<p>I'd be interested in hearing from students and parents who've been caught in the CSS-PROFILE trap if they've found a way out. </p>
<p>Our daughter's been accepted, but with only a miniscule amount of need money. The CSS-PROFILE formula says we can afford to pay over $37,000 per year, a sum that bears no relation to our real-world ability to pay. Our financial advisor says "after four years, that would leave you [us] destitute." That's an exaggeration, but only slightly so - we're nearing retirement age, and it would wipe out a huge portion of our savings.</p>
<p>Unless some solution is forthcoming, the concept of need-blind admission looks like a very unfunny practical joke for those who are neither poor nor wealthy.</p>
<p>But WashU isn't need-blind. Of course, they don't tout this fact, but the amount of merit scholarships that they offer forced them to be "need-aware".</p>
<p>And yet they state this quite clearly on their web page: "Washington University is committed to doing its best to make attendance here affordable for students who have been offered admission."</p>
<p>They shouldn't say that if they're not going to live up to it.</p>
<p>Personally, I'm torn between being impressed with Wash U's loan program (which seems to be an improvement over PLUS) and options to lock in future years at current rates, and being ****ed off that it can't offer more scholarships with its 4.3 billion dollar endowment.</p>
<p>WashU doesn't require the CSS, they have their own form and i can honestly say that if whats on paper isn't a realistic calculation of what you can afford to pay, Bill Witbrodt will do everything in his power to make it possible. All you have to do is give him a call. I have seen this personally happen</p>
<p>Leonard, I am in the exact same situation as your daughter. We thought our FAFSA EFC was too high at around $34k, but then WashU decided to make us pay even more than that. They only gave us 7600 in total aid, so we would have to pay around 40k/year. The middle/upper-middle class gets screwed over by financial aid. There is no way we can pay that much, and my dad's income isn't fixed, so it could easily go down suddenly. I hope other colleges are more generous.</p>
<p>if whats on paper isn't a realistic calculation of what you can afford to pay, Bill Witbrodt will do everything in his power to make it possible. All you have to do is give him a call. I have seen this personally happen</p>
<hr>
<p>Thank you very much, indeed, for this information. I'll give him a call.</p>
<p>Leonard, I am in the exact same situation as your daughter. We thought our FAFSA EFC was too high at around $34k, but then WashU decided to make us pay even more than that. They only gave us 7600 in total aid, so we would have to pay around 40k/year. The middle/upper-middle class gets screwed over by financial aid. There is no way we can pay that much, and my dad's income isn't fixed, so it could easily go down suddenly. I hope other colleges are more generous.</p>
<hr>
<p>The way FAFSA is (or any other similar formulas are) set up, there definitely is a non-sweet spot between low income and high income. And the EFC can be so far removed from reality that it's downright strange. Everyone my wife and I have told about this -- no exceptions but those who've been through it recently (!) -- is astonished at what we're expected to pay. One woman I work with didn't even catch it at first, thought I meant total undergraduate career. Then she asked "Per YEAR!!??" She thought I was making it up. She and her husband have total income almost exactly the same as ours. "We couldn't possibly pay anythere near that!" she said. Exactly.</p>
<p>yeah... washu has dropped way down on my list of preferred schools now that i've gotten my financial aid package. they only offered like 2k in scholarship and 2k in loans, and my dad's income really isn't that high. i want to know how they come up with this figure because i assumed that private schools were more accommodating with financial aid.</p>
<p>Alin, it's not you and to some extent it's not even Wash U. The formulas that are used to establish need are, or at least can be, simply way off base for a certain slice of the population. Even institutions that say outright that they will meet 100% of need base their calculations on formulas supplied by the CSS Profile, FAFSA, etc. Which means that quite often they don't meet the 100% need of the real world.</p>
<p>(Not that any of that is much consolation...)</p>
<p>If anyone has been accepted to a comparable school which offers a better financial package--call Wash U and tell them. They will work with you! Our S has a small scholarship, plus money from working, but basically we are paying for the total cost! It's intense!<br>
He works at WU mentoring fellow students in chemistry and makes $10 to !15 per hour, and he is in a quartet that makes $50 to $75 an hour. Most of his music gigs are at the college. So the extra money is adding up, and he has been able to help with some of the college costs. This coming summer he will be working fulltime (free room), and he is only a sophomore!
Also, Wash U has hired my son to be an RA for the 2006/2007 school year which will knock off approx $10,0000 (free single dorm room and a free 1/2 meal ticket--senior RAs get a free full meal ticket) They also offer students research positions for pay. They are very generous with the students. I have to say so far, this college has been wonderful...Check out the
Princeton ReviewBook---Ratings
Top 20 schools
(1) Hardest College to Get Into
(2) Best Quality of Life (No Lie)
(3) School Runs Like Butter
(4) Dorms Like Palaces
(5) Best Food</p>
<p>So you can see where your money goes--student resources!
No lie---The Wash U experience, according to my son, is worth every penny!!! If we were unable to continue helping with tuition, he would take out a loan--that's says it all! If you can, work it out financially (call the school) and send your kids to this school--you will not regret it...</p>
<p>missmolly, thanks very much, indeed, for your helpful post. My daughter does have an offer of full tuition waiver + $3000/yr living expenses at a private "near comparable", so I suppose it can do no harm to mention that. And the RA position is a great idea -- she'd be good at it, and wiping out $10,000 would certainly ease the way!</p>
<p>Leonard
I hope D gets to go to Wash U. Let me know. She won't be able to become an RA until junior year. The RA jobs are hard to get, but if she gets involved with school clubs, student government, or CS40 (residential life committees) her chances of getting an RA position increase. Good luck!</p>
<p>
[quote]
yeah... washu has dropped way down on my list of preferred schools now that i've gotten my financial aid package. they only offered like 2k in scholarship and 2k in loans, and my dad's income really isn't that high. i want to know how they come up with this figure because i assumed that private schools were more accommodating with financial aid.
[/quote]
Private schools with deep pockets (such as WashU) seem to be very responsive to matching aid offered by other schools. Some schools such as CMU seem to start aid at a low level, and specifically state to send them higher offers to see if they can match it, but most competitive private schools will match aid to nab students. After your first year of paying for college (and emptying a sum from your bank account), your EFC has a good chance of going down for future years if nothing else is throwing the equation.</p>
<p>Harvard Eliminates Tuition for Lower-Income Families (Update1)</p>
<p>March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University, the oldest college in the U.S., said students from families with a combined income of $60,000 or less can attend the school for free.</p>
<p>The new program, the most generous in the eight-school Ivy League, will begin in September, the school said in a statement. Its plan also reduces the amount families with combined incomes of $60,000 to $80,000 will have to pay, the statement said.</p>
<p>``These increases in financial aid build on and extend out emphasis on recruiting students from low-income backgrounds and send a clear signal to middle-class families who have all too often felt that Harvard and other leading institutions are out of reach,'' Harvard President Lawrence Summers, 51, said in a statement.</p>
<p>When I was deciding between WashU and other schools (UChicago, mainly) I ended up coming to WashU because they gave me more aid... all I had to do was ask, and they offered $40,000 more.</p>
<p>Well, I find this bartering as though buying a used car very unfortunate. But the news from Harvard can only have a good effect. At least the problem of the non-poor non-wealthy being squeezed so hard is getting some attention.</p>