<p>Family's not going to be able to pay $9,000 EFC determined by Hopkins; they say they met need. CSS profile schools can be unpredictable with their different calculators. Georgetown met my FAFSA $2,500 EFC, whatever worth that has. We have no assets; nothing that would affect the CSS versus the FAFSA greatly.</p>
<p>It has a lot of worth. If you can go to Georgetown for $2500 a year, you’ won a lottery ticket, as far as I’m concerned in both admissions and aid package. </p>
<p>Yes, CSS PROFILE schools can be very different in what they define as need. THrow in there the fact that Hopkins does not guarantee to meet need, and you can get a wide variation. Anyone looking for money from school, financial aid or merit awards has to cast a wide net because there is so much variation.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your Georgetown acceptance and package.</p>
<p>That makes no sense and you should contact the school if your are truly being honest and you have no assets that would have been listed in the CSS Profile that would affect your EFC. $6,500 is a significant difference.</p>
<p>Kddog,</p>
<p>Student’s family might have underperforming small business, which might affect profile in a negative way.</p>
<p>But the OP said they had “no assets”. A business, underperforming or not, is an asset. That’s why I said if they were being honest they should contact the school and get clarification on why the school determined their EFC so much higher than FAFSA.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the issue is here . JHU does not guarantee to meet need. Georgetown does. They both use PROFILE but PROFILE is set up so that different schools can take different things into consideration. I’ve seen much wider variances in PROFLIle schools that both guarantee to meet need, and between schools that claim to use the same methodology as each other. Neither is the case here.</p>
<p>Kddog,</p>
<p>If the business was an issue (and it might not have been), maybe OP did not realize it was an asset?</p>
<p>Congratulations on mega aid at Georgetown!</p>
<p>Really… congrats on the Georgetown finaid situation. You could be in a far worse position. I’m not totally “getting” why you are griping. You probably applied to more than one school hoping for acceptance and crossed your fingers that one of the schools that accepted you would grant you huge aid. You win.</p>
<p>Since JHU doesn’t meet need, they can gap a person all they want. They aren’t breaking any promises. </p>
<p>However, you are welcome to contact JHU and tell them that you want to attend, but it’s not affordable. Mention POLITELY that G’town gave you a better offer, but you prefer JHU and ask for a review because you don’t have assets and your FAFSA EFC is only 2500. Acknowledge that you know that they use CSS but your family doesn’t have anything that CSS includes that FAFSA doesn’t include.</p>
<p>Let them know that if they can make things work out for you, that you will commit.</p>
<p>(you don’t have home equity, right?)</p>
<p>What kind of jobs do your parents have? Are either one self-employed??? Independent contractors? Realtors? Hair dressers? what do they do for a living?</p>
<p>I agree with Mom2collegekids fully. You might get somewhere, as they are like schools. Though JHU does not guarantee to meet its own need definition, it usually is pretty close. The home equity question is relevant in that if you do, one school might cap and the other might not. So JHU could even be meeting your need as they define it.</p>
<p>I am a little puzzled with your package as Georgetown has a student contribution it requires of $2K for freshman, I thought. And they are meeting your FAFSA EFC exactly? Because they do use PROFILE as well.</p>
<p>Funny thing is I did contact JHU financial aid and they DECREASED the aid by approximately $2,000!! I did bring up the Georgetown package, but they did mention that they met need and does not match other schools. Parents are in manual labor jobs, don’t even have a driver’s license, no home, nothing that would greatly vary the aid.
The FAFSA EFC was less than $500 off. And also, no “self-help” included in Georgetown’s offer.</p>
<p>Now I am interested. Why did JHU decrease aid? Also your FAFSA EFC is a number independent of what Georgetown and JHU are going to get as your family’s required contribution. That Georgetown’s number is exactly your EFC is fine, but it does not always work that way, since they do use PROFILE. THey also have a student contribution amount of $2K unless they have changed that, which means that they are calculating your parents’ contribution to be $500? I don’t think I have the full picture here, because it is not fitting together from what I know of both schools.</p>
<p>Regardless, you seem to have gotten a package that works for you and your family from a highly selective school. And with no loans or workstudy in it which is even sweeter. Congrats.</p>
<p>Student contribution for Georgetown is zero for me. My EFC was initially 2k, then after IRS retrieval, it is now a little less than 2.5k. JHU did not factor in the pell grant or seog initially so after reviewing again, they subtracted their grant from 47k to a measly 41k but was only replaced with 3.1k from pell and 1k from seog.</p>
<p>“to a measly 41k”</p>
<p>You have a fine offer from Georgetown. Congratulations! Our EFC is less than yours and there is no way any school where my kid got in came anywhere close to $9K/ year. When a school doesn’t meet need (as is the case both with JHU and my kid’s schools), they don’t meet need. These are difficult days in my household. I am glad it played out much better for you. Georgetown is a wonderful school and it offered you a great package.</p>
<p>Lake…</p>
<p>Let’s try to be optimistic here. :)</p>
<p>G’town is an awesome super duper school. You’re going there for a song!! Yeah!! </p>
<p>And…since your parents do have it rough, why not do them a BIG FAVOR and work over the summer and come up with that $2,500 EFC yourself. I’m sure that your parents would be greatly relieved since they don’t have much.</p>
<p>What is your major going to be? what is your career goal? If it’s pre-med, then going to G’town is absolutely just as good. :)</p>
<p>Congrats! You really are the lucky one!!!</p>
<p>(BTW…what loans are in your G’town pkg???)</p>
<p>No loans on my part at Georgetown, I will be eligible for a summer study at Georgetown for credit plus roughly 2k, if I do decide to go there (which is almost a sure thing now). Just disappointed that I had no expectations of Hopkins accepting me, then was thrilled to be accepted. Then back to sadness that their offer was way off that what I expected. </p>
<p>I had a very good feeling that Georgetown would accept me (strong hook on my part) and award nearly the same as Hopkins, generously, but seeing Hopkins offer first set me back and had me looking towards other financial options. </p>
<p>Very much leaning towards pre-med, but things may change between now and then.
I forgot to mention that Georgetown may have strategically set my EFC to be 2.5k so that the state specific aid will cover that exact amount. Just my guess, everything I’ve read so far has said that it will not lower the grant amount and can go towards EFC. Fearful to contact aid officers that may get aid lowered…again.</p>
<p>oh wow…no loans! Awesome…great for a possible pre-med!!!</p>
<p>Can you explain more about the summer thing? What is that? Is that required? Are you expected to pay an additional $2k for that?</p>
<p>What happens if you don’t do the summer thing?</p>
<p>What is the “state specific aid” that you mention???</p>
<p>Thanks for much interest mom2,
I’ll have the option of taking a Humanities course there with room and board over the summer and they’ll pay me $1,700 for summer wages that may have been lost. This can be renewed every summer for the duration of my time there.
" “state” specific aid" is DC’s financial aid, gives $2,500 towards DC private college. There’s another lengthy thread about middle class and CA’s financial aid system, it can not be as bad as DC’s…</p>
<p>@lake you’ve hit the jackpot! Not sure why you are complaining… Sounds like you will have very few expenses, and almost no loans (could be none at all if you are smart about it).</p>
<p>Congrats on Georgetown! I’ve heard great things about it for premeds. </p>
<p>I would take JHU’s lack of aid as a rejection. It’s the same thing. Georgetown is just as good (I would pick it over JHU for premed in a heartbeat).</p>