<p>My daughter is a senior. We live in Washington state and she wants to go to Univ of Oregon . My husband has been out of work for most of the last year and we know our EFC will be 0. DDs grandparetns have put aside money for college; $7000 for the first year. DD thinks that she will get financial aid to cover everything. She won't even apply to an in-state school because she wants U of O. She has a 3.9 GPS, 2050 SATs and 31 ACT. She won't listen to anything I say about it! Does anyone have any experience with U of O fin aid or what we can expect? I'm afraid when she gets her fin aid ward it won't be enough and then it will be too late to apply in state and get enough aid. I think she should apply in state as a back up because I know it will be afordable. Can anyone give me some amunition to help her form a back up plan?</p>
<p>OP, the first thing you do is to find out if U of O is a school that meets 100% of demonstrated needs. </p>
<p>Second, I would contact GC at HS and seek his/her help.</p>
<p>U of O does not meet full need…and especially for Out of State Students. Their FIRST obligation is to fund their instate students whose parents pay TAXES to support the Oregon public universities.</p>
<p>Have you checked to see if U of O is part of the academic common market for your region? In some cases, students can attend neighboring state publics at reduced costs IF they are pursuing a major that is not offered in their home state. There is a “sticky” at the top of this forum that talks about Academic Common Market. I don’t know if Washington/Oregon participate or not.</p>
<p>In any event, your costs will be those for an Out of State student (as you know). If you have a monetary limit for college expenses, just write it down clearly and give it to your daughter. Include Grandma’s contribution. Then be clear…if the school costs MORE than that total per year, DD will either need to come up with the funds herself, or find a school within those financial boundaries.</p>
<p>Maybe she will get the funds…you never know.</p>
<p>Oregon does not meet 100% of need. </p>
<p>Honestly, I would lay out the facts for DD. State schools save most of their money for in state kids. She will probably get some merit aid but it’s unlikely to meet her need. She will be in community college next all if she chooses not to accept the facts. </p>
<p>Then I’d let her take control of her application process.</p>
<p>Go to the sticky posted thread about Academic common market. Go to post #2 and click on the link. U of Oregon does appear to participate but for limited majors only…probably those which are NOT offered in Washington State.</p>
<p>My daughter is at UO. It does have the WUE option for Washington residents so tuition is 150% of in-state tuition if the student meets certain academic standards (your daughter does).</p>
<p>As far as total amount of need met, I know my daughter’s need was met 100%, but a good amount of that was in loans. We do not have a 0 EFC, but she does get a reduced Pell based on our income. We are, however, in-state, so Thumper is right that it will likely be different for out-of-state students.</p>
<p>You may be surprised at the aid you get at UO – meaning, it might work out okay for you, especially with the Pell grant thrown in, what you have saved, what the school kicks in because of your daughter’s good stats, and the WUE tuition reduction. It’s a pretty affordable school as colleges go.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, your D really needs to apply, also, to an instate school that you know you can afford. It is ridiculous not to. Applying does not mean she must attend, it just gives you a fall-back in case UO is really un-doable.</p>
<p>Out of state publics (except UVa) do NOT meet need of OOS students. State schools just don’t have money laying around to give to OOS students who have need. That’s the hard truth. If your D won’t believe you (or us), then have her call Oregon and ask if they meet the financial need for OOS students - including OOS tuition, room, board, etc. (They will say no, no, no.)</p>
<p>As for your D…some parents tell their kids that they can apply to X number of schools that their kids want, but that they must also apply to 2 or 3 “parent picks”. (In your case, that will likely be UWash, Wash St, and maybe that northern Wash state school that gives good merit (can’t remember the name…it’s like Western Washington U or something like that.)</p>
<p>Your D is scared that you will “make her” go to a Washington school even if the Oregon school “somehow” works out financially. Explain to her that if Oregon comes thru with the money, you’ll have no objection to her going.</p>
<p>***so Thumper is right that it will likely be different for out-of-state students.
