Our family recently had an awful experience dealing with some of the top 15/25 National Universities where our student was accepted. I wanted to start this thread for students and family to contribute and learn from each other’s experience. It emotionally hurts a student as well as families when student is admitted to a school of his/her choice that claims to meet 100% demonstrated needs. These schools visits your town, invite you to attend their information and apply to their school without worrying about the cost of attendance because they will meet your 100% demonstrated needs. Unfortunately the truth is dark. This initiative is to all students and families to expose such schools here based on your personal experience. Please only list schools and share briefly if school did not meet your 100% demonstrated needs despite filling an appeal with them.
Note that schools determine need; it would be silly for families to do so. Meeting 100% need includes Federal student loans (for which no qualification is necessary) and campus jobs.
It’s my understanding that schools that promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need do so based on what THEY determine your need to be - not what a particular family thinks is their need.
Did you run the net price calculators in those schools prior to applying, to get a sense of what they determine your need to be? And if so, how closely did the final award match what the NPC showed?
Was the amount different from the school’s NPC? My D was admitted to three “meet full need” schools, and while they each have somewhat different expectations for our family contribution, they all came in at close to what the calculators predicted.
The school determines the need- not the family.
Meeting full need means:
- "Need" as the school defines it using their financial aid formula, which doesn't always match the family budget for college.
- "Meeting" as the school defines it, which may mean a combination of work, loans, and grants that is not attractive once you dig into the details.
The only consumer protection is to run those Net Price Calculators before you apply and to have financial safety schools on your list.
The meet full need schools will expect you to sell the summer home, take your younger kids out of private prep schools, abandon your plans to retire at 50, get a home equity loan on your McMansion etc.
^ Quite so. These are lifestyle choices.
To answer the question directly, no, it is not a scam.
Any one who is worried about paying for college should head over to the Financial Aid & Scholarships section of CC - there is a wealth of information and many long-time posters who know a great deal about FA and creating a list of colleges that one can afford are very generous with their advice.
From the time of application to current situation circumstances have change drastically including 30% reduction in income. We do not have big assets or mansions or any lavish life style. After filing the appeal, one of top schools came back with no adjustment and they were not even willing to discuss financial aid with parent. They mentioned that they only discuss financial matters with student (But expect parents to pay
Seems like true. Do you think mortgage, tax, home, auto and health insurance, utilities, food are required basic expenses for a family to live?
Of course, but not necessarily a $500k mortgage, insurance for 4 luxury cars, eating out 5 times a week, etc. It’s all a matter of degrees. Even in the category of “necessity” there is a lot of wiggle room.
@tx1707 is any school that admitted your DC affordable?
Did any of the schools increase the aid package? You mentioned one would not.
If you post the details of what’s under consideration I think you would receive some good advice on sorting through the options.
I don’t know that the goal of your thread is going to help anyone out in the future … every student’s scenario is different. And just because School X gave Y to student Z doesn’t mean that future student Zs will have the same outcome.
I can tell that you are angry and I get it but I hope you will focus on what your C’s actual options are… @thumper, @mom2collegekids
It is unreasonable to expect to pay for college solely from current income; past and future income is also considered.
I mentioned earlier selling the summer home because of what a CC’er posted a couple years ago. It seems that his parents bought a summer home on Cape Cod the year before and now cannot afford to pay what Yale expects them to pay. And he posted about hw mean and stingy Yale was for denying his FA appeal.
son got accepted into 2 such schools. FA package from both was better than what the NPCs indicated and included work study. i can only estimate from NPCs what the out-of-pocket COA will be for years 2-4.
you might request a one-year deferral and next year use 2017 information for FAFSA.
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Please only list schools and share briefly if school did not meet your 100% demonstrated needs despite filing an appeal with them. <<
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sorry, Duke and Northwestern, and both met full demonstrated need according to our FAFSA and EFC.
i am sorry for the 30% income hit and the especially bad timing of it.
Thank you all. Goal of this thread was for families who are genuinely living with in means (e.g. one single family home with some equity income under 80K PA, 2 or more kids, some cash in Bank, some nominal assets, driving cars which are at-least 6-8 years etc. When a 100% demonstrated needs met colleges give them a number that will eat up all their assets, cash, income in paying college in 4 years is it still meeting needs 100%?
Well, even when meeting 100% need, paying for college is expected to be a burden. Some schools do respond to appeals due to changing circumstances.
again i’m sorry for your situation. we were ready to choose between instate U, OOS U offering full tuition, and OOS U offering full tuition+housing. so we had some options lined up before the 2 surprise acceptances. even then we would have walked away if the FA packages did not line up with the NPCs, but i worked out for us (and hopefully will for year 2-4). i sympathize with your situation since something similar happened to us 8 years ago.