So I have a single mom (dad is out of the picture) who makes $36,000 a year and I have two older brothers who are in college. I really want to go to Santa Clara, but it’s $64,000 a year. Is their financial aid program good enough to help me make it work? Thank you so much for your insight!!
(Btw if it means anything I have a 3.8 unweighted high school GPA, 29 ACT score, have been on 2 mission trips in the US, I’m in National Honors Society and I have over 200 service hours through my church)
It sounds like you haven’t yet run the Net Price Calculator for SCU. This is the first place to start with any kind of “can I afford it?” question.
We are also a lower income family. I ran the NPC for Santa Clara and the estimated net cost was higher than our annual income!
If you check the SCU early decision thread, it looks like SCU is not very generous with FA/merit aid.
If you are in-state California and are low income, you should consider some of the UC’s and Cal States since you would be eligible for Federal grants and Cal grants.
The net price calculator will not be accurate. This is a single parent.
I think this student needs to raise her ACT score to get merit aid. The school does not meet full need.
Also, beware that SCU met about 81% of need for freshmen, but only 72% of need for all undergrads. That may indicate less FA offered after freshman year.
https://www.scu.edu/media/offices/institutional-research/reports/cds_2014-2015.pdf
My kid graduated from SCU. Very nicely, her very small scholarship increased annually by the same %age as the increase in costs.
It is true, it seems hard to predict their merit aid. That said, they do seem to pay attention to the special circumstances on the CSS profile and they do sometimes give fantastic grant/merit aid. We are out of state and my son got a grant that is renewable and covers almost the full tuition. There is no way to know for sure, but it does happen.
How will the fact that OP is in a single-parent household make the NPC inaccurate? The NPC asks about the parent marital status. Presumably if this information is asked for and provided, it can be taken into account, if it even makes any difference.
Santa Clara is also a Profile school…and I believe they require the non-custodial parent info.
According to this list
SCU does not require NCP information (at least not through the Profile NCP form).
Edited to add:
From the school’s website:
That’s good news…belknappoint.
Santa Clara is one of my favorite colleges. My DD is a proud alum.
The school is really very good. The OP should apply and see what happens…you never know. They do not meet full need. The school practices enrollment management (the enrollment manager actually interviewed my kid). They do offer some excellent merit awards to high achieving students. This student should just wait and see what happens…it might end up being affordable…and it might not.
Yes… nothing ventured, nothing gained.
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beware that SCU met about 81% of need for freshmen
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The bigger concern is that this stat only includes those who enrolled. It doesn’t include all that got lousy aid pkgs and didn’t enroll. Likely those with low incomes and “ok stats” are the ones who didn’t enroll.
Your scores are on the low side I think. They had a big increase in apps this fall and their midrange numbers etc are going to rise. That will mean it is less likely you get aid. I’d have some good back up plans.