<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I have a question about financial aid at the Rochester Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>I have a EFC of 10,000. I know that some colleges meet the student all the way when it comes to EFC's, and dont leave a "financial gap". I was just wondering if anyone could tell me how well RIT does with meeting the EFC. Their COA is 40,000, and they do not use CSS. Only FAFSA. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>[College</a> Search - Rochester Institute of Technology - RIT - Cost & Financial Aid](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>There are few to zero schools that only use FAFSA but meet full need. RIT does not meet need. They may for top applicants, but they will gap most.</p>
<p>Really? Man, it looks like I am going to have a problem then. It stinks because if I get a merit based scholarship, all it does is take away from my need based aid. </p>
<p>If they dont meet the EFC, how much of a gap will there be??</p>
<p>You really don’t know until you apply.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This isn’t necessarily true unless you receive the total of scholarship and financial aid exceeds your calculated need (COA-EFC=Need). If you look at the link posted above, you’ll see that RIT reported that a significant number of students had 100% of their need met. As susgeek says, you won’t know what RIT will offer you unless you apply.</p>
<p>What level of scholarship do you think you’ll qualify for?</p>
<p>*It stinks because if I get a merit based scholarship, all it does is take away from my need based aid. *</p>
<p>Since your EFC is lowish, that is probably true. However, if you some how got mega scholarships (like $45k+ per year), then that would reduce your EFC.</p>
<p>But…if your merit scholarship is something like $15k per year or so, then you’re right, it go towards aid, not EFC.</p>
<p>You won’t be able to take out a student loan to cover your EFC because your aid package will already have a student loan in it.</p>
<p>Will your family pay its EFC? If not, how much will they pay? </p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>*
If they dont meet the EFC, how much of a gap will there be?? *</p>
<p>There is no way for us to know that…</p>
<p>WE don’t know how much merit they will give you.</p>
<p>WE don’t know your stats, so we don’t know how desirable you would be to RIT. Sometimes (not always) a school will be more generous with FA if the student has very desirable stats.</p>
<p>What school is your financial safety school? (that is a school that you KNOW that you can afford).</p>
<p>Are you going to apply to any schools that will give you big assured scholarships for stats?</p>
<p>What is your home state?</p>
<p>Will your major be engineering?</p>
<p>Well, I’m probably not that desirable. I’m black, my SAT score is a 1800. I would like to go there for Software Engineering. I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet. </p>
<p>My backup is MCC, a local community college. 5,000 a year. And yes, I do live in NY.</p>
<p>My family probally wont pay for anything. I’ll have to take out a bank loan. My sister used Sallie Mae - I assume I’ll use the same.</p>
<p>Have you considered SUNY IT or one of the other 4-year SUNY’s? Not that there’s anything wrong with starting at a CC but the SUNY’s give merit aid too!</p>
<p>Just realized that MCC is likely Monroe…so does that mean if you attended RIT you would commute? Or are freshmen required to live on campus?</p>
<p>Yes, your right, MCC is Monroe Community College. Considering I don’t have a car, I am planning on living on campus at both schools regardless of where I go.</p>
<p>I haven’t really considered the other SUNY schools, to be honest. Most of them don’t even offer Software Engineering. I believe Oswego is the only one that does… But thats about six hours from where I live, so I don’t really consider that an option. </p>
<p>Maybe the best answer to my question would to just call RIT and ask them myself.</p>
<p>Something I should probably mention:</p>
<p>I just filled out a Financial Aid calculator on the University of Rochester’s website. And it said I would get 45,000 dollars worth of aid. The schools COA is 55,000. Which means that they completely covered my EFC. </p>
<p>If the University of Rochester did it, why couldn’t RIT?</p>
<p>Ummm…Oswego to Rochester can’t possibly take 6 hours…I’d guess about 1-1.5 hours, maybe less! Not sure what all the differences are between the computer majors but is it possible that they just aren’t called “Software Engineering” but that is included in another computer sci major such as applied computing? </p>
<p>UofR likely has a much larger endowment than RIT. But remember that RIT is also a co-op school so you would have opportunities to earn there.</p>
<p>There are benefits to living on campus, but generally it increases the costs. Paying $10K/year x 4 to go to a local school seems like it would buy alot of car.</p>
<p>My sister’s old boyfriend went to Oswego, it was around 6 hours round trip. </p>
<p>All this financial information is making my head spin! I wish I could apply early decision to see what my financial outlook would be ahead of time, but I feel like if I do that, I would be locked in.</p>
<p>*I just filled out a Financial Aid calculator on the University of Rochester’s website. And it said I would get 45,000 dollars worth of aid. The schools COA is 55,000. Which means that they completely covered my EFC.</p>
<p>If the University of Rochester did it, why couldn’t RIT? *</p>
<p>You can NOT compare one school’s ability to give aid to another! Some schools have big endowments, MANY schools have SMALL endowments and not much aid to give. Some schools have big endowed scholarships, some do not.</p>
<p>That’s like asking…how come Susie’s parents can pay her tuition and Mary’s parents cannot?</p>
<p>RIT’s endowment is small…only 1/2 of a billion.</p>
<p>UR’s endowment is about 3 times the size.</p>
<p>BTW…UR isn’t covering your EFC…it is covering your NEED.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. That makes perfect sense. I just think it’s kind of silly. I mean, how a more expensive school would cost me less then a least expensive school. I guess that’s just the way life is hahaha</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My goodness, that is a long trip! Was he walking?! It’s on the same lake, less than 75 miles away.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^</p>
<p>lol</p>
<p>I lived upstate most of my adult life. I have only been on Long Island since 2004.</p>
<p>It might be 6 hours when it is snowing (which it does frequently). I doubt that though. On a good day, no way is it 6 hours. Maybe 2 hours each way.</p>
<p>Another quick question about RIT aid.</p>
<p>Say that my financial package contains 10,000 dollars worth of work study and federal loans and 20,000 worth of grants. Say I get a merit scholarship for 15,000 dollars.</p>
<p>Does this situation mean that I would get the work study and loans taken care of, and I would get 5000 dollars toward my tuition taken off? Or does the remaining 5000 dollars just take away from my grant money?</p>
<p>Thanks for the help everyone</p>