<p>Hello, I am newbie parent. My son is 2011 senior and planning to apply to CMU. My daughter is already in 2nd year of her college(full time). I used collegeboard estimated family contribution calculator using our financial informations. It came out that our EFC is $18642. Does this mean that I should pay for daughter $18642 and my son $18642 ie $37284 in total?. Now, CMU's yearly expense is around $55k. Given the situation, how much financial aid(grants, scholarship, loan etc) would be possible from CMU?. If there a parent or student that have gone thru this scenario as mine, please respond. Would be very helpful on deciding whether to go for CMU or not. Appreciate all your responses.</p>
<p>If your son likes CMU, by all means put it on his list. However, CMU is not the most generous school around by a long stretch unless your student is waaay up there in stats in relationship to the other students in his specific school within CMU. And those stats can be really high in some of those schools such as computer sciences. CMU also does give out a loans and work study; it is not a grant only school. I have known kids who have done well with CMU fin aid, but I’ve known more who have been upset.</p>
<p>Whatare you paying for your daughter right now? Where is she going to college? Does her college meet full need? Does it use FAFSA only, or PROFILE as well? Is she on financial aid? Does she have a merit scholarship?</p>
<p>Your total FAFSA EFC is halved when you have two kids in college. Regardless of what the number is, you are not going to be eligible for the PELL based on the numbers you have given. FAFSA only schools do not tend to meet full need. So your FAFSA EFC tells you that the only thing your students are guaranteed to get are STAFFord loans.</p>
<p>Look at a few of the calculators of the schools that are on your son’s list. See what they will consider your family contribution. Look at what your D’s school is likely do in terms of fin aid when her brother becomes a college student. Figure out what you can pay and get some financial safeties on the list for your son that you know he is likely to gain admission and where you can afford to pay the cost. Then start looking at schools where he is likely to get good fin aid or have a chance at merit scholarships. That way you have your bases covered and are also stretching in terms of what is possible.</p>
<p>When you did the EFC estimator, did you indicate 2 in college?</p>
<p>Also, CMU probably uses CSS Profile to determine family contribution.</p>
<p>Where does your D go to college? What was her FAFSA EFC? What aid does she get now? If her school doesn’t meet need, then she may not get anything more even with a sibling in college.</p>
<p>FAFSA EFC is not the most you have to pay. Colleges don’t have to do anything with that number except see if you qualify for any federal aid.</p>
<p>CMU is not generous except when a student has other offers, very strong stats and can play them off. This is from their website</p>
<p>*
Practices</p>
<p>We have been open about our willingness to review financial awards to compete with certain private institutions for students admitted under the regular decision plan. Unlike most institutions, the university states these principles openly to those offered first-year admission under the regular decision plan. While early decision students are not eligible to participate in this aid review process, we will meet their full demonstrated need as calculated by the university.</p>
<p>We use statistical modeling as an aid in the distribution of limited financial aid dollars. It is a strategic tool that helps us pursue our goal of increasing the quality of the student body while using our resources as effectively as possible. This modeling takes into account a student’s intended college major, academic and artistic talents, non-academic talents and abilities, as well as financial need. This approach to awarding financial aid is unique to Carnegie Mellon and has not been developed with the aid of any outside consultants. *</p>
<p>Thank you cptofthehouse, mom2collegekids and mazewanderer
answering few of your questions</p>
<p>Whatare you paying for your daughter right now? — around $23k
Where is she going to college? – JMU, VA
Does her college meet full need? — we pay fully
Does it use FAFSA only, or PROFILE as well? —FAFSA
Is she on financial aid? Does she have a merit scholarship? — none
did you indicate 2 in college? — yes i mentioned 2</p>
<p>Yes, my S wants to apply to computer science in CMU. He is studying in a school from VA where the competition way way high. I wouldn’t say his stats are great but ok.
