<p>terig, my apologize for misspoken without data. You are right, that college does give up some high grants:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>However, those high amount of grants goes only to a relatively low percentage of students. Looks like your DD did not get much of those Institutional Grants and you have 100% the right to whine. If I were in your shoes, I would whine too.</p>
<p>Before I whine, I want to make sure I understand. </p>
<p>In missemily’s scenario, the EFC isn’t on top of the loans, is it? Aren’t the loans to meet the EFC?</p>
<p>terig - I hope you don’t mind - I was curious - so I looked at your older posts to see the school, and I do want to chime in. My son was accepted at this school last year, RD. We are OOS. With an EFC of $15,000 we rcvd about $18,000 per year in grants and then some loans to cover the rest of the $40,000 or so COA for OOS. But, I recall reading that they were very affected by state budget cuts this year - that may be a factor. Good luck appealing the pkg.</p>
<p>Just piping in here- everyone has a different perspective as to what their whining criteria is. And I think in a thread like this, everyone should be able to present their scenario without judgement or censure.</p>
<p>In our case, we do not consider a financial aid package that would result in considerable loans for both S and ourselves to be a good deal, especially if these loans are above what we would have to borrow to meet our EFC. Both H and I have jobs in a shaky industry that would make it foolish to take on a large amount of debt at this time, even though the EFC calculator says this is doable for us. The mortgage industry was also willing to overextend people to buy their ‘dream’ homes.</p>
<p>I think it is important to apply to a range of schools. And when we don’t get the aid to go to a school that may have been unrealistic to expect much from, I would think that this would be the perfect thread in which to vent. On one hand, you can look into historical data that gives you a general idea what to expect from a school. You also have the college marketing departments, much like some car salespeople, telling families not to worry, they’ll make it happen for you.</p>
<p>martina, like you, we are unwilling to borrow heavily. We are comparing packages only using COA, grants, and subsidized Stafford loans. We do not care about the unsubsidized loans, or even the Perkins loans because we are not putting that on the back of child. I would rather walk away from schools than do that. W/S is nice, but after reading these boards I know better than to count on it 100%. Loan amounts in these packages seem to grow annually, and the unemployment rate of new grads I have read is 25% (not sure if that number is accurate). We do know the unemployment rate is 10% in general.</p>
<p>Can anyone answer my question in post 202? Thanks.</p>
<p>Martina…congrats!</p>
<p>And, hornet is right…many kids will drop out of engineering within the first year or so, so by the time your son is in upper division courses, chances are the class sizes will be reasonable. My older son is a math major at a large public; he has 9-20 kids in some of his upper division math classes.</p>
<p>*Before I whine, I want to make sure I understand.</p>
<p>In missemily’s scenario, the EFC isn’t on top of the loans, is it? Aren’t the loans to meet the EFC? *</p>
<p>Others can correct me if I’m wrong…but MissEmily’s D got a scholarship that covers tuition only. The rest of the COA (room, board, books, etc) is to be covered by…EFC (about $5k) + W/S + Loans. So, the loans are on top of EFC.</p>
<p><<my older=“” son=“” is=“” a=“” math=“” major=“” at=“” large=“” public;=“” he=“” has=“” 9-20=“” kids=“” in=“” some=“” of=“” his=“” upper=“” division=“” classes.=“”>></my></p>
<p>I was a math major at Ohio State - huge - and I was in upper level classes that sometimes had 4 students in a class! I’d say the calculus for engineering students classes probably had around 50.</p>
<p>Thanks, mom2ck.</p>
<p>I’m looking at an offer ds has rcv’d, but the numbers add up to more than the COA, so I’m thinking that extra EFC can’t possibly be on top of that. I’ve got an e-mail into the HS college counselor.</p>
<p>YDS - sorry I was absent and missed your question. The quick answer is that the loans of $9500 were in addition to workstudy of $2500 and a parent cost of $4992 (my EFC is approx. $4800) .</p>
<p>Here is the long answer:
According to the financial aid offer, the COA of Whittier is $52,214. However it only lists the following costs:
Tuition/Fees 35,762
Room 5,594
Board 4,432
Total - 45,778.</p>
<p>When you deduct that from the COA the balance is $ 6426. I called the financial aid office and asked what this amount is for and the guy I talked to couldn’t tell me. He just said it was miscellaneous charges that they think we will have to send my daughter to school. </p>
<p>So then they gave the following aid:</p>
<p>35222 scholarship
9500 student loans
2500 workstudy</p>
<p>47222 total “Financial Aid Package”</p>
<p>So apparently it will come to me to come up with the additional $4992 that would bring us up to the COA. But, since I don’t know what those costs are I don’t know if I need to get a loan or what. I am waiting on other offers but this is so confusing - I hope it becomes clearer as time goes on…</p>
<p>ME516, there are two sets of bills to make up the COA - school bills and personal bills. Looks like the FA package covers the school bill - a very good package.</p>
<p>Your personal bill are the transporation between home and school, books, computer etc. Each school will do their own estimation for the average cost. </p>
<p>So, if you think you could cover your DD’s personal bills. You don’t need a loan.</p>
<p>Also, if your DD is like my DD who buys used books and does not spend too much, your personal bill could be significantly less than school’s estimation. For example, the school will give out FA based on a $5000 a year personal expenses. If your DD only spends $2500. Your actual bills is then only $2500 - 1/2 of what the calculated EFC. If you are willing, you could ask your DD to get $7000 loan instead of full $9000. Make sense?</p>
<p>That difference is a standard estimate by the college for travel to and from the U, books and supplies, additional food and snacks, etc.
