Schools that "meet full financial need"

Paying for College
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<p>I'm applying to both Rice and Northwestern University, both of which claim to meet the full financial need of students that get accepted. This is important to me because money is the #1 factor in choosing a school. My family made around $100,000 this year, but next year it's dropping to around $55,000. We don't know how we're getting through next year. All costs are going to have to be taken out in loans for the first couple years. By saying they meet full financial need, does that mean that they would provide grants to bring the costs down to a number that I can take out in loans without leaving school buried in debt?</p>

<p>Basically what I am asking is if it would be affordable if I got accepted?</p>

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<p>You need to call both schools’ FA offices and ask how they will handle a drop in income.</p>

<p>Are you sure that the income will drop? If the drop is because a parent has lost his/her job, then there’s a chance the parent could find employment and the family could still earn a good amount of money. </p>

<p>Taking out a bunch of loans the first couple of years is a bad idea. Even if your family’s income returns to $100k after a couple of years, they will be “backed up” with other bills, expenses, home/car expenses, because those things were set aside for a few years. </p>

<p>What financial safeties are you applying to?</p>

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<p>To be explicit: no, meeting full financial need does not mean they won’t bury you in loan offers. It doesn’t even necessarily mean that you will get enough aid, because your parents may not actually be able to pay their expected contribution. These schools might offer you enough grant aid, but you shouldn’t be counting on it.</p>

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<p>You should run the net price calculators on these college websites. BUT your issue is one that might not bode well. Typically, college financial aid is based on the previous year’s income. So your income from 2012 will be what is considered for the 2013-2014 college year. How do you know for SURE that your income will be dropping? Has a parent already lost a job?</p>

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<p>How will your family qualify for these loans? Sure, they probably could get a Parent Plus Loan…but if their financial situation is such that they cannot afford to pay for college right now, you need to find schools that are more affordable than these $50,000 plus schools.</p>

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<p>My dad recently got a new job and only for this year is his pay up around $100,000. It was part of the job agreement, and he will be earning $4,000 less a month next year. That’s why it’s dropping.</p>

<p>And my safety financial situation is I would be going to a community college most likely (loans would still be used) and transferring from there after 2 years. I want to ultimately get a degree from an OUTSTANDING school.</p>

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<p>I understand you want to get a degree from an “outstanding” school. BUT you also need to be able to pay the bills to attend. It is NOT a good idea to take loans for your entire first two years of college. You should also understand that at MANY schools, financial aid for transfer students is MUCH LESS than for incoming freshmen. If you have the opportunity to get significant aid as an incoming freshman, you might want to at least consider that. At some point you can get a graduate degree from that outstanding school.</p>

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<p>*ACT-33 (36 math, 35 english, 31 reading, 29 science)
GPA- 3.78 (weighted)</p>

<p>This year, my family’s income is about $100,000. Next year, it’s dropping way down to around $60,000. I’m going to have to take out loans for everything, my family will not be able to afford to pay anything towards college for the first couple of years. *</p>

<p>If that’s your weighted GPA, then Rice and other elite schools will be a reach. </p>

<p>Why would you only have a CC as your “safety school”? That seems short-sighted considering that you may never get accepted as a transfer to a “great school” (since top schools take few transfers). And, since transfers often get lousy aid, that’s another risk.</p>

<p>I would think a better strategy would be to apply to some schools where you’d get HUGE merit…then if you’re accepted to a top school as a transfer (with money), then do so. But, at least if you don’t get accepted as a transfer to a top school (or don’t get the money), you’ll at least have a good financial situation at your existing school.</p>

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<p>

That’s a generalization that can’t just be applied across the board. If OP’s dad feels certain that their cashflow is going to increase within a couple of years, and that they will be able to pay the loans and the contemporary costs at that time, I think OP has to trust that they know what they are talking about. Apparently, the father is a financial advisor of some sort.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>The OP says that HE is going to take out loans. That is different from the parents “doing the math”, and then taking out Plus loans for the shortfall, which they will be solely responsible. </p>

