<p>Hey guys, I have been accepted to MIT early action, and I am short on money, I think that after financial aid, I will be short around 5,000 to 10,000 dollars, so I am looking for scholarships. I would appreciate if you know of any scholarships for an Indian male from New Jersey who is pretty good academically.</p>
<p>Thanks I really do appreciate it.</p>
<p>Does MIT put full student loans in FA packages? If not, you can borrow up to the federal limits. Can your parents contribute some or maybe borrow some?</p>
<p>I know that I can borrow, but I would like to avoid that at all costs, I appreciate your advice, but I just dont want to come out of college with myself or my family in debt</p>
<p>This is just my opinion - but for MIT, you shouldn’t worry about borrowing this amount. If you borrowed $5-10K each year for four years, that would be very easy to pay back, and you could pay it back quickly. Under the assumption that you’re pursuing a technical major, and that you intend to work, these loans will nothing more than an annoyance, and a short-lived one at that.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say this about a non-technical major at MIT, or about any schools except for a very few. But this is different, and you don’t pass up this kind of opportunity for want of a measly $5-10k/year. It’s a very reasonable investment.</p>
<p>What about working over the summer and breaks? You should be able to get near $5K.</p>
<p>If your package did not include Stafford loans, I would seriously factor those in and then see where your “gap” falls. As Erin’s dad points out a part-time job will garner you several more thousand. Look carefully at the costs and figure out your own budget: tuition + fees + room and board + books and supplies + walking around money + transportation. Sometimes depending on your personal lifestyle the college total cost to attend can be trimmed. I know with our kids I have never come close to the college estimate for transportation and I have to fly our kids.</p>
<p>Once you know what you need to borrow, use the on-line calculators to figure out what that means on a monthly basis for however many years.</p>
<p>As you look for scholarships and figure out your budget for the four years remember that many outside scholarships are one year only.</p>
<p>MIT meets the full need of accepted students. Are you saying that your parents are unable to pay the family contribution MIT calculated?</p>
<p>One thing you need to know about outside scholarships…you MUST report them to MIT. Any scholarship will reduce your financial need by that amount. Thus your need based aid will also be reduced. Usually colleges reduce the loans, and work study portions of your aid package when your need goes down. After that, they reduce your grants.</p>
<p>If you get these outside scholarships, you may find that you still have the same shortfall.</p>
<p>Look carefully at you FA package that you got from MIT. Does it already include loans? What does it include?</p>
<p>THe problem is that packages come out in March for everyone, so I have no clue what it’ll be like,that was I was trying to prepare for the worst by getting scholarships</p>
<p>Outside scholarships are going to be applied to your “need”…so are you concerned that your “family contribution” is going to be too high?</p>
<p>If so, make sure you have a financial safety alternative.</p>
<p>Are you a citizen or green card resident?</p>
<p>have you estimated what your “family contribution” might be?</p>
<p>Has your family said how much they’ll pay? </p>
<p>If you haven’t estimated this, you need to.</p>
<p>You should be able to get in touch with the financial aid office and get a clear idea of what your financial aid offer will be. My S was accepted at MIT and we were surprised at how generous their offer was. I believe they included an unsubsidized Stafford in the package as well as work-study. </p>
<p>I agree with MisterK that taking on a reasonable amount of debt for MIT can be considered an investment.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, I will try to get in contact with the aid office after break, and hopefully my package will be good, I really want to go.</p>
<p>I would still caution about taking on too much debt. My friend’s son graduated from Columbia with an EE degree in May 2009. He still hasn’t been able to get full employment in his field of work…so his income is way below where it should be. He borrowed quite a bit and his parents are (very unhappily) having to make the payments. An undergrad degree from a top school is no guarantee of a top salary at graduation. And, MIT grads do NOT start a lot higher than other engineering grads…that is a big ole myth.</p>
<p>m2k- If you were referring to my post, let me clarify. I wasn’t necessarily suggesting that MIT grads start A LOT higher than other grads (although many do). But MIT engineers do receive lots of employment opportunities, and they’re well-paying jobs that would make that debt load easily manageable. That’s why I said, “under the assumption … that you intend to work.” An MIT grad can find engineering work.</p>
<p>By contrast, Columbia would be a very odd choice for an engineering major; that’s simply not a strength for that great school. If I were interviewing a fresh Columbia engineering grad, a lot of the interview would be geared towards finding out what s/he is really after professionally (“professional engineering” would require some convincing).</p>
<p>But in all honesty, that’s not a likely situation. Companies with engineering needs tend to go to the strong engineering programs, because that’s where the strong engineers are. In the Iveys, that pretty much means Cornell (and a few other point exceptions).</p>