<p>We looked at many school webpages and talked to many school reps at many college fairs and all said the same: “we will help you”. I can see how they make us believe there is hope.</p>
<p>That marketing ploy is to get their app numbers up. It’s also to try to attract the best crops of students. the dirty secret is that need-based aid often has a secret “merit” component. If your stats are high enough, the school sometimes gives more.</p>
<p>Alright, here’s my whine. It has to do with merit aid, not need-based, but I think it’s still applicable.
I’m sick of schools requiring an on-campus interview for merit scholarships.
First, if the schools aren’t nearby, this requires travel, which is expensive. Way to exclude the ones who could really use a major scholarship there.
Second, these dates are all on the same couple of weekends. So if you applied to two schools which you both like a lot, and they have their interview day on the same weekend, you’re SOL. Better pick one, and forget attending the other, because they’ll give you a pittance in merit aid for not attending.
Third, this makes it impossible to guess what you’ll get from a school. Everything could be in order- good interview, high stats for the student body, etc- and it just doesn’t work out.</p>
<p>(Note: Not all of these apply to my situation, but they all bug me. Why more schools can’t at least give merit aid estimates or base merit aid on alumni interviews in the area is beyond me.)</p>
<p>
That’s a lot. My kid’s school expects you to earn $1800 a year in work/study. Easily done with 8 hours per week or even less. More grant, less work/study is better. IMHO, $4,000 in work/study is not doable unless you continue work during the summer - and that’s time when you should be working and earning your summer contribution.</p>
<p>BTW, thought I’d let you all know since we finished off the brownies frpm yesterday, I threw together a strawberry cheesecake to nibble on today - help yourself! It helps the “whine”. :)</p>
<p>mmmm…cheesecake…that’s my “dream” dessert ;-)</p>
<p>FA whine: young friend recently was offered interview for selective 5 year BS/MS program. School does not pay for interview. Friend buys ticket, which is (non-refundable, due to lack of airline competition and out-of-way location. Friend gets FA email this AM. Gapped beyond belief. School is now off the table because the parents just can’t do it. Friend is out the $$ for the ticket. </p>
<p>Man, this stinks.</p>
<p>My daughter (years ago I admit) was invited to interview for a substantial merit scholarship which equated to about half of her tuition which at the time was something like 12k scholarship. The school reimbursed us for her airline ticket. Not sure why other schools don’t do that or perhaps they used to and just don’t anymore.</p>
<p>
Me too, although I realize that there are many other tasty desserts out there, and I mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking my future happiness depends on cheesecake. :D</p>
<p>i just had an idea for my whine…if the fafsa (govt) says we have x amount of money for college ie our efc, then that money should be allowed to be used without being taxed. I had totally forgotten when calculating out of pocket expenses to cover gaps in schools son likes to include the fact that i will also have to pay tax on that disposable income ie 40%. so if he has a 20K gap and i use it to pay tuition, in fact i need 28K to cover the taxes owed on it. darn, i have to go add that to the spreadsheet now for comparision!! no tax break for tuition in our bracket (ok i know i’m dreaming so pass over some cheesecake please)</p>
<p>I find it misleading when the colleges say that they will “meet” your need. People don’t easily realize that offering a loan or two or three is the college’s method of “meeting”. I think that it is important for kids to apply to several “financial safety” schools as well as those match or reach ones. Also, I would apply to some schools that are on the lower tier, especially if you are at the top of your class. Those are the places that would give merit money to have you come there, and that’s not a FAFSA thing. Our state universities wouldn’t have given my kids a bone. They would rather take our taxes and fund OOS applicants for sports. One D went to an Ivy, and they were fair with their FA. It was doable, and we are far from rich people. The other received a merit scholarship for musical talent at the school of her dreams. Both cost us about what the state would have cost.</p>
<p>Bluecrayon, the Stafford loans are loans you assume and payments are deferred until 6 months after you are done with school. The unsubsidized Stafford loans accrue interest while you are in school. The government covers the interest for the subsidized Stafford loans while you are in school. Generally, you will have 10 years to repay the Stafford loans. The private loan/tuition pay amount is the money your parents are expected to pay next year. If they take a private loan to cover all or part of that amount, payments on that loan will begin immediately after the money is dispensed.</p>
<p>Hmmm, when I posted above^ there were no replies to Bluecrayon showing on my screen. Then I post and a bunch of replies (with better summaries than mine) with earlier posting times suddenly appear! Weird.</p>
