I’ve been accepted to Babson, visited, bought merch, everything. The financial aid package is just not enough. My family cannot pay the current cost of tuition.
We’ve contacted the financial aid office in back-and-forth emails, the number not budging to an affordable amount by any measure.
What should I do? I really want to attend Babson, I think it would be transformative. That said, I really don’t think it’s smart to go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt.
I believe Babson has need blind admissions policy and meets 100% need. Need not want. If a family has extensive assets, the financial aid will factor that in.
Hi! Thank you for your response.
Yes, part of the reason I applied is because of the safety of the 100% need met statement. That said, they have offered their package and our need isn’t met. The cost of attendance is over our estimated income. And yes, we have assets but are those expected to be sold in order to send a child to college?
Thanks again
So you’ve basically answered your own question.
Schools have a very limited amount of money to provide to everyone who cannot afford the costs. They don’t guarantee to give full rides. They give aid according to what THEY think you need, not what YOU think you need.
It’s a school that costs ~$70K per year. You should have known that going in.
As for loans, you will not qualify for a large sum of money.
Federal loans will allow you the following amounts:
freshman: $5500
sophomore: $6500
junior: $7500
senior: $7500
That’s it. Split into two semesters.
What are your instate options?
What other choices do you have?
If you can’t afford Babson, then you can’t afford it. Taking on massive debt for undergraduate education is a very bad idea. Many, many schools can be “transformative”. I think that you need to choose a different school.
“I really don’t think it’s smart to go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt”
Yes. This is entirely correct.
I have an in state option that is affordable but I don’t really want to go there. I have stats to go to a top tier university, and I feel as if I’m being ushered into a school 30 minutes away from home with 80%+ acceptance rate.
“I have an in state option that is affordable”
Most students need to attend in-state options that are affordable.
I know a number of people who either own small businesses or farms, and have talked to a few people who own rental property. Every one of them need to send their kids to in-state public schools because that is all that they can afford. The only exceptions are one person that I used to know who has made several million (his small business did really well) and only had one child, and a few others who do not live in the US. Attending affordable schools is just what most of us need to do.
You need to do very well at your affordable in-state option. This will open up other opportunities for you. Employers and graduate schools understand that most students have to attend in-state public schools, and know that there are some excellent students graduating from these schools.
I’m so sorry. I’m sure you worked hard for that acceptance from Babson. I know that this is hard, and very disappointing for you. You had your heart set on Babson, and it sounds out of reach for your family. When my kid graduated HS a couple of years ago, a number of her friends were accepted to their dream schools but could not attend due to the financial aid gap. It’s a very tough reality to face, especially if you were really surprised by this. I encourage you to look at some of the threads in the Financial Aid & Scholarships section on this forum. You will find lots of company there, as well as good advice. Best of luck to you.
Colleges base the EFC on x amount of income and/or y amount of assets. I don’t think they have any expectations for how individual families come up with their contribution. But they aren’t going to give families with low income and high assets the same aid that they’ll give families with low income and low assets.
Lots of families can’t save much for college. That’s not the fault of the universities. You have to go to a school your family can afford. If they can’t pay anything you need to apply to schools that offer generous merit aid.
If you tell us your state, stats, and budget maybe we can suggest something.
Yes, it’s def need met not want met.
We are a donut hole family with a high achieving kid. We were very careful to pull the NFCs on all schools she was interested in and let her know in her 10th grade year that she is on a UC budget. If she wanted to go elsewhere, she would need merit aid to do so. She got into many schools and in the end, she’s ending up at UC. She’s excited and very aware of the cost. Would she have liked to go to Mudd at $79K per year or USC at $77K per year (she applied at both just to see if she could get in)? On some level, maybe, but even she realizes that these price tags are insane.
Do we wish we qualified for aid that would take the Mudd price to $16K per year (as we’ve seen for some CC folks)? Yes, but we understand that we don’t and we’re glad that this aid exists for those kids who have busted their buns off and whose families are making $60K per year or less.
I think you really need to consider your instate option that is affordable, be glad it exists and realize you aren’t alone in not being able to afford certain schools.
did you run Babson’s NPC? Is the award in your letter materially different? If so you can try to appeal, but if you’ve already done that, you need to pick another college.
Sorry this did not work out for you. Unfortunately, colleges that meet 100% of need, only meet 100% of need as they define it.
Good luck.
@problemsxbc, about this, " The cost of attendance is over our estimated income." That is very surprising and suggests, as you say next, your family has substantial assets. And yes, they expect that they will be liquidated. But I may have been incorrect when I said that they meet 100% of need. I can’t find that reference again.
@lostaccount The only colleges that can afford to be need blind and meet full need are the super wealthy schools, which Babson is not.
Sorry to know that Babson is not affordable to your family, but, many of us have been at the same boat, and need to attend state school.
Great, you have the stats. Now, where’s your money?
How much did your parents say they could pay, before you applied?
What did they say they had saved for your college expenses?
When you applied to your schools, did you discuss finances with your family before applying? Did they let you apply knowing that they would be paying $70K per year?
I always find it odd, after admissions come out, that students never look at costs until the FA package comes in.
Colleges cost money; they are not free no matter what your stats show. Students always assume that they will get near or full rides because of their stats. High stats are plentiful. Money isn’t.
All of the colleges, are being deluged, at this time of year, by disappointed students who don’t have the money to attend the schools where they were admitted.
You can attend your instate option and do well there. Once you receive a degree, no one will care where you received your degree.
@lostaccount
The Babson Commitment
Because your time here should be spent learning, not losing sleep over potential changes in financial aid, here is our promise to you:
We will meet 100 percent of your demonstrated need in your first year.
We commit to the same Babson Grant amount for all four years.*
*Provided your family has no change in the number of children in college or no major change in financial circumstances.
Finances are part of the decision process for most people. If Babson is unaffordable I suggest you move on and decide from among the options that are affordable.
Like many here we listed the schools our S1 got accepted to, then put them in order by “real” cost, meaning less merit and any FA. We gave our son the option of several of the “cheapest” ones but had to say to no to some great schools that were “bigger”, more well known names than the schools that were less costly. Now almost a full year under his belt he absolutely loves his school, has been involved in research opportunities there, made great friends, learned a lot and is on the fast track to being an RA next year. Babson is a wonderful school and we are looking at it for S2 but there are many amazing options that could be surprisingly even better. Good luck!
Before applying, did you use Babson’s net price calculator (linked from the page linked below)? If so, did the actual financial aid match what the net price calculator said?
http://www.babson.edu/admission/tuition-and-financial-aid/undergraduate/
“Meet 100% of need” is not a promise you can depend on, since each college can make its own definition of “need” that may not necessarily match what your definition of “need” is. (The college’s net price calculator can let you know what the college’s definition of “need” is likely to be before you apply.)
@problemsxbc, congratulations on getting admission to Boston College and Babson. It shows that you have intellectual and leadership capacity to compete against any other students at those two and other elite schools.
If you cannot attend these schools because of financial constraints, so be it. It is not something you can control. You will still be successful in the school your family can afford as long as you put the same level of efforts and energy. You can always transfer later if situation changes or go to MBA schools ranked higher than those two after few years of work experience.
These private schools have over 40% of students who pay full price, so that the schools can help more families with much lower income that yours. These kids typically leap more benefit of this education than comparable kids from wealthier families because they can use the school to get support and network not available to them otherwise. If you don’t qualify for more need based aids, it mean that you are much luckier than those kids.