Priority Review (Early Notification)

<p>All aid packages have a summer earnings component–which will increase each year you’re in college. (You also will always be expected to take out the full amount of federal students loans–an amount that will increase every year. )</p>

<p>Merit doesn’t change your EFC. Merit ALWAYS decreases need based grant aid first before it’s applied to other parts your FA.</p>

<p>The only way merit will decrease your EFC is if: </p>

<p>1) your EFC is so high that you’re not eligible for need-based aid, or only a for a small amount; </p>

<p>or </p>

<p>2) you merit is so HUGE that it completely covers your need.</p>

<p>Since you are a high need applicant, merit aid will never decrease your EFC at UR.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Interesting… I never knew that.</p>

<p>Does getting the scholarship help me out in other areas though? Like listing it as an “honor” on resumes, job applications, grad school admissions, etc? Or is it something no one really cares about?</p>

<p>I mean, I want to be able to use the scholarship for something…</p>

<p>You can list a scholarship as an honor on a resume. (Although you hopefully have other honors to go along with it. By itself it’s not especially meaningful, but if you have Phi Beta Kappa, Dean’s List, departmental honors, research honors, senior thesis honors, etc–then you have a track record of achievement.)</p>

<p>A scholarship on your resume won’t help out on grad school (or professional school) admissions–unless it’s Fulbright or a Roosevelt or some other prestigious national recognition. Generally grad school admissions are driven by relevant major grades, research experience, standardized test scores and LORs.</p>

<p>Mostly your scholarship is a congratulations for your success & hard work in high school.</p>

<p>We were told by my D’s college counselor that merit aid awards always affect your financial aid package no matter what school you attend. Merit aid gets factored into your EFC. If you get a merit award after receiveing your financial aid package, you can expect the school to amend the financial aid package. My understanding is the school does have some lattitude in how they adjust the financial aid package (i.e. do they offset the merit aid by removing grants, loans, self help, etc) and this is dependent on how highly they “value” the student. The feeling I was given was that if your child receives merit aid, there is some negotiation possible in how your finacial aid package is adjusted.</p>

<p>^^That’s true but UR’s policy is to reduce need-based grant aid first when merit is awarded.</p>

<p>Different schools have different policies. </p>

<p>However, most schools reduce school funded need-based grant aid first before adjusting other parts of the FA package.</p>

<p>I’m sure most schools probably have the same policy of reducing need-based grant aid but it wouldn’t hurt to ask if they could reinstate the grants and reduce the laons, self help, etc. The worst they can say is no but you’ll never know unless you ask.</p>

<p>I haven’t even gotten my aid package yet… I’m just relying on the financial aid calculator on their website. So technically, U of R won’t even have “reduced” my grant, because they never would have given me the higher grant in the first place.</p>

<p>My IDOC stuff was made available to them on March 6th. How much longer do you think I’ll have to wait before receiving my package? Hopefully within the next week, right?</p>

<p>I have not received our aid package as well. I was told we could expect it last Friday (at latest). My son was accepted at another school over the weekend. I was really impressed because the financial aid package, merit aid and acceptance came all at once. Now we are just waiting to see what U of R will give him so we can decide! He is really torn between both schools!!!</p>

<p>@Bluedog123 Was it Case Western Reserve?</p>

<p>I got my stuff from there over the weekend.</p>

<p>I know now that merit aid simply reduces your need. But this should be made clear on the websites where they list the merit awards, as somehow I missed this useful fact in a year of researching colleges. </p>

<p>It’s interesting that the RIG (research and innovation grant) awards don’t reduce need.</p>

<p>If we turn down student loans and instead take out other loans ourselves (home equity for example) are we penalized in our package next year?</p>

<p>RIG grants don’t reduce need because you can’t apply it towards the cost your tuition and room & board. </p>

<p>RIGs are one-time grants that can be used only for research related expense. (Summer salary when working at unpaid research, special program tuition, research-related travel costs–to a foreign site or to a conference, for example, reseach materials or something similiar.)</p>

