<p>geeps20. It’s my whine and I get to whine about what I want to ok? </p>
<p>I did not start the dream school mentality, and believe me, S is disabused of the notion. But it’s tough when he has friends going to places I can’t afford to send him.</p>
<p>So don’t tell me how I can or can’t feel. This is a thread to vent, not admonish.</p>
<p>+1, martina99.</p>
<p>To the OP, I’m with you. If the student isn’t able to pay full price, the colleges say “don’t worry, we’ll make it affordable”. So the family dutifully fills out the financial aid calculator and an EFC is spit out. The student then applies to schools with the expectation that the EFC is the approximate amount he or she will be charged.</p>
<p>But the problem is, the EFC is NOT the amount the schools charge. The schools can put together a package that bears little to no relation to the amount on the EFC. How is a a 17 year old supposed to put together a realistic list when he or she has no idea how much the school will cost? </p>
<p>To make matters worse, we’re preaching to the choir here. CC members are better informed about the ins and outs of financial aid packages than the general public. And yet, we are also often quite surprised when the aid package arrives. </p>
<p>When I shop for a car, I have a budget and a rough idea of how much each model will cost. But shopping for a college is completely different. The private schools all have approximately the same sticker price, but vastly different formulas for deciding how much a family can afford to pay. And there is no way to know what the bottom line price will be until the student actually applies.</p>
<p>I wish we were in a position to be a full pay family. But, like previous posters have said, this recession (my accountant calls it a depression) has wreaked havoc on our carefully laid plans. Which puts us at the mercy of the “black box” called financial aid.</p>
<p>I say “whine” away. I’ll have some red wine to go with my brownies please.</p>
<p>I feel fortunate that I live in a state with good affordable colleges, so if the FA packages don’t come through, D will attend one of them. She is aware of how much we are willing to spend, knows that if she doesn’t get enough aid, she will be going to a SUNY college. She is fine with that, as am I! I am in constant amazement at the cost of the privates and the gap that often isn’t filled.</p>
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<p>The idea of a dream school doesn’t bother me because the quest to get there can lead to somewhere better than if you never had the dream in the first place. Uh oh, I’m not whining, I might be in trouble.</p>
<p>Yes, college info sessions and college mail would leave you to believe that schools fill the gap more than CC parents report. </p>
<p>EFC calculators are helpful, but not all that realistic. Some schools have tools to allow better prediction - see MIT online aid calculator (usable by anybody, showing their MIT FAFSA and CSS results). Or if you know somebody that applies to Carnegie Mellon next year tell them there is an online early estimator form.</p>
<p>holliesue, please clear some of your PM box. Thanks.</p>
<p>Rats! I just checked Carnegie Mellon’s web site, and in fine print on the “Estimate Form” page, it says…“We are no longer providing financial aid estimates. To learn how to apply for aid at Carnegie Mellon, please visit the ‘Applying For Aid’ section of our site.” </p>
<p>Guess providing estimates wasn’t working out. I would imagine that providing non-binding financial aid estimates could get messy very quickly.</p>
<p>The Carnegie Mellon site has remarkably frank language about FA, which I suspect is pretty new. So I would guess that they’ve revised that section recently.</p>
<p>Kittycounselor</p>
<p>That’s not quite right.</p>
<p>If you read that form-- they give fin aid estimates at CMU up to JANUARY 1, after which time they no longer give estimates for the current class b/c you will be posting your FAFSA and actual data - so an estimate is no longer necesary.</p>
<p>Estimates are given in the fall only.</p>
<p>S got his first financial aid package today - so I am ready to whine!</p>
<p>$47K OOS COA - after a small grant and smaller scholarship ($1K/yr) we are left with an $11K GAP (in addition to $5.5K in loans, $3K work study and our EFC) - NO THANKS!</p>
<p>Hoping to have better luck with the schools he applied to that meet 100% need - if he gets in…</p>
<p>Thanks abasket for giving me a place to vent - I’ll have that brownie now please!</p>
<p>I do not understand the hostility towards student and families that find they cannot afford some colleges and who are disappointed. They are accused of having the “entitlement” mentality.</p>
<p>First, its not just poor families that are being shocked, its middle class families, too. </p>
<p>Second, an education is not like a car or fancy house. Wanting a good education is not selfish or extravagant, is it?</p>
