<p>That's all I have to say.</p>
<p>My parents' income combined is $24k and they're expecting me to contribute 40k a year, that's HILARIOUS!</p>
<p>damn, what happened to the no loans supposedly???</p>
<p>I never heard anything about no loans. I'm quite happy with my package, it's spot on with my EFC, maybe you should call them to make sure everything is correct.</p>
<p>But, randombetch, I thought that going to the college of your dreams was well worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt?</p>
<p>This guy/girl is most likely a troll. In the financial aid forums, he posted</a>an extremely condescending and inflammatory message insulting everyone not willing to take out "hundreds of thousands" in loans to go to their dream school and telling everyone he got a full ride to Duke.</p>
<p>My daughter's financial aid package was decent, not great. About what we expected.</p>
<p>Northwestern's no loan policy is only for certain low-income, low-asset applicants, not for all applicants.</p>
<p>I vote troll, personally. That or he's not telling the whole story.</p>
<p>^I'm actually neither.</p>
<p>Hmm.. this is like the time I got banned from a server while playing CS because they thought I was hacking when I was just playing really well that day.</p>
<p>Well, not sure why Northwestern's package was soo ridiculous for me. I thought it was for everyone else too.</p>
<p>Jarn:</p>
<p>"But, randombetch, I thought that going to the college of your dreams was well worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt?"</p>
<p>Yes, I do? Is Northwestern my dream school? Uhh no?</p>
<p>40-somethingk income, expected contribution of 11k for somebody i know.</p>
<p>and it killed UChicago's fin aid offer!</p>
<p>Just got my financial aid package today and my listed expected contribution is $32,000. Thing is, my EFC was only $13,000 and our annual gross income is $31,000! We do have some assets, but nothing that implies any significant wealth. I really hope there is some mistake because I would not like my mom to have to dip into her retirement savings to pay for college. What do you guys think? Is this a mistake/any hope of not having to spend our entire income plus a bit more on college?
Thanks a bunch! Sorry to seem crazy...but i'm rather worried.</p>
<p>contact the admissions office. some people's situations just shouldn't be</p>
<p>j.wang115, definitely go back to FA office and ask them to review your situation again. I trully believe that NU's FA office is out of control. I don't know if it's just this year or every year. I received conflicting information from them by phone and via email with regards to my D's FA status. We have no FA information at all and it's April 8 already. This does not leave much time for consideration.</p>
<p>yeah, definitely call them.
My mom has higher income, but she still needs to pay for both me and my brother for an one-year overlap. NU gave us just the right amount for things to be affordable. So unless you have a large amount of assets, they must have made a mistake</p>
<p>Thank you for all the suggestions. I emailed the finaid office about my situation and they basically said that they made their decision based on the fact that we owned a home. While I understand that owning a home might be a pretty big asset, it still feels unreasonable that all of my mom's annual income (plus a bit more) has to go to tuition. I could ramble on for a lot more but I'll stop myself now.<br>
Just curious, is this situation a common one? Do scholarships really help? I seems that the more scholarships one has, the more they decrease finaid...so what is the point? And what really is the "right amount" schools should give? Unfortunately, I still feel clueless when it comes to financial aid. </p>
<p>I will, however, call the office and see if perhaps they will at least give me some more loans. And on a rather different topic....does anyone know how much journalists/editors make on average? My biggest worry about journalism as a career right now is being able to support myself and my mom financially in the future.<br>
Thanks again for listening to my rants -_-</p>
<p>I suspect that it is the amount of equity in that home which is the problem. We own a home too, but with only a decent amount of equity. It did not seem to have much effect on NU's financial aid calculation for my daughter.</p>
<p>hmm i got 18k grant. and a bunch of loans. my family combined probably makes 90k a year. So this still places a huge financial strain on my family because we are still paying off mortgages for the house.</p>
<p>emory offered me 26k grants. is it possible to negotiate wtih the financial office?</p>
<p>It's always worth a try, though when I called to ask them to match a much higher grant, they weren't able to do anything.</p>