<p>I've recently become aware of the fact that GU only offers need-based financial aid, not merit-based. First of all, should this be a deciding factor for myself, considering that one of my major concerns is paying for college? More importantly, I am a part of a middle class family, therefore wouldn't that just make it harder on us because we don't require as much aid? Also, are merit-scholarships becoming a thing of the past for the top schools? </p>
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<p>Well, think about it. Top schools are filled with what??? Top students. So, how can a school filled with top students give out a bunch of merit scholarships? Who do you give them to when everyone is awesome??? </p>
<p>Merit scholarships are mostly given by univs who want to entice more top students to enroll…to raise their schools’ profile. Top schools dont need to do that right? They already have a gazillion top students clamoring to attend.</p>
<p>You need to have your parents run the NPCs on various schools’ websites to figure out how much aid they would get and to find out how much they would be expected to pay.</p>
<p>You say that you are “middle class”, but frankly, a lot of highish income people think that they are middle class. If your family earns $100k or more, then expect that they will have to pay about 30% of their income or more towards college. </p>
<p>If you want to become a doctor, then go where you will get great grades and have minimal debt.</p>
<p>How much will your family pay each year? If you dont know, ask them.</p>
<p>What are your stats? </p>
<p>what is your major?</p>
<p>What is your home state?</p>
<p>They have been a “thing of the past” for as long as I have been looking at colleges for my kids (going on 10 years now). Possibly longer. Sounds like you want to go to medical school. @mom2collegekids has some good questions for you. What is most important to get into med school is:
- High GPA
- Strong MCAT scores
- Some experience in the medical field (can be acquired in summers)</p>
<p>You want to keep your undergrad debt as low as possible because you likely will take out very large loans for med school.</p>
<p>Keep your eye on the prize and stop focusing on prestige schools like GT if you aren’t eligible for a lot of aid. Look at your in-state options and schools where you would be eligible for large merit awards.</p>
<p>To give you an idea of GTown’s financial aid, I know a boy who will be going there next year. His family earns approximately 140k. He’s got 3 younger siblings. He got “about half” of the cost covered by Georgetown. It’s completely unaffordable for this family - the parents will kick in “about 5k” each year and then co-signing loans for the son to attend. “But for Georgetown, it’s worth it!” As dumb as this is, if you’re in this income bracket, my guess is you’re going to know other people making similar decisions. Don’t do it! If you’re thinking about Georgetown, you probably qualify for lots of merit money elsewhere. Save the loans for medical school. </p>
<p>What a sad story! ^^</p>
<p>Yes, save the loans for med school!!!</p>
<p>What is important is what you and your family can afford to pay per year. When you get that figure, along with income/assets figures, you can run your numbers through GT’s NPC as suggested on this thread. If your family doesn’t own a business, your parents are not separated/divorced, you don’t have unusual financial situations, the numbers should be close since GT guarantees to meet full need as they define it and they have no merit awards. You can run the NPC at some other schools, say American University, Fordham, your state school and see what they offer as some basic comparisons. </p>
<p>Not to be argumentative about it but I actually (as a parent) do think that sometimes it’s worth the financial stretch…we have good friends whose daughter went to georgetown…on paper, it didn’t look like they could afford it…but every year, they figured it out…lots of various ways…she later went to the london school of economics…and – won’t give details to preserve her privacy - but her career (and personal life) have been extraordinary…it’s been 6 years and I’ve never heard her parents say one bad thing about the money they spent…they’re still not sure how they did it 
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<p>For a very small number of careers, it can be worth it to stretch for a certain school. Becoming a doctor isnt one of them. </p>
<p>Sounds like your friend’s D may have been in SFS?</p>
<p>Anyway…even tho it somehow worked out financially and the family still doesnt know how they did it, it sounds like they “lucked out” and had a few years without any/many crazy unexpected big expenses. A couple of those per year can eat up cash very quickly and suddenly “stretching the limits” becomes impossible.</p>
<p>Absolutely, it can be worth the stretch. It’s just a matter of knowing the possibilities. It’s always great when something works out, but it’s when the down side is so catastrophic and long lasting in impact that one has to really think long and hard about the risk.</p>
<p>We have friends, with one son at BC and the other at GTU, and yes, it’s quite the stretch for them. They get a little financial aid with two in college together for two years, but like many, paying what the schools say they can afford has been difficult They feel it’s worth it. They are happy with their choice. </p>
<p>@southernhope “they’re still not sure how they did it” LOL!! I keep asking myself a similar question about my D…not sure how I’m going to do it.</p>
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<p>We know many doing this exact thing with these exact schools (and/or Notre Dame). One thing I have noticed is that it comes out about half the time that Grandma and Grandpa have at least 10 grand to throw toward the cause each year. I think if that were our situation, there’s a chance we might try to make it work too. At least with our oldest, who has worked so hard. We’d consider stretching ourselves to the limit not so much because we could subtract 10 grand each year (afterall, that’s sort of a drop in the bucket in overall costs), but we’d stretch because we’d feel like we had some sort of back up (i.e. getting bailed out by our parents) if catastrophe struck. Not that we’d want to rely on our parents or take a bailout from them as our first course of action but the risk of stretching ourselves so thin would be mitigated. Since that’s not an option for us, there’s no way we could consider taking on that kind of risk.</p>
<p>We had a kid at Boston University and another at Santa Clara University. No, we did not have grandparents contributing to either of their college costs. It worked for us. One kiddo got a decent merit award, and the other got a small merit award. Every penny counts!</p>