<p>~~~</p>

<p>If by loans, you mean can you decline student Staffords? You can and it shouldn’t penalize you in future years. Staffords are federal government guaranteed. The award of Staffords must follow federal guidelines. Your student can always take out the full annual amount in UNsubsidized Staffords (assuming you file a FAFSA) whether you have demonstrated need or not. To receive subsidized Staffords, you must have demonstrate need.</p>

<p>If by student loans, you mean Perkins loans–the answer is probably. Funding for Perkins loans is very limited and the amount available at the university level changes from year to year.</p>

<p>@jushyosaha604- No… RPI. I wanted my son to apply to Case Western… but he felt it was too far away. Case is a great school… a friend’s son just graduated. He is an intern at SpaceX and they have offered him a permanent position once the internship is complete. Very Cool. RPI offered my son a fantastic aid package and financial aid, but his first choice is U of R. I hope they are competitive.</p>

<p>@Bluedog123 Nice. RPI is a good school but I wasn’t nominated for the Rensselaer Medal so I was like “whatever” and didn’t apply. They did send me a LOT of mail though.
Also, SpaceX? That sounds awesome! What was his major? Was it aerospace engineering?</p>

<p>In other news, it’s been 8 days since the IDOC was made available to U of R… still waiting on the financial aid package. </p>

<p>In a parallel universe admissions and financial aid happens instantly.</p>

<p>jushyosaha604- I am not sure what his major was…believe it was electrical engineering? He just worked on the last launch of the rocket. Very exciting! We finally received aid package from U of R. Sadly… their package was not competitive. RPI gave him 25k in merit aid…where U of R only gave him $7500. He loves U of R but in the end it will cost us almost 8k more a year to send him. He has a few more schools to hear from, but I think he will go to RPI.</p>

<p>You seem to know in’s and out’s better than anyone else here so maybe you have some advice.
My D was accepted and received 17k merit aid (good). F.A finally came through and
only 2k (not so good). Rochester’s net price estimator with 15k merit was showing
us about 22k (F.A) with our financials plugged in. RPI and WPI (she is looking at
Chem Eng) came back with total aid in mid 20’s . Would you know why such a big
disparity (19k actual vs mid 30’s net price est.) We are trying to work with F.A. office
at Rochester. Thanks in advance for any insight you may have.</p>

<p>^^ I’m confused by your post.</p>

<p>Your D got $17K merit, $2k grants(?) plus I would guess a $5.5K Stafford loan and $3K student contribution (summer earnings contribution/self help) --that’s 27.5K in FA. Did she get a Work-Study award? W/S would also increase the amount of her FA award.</p>

<p>As for how WPI and RPI calculated your family EFC–it’s irrelevant to UR. Every private school has its own proprietary formula which means your EFC is going be different at every school.</p>

<p>Do you have untaxed income? That might have caused the difference. But I’d contact them and find out to make sure.</p>

<p>Thanks for your reply. To clarify :
Merit Grant W/s student loan
Uroc net price calc. 15k 25k 0 5.5k
Actual aid 17k</p>

<p>Thanks for your reply. To clarify :
Merit Grant W/s student loan
Uroc net price calc. 15k 25k 0 5.5k
Actual aid 17k 2k 1k 5.5k</p>

<p>So calculator vs actual is about 20 k difference. We thought actual might be higher
but not 20k. D also received 3k research grant. She is waiting on 2 more decisions,
one being Tufts which I think is pretty similar to Uroc. We have couple of rental properties and they may be adding depreciation back on to income. Otherwise
work normal jobs and nearing retirement (5-6 yrs). Have some savings and planned
to borrow against one rental property but if amount stays this high D will not
attend. D loves URoc so will appeal F.A. on her behalf in next couple of days.
Thank you
Dad of Ktfrancis94</p>

<p>a</p>

<p>Net price calculators are not accurate for small business owners–which would include you since you own investment properties.</p>

<p>Most of the expenses associated with rental properties will get added back into the income and used to compute your EFC.</p>

<p>NPC only seem to work for individuals who derive most of their income from salaries and have only typical assets (i.e. a family home, some savings, some retirement monies.)</p>

<p>Don’t be surprised if every NPC you used is similarly inaccurate.</p>