<p>Anyone else get letters this past week from UMich? I got one from the school's president and one from the LSA as well. I was accepted back in November. I got really excited because I thought they might be offering me merit aid, but they were simply to tell me how great the school is :(</p>
<p>Yeah, they are trying to keep you. They want to convince you to go to umich instead of another school you were accepted to.</p>
<p>The stationary was very nice at least</p>
<p>yeah, i got that same letter. before i opened it i was all like OMG IS THIS A SCHOLARSHIP??? but then it was just a dumb letter from the president :/</p>
<p>It's what they do instead of giving aid. Ha</p>
<p>*******s. if kalamazoo gives me more aid than michigan, i'm going to kalamazoo. michigan needs to give out more aid, especially to in-state residents who are obviously hurting.</p>
<p>Ha, I swear they're trying to give us all heart attacks. One from the president, one addressed to me for LSA, one addressed to my parents for LSA (and I didn't see that the second LSA one was addressed to my parents, either...).</p>
<p>I don't even expect to get a scholarship. That's the really sad part.</p>
<p>pseudovirus, Kalamazoo will have to give you A LOT more aid than Michigan for it to be cheaper to attend. </p>
<p>If I am correct, Michigan now costs in-staters roughly $25,000/year (including room and board, books, medical inurance, entertainment etc...) to attend. </p>
<p>Kalamazoo, on the other hand, costs in-staters $45,000/year to attend. </p>
<p>So for Kalamazoo to become cheaper than Michigan, it would have to give out AT LEAST $20,000 more in scholraship and aid money than Michigan.</p>
<p>Current costs for Kalamazoo college, per their website:</p>
<p>2008-2009 Academic Year Costs</p>
<p>Tuition
$30,723</p>
<p>Room & Board
$7,443</p>
<p>Adding a couple thousand for incidentals, that makes the annual cost closer to $40,000/yr. In-state and out-of-state tuition and room/board at Kalamazoo are the same, as it is a private college. Speaking from experience, merit and need-based aid from K can be substantial and overall costs can be comparable to UMich. The question of fit is paramount--will the needs/goals of the student be best met at a large university or a small liberal arts college?</p>
<p>anthracite, for out of state students, I agree that cost between KC and Michigan can often be competitive. But for in-staters (and I was responding to an in-stater), the cost gap is substantial. At full cost, Michigan would cost roughly $20,000/year less than KC. I am not saying that KC will not give $20k more than Michigan in scholarship money, but what I am saying is that KC will generally cost significnatly more than Michigan to in-staters.</p>
<p>As soon as I saw UMich on the envelope I thought "Ross Decision"?!?!?! But then I looked closer and saw "LSA"</p>
<p>i've heard from my counselor that kalamazoo gives a really good amount of need-based aid(which my family qualifies for).</p>
<p>As a newbie, I hesitate to engage a mod, especially one as acerbic as Alexandre! But, out of curiosity, I looked at UMich's financial facts page: [url=<a href="http://www.finaid.umich.edu/financial_aid_basics/cost.asp%5DUniversity">http://www.finaid.umich.edu/financial_aid_basics/cost.asp]University</a> of Michigan Office of Financial Aid: Cost of Attendance<a href="Note%20that%20costs%20for%20the%20fall/winter%20and%20spring%20sessions%20are%20on%20two%20separate%20charts%20and%20need%20to%20be%20added.">/url</a></p>
<p>Budget for an out-of-state freshman or sophomore is substantially north of 50k for the academic year. The in-state yearly budget for a freshman or sophomore is quoted at $27,946. Michigan is one of the premier public universities in the country. It's worth every penny of the quoted cost.</p>
<p>But, pseudovirus, your high school counselor is right. Well-qualified candidates at Kalamazoo College frequently receive very substantial aid, making overall costs competitive with the in-state costs at Michigan. Really. So, if you like the school, it may be doable for you.</p>
<p>Anthracite, why are you including spring and summer terms tuition? Most colleges offer summer courses at an additional cost, but nobody calculates summer classes in the cost of attendance. That isn't done. Those two Spring and Summer terms are optional and above all, totally separate. Most students do not take classes in the Spring and Summer. To graduate students must take Fall and Winter classes for 4 years. A student need not take Spring and Summer classes to graduate within 4 years. Kalamazoo College does not offer summer classes whatsoever, so it is impossible to compare the cost of attending summer at KC to other universities. As it stands, you are not comparing apples to apples. </p>
<p>And Michigan does not cost "substantially North of 50k" for out of staters. That is misleading. If that is the case, then Michigan's private peers that off summer classes cost substantially North of $60k for all students, regardless of residence status.</p>
<p>Just to make sure you understand how Michigan's school year is broken down:</p>
<p>FALL TRIMESTER:
September 1-December 20</p>
<p>WINTER TRIMESTER:
January 5-April 30</p>
<p>SPRING/SUMMER TRIMESTER
May 20-June 30
July 1-August 20</p>
<p>Like at most universities, students at Michigan do not take classes in May, July, July or August. </p>
<p>The link you provided lists Michigan's cost of attendance (including $3,000 for books, supply and miscelanious costs) for in-state Freshman/Sophomore year as $22,729, not $28,000. By that reckoning, KC would cost $41,000; $30,700 (tuition) + $7,400 (room and board) + $3,000 (Michigan estimates that amount for books and extra costs).</p>
<p>If you insist on adding the Spring and Summer terms each academic year, then you must estimate that the student will graduate in 3 years, compared to 4 years at KC: </p>
<p>Total cost of attending Michigan from start to finish: 3<em>$28,000 = $84,000.
