<p>My daughter has been accepted (yay!). We do have significant financial need (EFC is less than $1,000), but her ACT scores were only 25 composite. She has 48 hours dual credit with a 3.6 gpa at the college/phi theta kappa. According to the calculator online, which is supposedly accurate, she should receive enough aid and scholarships to account for all except $19,500 annually. Unfortunately, that is not enough help for us. We don’t have that kind of money and can’t possibly justify going into that kind of debt.</p>
<p>Here are my questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Admissions told me that if she could retake the ACT and bring up her score that would help. I entered a 27 ACT into the calculator and yes, it did raise her scholarship award by over $6000 annually but it reduced her need based aide by the same amount… there was no net gain. Does this sound right? </p></li>
<li><p>Admissions also told me that she should apply for a departmental scholarship within her major (computer science) and apply to honors. Does anyone know what we could realistically expect in that regard? The amounts of the scholarships offered are not listed. How competitive are scholarships in the Computer Science program (and how much are they, typically, and is it too late)?</p></li>
<li><p>With her having so many of her lower level courses out of the way, I think the only Honors program she would be a good candidate for is a Great Texts minor (unless she wants to start all over with some lower level courses, which I doubt she does). Has anyone ever gotten a needs based scholarship for minoring in Great Texts?</p></li>
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<p>If we can get her net costs down to about $10,000/yr., we could probably figure out a way to make this happen with loans and such. Is it common for people tp get accepted into Baylor with the kind of financial need we have, and end up having to walk away because they can’t raise the funds? It’s discouraging. I thought there might be more financial aid available at a private school than a public one. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.</p>
<p>I forgot one last question… will my daughter fit in considering how financially strapped we are? I was reading about how the girls needed to wear brand name clothing and shoes during rush week for a chance to get into a sorority (my daughter is so down to earth, she knows and cares nothing about clothing labels - she wears jeans and band tshirts). If she isn’t wealthy, will she feel excluded? Looked down on for not being as refined and cultured as the rest of the crowd? </p>
<p>Hello, I see that nobody has really answered your questions. I will try to do my best to help you, but I am only a student myself, so I don’t know how well I will do.</p>
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<li>If she were to get a scholarship, it shouldn’t drop her need based aid. Trust me. I got a new scholarship and it didn’t mess with my need based aid at all. Need based aid is based on your income, not her scholarships.</li>
<li>The computer science departmental scholarships can be hard to get from what I understand. I think they are about $500-1000, but do not quote me on that. On the student financial aid website there is a nice place under scholarships to look up the actual amounts and application due dates (<a href=“One Stop Student Financial Services | Baylor University”>One Stop Student Financial Services | Baylor University).</li>
<li>I would not know about getting a scholarship for minoring in Great Texts, but it is an amazing program regardless and I would advise her to apply to it.</li>
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<p>To answer your final question, I am a student is by no means wealthy. I feel as though I am in a similar boat as you guys when it comes to paying for Baylor. If she wants to rush greek, she may feel pressured to buy more name brand items. However, my friends and myself wear band tshirts and jeans all the time. Also in the computer science program, most girls dress that way also (I’m not comp sci, but I hang out with a lot of them). She will find her place in the crowd and never feel weird by not wearing designer labels. Also, the only time I actually see girls attempting to dress refined in designer labels is at events outside of class. Most girls wear nike running shorts and oversized tshirts in the warmer months and leggings with oversized sweatshirts when it’s cold. 
I honestly don’t wear name brands and if they are name brands they are from Marshall/TJMaxx/etc or a sale rack inside the store. Most girls around campus compliment me on my style and I definitely don’t pay nearly as much money as they do on items.</p>
<p>Either way, good luck and if you or your daughter have any other questions, I am more than happy to answer them for you.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your reply! I talked to a financial aid counselor and he looked at her application and agreed, she is right at that margin where need based age makes up for a certain percentage, such that if your academic scholarship increases, the endowment scholarship decreases. If that’s not what you’ve experienced, then I don’t know why I’m being told this. </p>
<p>She is so excited about the prospect of attending Baylor. We’d have to borrow about $16,000 to make that happen, and to be honest I just don’t know if we can swing that much debt for college. She wants to go to graduate school so there’s that expense to plan for, too. </p>
<p>Thanks again, your answer was very encouraging as far as fitting in is concerned!</p>