<p>* I’m going to have to take out loans for everything*</p>

<p>If the parents have said that THEY will be able to afford the loans after a year of a large decrease in income, that may be different. However, if they’ve never experienced such a huge drop in income, even a “financial advisor” may not fully be able to absorb how that severe drop will set them back if their family’s mortgage/lifestyle depends on that higher income.</p>

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<p>My dad IS a Financial Advisor. About two years ago he quit working at Chase because he believed he would be able to make more money at Wells Fargo. That ended up not being true, in fact it was the opposite. So he had to quit Wells Fargo early this year and go to PNC Bank, where he has found a great job. Part of the contract was that the first year he worked at PNC he would make $4,000 more a month than what he will be starting out with after that. So next year, his income will go from around $100,000 to somewhere in the $50k-low $60k range. After that, he is very confident that his income will go up a lot. He’s already confident about it. And my parents have made it very clear to me that the loans that we take out are only because we cannot pay anything towards the first couple of years. In a couple years, my parents will be able to contribute. And they have made it clear to me that they will help me pay back the loans. The loans will not be entirely on me, I will be receiving significant help paying them back.</p>

<p>That being said, I’m not taking out LARGE loans for the first couple of years. It’s not like I’ll be leaving college with 6 figures worth of debt. Not even close.</p>

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<p>Hi Astros:</p>

<p>Be careful with “meet full need” schools. Many of them meet need with loans (Northwestern is one of them). I think the best in terms of finaid are “no-loan meet-full-need” schools.</p>

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<p>It’s hard to believe any company would use a salaried contract structure like that.</p>

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<p>I know.</p>

<p>Makes me wonder if the first year the dad is on straight salary, but after that, he’s on salary/commission combo and expects to have an income drop for a bit.</p>

<p>??</p>

<p>Otherwise, it’s the oddest thing I’ve ever heard.</p>

<p>I still think that if the family experiences a huge drop in income for a year or two, that things will get “backed up”. It’s very hard for a family to go a couple of months without some major unexpected expense: car repair, new tires, major appliance replacement, dental work, home repair, etc, etc. With a huge income drop, some of those things may get put on the back burner until income comes back.</p>

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<p>now im thinking about doing something like Kansas. Kansas is a good engineering school. and when I visited, one of the engineering professors reccommended that i apply to be part of an engineering fellowship that would give me more scholarship $$. plus being in something like that would look good when i apply for grad school, which i already know im going to do after my 4 years. If I did get into the fellowship, I’d be able to go to Kansas for probably less than $10,000/year.</p>

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<p>I’m sure that is what is the case. It is typical for professional jobs based on commission to give a guarantee for about a year while they are building clients.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>Are you instate for Kansas? </p>

<p>Do the scholarships cover all of tuition?</p>

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<p>Astrojake, the way it works is that colleges look at the prior year’s income and count it very heavily in determining financial aid. You can explain the situation to each financial aid director, and they can make their own professional judgement on the issue. and there is absolutely no telling how that will go. There is the category of a displaced worker, that puts such an employee’s income level to what it would have been had current pay been what the prior year’s pay was, but that is a federal designation, and in your case would at best have very little impact in terms of more financial aid. You still would not be PELL eligible, in other words. </p>

<p>You, as a freshman, can only take out $5500 on your own through Stafford/Direct loans, unless your parent gets turned down for PLUS, in which case you can borrow an additional $4K. THat can cover some local options and some schools like Kansas if scholarships are thrown in the mix and you and your family can come up with the rest. FOr schools that are running around $60K a year, the amount YOU alone can borrow is just a drop in the bucket. I don’t know about RIce and NW specifically, but a lot of schools will throw in your Staffords as part of your aid package to meet the need as they define it , so often you don’t even have that fallback to meet what is defined as your family cost. They may also have work study for you which could infringe on your working part time to meet some costs.</p>

<p>However, all of this is speculation. Go on a head and apply to some of these schools. RUn the calculators using both best case and worst case scenarios and see what they come up with in terms of what you can expect. But the most important thing for you to do, is to pick some school where you know you can get accepted, and that you can afford. Then you have someplace you are sure to be able to go if the money or acceptances do not pan out as hoped.</p>

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<p>I’d like to clear some things up.</p>