Total cost of attenting KC from start to finish: 4</em>$41,000 = $164,000
Cost gap between KC ($164,000) - Michigan ($84,000) = $80,000 ($20,000/year). </p>
<p>Like I said, Michigan costs roughly $20,000/year less than KC. Now I do not doubt that KC offers better FA than Michigan. But it remains to be seen whether or not they can, on average, bridge that gap. Do not forget that KC is not operating in a vacuum. If Kalamazoo sees fit to give an in-state student $20,000 in FA, there is a good chance Michigan will also give some money to that student. Perhaps not as much as KC, but probably enough to still make it significantly cheaper to attend.</p>
<p>Obviously, if KC does end up being cheaper than Michigan (and to some students, that is indeed the case), then it is worth considering. KC is indeed a formidable LAC with excellent academic offering. But to assume that somehow, KC will be cheaper to attend for in-staters in a given isn't realistic.</p>
<p>I am in Mi and agree that K College can be generous with aid but you might wish to remember that UM bases much of its scholarship program on "need informed, merit based" evaluation. If you've completed the CSS form in the fall and done a predictive FAFSA that's NOW been filed (projecting income taxes, update when your family has the actual tax returns for 2008), UM will be able to evaluate your eligibility -- but really, not until you have done those things. Do not rule out the fact that while UM meets decidedly more of instate need (since Michiganders substantially underwrite the school via taxes) it has the capacity to offer generous grant. Eg. if you look at the fin aid sample page at UM, it shows a 10,000 "need based grant" that is not called a "scholarship" per se.</p>
<p>So, the short answer is you will need to compare the final financial aid package of the two schools, determine the debt load you're willing to assume, and the choose the one that most meets your heart's desire. Meaning you really won't know until you have the financial aid package from both schools in April. At UM, from what I can gather, a small percentage of actual scholarship is offered as pure "merit" with a much greater percentage offered in final aid packages as grants, so please do not despair yet...some departments don't even offer their scholarships until Feb or March -- it's just the schoolwide ones such as Michigan Experience or Tradition going out in early response to admission. Alexander is completely correct in his fiscal comparison of the schools. While K College is awesome as a small liberal arts college and while they are generous, it is not necessarily the better deal, depending on your intended major. (I know alumni from both schools. One has told me he wished he went to UM only because by the end of 4 years his debt load was very substantial at K. But...he was in State, so it is a more stark differential. And in his case, he went into a field where a large department would have offered him more opportunities.)</p>
<p>At any rate, please try to enjoy the ride : )
Best wishes for great packages.
Cheers,
K</p>
<p>My mistake on the academic calendar at Michigan. I was reading "trimester" as fall-winter-spring. Reading further before jumping to conclusions is always a good idea!
Sorry for posting misleading information.</p>
<p>It was obviously unintentional...no harm done.</p>
<p>As a parent of a student that applied to K College and U of M (we are in state), the financial aid package DOES make Kalamazoo cheaper than U of M for us. On top of the scholarship awarded with his acceptance, he got a hefty grant award from K also. Even the state gives more for their Competitive Scholarship when you attend a private school ($2100/yr) instead of a public ($1300/yr).</p>
<p>U of M is not overly generous with their aid.</p>
<p>It really comes down to which would be a better fit. U of M went from a top contender to my S' last choice after visiting and talking to admissions staff there. The two schools are a world of difference.</p>
<p>Do you think the fact that Michigan's economy is terrible makes U of M more likely to accept out of state students? We're talking about the unviersity getting roughly $15,000 more here.</p>
<p>bbkitty, all that you say is not only possible, but quite common I am sure. To many applicants, KC will be cheaper than Michigan and to many students, KC is a better fit than Michigan. All I said is that one should not assume that KC will always bridge the $20k gap. I am sure they often do, but I am sure that more often than not, to an in-stater, KC will be significantly more expensive than Michigan.</p>