But students can’t get more than 5500.
Thank you!
Post covid world is going to be difficult as well.
Just received a financial aid offer from Carnegie Mellon even though D21 was waitlisted. Anyone else got this? Is this standard practice for CMU? We haven’t gotten finaid offers from any other WL colleges. It’s generous and came by regular mail.
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So home-equity loan would make more sense?
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About the FAFSA changing the rules and eliminating the lower cost for siblings in college—again, I do understand the thought process, but I’m still very frustrated with the rule change when, for some of us, it’s after the horse has left the stable.
We literally sought out meets-need schools to add to D21’s list for the sheer fact that those schools are best with financial aid. We carefully looked at NPCs which were favorable to her with two siblings in college at once and chose schools accordingly.
Had we known they were changing the rules, her list and her time would have been allocated differently in the whole college process.
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Well personally, I don’t believe in taking on any debt. But if you have to take in any, I probably would stay away from a HELOC because while those are low now they’re variable rates and we are about to enter into an inflationary period so interest rates will be going up and there won’t be anything you can do to stop it. If you have to take out loans and unable to go a less expensive route than your best bet is to find a low fixed rate which may actually be best by taking out a bigger mortgage since you can deduct it, it’s fixed, it’ll not rise as interest rates fall, can be paid down on the backend at any time (the benefits of a 30yr over 15) etc. But of course you have to qualify. The other thing is that kind of debt counts towards financial aid whereas other debt like credit card debt (not sure about other types of loans) doesn’t. So better for someone to have a huge mortgage than to owe a ton of credit card debt which is possibly another problem with the system as it penalizes someone who may own their house but owe credit card debt even though they could just as easily mortgage the house to zero out the credit card debt.
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We quantify essay content using correlated topic modeling (CTM) and the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software package. Results show that essays have a stronger correlation to reported household income than SAT scores.
So… bring back the SATs or scrap the essays? I can support either, both or neither 
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We considered doing a cash-out refinance. The problem is that any money not used for this school year would be considered a liquid asset and most schools expect 5.6% of liquid assets to be contributed to college costs. This would reduce subsequent years FA. Home equity is only sometimes considered when determing FA package. Daughter’s meets need college used EFC to determine FA, so our home equity wasn’t taken into account. Also, closing costs should be taken into consideration.
If you contribute to a 401k you usually can borrow against it. The advantages are that instead of repayment going to a bank, it goes to you. It also will have no FAFSA implications. The downside is that there is usually a 50k limit.
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Yes, I know you qualified your statement, but when I see statements about minorities, I like to clarify because of the broad misperceptions out there.
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I would rather reintroduce testing than have essays be a determining factor. Essays are so subjective - what one AO likes might not be another’s cup of tea. Also, some kids get lots of help with essays. There are plenty of test prep courses available for free, like Khan Academy online. There aren’t as many resources available to help kids with essays.
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Sorry to change the subject, but a giant example of changing the rules after “the horse has left the stable” is the UCs going test-BLIND in September. Not blaming the UCs, I know they were forced to. So many kids spent so much time studying for the SAT/ACT to just be told, right before they apply, oops nevermind.
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@bestmom888 argh!! I’m trying to move on. 
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@CollegeYaYa I agree. We were extremely poor growing up and I went to the library to borrow the SAT prep book. We couldn’t write in it, being borrowed, but that helped me get on equal footing with someone who had the perks to do a ton of ECs. My kids are very blessed now where they don’t have to worry about the day to day essentials and I can see how the kids I help who aren’t as fortunate have used grades and SATs to strengthen their app.
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This is why I never understood the arguments for getting rid of the SAT, especially now with free Khan Academy. If the SAT/ACT favored the wealthy, how about the ECs? Who are the kids who could afford private training for soccer, fencing, crew, etc? How do high-schoolers get research positions at universities or internships at big companies? Who can afford the private tutoring that helps them win the USACO/MO/etc. competitions? And now, apparently even essays favor the rich (see my post above re. Stanford research).
Go by the GPA? It’s almost impossible to compare GPA from one school vs. that of another school. Besides some schools seem to have started considering making the unreliable GPA even more unreliable (someone upthread mentioned the idea of “equity GPA” 
) If I were an AO at a T20, I’d just go with kids from feeder high schools whose academic rigor I have confidence in.
Sorry for ranting.
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@bestmom888 I think I could imagine a student who is so poor, they wouldn’t have internet access, laptops, or a supportive family. I think those students need to be supported in a much different way. There’s a %. I would pay more taxes if it means those kids get the support. But every other kid, the test and GPA even things out. Yes, the elites won’t take the kids without the illustrious ECs, but screw ‘em. I just want the kids to get a chance at any college. We shouldn’t view it with the elite colleges as the end goal. For those who can go after them, great, for others, let the tests be another tool for those students to get a shot. At least make it test optional vs test blind.
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I get the argument against testing. But the same argument made against testing holds true for the other factors that are considered as well.
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Truthfully this all gives me a headache. So many kids have advantages and privilege, so many others don’t. I can’t imagine how colleges can ever find a way to figure out how to “equalize” an application or to make the process fair for all. There are plenty of students with plenty of privilege, have essay help, and paid test prep, college counseling and not be able to get accepted into anything but mainstream university, even if they’re the hardest worker. Then there are kids who have every disadvantage under the sun, however, they are highly intelligent, they are self motivated, they’re able to use the Khan academy free tests, or if no internet often figure out a way to get access somewhere to free internet at a library or buy the books and use local resources available to them because they want and know they can do better. Ultimately, I think to get into these elite schools in certain fields like stem or engineering you can’t really fake your way in so for what some people view as privileged kids, I get it, but they can’t fake their way through an AP test, or ACT/SAT math, etc.
My biggest concern really is the carrot held over some of these kids who are wooed by some of these schools that they never thought would be a possibility before and then think it will either be 100% free and then get such a taste of that they wind up taking loans and I think that is something the schools do a big disservice. Give these kids a means to loan forgiveness if they’re successful. Better work study options. Or, work for the university in some capacity upon graduation, or something. But student debt is such a problem these days and to just continue the cycle is a real problem. The adjustment for many students is also really hard especially their first time away at home, no matter what your background is and some are not mentally prepared. Imagine these 18 year olds away for the first time in their lives trying to cope with being far away from family, no real support, and trying to fit in with a lot of people counting on them. While I don’t believe in debt forgiveness in the manner that people want it, I do believe there needs to be some sort of restructuring of the whole system and hope a more equal education system so that college is affordable and achievable for everyone!
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Sorry just saw this. No it was pretty easy. Got it through CVS. There are so many sites now offering it, see if your area has a vaccine finders facebook group. There are so many tips and tricks for finding them. Walgreens I’ve also had good luck and a lot of people say just call around stores at the end of the day to see if they have extras.
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