<p>According to USnews, Washinton U meets full need. So, I guess people are correct in assuming that the OP’s EFC is about 48,000</p>
<p>Razzlegrl - As many posters have said basically, none of the financial aid offices take past history into account. THey are looking at your parent’s current income and assuming that they should be able to contribute as much as 1/3. Also, retirement is not exactly “looming” in your parent’s future. I personally know very few people who plan on retiring at 60.</p>
<p>Two sets of my neighbors have exactly the same scenario as your family. They both moved here from China about 12 years ago, went back to school, and husband and wife of both families are now engineers. Neither was eligible for financial aid. One family sent their oldest to a state school while the other is footing the full cost bill to Columbia for their eldest. So it basically comes down to personal choice.</p>
<p>Has Wash U sent out all of its acceptances and financial aid? I thought it was a “deadline school” and most acceptances weren’t received until end of March…beginning of April.</p>
<p>Re: the loans…Sue…I was guessing that the $2000 that Wash U gave (that had to be repaid) was perhaps a Stafford Loan.</p>
<p>“Sue, the OP has so far neglected to tell us what her EFC is”</p>
<p>I didn’t put that in my original post, but it was in one of the replies when I mentioned that my EFC is pretty much all on me. </p>
<p>thumper1, you were very close in your estimations, my family does make above $150,000. Even though that might seem like a lot, after taxes, paying off mortgages on house and car, as well as this retirement program my parents pay into, there’s really hardly anything left. Plus, for the past few years, there have been many changes in the family that called for large expenditures, so we have not been able to save much in the 7 years that my parents have been working.<br>
As for retirement, it is a goal for my father to retire in his 60’s, and I don’t think anything much is going to change his mind (even though my sister is only 5 and the family will need money for her later on)
My parents are considering loans right now, and the only option seems to be using our house as collateral…</p>
<p>The thing is, even though WashU said that they consider merit as well as need when awarding scholarship, I really don’t think they looked at my merit as much as they looked at my income. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if this is true for other schools?</p>
<p>razzle girl, I would urge you to reconsider IU…as part of their HONORS College. One of my kids was accepted there, and would have gone, but ended up going to UIUC, better financially, as we are in state. Also is in the Honors program there.
When you are part of a state schools Honors program, it really, really makes a huge difference.
At least you should consider it!</p>
<p>I looked at their website, and washington U has several academic scholarships that are not need related. However, all but one required a separate application process and the due date was January 15th. </p>
<p>What I think you are actually referring to is called preferential packaging. What this means is that the school determines how they will provide need.
For example, the school determines that two students have 20K of need. Student A has SAT’s of 2300 while student B has SAT’s of 2000. The school could possibly give a 17K need based scholarship with 3K in loans to student A, while only giving 10K scholarship plus workstudy and loans of 10K to student B. However, this doesn’t apply to you because you do not demonstrate any need. </p>
<p>While it is very disheartening, you are in the same position as many, many students on this board (my son included) and a great many students have to go to state schools for monetary reasons. If you take the free ride as an undergad you can consider other schools for grad school.</p>
<p>and if you really have your heart set on washington university, maybe you could take the year off and you could work and your parents could save up some money as well. also, you could apply for scholarships by the deadline next year.</p>
<p>OP, many aspects of my DD are similar to yours. Her school list is also top heavy. We should have applied to some middle range schools with merit aids. Since you will go on to graduate school, I think you should take the “full ride” and have a good time there. You could always get to a “top” graduate school to get your layer of gold.</p>
<p>Since your EFC is high, I think FA from all other top schools will be within ballpark. Our FA from WashU is very decent. Our DD applied and did not win any big name scholarships.</p>
<p>My 67K gross income (which whittles its way down to 52K or so after retirement, health insurance premiums,flexible spending account for health care out of pocket) and down to 36K after taxes (which includes 4% city tax on top of state 3% and federal and SS and medicare)</p>
<p>that is Middle class.
Oh middle class also comes with a 1991 honda civic and payless shoes and walmart sheets</p>
<p>Razzlegrl, EFC stands for Expected Family Contribution, as I’m sure you know. So even though you say “the EFC is pretty much all on me,” that’s not the way colleges see it. They expect that parents will pay for college based on past savings, current income, and future income (loans). And the student is expected to kick in a small amount, from summer or part-time work. So if your parents are making in the range of $150,000 per year, that’s enough for them to pay something toward your schooling. If they choose not to do that, that’s fine, that’s their decision. They have other priorities. But it puts you in a tough spot. Luckily, you have other options already, and maybe you’ll get more $$$ from one of the other schools that admit you. Best of luck!</p>