<p>Keep in mind, the following is all IF I am accepted:</p>
<p>I did Northwestern's NPC with my parents, and my estimated cost after everything is 41,200. My parents are expected to pay around $21k. However, I'm concerned about the inaccuracies of using past year's tax forms (which is what will be counted the first year) since last year was a pretty good year for my family. However, in the past few months, my dad lost his job (which, for the future, I probably won't count on my dad's employment anyways; his employment has been on and off for pretty much the past 10+ years) and my brother entered graduate school (psychology). Last year, our family income was, in total, in combination with interest and my combined parents' employment and other taxable income, about $145k. With my dad now unemployed, subtracting the earnings in the limited fraction of last year he WAS employed, our income is basically ~100k. That's a huge difference; maybe back then, my parents could have afforded $10k more and then I wouldn't even care about ~$40 - 45k in debt.</p>
<p>Combined with the fact that Northwestern doesn't really offer grant assistance the first year (and I don't even know if their grant assistance is, in the first place, reflected anyways in the estimate of the ~$20k scholarship they'd approximately offer me), and I'm finding ~$25,000/year in loans a pretty hard thing to commit to. I know that financial aid will get better once the cost of my father's unemployment will be taken into account for the next year (reflected in taxes) and Northwestern can afford to give me more grant assistance subsequent enrolled years... but at the same time, I don't necessarily know that. If I enroll thinking "things will get better", and they don't, I'm stuck at Northwestern and probably wouldn't be able to transfer again a second time -- I'd have to stay and graduate because I'd already be $25k in the hole, further accumulating debt to probably around $70 - 75k.</p>
<p>I'd really want to go to Northwestern, but overall, prospects don't look good. What do I do? </p>