visit again. We did also attend a local Notre Dame night, so hopefully these are "indicators’ enough for the school that he has a true interest. </p>
<p>Would never want anyone to share anything they are not comfortable with! But thanks for your comments - they offer some peace of mind.</p>
<p>perhaps if you gave a little more info about your own situation, more could come to you. people from very very wide ranges of background apply to ND, and their end offers will differ greatly. also their alternative options/comparisons.</p>
<p>Well, of course, the first step is getting in. :)</p>
<p>Our S applied for fall 2010, we also have a D who attends a private school in Ohio that runs close to 40,000/year - she will be a senior and receives decent merit. A third child in the wings a few years out. Our EFC for both kids total will be $15,000ish. We’re just your typical middle class, both of us working family. </p>
<p>S is at a urban public school, he will be val or sal with the most rigerous class schedule his school offers. A few AP classes, many honors. ACT 32, two varsity sport athlete, captain of at least one sport, extra-curricular sports as well. Student council and NHS leadership. Active in our church as lector and altar server - Catholic. Band. Broadcasting. Well rounded, well liked. </p>
<p>Notre Dame is his only real reach. Not sure which is more of a reach - getting in or affording it!!! :)</p>
<p>OK, well in our case ( 2-working-middle class parent ) the initial offer from ND was under the EFC from the FAFSA by a decent amount. then of course you look at various awards, scholarships, and the like. this is where you need to work f2f with an officer at ND. if a kid can get into ND, they likely have a good chance at various other awards.</p>
<p>it seems that many kids who can get into ND will also have offers for very very good rides at other schools. only you can decide what you wish to do if that is the case. </p>
<p>but, if you are looking at a 15000EFC, and a $50K bill and panicking - ND will close that down a whole heaping lot ( if not go past it as they will sometimes do, ) i believe. there, i just broke my own advice of listening to heresay. but, i think you are gonna be fine if you were OK with that EFC</p>
<p>Our experience last year was that ND asks for more financial information and digs deeper into the financial situation than other schools do. If you truly have financial need, this should be to your benefit. There were some posts on other threads recently lamenting the lack of aid where the family income was fairly high. In those instances, you will either need to borrow, reallocate assets or select a different school. This is a personal choice and ND should not be bashed because it is not inexpensive for 100% of the admitted students to go there.</p>
<p>Our S could have had large merit packages elsewhere, but would not be getting the same experience he is at ND this year. To the extent we had to borrow to accomplish this, we view it as an investment. Other parents cannot make this choice for a variety of reasons and that is OK also.</p>
<p>If it is a close call, opt for the ND experience. The young men in our S’s dorm are kind and polite and the type of students you want your child to associate with. These are the people who will be in your child’s wedding someday. There may be comparable degree granting institutions out there at a lesser cost, but the overall college experience will vary from campus to campus.</p>
<p>Also with regard to financial aid, the local ND clubs often provide finanical aid dollars which the University uses to help meet demonstrated financial aid. Our local club in northeast Indiana now provides 22 scholarships each year of $4,000 each per year to the students from our area. We have been blessed to have a large scholarship fund and many larger clubs have even bigger funds available to help meet the need of students from their area. This may only be 10% of the yearly tuition, but is more than most of the students can make in a summer working.</p>
<p>Personally, my law degree from Notre Dame has always gained me respect around the U.S. While this could be said about all the other top 20 univerities, there are also many smaller schools which are not well known or recognized outside their local area. Keep these intangible benefits in mind when selecting a school for your child.</p>
<p>I will weigh in on my experience. Our EFC was $25,000. My D’s financial aid package consisted of $5000 in subsidized loans, $2000 in work study and the rest in scholarships from ND to cover the $25000 difference. My biggest complaint is not with ND but with the FM method vs the IM method for computing EFC. With 2 kids in college (3 in 2010) the FM method divides your EFC in half between kids. the IM (which most private schools use) allocates 60% to each child. Good Luck and all I can say is go thru the FA process and see where you come out.</p>
<p>my EFC is quite low, around 2K, im concerned that I’ll have too many loans in my FA package…does anyone know how much loans they include for kids with low EFCs?</p>
<p>With 50,000 efc, I guess ND is out of the running for my D. She loved it, but no way are we spending 50,000/yr. She has gotten good merit offers from other schools that will be hard to turn down, even though she would love to go to ND. I’m assuming that with our EFC, there would be 0 aid. Am I right? I haven’t even turned in the forms to idoc yet. It seems like a waste of time to me. We don’t want 30,000 in loans every year. Even if she gets several outside scholarships (she has already recieved a couple) they won’t add up to anything close to ND tuition. Too bad it’s just so expensive.</p>
<p>oosmom–I agree with you, it is expensive. And I have never understood how $30,000 in loans qualifies as financial aid. Not to hijack the thread, but shouldn’t aid be just that–aid. And no, not even a low interest rate on those loans is doing anyone favors! It is a shame that ND does not offer Pure merit scholarships that would cover pretty much the cost of 4 years–much like our local flagship did when our own student was applying to schools. In this economy, it is a tough decision for everyone and as I have always lamented, a very personal one! Good Luck to your daughter.</p>
<p>Herburg-Yusko: I think the nominations, etc. for this is over. </p>
<p>Yes, I wonder when they will send out the announcements for financial aid? I would think it would be soon/end of March, if they have everything. </p>
<p>Does ND use their own formula or do they base it on FAFSA EFC?</p>
<p>I was visiting yesterday and the admissions counselor said financial aid should be sent out by the end of March.
As for what they use, I know they use the CSS profile along with FAFSA, which I think is a little more in depth? But I’m not sure on this part.</p>
<p>CSS Profile delves more into assets, retirement and home equity. The amount you are expected to contribute could (usually) be higher than your EFC on the FAFSA if you have $ in any of these things.</p>
<p>We are entering our 4th and final year of paying tuition at ND. Full tuition. We live in CA where incomes (and costs) are high and always had an EFC of about 50k.</p>
<p>While making these payments has been difficult, ND has proven itself time and time again (paid summer internship in this economy) and we are glad we’ve been able to make it happen for our kid. </p>
<p>I hope anyone that wants to attend can get enough aid to be able to do it. Our son has truly had a life changing experience at ND.</p>