<p>Excellent thread! After reading the thread about student debt, I'¡ve sort of been panicking about, well, everything.</p>
<p>"D's high school will process only seven apps per kid, so she has to pick really carefully."</p>
<p>I have seen similar statements posted periodically on CC. I just don't understand that and would question that at my child's school if that were the case. IMO, it should be the child's (and family's) choice as to how many schools the student applies to ... especially with FA at stake or if the child chooses multiple reach schools.</p>
<p>Also, MacNYC, I agree about the OOS schools. So far neither of my kids have received any FA from Michigan or Maryland.</p>
<p>OK, better watch out for the "need fully met" claims. </p>
<p>I am going to post the actual "award" received today from the Univ. of Washingon (we are out of staters, which is +$10K tuition):</p>
<p>Total Budget: $32,346
- Family Resources (EFC): $5,610
Total Need: $26,736
- Stafford Loan: $ 2,625
- Parent PLUS Loan: $24,111
Unmet Need: None</p>
<p>In other words, they just counted offering to let me borrow $24K from some third party lender as "meeting need". </p>
<p>I was already aware that UW doesn't give grants to out of staters (a fact learned after d. applied, unfortunately) -- but only today did I learn that they have the audacity to claim they are meeting full need while expecting the family to shoulder 100% of the costs.</p>
<p>Sad to say, a loan is considered met need, but that's the way it is these days at many colleges. There are limits on what they can have undergrads borrow but no limits on what they can have parents borrow.</p>
<p>We don't qualify for any need-based aid, but are fortunate that so far the one acceptance son has received came with significant merit aid (1/2 tuition). He has not heard ANYTHING from the other 7 schools he applied at, but should be hearing soon like everyone else.</p>
<p>State schools are very tough to get OOS grants & scholarships from, with a few noteworthy exceptions, particularly for high achieving students.</p>
<p>wow, calmom</p>
<p>That was brutal..........</p>
<p>Have you heard from any of the UCs that your daughter applied to? We received FA packages from UCLA and Davis (Davis being the more generous of the two).</p>
<p>Waiting to hear from the other schools....</p>
<p>HIMom, a subsidized loan is generally considered meeting need - a parent PLUS loan should never be labeled that way. By definition, any parent with good credit is allowed to borrow up to the total costs of attendance with the PLUS loan --so if you call a PLUS loan meeting need, then all colleges would be deemed to meet 100% need, because the PLUS loan is always available. </p>
<p>My gripe isn't that they didn't give any aid - though I'd think a work-study allotment would have been nice -- its that they mislabel it. </p>
<p>FresnoMom, we don't have the UCSC financial aid award yet. We haven't heard from UCSB (though we know she has been accepted due to the UCSB version of a likely letter) -- and the only other UC school she has applied to is Berkeley, which of course may or may not accept her. </p>
<p>I'm not worried about the aid from the UC's - the aid packages for my son 5 years ago were all more than adequate. The problem is that d. wants to go out of state -so she's going to have to hope the private colleges will give her enough. But that's a big unknown, because I am a (a) self employed, (b) divorced, and (c) own a home in California. So there is a huge discrepency between our FAFSA EFC and the "institutional methodology" numbers.</p>
<p>geez I agree taht was harsh.
D didn't apply to UW- but her school doesn't count PLUS loans as meeting need- plus loans IMO are for when you need to borrow EFC!</p>
<p>Calmom,</p>
<p>Very troubling on the UCLA financial aid front. I agree with ek, 100% of met need should not include private loans. I would like to see a common definition for meeting 100% of need.</p>
<p>In the mean time we have what we have. Using the USNews Online information the key line from the financial aid chart is:</p>
<p>Students whose need was fully met (excluding PLUS or other private loans</p>
<p>For UCLA that number is 48%. So, 52% have their need is met through PLUS and other private loans. For many of the private schools this component is over 90%. For example, Harvard, Princeton and Notre Dame (there are others, these are the ones I checked) report this number as 100%. The local private, USC, reports 96%.</p>
<p>There are somo OOS publics that provide in-state tuition for students who are awarded small merit scholarships. There's a thread around here somewhere about it, if you hunt for it...... UT-Austin offers in-state tuition to some OOS students, especially NMF.</p>
<p>That's why I made the mistake of thinking grant aid would be possible for UW -- my son was a NMF, so we were deluged with offers of full-tuition scholarships from all over the country. A lot of California kids go to UW or U of Oregon - I just assumed that there was financial aid available. </p>
<p>It's not a big deal - my daughter applied very early to meet their priority filing deadlines - she filed her UC app and the UW app about 2 days later. I had given d. a list of public universities that were very strong in one of her major areas of interest, and UW happened to be the only on on the list that appealed to her. </p>
<p>Anyway, I'm sure we'll have better news from UCSB on the financial aid front. UCSB also offers better weather.</p>
<p>Calmom,
Sorry to read that UW won't work out well for your family. None of the folks I know whose kids are at UW got any financial aid (all are OOS also with good stats). Glad your duaghter has good other options--many of us would be thrilled to be able to choose among CA schools as in-staters. Maybe your D can go a semester or year away or abroad if she goes to school in CA.
