Hi! So I just received my financial aid award letter but i’m unsure as to whether or not I actually received scholarships. Here is the info
Need Calculation
Description Value
Cost of Attendance $52,340.00
Expected Family Contribution $67,308.00
Initial Need $.00
Outside Resources $.00
Need $.00
Award Summary
Fund Status Fall 2017 Spring 2018 Total
Grants/Scholarships
Total Grants/Scholarships
$.00
$.00
$.00
Cost less Grant/Scholarship $52,340.00
Loan Options
Parent PLUS Loan Eligibility Offered
$46,840.00
Fed Direct Unsubsidized Loan Offered
$5,500.00
Total Loan Options
Your family has a high EFC and therefore no financial “need.”
Your EFC is higher than the cost of attendance OOS. Your family will have to pay the full amount. Or borrow it (which is a horrible horrible idea and hopefully of course you know that).
Can your family pay the full amount without borrowing?
what’s the cost less grant/scholarship category then? and heck no we can’t afford that!! I will probably attend Indiana University or University of Florida
If there had been any numbers other than $0 in the “grants/scholarships” section, the “cost less grant/scholarship” would be the cost of attendance minus that amount. For example, if you’d received a $10k merit award, under “grants/scholarships” it would say $10k. The “cost less grant/scolarships” would then say $42,340.
Your family is full pay at this school. If your parents can’t/won’t pay, you’ll have to choose one of your other options.
IS student, Expected Costs>EFC by almost $14k, offered only student and parent loans, every other school is giving us FA including out of state public schools. Go figure. (IS Total Cost of Attendance is $35,880.)
@ILShawn —most state schools don’t guarantee to meet need. It’s awesome that you got need based aid at other schools. Did the OOS schools give you enough need based aid to make them cheaper than your IS option?
Absolutely! IL is the 2nd most expensive school DD is considering and Butler is only a little more. Iowa (OOS) is $9k less per year and the others fall in between. The cost is mind boggling and it is concerning that IS is more than our OOS choices.
@ILShawn – I know lots of IL students and parents looking at ONLY OOS schools due to costs and budget problems in Illinois. You are not alone apparently.
The State should be concerned that their brightest are looking elsewhere… The students we talked with at UIUC are not concerned about the State (non)budget but the faculty/admin are.
@ashleynovello It’s unfortunate, but non-residents appear to be the biggest victim of the state finances in Illinois. Supposedly UIUC has re-directed about $3.5 million dollars in non-resident merit aid to Illinois residents for this year. It’s also the third year of a tuition freeze to try to keep in-state tuition steady, plus by state law, tuition and room&board are locked at the same cost for 4 years for residents. To offset, they have increased enrollment overall, and slightly increased tuition for non-residents and international students.
@ILShawn I agree. Though for some programs, like Engineering, Accounting, Physics or Computer Science, it’s difficult to find a higher rated program that offers enough merit aid to make it less expensive than in-state tuition for UIUC. And qualifying for out-of-state merit aid at schools like Michigan or Georgia Tech is certainly as tough as in-state merit at Illinois.
For other majors, there are plenty of options that are equivalent or better programs and offer enough merit aid to be lower in cost. Some private schools have large enough endowments to offer grants to pay for 100% of the difference from their calculated EFC to the total cost, without loans. State flagships like UIUC can rarely afford to do this, but some highly rated schools like Rice, WashU, Vanderbilt, USC and others do, and also offer merit aid, too.
Thanks for the info @ashleynovello! Based on the second article, it’s worth my time to call the FA office and ask for additional consideration if my daughter does decide she wants to go to UIUC.
I believe you will get nowhere with UIUC. Like you, our family lives in Illinois, and did not qualify for financial aid. But even with a Merit Scholarship of 10k, University of Illinois was more expensive than other out of state Big Tens. University of Illinois was among the highest in terms of room and board charges, as well. Best of luck to you all.
@ashleynovello : they didn’t give you any financial aid. They expect you to pay all costs.
Illinois has huge budget problems (was near bankruptcy). As an OOS they offered you admission as a cashcow, that’s it.
Hopefully you have applied to schools that offer merit aid. How much can your parents afford (clearly, not their EFC)?
interesting thread. My D has gotten into a number of big 10 schools. Being Illinois based she applied engineering at UIUC thinking strong program and instate tuition. Here is the reality - decent academics 3.94 UW 34 ACT got her into Iowa, Purdue, Wisconsin, UIUC. Iowa and Purdue offered $10k merit, making them cheaper than UIUC. In addition, all schools accepted her into engineering degree of choice except for UIUC, which also offered no merit. Finally, Illinois budget woes are far from over… last year UIUC was running off of reserves [according to Engineering Dean] and was considering going private until the last minute budget allocation for higher education… if you all recall that was a temporary measure and Illinois still does not have an approved budget.
too much uncertainty in next 4 years for us - we will be going out of state.
@gombater – congrats to your daughter. She worked hard to make herself competitive and has given herself some solid options!
It’s a shame these states drive off their best and brightest. I read about states like Georgia and Florida and it makes me wonder why more states can’t figure out how to retain these kids?