He has 4.1 GPA, SAT 2300s, most probably National Merit scholar semi-finalist and some EC’s.</p>
<p>If he applies ED, is there a better chance of getting good aids?</p>
<p>Yes, it means $18K+ per child but that’s EFC. You are talking EFC but you are looking to apply to a PROFILE school. Please run the calculator using “institutional method” to see what a PROFILE school might estimate you have to pay. They take more things into account (such as equity in primary residence, etc). In my experience, CMU is not very generous. I think your son has a chance at $ but I would also broaden his search considering the fact that his stats are so strong. </p>
<p>I would not apply ED if you want aid. Basically, colleges that do not meet full need (like CMU) want to use the money to attract top students. With SATs in the 2300 range, your son is a top student. If he applies ED, they will know they ‘have’ him (plus, assuming it’s binding ED, he will HAVE to attend).</p>
<p>You may want to look at Case; my guess is he would be offered merit money there. There are a number of other techy schools that offer merit (RPI, RIT). If you run your numbers through institutional method and it looks like something you can afford, he may also want to target some meet-full-need schools like Cornell or Columbia. If he makes NMF, there are schools that offer full tuition or even more (there’s a link in this forum).</p>
<p>If notice in the earlier post, if you are ED at CMU, they will not match any other offers he has.</p>
<p>Like 2collegewego suggests, do not apply ED unless you can live with what aid they may give or not give.</p>
<p>If you are accepted ED, there should not be any other offers because you are required to withdraw other applications.</p>
<p>*
Does this mean that I should pay for daughter $18642 and my son $18642 ie $37284 in total?.</p>
<p>did you indicate 2 in college? — yes i mentioned 2</p>
<p>What are you paying for your daughter right now? — around $23k
Where is she going to college? – JMU, VA
Does her college meet full need? — we pay fully
*</p>
<p>I don’t know what JMU’s FA policies are, but your D may not get any aid (except loans) even with a brother in college. </p>
<p>As others have indicated, CMU is not especially generous. Sometimes such schools are worse to ED students because they don’t have to “woo” them with a great package or scholarships. And, you won’t be able to compare offers. </p>
<p>Also, if CMU is a CSS school, they often don’t “split” family contributions in half because they sometimes assume that a family should be prepared to pay out more for 2 kids in college.</p>
<p>Unless you’ll happily pay a lot of money for both kids, ED is probably not a good idea.</p>
<p>Based on college acceptance history for his high school in blockboard, Columbia and Cornell are kind of reach schools. As 2collegewego suggested, would like to look at the options of Case, RPT and RIT and dropping the idea of ED to CMU. Thank you all for your inputs, they are really helpful.</p>
<p>What are his financial safety schools? (Schools that you know he’ll get accepted to and know that you can afford - and that he’ll like)</p>
<p>With his stats and likely NMF status, he could get some free rides or huge scholarships at some places.</p>
<p>Does he like “techie schools” or does he want a regular school with a full college experience. How about Santa Clara or USC (calif)?</p>
<p>Your aid for JMU will likely not change for your daughter. If you are paying fully now, you will probably continue to pay fully. JMU does not meet full need so even if you have some need, they are not necessarily going to meet it…in fact, likely they won’t.</p>
<p>CMU MIGHT be generous to your kiddo…but probably not to the extent of the difference between Cost of attendance minus family contribution. Certainly your son can apply and see…but if the finances will be a consideration, let him know in advance of applying. Also make sure there are some schools on his list that are more affordable.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are instate for Virginia. If so, there are so many fine public universities in Virginia…I hope at least one is on your son’s list.</p>
<p>yes mom2collegekids, he is a techie (computer science or engineering). His safety schools would be UVA, CMU(not sure for comp sci), Virginia Tech, Univ of Michigan, NYU,GIT, RPT, RIT etc. Problem with Univ of Michigan, GIT, RPT and RIT is that admission rate is 100% in his high school but very very few opting to enroll. In such case, i am concerned, he will not have any of his school friends in the new environment. We looked at schools near eastern shores only so far. Haven’t looked at USC, good engineering school?</p>
<p>thumper1, you are right. I am from Virginia. As you said, UVA is one of the best public universities and that is one of his options. Somehow he liked CMU after visiting it recently and moreover, I heard, students from CMU get more recognition in things like summer internship and jobs.</p>