Many parents find they can spend much less that this. Travel costs vary widely; second-hand books can be purchased economically…</p>
<p>DadII - thank you again for the info, but if I am going to be really honest I don’t understand what you are saying. I keep reading where people say “I won’t let my child accept the unsubsidized stafford loans” so I understand they are bad. </p>
<p>I also get that I don’t have to worry about the cost above Tuition/Room/Board. My DD will have no transportation costs (she doesn’t have a car and I will drive and get her when she comes home) and I think I can cover her books and misc. expenses (plus she will get the money from the workstudy which she can spend however on these “Misc. expenses”).</p>
<p>So the cost to the college above her scholarship is $10,566. If I have her take out $7000 in loans then I will take out $3500 in parent loans and we will be covered. Right???</p>
<p>I want to say thank you to MissEmily and others who have so generously shared their financial aid information. It really helps the rest of us who are in the process of learning how to interpret varying financial aid packages. </p>
<p>Oops that wasn’t a whine! Don’t worry, I’m helping my niece look over her FA packages and I’m sure there will be plenty of whining to come - especially since her first choice school is an out of state public with a package that is likely to be loaded with loans. And yes, we KNOW that it will have lots of loans but we can still whine, can’t we?</p>
<p>Tuition/Fees 35,762
Room 5,594
Board 4,432
Total - 45,778.</p>
<p>35222 scholarship
9500 student loans
2500 workstudy</p>
<p>47222 total “Financial Aid Package”
if only 7000 loan instead of 9500, the aid package will be $44722</p>
<p>school bills 45,778 - FA 44722 = $1056.</p>
<p>So, if you have $4800 (EFC) to spend, send 1056 to school to cover all school bills. give your DD $2500 for all her expenses. Wola, you have 4800-1056-2500 = $1244 extra cash left over.</p>
<p>Excellent, thank you DadII! </p>
<p>Sorry if I kind of took over this thread…please let’s go back to the whining!</p>
<p>Is it OK to whine about missing out on merit aid here? Or is this strictly a thread for whining about the need-based aid package?</p>
<p>^ You can definitely whine about merit aid. In fact, I would like to whine about the fact that “merit aid” is often times tied to financial need and the schools may not admit to it. 
</p>
<p>Many of the merit scholarships D has looked at have a financial need component in very small print. :mad:</p>
<p>OK, here are my merit whines:</p>
<p>1) Finalists for the Filene music scholarship at Skidmore should have been notified by phone by yesterday. No call. So, it looks like he’s out of the running for that. I’m not shocked, because he did his audition tape in a bit of a rush, didn’t practice for it properly (I can’t blame him too much, because he was very stressed out at the time), and it really did not show him at his best. But it’s still a big disappointment.</p>
<p>2) According to some posts on the Clark U. thread, merit recipients should have had their acceptances by now. Again, not a total shock–his GPA would have made him borderline for merit, though his scores would have helped–but a disappointment.</p>
<p>This means we are wholly dependent on need-based aid at these two schools, which should set up some good repeat whines come April.</p>