<p>"FA whine: young friend recently was offered interview for selective 5 year BS/MS program. School does not pay for interview. Friend buys ticket, which is (non-refundable, due to lack of airline competition and out-of-way location. Friend gets FA email this AM. Gapped beyond belief. School is now off the table because the parents just can’t do it. Friend is out the $$ for the ticket.</p>
<p>Man, this stinks."</p>
<p>agreed, same here though DD was lucky to get the invite the day before the FA email so she can decline the interview with nothing lost. She was offered 8000 merit,5000 loans leaving too much to cover.</p>
<p>Again, thanks so much everyone! Is there a specific method in reading FA packages or does it vary from school-to-school?</p>
<p>It’s pretty funny - a year ago, I was stressing over whether or not I could get into a variety of schools. Now, I’m stressing about whether I can afford them. Is it just me or does it feel as if not being able to pay for a certain school is worst than being rejected from the school? Ehh, I don’t know.</p>
<p>I agree that it feels really bad to have you child accepted into a school and then not be able to afford it. I had let S know in advance that this was a very likely scenario, but it’s still a let down. </p>
<p>At this point, I kind of hope he isn’t accepted into the other expensive private he applied to. Because the aid situation will most likely be the same.</p>
<p>To fend off criticism for setting him up for a let down, he wanted to apply, and there is always the hope of decent merit aid. You don’t know unless you try.</p>
<p>Right. You only know ahead of time if you don’t try.</p>
<p>Bluecrayon,
The financial aid packages all end up looking very different and some can be misleading.</p>
<p>Here’s what I felt was the most efficient way to look at them. It helps to set up a spreadsheet.</p>
<p>First, look at the bottom line. Take the cost of attendance and subtract out all grants. That is how much you and/or your family have to pay. For purpose of calculating the bottom line, you can disregard loans and work study — in the end, that is still money coming from you. </p>
<p>Now, look at affordability. For this, I always subtracted out the subsidized loans, but not unsubsidized loans or work study, though work study is a big help. But work study doesn’t reduce the amount owed to the college, and in the end the student has to find a job and work the hours. My experience as a parent is that my kids were NOT able to earn their full work study grants their first years, in part because freshmen end up with the lowest paying work study jobs and are less sophisticated when it comes to scheduling. So while it is valuable to have work study authorization, I personally leave it out of the equation for purposes of comparing awards. </p>
<p>Partly my “affordability” analysis was based on a parent’s perspective. As a parent, I don’t have to pay back the subsidized loans --so it made sense to me to look at how much I, the parent, have to pay as well as the combined amount that I am paying along with my kid. At the same time, I’m not going to allow my kids to take on too much debt – so I would not have asked them to ever take on an unsubsidized loan. And again, the work study is not money in hand – I always figured that I would pay the bill that came from the bursar and assume that my kids would use work study to earn their spending money. </p>
<p>I do feel that it is unrealistic for a first-year student to earn more than about $1500 work study the first year, no matter what is specified on paper. They aren’t guaranteeing the job or the hours, and freshmen usually don’t have all that much flexibility in scheduling their classes. </p>
<p>Do wait until all the awards are in before making decisions. Sometimes you will get a need based package and then later on get notice of a small merit award from the same college – so the award you have now might not be final.</p>
<p>RE: work study</p>
<p>
Work study CAN be used in the summer. It is not that difficult to earn $4000 a year while a full time student. Also, if all your earnings are from work study this actually helps lower your EFC for the next year since work study income is not reported as income on the student’s part. It is backed out.</p>
<p>martina… same here… there were 2 schools i encouraged son NOT to apply to, as we wont get any need based aid and they have no merit aid…therefore it would be full pay and he already knew he couldnt go…but for whatever reason he felt he needed to apply, I still think it was a bad idea especially if he does get accepted.</p>
<p>
But my point is that $4000 of work/study - when you are going to have to work summer to make that amount, is way worse than $1800 work/study (assuming remaining need covered with grants/schols/etc), because almost EVERY school expects a “student summer contribution from earnings” - and that is ABOVE AND BEYOND the Work/Study amount allocated. If a student works in the summer to earn his/her total Work/Study award, and he/she is NOT earning the $2000 or so that the university assumes will be the “summer contribution from earnings,” who ends up having to pay those costs? I guess some parents do. They may not even be aware of the “student contribution from summer earnings”. I may not be making this very clear - so let me know if you have any questions. It’s harder to explain stuff in writing than it is sitting down chatting about it! ;)</p>