CA does have lovely weather!</p>
<p>Ah, you read my mind. My d has this very strong to leave the state to attend school, but its not like she has never traveled -- I paid for her to spend a semester living on the other side of the globe when she was 16. (You know you have sent your kid far enough away when there is an 11 hour time difference). Since she probably wants to continue her language studies and study abroad again, I'm hoping that she will really see the value attending school in-state in the end. I mean: there is one price that NYU students pay to study abroad, and there is a very different price that UC students pay, often attending the very same programs at the same foreign universities. The UC students obviously get the better deal.</p>
<p>I have LOTS of sibblings, so in our family, most of us went to local in-state U & then went away for a semester or a year + grad school at the OOS schools of our choice. It was the only way my folks could send everyone to school. My brother & I lucked out in that we were allowed to go away as transfer undergrads + for grad/pro school.</p>
<p>There is a lot to be said for saving money toward travel abroad and/or grad/pro school. Our extended family has no regrets. Since I only have two kids, they will have more options, but I am grateful to schools that offer merit aid & hope my son will be fortunate to receive some. The only school who has responded to his application so far was Santa Clara U, which offered nice merit aid (1/2 tuition). Son has considerately chosen to apply mostly to schools where he believes he has a good chance of merit aid. He also applied to a few schools that are a reach but where he believes he would really fit nicely. We will see what the mail brings--letters & e-mails should be arriving soon.</p>
<p>calmom, we are in similar situations.</p>
<p>My D was accepted to UCLA and UCSD, but both schools included about $23000 loans in the provisional award (I think about 3000-4000 were subsidized, so 19-20k was PLUS). It seems like oos students are way back on the priority list when it comes to financial aid that's actually "free" (like scholarships and grants). </p>
<p>Right now her only real option is UCIrvine, which offered her Regents. She didn't apply to any in-state schools because she wants to get out of here (the state that's below WA), and we as a family will be moving out this summer as well.</p>
<p>(Forgot to mention our EFC is close to zero.)</p>
<p>A friend's daughter is in her 2nd year at Irvine & very happy there. Glad she was given the Regent's scholarship--that's a nice deal. It's a good school!
Congrats!</p>
<p>Folks interested in strong FA packages need to plan ahead. Find schools that will accept you (matches not safeties!)and also find schools that will accept you and give you merit awards and decent FA packages. That depends on who you are and where you are applying. If you start now and do your research, you will end up with good results in April of next year. But to assure good FA packages next year, look for schools that do this and do not allow yourself to think that "oh well it will all work out." Don't waste your time applying to schools that don't stand a solid chance of being there for you financially. That said, if finances aren't an issue, disregard all of this! :)</p>
<p>That is not to say, you can't apply to a few that you are not sure of. Just be aware that they may not come through for you in regards to finances. My son's best FA award was from a top university that was regarded on this forum as not being good for FA. It turned out to be the best (USC); but in the end, he chose one that was almost as good as far as the package went and his top choice (Lawrence).</p>
<p>Overseas</p>
<p>Good post!</p>
<p>Our finances are such that we cannot afford to send our son to any college except our local state college unless we receive substantial need and/or merit based aid.</p>
<p>So far, we've only received FA packages from 3 UCs, but it's been fascinating for me to compare the packages. Two were fairly predictable and contained a mixture of grants, loans and work study.</p>
<p>But one school created a package that basically gave my son a free ride his first year! This school could be considered a safety and besides the need based aid (Pell, Cal grant, University Grant), they also offered him several merit based scholarships which eliminated the loans and work study for the first year (will need to contact them and see what happens year 2, 3, and 4). </p>
<p>To my knowledge, this school isn't known for doing that...so I agree with overseas, do your research, but go ahead and apply to other colleges, too. You might be pleasantly surprised!</p>
<p>Gosh, the out of state fin. aid packages are tough. Sorry to hear that.</p>
<p>I am a Northern Californian, accepted to UCLA, UC Davis, and Regents Candidate at UC Berkeley (1870 EFC--but that's slightly pushing it). My UC Davis Fin Aid letter was better in loans than the UCLA one, almost 2K difference, but I would have to make 1K more in work study at Davis. Anyway, I don't think I am even considering Davis. So, $2500 in work study and $6500 in loans at UCLA. I am told I should be happy with this. </p>
<p>Waiting on Berkeley Regents, and answers from USC and Stanford.</p>
<p>Actually, what you have been offered does sound pretty good compared to a lot of other FAid packages folks have posted. Good luck in your choices.</p>