I got into Duke and received about 40k in financial aid. However, that leaves 32k a year for me and my parents to pay, and were going down every avenue to make this work. We have done some research on private scholarships from local community organizations and such, and what we have read online says that any scholarships I earn will not net me anything, rather, just chip away at the 40k in financial aid Duke gave me. Is that right; am I understanding this properly? In order to gain even a dime I have to first make up the 40k in grants the school is giving me? I’ve noticed that some scholarships say they’re open to be spent on anything, food, books, tuition, etc. while others are tuition only. Does that distinction affect anything? Can anyone answer this in general, or in regard to Duke’s specific policy?
Contact Duke…and ask them how they deal with outside scholarships.
I did contact Duke, but I didn’t entirely understand everything that they said. Searching for clarification online only lead to more confusion, which is why I am asking for help here.
That seems pretty clear to me…
https://financialaid.duke.edu/other-sources-aid
So yes, if you have 40k in pure aid (not loans or WS) then you’d need 40k+ in outside scholarships before making a dent in the 32k.
Is Duke really 72k/year now???
Yeah, it is 72k. Thanks for answering my questions, the link to the Duke page was helpful and something I hadn’t found before, although it’s rather depressing. What’s the point of receiving scholarships if they don’t help at all? I guess I need to make a decision between 120k in debt and going to community college. I have another related question. My sister will be going to college next year. What I’ve read online (so I’m taking it with a grain of salt) tells me that my expected contribution will be cut in roughly half to account for her costs as well. Is there any validity in that statement?
The money you are being offered from Duke is need-based aid, which means this is the amount that Duke thinks you need on top of your EFC. When you get additional outside scholarships, you now have more money, and your need goes down. Therefore, you need less need-based aid from Duke to complement your EFC and pay the bill.
You can’t borrow $120k. You are limited to the federal loan maximums. Your parents will have to borrow the rest of it. Duke is not work that kind of debt. No undergrad college is. You need to kick Duke to the curb, and move on.
If you have the stats for Duke, you should have affordable options other than community college. Did you not apply to your home-state public Us? Did you not apply to any places that are known to give good merit aid for students with your stats? e.g. http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ The best merit aid is for incoming freshmen. If you don’t have any affordable options other than community college, you might want to take a gap year, reconsider your application list, and apply for fall 2017.
When your sister is in college, your family’s federal EFC as calculated by the FAFSA will be divided between the two of you. However, private institutions that use their own formulas including the CSS Profile will divide the family contribution as calculated by those formulas as they see fit. Often each child is assigned %60 of that figure (yes, the family would be considered to be responsible for %120 of that figure).
Estimated cost of attendance is 67k. Not sure where you’re getting the 72k figure from.
The 72k figure comes from the statement that Duke sent me. My home state public US, UIUC, is 28k a year as well. Thanks for all the answers. I think it’s obvious I’m rebelling against the answers because they upset me, but I’m just going to have to deal with it.
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guess I need to make a decision between 120k in debt and going to community college
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why are those your only choices? Did you apply anywhere that gave you very large merit?
What are your stats?
What is your major and career goal?
(also…keep in mind that those local awards are usually only for freshman year)
How much can your parents pay each year?
I read yesterday that univerisities of AZ, IO, OK and New College of FL are all still accepting applications with merit possibilities. Not sure how accurate the info is, but it might be worth investigating.
Well, how much of that $40k is work study or loans? Duke says it will reduce those first (you can still take the loans, but they might be unsubsidized ), you can still get a non-work study job, and it does not say that an outside scholarship will reduce your Duke aid dollar for dollar, so an outside scholarship may still benefit you.
$30k is still a hard gap to fill.
Honestly, Duke is pretty generous with outside scholarships. They will reduce your loans and work study first, neither of which are gifts from Duke. Any outside scholarships you’d earn would directly reduce what you have to pay, such that if Duke’s $40k package was, say, $32K grant, $5500 loans and $2500 work study, you could get up to $8k in outside scholarships without Duke reducing their grant aid.
However, if you are a senior looking at this package right now, I believe it is too late to apply for most scholarships.