It’s on their ED page but I suspect that anyone can request it bc you request it BEFORE you make the decision to apply ED to help you decide if you can afford NU. Maybe they had too many students pulling out of ED because they couldn’t afford to attend?
Thank you so much for the link. I was not aware of this and neither was my son. The thing I don’t understand is that , as you said, the early review for merit is not available. So what is the point of having the early review for financial aid only? We need to know BOTH before we can commit. Having the early review for financial aid only would not help the school prevent kids & families from pulling out of ED.
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We are in that boat of needing both also. There may be some families who can do it with just need-based.
Heads up that the NU COA does NOT include the cost of tuition/room/board for summer sessions, which seems to be needed for the biology major plan of study, in order to finish in 4-5 yrs. I will be contacting the financial aid office to see if they provide additional financial aid for summer session.
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If your student attends a summer session it is a regular academic term, unlike at many universities. A student needs to complete 8 semesters (less AP credit). Two summer sessions equal one semester. That cost and financial aid is included in the total COA.
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The Dean’s Scholarship is applied to the summer session at half the amount because it is half the number of classes. Also, NU gives up to 32 credits for AP scores of 4 or 5 which can help. My son got 20 credits.
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On our NPC the COA is not high enough to include the summer half-semester sessions shown on the biology plans of study. I called NU Student Financial Services today and they said that if you attend summer session, both institutional merit and need-based aid are increased proportionally for that session; federal loans may not be available. I am much relieved! NU is still a possibility.
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I am not familiar with the biology major and whether or not it requires additional sessions beyond the 8 semesters. But any aid awarded does apply to summer sessions.
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@ParentOfKZ , you are very thorough! Thanks for sharing what you learn.
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@Winky1 I looked more closely at the biology major options for the plan of study. The COA per year is unevenly distributed in order to make room for co-ops, so the first 2 years, the student attends Fall, Spring, 1/2 Summer, which is a big price tag those years, even with additional financial aid for summer. The good thing is that the next 2-3 years, the student attends fewer semesters, 1/2 summers so those years will be lighter price tags AND they are earning money during co-op to contribute to college costs (I learned that co-op earnings are not considered as student income in financial aid). So, in the long run, not including co-op, the total cost equals 7.5-8 semesters of tuition/room/board, plus room and board for co-op semesters. So no additional, unexpected expenses for summer sessions to get that BS in biology! Phew.
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Merit scholarships are awarded by admissions and through college deans, usually to the top 10% in a college, so FA advisors will not be able to calculate if and how much merit aid one might be given.
Got you @twicemama. and thanks! I do have another question though. With that being said, how is NEU going to determine what our financial aid is going to be ( or likely to be) in the early review process without knowing anything about the merit aid? For example, say if we need 40K of aid money ( merit and financial combined with the assumption that 40K is the NEU-calculated 100%-need for my family) from NEU, how is NEU going to determine my financial aid in the early process? Are they going to say 40K assuming my son is not going to get any merit money or 20K “hoping” that he may get 20K merit aid later? I guess I am just a little confused. If my son ends up getting 20K of financial aid as predicted in the early review, but NOT getting 20K merit aid, the how is NEW going to meet our 100% need? We will try not to pull out of ED, but can’t base our decision just on “hope”.
Just do your best, as you have been. If ED comes up short with $$, I am confident you will be prepared with documentation and figures if you need to pull out @DNapier
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The best I can say is to run the NEU NPC (net price calculator) on their webpage (not college board) and base it on that. I am not a FA advisor so I have no idea how they balance that out, but if the NPC says your need is $40k, my sense is that the will come close to it. They likely will fill it with federal aid and NU general aid first and then if your child is awarded merit, they balance that out. It’s not like you’d get the $40k and then merit on top. If the NPC says your need is only $20k and you are hoping for an additional $20k in merit, then I’m not sure you can count on that. NEU has gotten super competitive and even kids with very high scores, etc do not get honors or merit. Also, if you own a business or are divorced, the NPC does not work well from what I’m told, so having NEU run their early review is prob a good idea. I’m wondering if the early review looks at your fafsa and css profile.
Talking to the FA advisors is best as they know how their system works and it seems to change every year a bit. Good luck! (I think you said you’re from CA or another high cost state, so I understand the stress… we are CA as well.)
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DNapier, you are in a similar position to where we were last year. However, our daughter did not do early decision at any school because she did not have a clear favorite. She applied to Northeastern early action. We had $40k in need according to the net price calculator. My daughter was admitted with a $29,000 merit scholarship and $10,000 in need based aid. My impression was, had she not received the merit scholarship, need based aid would have been increased to fill the gap. In other words, they would have gotten us close to the net price calculator figure using either need based aid, merit, or both. Please note that merit aid will not stack on top of need based aid to reduce your expected family contribution.
My daughter chose Northeastern, despite not having the chance to visit the campus due to Covid. A month in and she is very happy. She loves Boston, the school, her classes and her work-study job.
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@DNapier I looked at that link and I see they do look at your fafsa and css, so basically this will tell you how NEU calculates what your need is. You can also ask them whether they will stack any merit aid with your need aid, but usually they will replace it with a higher amount but not totally stack it. For instance, say this review says your need is 25k but your child gets national merit and is given $30k, you’ll keep the $30k but not both. NMSF is one that comes late in the process for instance. That’s my sense, but please ask them in this review and share what you learn. This is the first I’ve heard of this early review.
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Thanks for that example - that is exactly what I was describing above and figure is NEU’s process. The only time merit will “stack” or add on these days is if the NMF award is given and it seems that may add on some additional funding when applied in the Spring.
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@DNapier and @JHaroldStukes, the other distinction is that if one gets merit aid, that amount does not increase each year under the NU Promise. That award stays the same each year so long as one meets the GPA requirement spelled out when it is given. Any need based aid will increase each year at the same % of tuition increases as per NU Promise.
Thanks a lot to you both @twicemama and @JHaroldStukes. I really appreciate it. It sounds like NEU will meet 100% need one way or another through the combination of merit and/or financial aid, which makes me feel much “safer”.
@twicemama 1) My guess is that NEU’s “early estimated need-based financial aid review” is probably focused on the “total” aid, not necessarily the “financial aid”. The way I’d imagine is that they will determine the total aid in this early review process, communicate it to the kids & parents and then wait on the decision of the admission and merit aid. If the kid gets admitted with merit, they will then balance it out to keep the total aid at the same level , given no business, no divorce and no NMSF; if admitted without merit, the student will get what it is estimated from the early review with 100% being the financial aid. 2) I checked their website, and it seems that they only need CSS and the tax return, not fafsa. 3) I am not from CA. Parentof KZ is 3) The early review process is probably the same thing that Mtemmd talked about before- “ED calculator”. 4) Based on what you said, it would probably be more “beneficial” for the kids getting admitted without any merit aid, because as you said, only the need-based aid will increase each year at the same rate as the tuition.
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@DNapier. That is what I would expect. Also, if your child is admitted and the FA package is way off from what comes out of the early review, I think you would be able to go back and find out what changed and ask for another review of FA. Merit aid is especially good for folks who do not qualify for need based aid. Good luck!
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