Transfer Finacial Aid is great!

Transfer Students
1

<p>Here is the deal:</p>

<p>I'm one of those students who went to a Community College in order to save money. Sure, I could have went to one my state's public schools and managed but I bought into the notion of being able to transfer after two years (assuming excellent gradeSs), to a reasonable school of my choosing. </p>

<p>That part was right on, however, no one told me that transfer students got such disgracefully low financial aid. </p>

<p>I've been accepted to </p>

<p>Northeastern (FA = 5000 Transfer Scholarship / 7,500 Gov Loans)
Fordham (FA = 7,500 Gov Loans)
NYU (FA = 7,500 Gov Loans / 2,500 Merit)
UVA (FA= 7,5000 Gov Loans)
UNC (FA =7,500 Gov Loans)</p>

<p>My family's EFC: 7000 (Bless my family because they can actually contribute more like 11,000 per year or basically the cost of Room and Board.</p>

<p>I'm OOS to all of those state universiteis and my instate university (my supposed safety school) rejected me....go figure</p>

<p>And in a funny, kind of twisted way Northeastern, the school with the highest cost(or 2nd highest) in Tution and Fees, is the same school offering me the most, albeit still low, financial aid..ha!</p>

<p>So I guess there should be a question after all this? Is it worth taking out 20 to 25K in loans (in addition to Gov Loans I guess) in order to attend one of these schools. I'm actually leaning towards NEU or NYU. </p>

<p>Or should I stomach a redundant semester at CC (since I already hit the 60 credits allowed to transfer limit) and apply to my instate for the Spring?</p>

2

<p>I’m sorry to hear about your situation and that you weren’t informed about transfer FA when you made your original decision of where to attend as a fr. It’s generally known here on CC that FA for transfers varies widely between schools, some give the same as they do to fr admits, others less, some substantially less.</p>

<p>I’m not sure why you’d pay to attend a redundant semester at your CC. UVA and UNC are two of the best publics in the nation and you were an OOS applicant, so not getting into your IS public is strange, have you talked to them and asked what the problem was?</p>

3

<p>Your financial aid packages have little to do with being a transfer student and much more to do with your EFC and the schools you chose. What made you think that a public school outside of your home state would take any great pains to offer you financial aid? State programs are targeted at residents. None of the privates you chose are full-need schools, and while I’m not familiar with Fordham, neither NYU nor NEU are known for having particularly good financial aid. In fact, a quick search of this board turns up quite a few posts from users complaining about how little aid NYU offers; I haven’t found one yet that’s complimentary in this regard. Even NEU, which gave you the best package, is not known for attracting large numbers of low-income students.</p>

<p>I’m not sure why you were rejected from your state school, but it’s really the only one at which you could reasonably have expected significant financial aid. In my opinion, NEU is your strongest option; not because of the scholarship they offered, but because of their co-op program. The advantage their co-op program gives you when you graduate is enormous, provided you make a good impression at one of your co-op hosts and want a permanent job there. You have an instant in and the host has good reason to offer you a more competitive salary if you’ve proven yourself to them than other employers who are going completely off your resume and interviewing skills. Furthermore, you actually do get paid while you do co-op, and generally quite well; this will help quite a bit with your costs.</p>

<p>Staying at your CC would be a complete waste of time. By delaying your graduation half a year you might as well just be throwing away six months of wages from your first employer, which could easily be tens of thousands of dollars in the right field. One of my closest friends, a groomsman at my wedding and NEU alum, got an offer in excess of $70,000 from his co-op host as soon as he graduated. You do the math.</p>

4

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<p>UNC and UVa claim to meet 100% of need for all students. The way UVa chooses to do it is hilarious, though.</p>

5

<p>UNC is only full-need for students whose families are under 200% of the FPL, not for all students. I see nothing on UVA’s financial aid site which suggests they make any guarantees to out of state students.</p>

6

<p>No, UNC offers a loan free package for students whose families are under 200% of the FPL. They meet 100% of demonstrated need for all students. So does UVa. Check the Collegeboard profile. Also,</p>

<p>“U.Va. will meet 100% of students’ demonstrated need through a combination of grants, federal need-based loans, and federal work-study.”- UVa’s website</p>

<p>“If you can demonstrate need and submit your FAFSA and CSS\PROFILE on time, we’ll plan to meet 100% of your need through a combination of scholarships, grants, work—study, and loans—usually 65% grants and 35% self-help.”- UNC’s website</p>

<p>Your assumption about state schools is true for most, but it’s not true for the schools that the OP applied to.</p>

7

<p>^Lol I wish UNC met all your need in the form of grants. Unfortunately in my case, it’s about 60% grants, 40% loans. Still, not bad.</p>

<p>OP, I’m curious, what’s your instate school that rejected you? From my understanding, UNC is notoriously competitive for OOS, so if you managed to get in here, I’m extremely surprised that you were rejected from your state school.</p>

8

<p>@hopefultransfer4: I missed that statement from UVA but found it by searching for the exact quote you provided; thanks. That certainly is more generous than I would have expected to see from a public institution, though the OP seems to be an exception? UNC’s statement isn’t quite as good; “planning” to meet your need is not a full-need guarantee. What did you mean about the way UVA meets aid being hilarious?</p>

9

<p>I did the same thing - go to community college for financial reasons - and now I’m getting worried. I don’t understand why people recommend doing that when getting financial aid as a transfer is almost impossible, I’ll probably end up paying more than I would have if I just went to university as a freshman =&lt;/p>

10

<p>Swaggerer, </p>

<p>My instate school was Maryland. Apparently they were a stickler for an upperlevel math course I could have easily taken after I transferred. Oh well.</p>