<p>Last, why shouldn’t a student feel they should be able to attend the best school they can gain admittance to? We teach our kids to work hard and that if they do, they will be able to achieve their dreams. So if a kid works their butt off, gets great grades, does all the extras like EC’s and sports, and get admitted to a great school, then why shouldn’t they feel they should be able to attend? If they can compete stats-wise with rest of them, then why should their parent’s financial situation hold them back? They did what they were supposed to do and now they are told, “too bad, even though you’re smart enough and worked hard enough your loser parents can’t afford to pay so you’ll have to go to your state school and forget about the connections and prestige that La-de-da U. would give you.”</p>
<p>I guess I’m silly, too, but it makes me sad. I feel for these kids.</p>
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<p>I don’t get it either. I mean, give some of us a minute here, we need time to adjust to our EFCs and the ramifications of not being able to afford them.</p>
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<p>Yes, and I think this is a goal the elite colleges aspire to. Maybe that is why we get the song and dance when we visit about giving us enough money for our kids to attend if they can get in. It’s a nobel goal and I like what I see them doing along the lines of making their education available to anyone.</p>
<p>I knew I could count on some CC folks to join me for a “whine” party!!! :)</p>
<p>Thanks go out to all who get the point of my thread and hugs and an extra stamp of the feet to those of you who sadly are whining along with me. :)</p>
<p>We’ll get over it and it stinks but the MY brownie has CHUNKS of chocolate in it and warm gooey frosting so I’m a happy camper!!!</p>
<p>I am sure this thread will grow in the coming month - raise your glass, whine if you need to and then move forward and support your child in that final decision!!!</p>
<p>Man-o-man - throw me one of those brownies!!! (But I can’t whine about our FA packages. They’ve all met all our need above the FAFSA EFC, and I actually think our FAFSA EFC is fair and doable.) But I support all of you in your whining!!! ;)</p>
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<p>I have no idea what you are talking about…you post what you want, I will post what I want…this is a message board last I checked.</p>
<p>Let’s keep it all in good fun - nice, polite, supportive, collaborative…enjoying sharing the whines and all. :)</p>
<p>What is the perfect venue for a money whine event? Goodwill? Dollar STore? I already haunt those places and we haven’t even gotten the first bill for S2!</p>
<p>We haven’t received a single financial aid package despite six acceptances thus far, but I consider that a blessing so that I may stay in my blissfully ignorant state.</p>
<p>Pass the Jack Daniels.</p>
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<p>Now that’s an attitude I can get behind!</p>
<p>I honestly think that if the school doesn’t specifically say they meet full need, you can expect some pretty big gaps, unfortunately. Even those that meet full need usually have their own formula for figuring out the EFC that might be very different than what FAFSA says, depending. But what I don’t get is those schools that actually take need into consideration (i.e., they’re not need blind), so they are accepting these kids knowing full well that they are leaving huge gaps in their ability to attend. I get this even less than the expectation that schools can meet everyone’s needs.</p>
<p>PLus… there was some comment about having done the work, gotten the grades, etc and then being encouraged to apply due to their commitment for enrolling a diverse group of students. BUT… to even apply is 40-70 bucks, so there’s their motivation to hand out rose-colored glasses. </p>
<p>Beyond CC, is there any national data base that tracks financial aid (the differences between what they market and what they actually sell)? I realize, especially as it pertains to merit awards, that it would seem very arbitrary to just look at raw numbers, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of accountability between what they say they can do and what they actually do. OR… do they just naturally offer more to those students they’d really like to see at their school. While 1000K merit is nice and all, when you’re talking about 50K tuition it’s really only your books. Tie that to a high GPA requirement to keep it and you might have to say goodbye to it before you’ve barely met. </p>
<p>And too… make sure that once you’re looking at all those aid packages that if there is a minimum GPA requirement that your kid really really gets it that failure to achieve that goal may be grounds for having to transfer. Im just saying… my kid was an awesome student in HS and you could have knocked me over with a feather when he got a C first semester; His first C on a report card in his entire life.</p>