<p>so, to clarify, OP, the npcs are showing that both Widener and Lehigh are showing EFCs of $11450. is that correct?</p>
<p>does the amount the school is providing include loans to you (and your parents?) and work study? how much is the loan amount(s)? work study?</p>
<p>how does 11450 become a manageable amount if your parents aren’t kicking in anything?</p>
<p>You will face stiff competition for significant scholarsh money at schools such as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell, Princeton or U of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>Look at Northeastern U, U of Maryland-Baltimore County, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Case Western Reserve University and Ohio University.</p>
<p>No i meant that Lehigh regardless of living at home or not ends up at 11,450. And it says between student loan and self help it says the estimated remaining cost is 0. Not entirely sure what that is though.</p>
<p>It says Student loans-7,500 and Self help- 3,945 which equals the 11,450</p>
<p>okay, then, thank you. this is a great amount of needs-based aid Lehigh is offering–if you have entered the information correctly into the net price calculator, if you’re married to the child’s biological parent, if you don’t own a business or farm, and other ifs. </p>
<p>if student takes out 5500 in loans, has self-help savings of 3000 (and can save 3000 each summer), and can direct another 1500 in school year earnings each year toward education or living expenses, the parents or some other source would have to contribute $1450 first year and $1450 each year plus any additional cost increases for the next three years (these can amount to thousands of dollars in increases each year, so that by the 4th year parents could be contributing 7-10K). That’s pretty tight, perhaps, but it’s loads better than Syracuse of the two state publics. </p>
<p>do you understand?</p>
<p>Yea I understand, what other schools would give me similar amounts of aid as lehigh?</p>
<p>
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<p>That may be because they require students to live in university housing for at least the first year.</p>
<p>I suspect that not too many other colleges that are less selective than Lehigh, but also have engineering programs, are likely to wind up with a lower net price after need-based aid than Lehigh. Check out Trinity College (Hartford, CT). It is one of the few small liberal arts colleges with ABET-accredited engineering programs. Of the ~60 colleges that claim to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need, it may be the least selective one with engineering programs. </p>
<p>When the net price calculator says total self help, what is that?</p>
<p>And thanks for telling me about trinity college, will definitely look into it</p>
<p>self-help is money that you and your family contribute in addition to loans, as exemplified here:</p>
<p>“self-help savings of 3000 (and can save 3000 each summer), and can direct another 1500 in school year earnings each year toward education or living expenses, the parents or some other source would have to contribute $1450 first year and $1450 each year plus any additional cost increases for the next three years (these can amount to thousands of dollars in increases each year, so that by the 4th year parents could be contributing 7-10K)”</p>
<p>Alright yea that’s what I thought. Can my parents take out loans in order to contribute the amount needed?</p>
<p>They certainly have that option. As to whether they want to/should that’s a different question.</p>
<p>your parents are allowed to take out loans to contribute to your “self-help,” but may not want to or may not be able to. Generally on CC, people advise against parents a) taking out loans to help fund college or b) co-signing loans for the student above the 5500 first year max. Either option has an impact on family dynamics, family finances, ability to acquire additional borrowing, credit ratings, and so on. There is more than enough testimony on CC and in the media that students who have more than 30K in loans (whether it is to a bank or their parents) struggle to make those payments and get started in their jobs and plan their financial future. Students have found themselves unable to get a car loan, for instance, and others have had to postpone getting house mortgages.</p>
<p>Yea I see what you guys mean, I won’t make them do that</p>
<p>Frankly, prestige matters only to parents and students who don’t know any better, internationals, and HR personnel on Wall Street. In engineering, choose an ABET-accredited program if you can and a college to which a lot of employers come to recruit, and that will be good enough. They’re not going to pay you more for graduating from a more prestigious program; pay is a product of location. Why should you pay more for the degree? They’re going to hire you based on the demonstrated skills you’ve acquired in your internships and education, your GPA, your letters of rec.</p>
<p>That’s really good advice, how can I know what colleges recruiters go to?</p>
<p>I always thought the name of the school carried weight in the hiring process.</p>
<p>^ Uh, no. I work for a consulting company. We look for good candidates from every accredited school.</p>
<p>Each school of will have a career center, many of them will have centers dedicated to the engg students, and these will arrange the appearance of, in your case, firms interested in hiring engineers. Most of the firms will be local to the school, but at the bigger schools with more engineers or greater reputations there might be national firms with no offices or facilities in your region. Each school usually announces who the firms were who visited the previous years. You have to grub around some in their web pages to find some of these lists, however. </p>