<p>You might have him take a look at the thread on here for NM finalist scholarships (stickied on financial aid forum). There are some good engineering schools on there if any appeal to him.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, You wrote, “Also, if CMU is a CSS school, they often don’t “split” family contributions in half because they sometimes assume that a family should be prepared to pay out more for 2 kids in college.” I don’t know where you got this from. I have never seen a Profile school that didn’t take into account how many kids a person has in college. That said, Profile doesn’t do a 50-50 split anyway; I believe it’s 60% for each of 2 kids. </p>
<p>Virginia, I didn’t get into safeties because you’re obviously instate for VA and have VaTech. UVA is excellent, of course, but most techies go to VaTech. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about his having high school friends around but you know him better.</p>
<p>Just so you know, NYU is another school that doesn’t have a great reputation for aid-- but it will throw a lot of $ at select kids so here’s hoping your son is one of them! (Back in the day, my sister got a full ride from them which included a trip somewhere different around the world each year.) I wouldn’t cross it off the list since he has a lot of solid options but I would discourage him from falling in love with it unless the $ works out. </p>
<p>Two more schools to consider: Maryland and Rice. I believe both are strong in computer science and both give merit. (I realize Md would be an admissions safety but I believe it’s stronger in computer science than your VA options.)</p>
<p>If he likes CMU, by all means, he should apply there. As a computer science applicant, he will have stiff competition since that is CMU’s strongest school. No reason, he should not give it a go, however. CMU does like out of state ¶ applicants, and your son is up there in his stats. See how it goes with the financial aid. They may be willing to negotiate it if you have better offers.</p>
<p>Being instate, he has UVA, WM&Mary and VA TEch as excellent choices. Take a look at some other tech schools too, like Case Western (gives some nice merit money), MIT, yes a reach but does meet full need if accepted, RPI, RIT --both sources of excellent merit and fin aid for kids with the stats like yours. He has the numbers to give it whirl at a lot of places, and has great back ups in state and reasonable, so let him look for some reaches financially and admissions wise.</p>
<p>*Problem with Univ of Michigan, GIT, RPI and RIT is that admission rate is 100% in his high school but very very few opting to enroll. In such case, i am concerned, he will not have any of his school friends in the new environment. *</p>
<p>How critical is it that he have some friends from his current high school at his intended college? I would think that you would want him to branch out and make new friends at his college. At any techie school, he will have lots of classmates with similar interests to his.</p>
<p>CMU has said that they will often consider scholarship offers from competing schools (Case, RPI, WPI, etc.) and may look to adjust aid. If he applies RD to some of these that offer merit, he might be able to go back to CMU and get something.</p>
<p>Best wishes.</p>
<p>“If he applies ED, they will know they ‘have’ him (plus, assuming it’s binding ED, he will HAVE to attend).”</p>
<p>CMU requires the Common Application. The common app ED rules include this:
</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf</a></p>
<p>If you doubt it, ask CMU what their policy is if they don’t release you when the FA is insufficient; is the student expelled when the bill can’t be paid?</p>
<p>*mom2collegekids, You wrote, “Also, if CMU is a CSS school, they often don’t “split” family contributions in half because they sometimes assume that a family should be prepared to pay out more for 2 kids in college.” I don’t know where you got this from. I have never seen a Profile school that didn’t take into account how many kids a person has in college. That said, Profile doesn’t do a 50-50 split anyway; I believe it’s 60% for each of 2 kids. *</p>
<p>I did mean that many CSS schools don’t split in half (which is a 50-50 split). Many people expect that because of FAFSA.</p>
<p>Also, for multiples in college, a 60% family contribution per child isn’t a given for CSS schools. </p>
<p>A Cornell mom was recently told that if her son joins his sister at Cornell, the split won’t be even close to that generous. The family contribution for one child was about $45k. She was told to expect to pay about $70k for two. </p>
<p>And, any split will be dependent on whether the school meets need anyway. If one or both children go to CSS schools that don’t meet need, then certainly a 60% split with the rest being made up with aid can’t be expected.</p>
<p>With college costs rising, and colleges having limited funds, any big discounts for multiples in college may go away.</p>