<p>When I talk about me taking loans out, I’m talking about my family. We’re going to have to take out all loans for the first two years, not through me, but through my family. So I can take out more.</p>

<p>I’ve been talking with my parents. My dad is nearly 100% certain that in a couple of years he will be back to making over $200,000/year. That is what he used to make, that’s what he’s heading towards. College for me just came at a really bad time when our family’s income completely tanked because of job switches. In a couple years, my dad WILL be able to contribute towards my education. And after I graduate, they will be helping me pay it off since they cannot pay for it right now. If I end up with $80k-$90k in loans (which is unlikely because my dad will be able to help in 2 years anyways), I’ll get help paying it off. And no, my family will not be backed up because by that time, the only thing we’ll have to pay off is the house. I won’t get into details, but it’s not like we’re going to get backed up where when my dad makes $200,000 but he’s putting most of it towards the previous years’ expenses.</p>

<p>I’m not going to settle for a mediocre engineering school just because my family is in trouble right now. It will all play itself out, $$ in the end won’t be as much of a problem as I believe you guys think it is. Of course, I won’t be taking out $30-40k a year and leave school $120k+ in debt. I will probably end up with over $60k. But as I said, I will be receiving help paying it off. </p>

<p>Anyways, I’ve come to notice a reoccurring theme of negativity with a few of the users on this website. If I come up with a possibility of something I can do, I don’t want to get immediately shut down blatantly. If it doesn’t seem realistic, try to help make it realistic. It seems like some people don’t realize that at this point in my life, this is the most important and monumentous decision I’ve had to make thusfar. Because of finances, this process has induced on me the most stress I’ve ever encountered by far. And I’ve experienced a ton of personal stress, so I know what stress is. But this takes it to a new level. It’s not because I am absolutely clueless, it’s because I just care that much. So, I don’t want to be apprehensive of posting ideas or questions on here. I want help with what I’m doing. I don’t want to be told that what I want is not possible. Telling me that an idea that I come up with is completely unrealistic is not helping, it just induces more stress. If there’s something that I come up with that you really don’t think is possible, tell me something I can do to help me step towards that goal. It really seems like most of the responses I get on here are blatantly honest. Honestly is a good thing (of course I don’t want to be lied to), but I would like to be shown a little more compassion for the amount of stress I have been under throughout this entire thing. The college process is stressful for any student. But a student that has to make a decision based on finances brings it to a completely new level.</p>

<p>Don’t take this as me not being appreciative of everyone’s help. I appreciate all the help and feedback that people have given to me on here. I just don’t want coming on here to add stress.</p>

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<p>Depending on your paren’ts’ credit, loans may not be available. You can borrow up to the Stafford maximums on your own each year. You parents’ have the PLUS program, and they can apply for those loans, but if they have outstanding debts, they will be turned down. Private lenders also look at credit histories and their terms for the loans depend on your parent’s since you are too young to have much of one.</p>

<p>So, as I said earlier, go on ahead and apply to where ever you choose and explain your situation to the fin aid folks at each school and see what they decide. But at the end of the road, you should also have some safety options just in case things do not work out. In the last 5-10 years things have not worked out well financially for a lot of families and many kids have made college decision different from what they would have made had things been flush with their families. There is no guarantee that things are going to get better for any of us, and it might be the gracious thing for you to do, not to have this additonal loan repayment burden on your dad’s back.</p>

<p>The negativity is because too many kids and paernts we have seen have taken the same route you are, and are in deeper trouble than ever. Had they not taken large school loans, they would have a lot less pressure on them. SChool loans cannot be discharged even for bankruptcy and can impede a person’s ability to get a job, loan, business opportunity, A lot of the private loans are not even discharged upon death as they are cosigned and both parties remain on the hook. A very close friend of mine has been so cornered due to the loans she signed with her daughter that neither of them can repay. She can’t refinance her mortgage with past due payments on the loan, can’t get money for her business and her Daughter can’t get a place to live that requires a creidti report and the same for a job.</p>

<p>These are real consequences to real people.</p>

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<p>Have you considered a gap year? That way, the college will only see the lower salary. It also means less loans and less interest. Might not be your ideal answer but you did ask for options.</p>