***</p>
<p>Thumper is right. OOS schools don’t meet need of OOS students - they just can’t justify it (and they may be legally prohibited from doing so.)</p>
<p>***She will be in community college next fall if she chooses not to accept the facts. ***</p>
<p>Hmom is right. We see this every year on CC. Kids who refuse to apply to their in-state public (or whatever) as a financial safety end up with FA packages from their schools that have huge gaps or huge loans in them. They end up either quickly applying to a rolling admissions school (past scholarship dates), going to a cc, or taking a gap year.</p>
<p>Your D may think big loans are fine. IF that’s the case, that needs to also be addressed. :)</p>
<p>Show your D this thread. Encourage her to post her thoughts. :)</p>
<p>***HOWEVER, your D really needs to apply, also, to an instate school that you know you can afford. It is ridiculous not to. Applying does not mean she must attend, it just gives you a fall-back in case UO is really un-doable. ***</p>
<p>In a nutshell, the above quote is the way to go.</p>
<p>Here’s information on the WUE program:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Western</a> Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) | Student Financial Aid and Scholarships](<a href=“http://financialaid.uoregon.edu/western_undergraduate_exchange_scholarship]Western”>Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) | Financial Aid & Scholarships)</p>
<p>Thanks for posting that link here Rent…I think it will be very helpful to the OP and daughter.</p>
<p>Thanks eveyone! She has applied under WUE, but Oregon only gives out about 25 of these scholarships per year. I’m just afraid of there no being enoug money for an oos student. I know she is defaulting to cc if the money doesn’t come through.</p>
<p>I will print this and have her read it. Thanks again!</p>
<p>OK…I hope someone chimes in…I thought the WUE option was open to anyone who fulfilled the requirements in majors, GPA/SAT scores. I’m not sure it’s viewed as a scholarship…it’s OREGON’s way of offering these programs at a reduced rate (not OOS fully but not instate either) to students from states participating in the program.</p>
<p>Is there REALLY a limit on the number of students?</p>
<p>Another thing you might consider, SeniorMom, is that one of the programs listed as open to WUE students is the Honors College. Your D’s stats would at least put her in the running for that (although not a slam dunk), but it’s not actually a major. Students in the honors college complete a major in the university department of their choosing. If WUE is open, as it says it is, to students admitted to the honors college, I wonder if that wouldn’t open up all possible majors. It sounds like it might – would at least be worth asking about.</p>
<p>Thumper, UO’s WUE program is somewhat more limited. For example, Calif. residents can get WUE tuition at other Oregon state schools, but not UO. UO has gotten quite desireable, and it’s getting harder even for in-state students to get accepted. I have not ever heard the limit of 25 WUE admits though. SeniorMom, did you hear that directly from UO?</p>
<p>Edit: Okay, nevermind, I found that information on the website. Yeah, 20 WUE openings and 5 more for the Honors College. Wow. I can see how that ends up not looking too likely!</p>
<p>25 WUE scholarships per year comes straight from the WUE FAQ. She won’t consider the Honors College.</p>
<p>Well, I think you are quite right about working on her to apply to an in-state school. I love UO. It’s a great place. (The honors college is fabulous, btw, but certainly not for everyone. A student needs to be a self-identified study-slave to really enjoy it… but that would describe my D and she loves it.)</p>
<p>Is your D at peace with attending a comm. college if UO is not affordable? I would think a strong student like her might not find comm. college a great fit. Do you think she’s refusing to apply in-state because she feels that then UO will automatically be ruled-out once you compare the costs? I understand how a young person can see things in that way, but she is SO shooting herself in the foot with that kind of thinking.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s impossible that UO will work out, but you are so right to help her see the problems she’ll have if it doesn’t and she has no back up plan. One thing, do the other WA universities that she could apply to having rolling admissions? If so, she could apply later after hearing back from UO, although she’d likely miss the priority application deadlines that would qualify her for institutional aid if she applies late.</p>
<p>My kids both applied to schools that we weren’t sure we could afford. As it turned out, D (jr in college now) is at a top 20 school that costs us less than several of our instate publics. There were several schools that accepted her that would have cost us much more, even with academic scholarships. We had told D beforehand … go ahead & apply, but you can’t go if the bottom line will be more than $X. S is a h.s. sr. now & he applied to some schools we can’t afford without good aid. He also knows that he is welcome to go for it … but he can’t attend if the aid doesn’t work out.</p>
<p>Each kid had for-sure schools on the list - ones we knew we could afford. S may very well wind up at one such school, since no merit offers have yet materialized from the OOS public & the private that have accepted him to date … and the instate public has offered merit. We’ll know better in the spring how things shake out. But he KNOWS because we TOLD him in no uncertain terms what we can afford (and that these other schools may not make him good enough offers). That’s my advice: Lay it on the line.</p>
<p>“DD thinks that she will get financial aid to cover everything. She won’t even apply to an in-state school because she wants U of O.”</p>
<p>I would point D to the info about U of O’s finances, this includes providing her with info that the only schools that guarantee to meet 100% of the documented need of OOS students are UNC and UVA. </p>
<p>I would give D in writing info about what financial support she can expect from her family, and in writing, I would suggest that she apply to financial safeties that she knows she’ll gain admission to and can afford. I would let her know that such schools probably are in-state publics, and I would offer to help pay for applications to such schools.</p>
<p>Then, I would feel that I had done everything that I could do. Unfortunately, some people have to learn the hard way. All we can do as parents is present our offspring with the facts. Some have to feel the impact of the facts before they believe in them. </p>
<p>Saying this as a parent who in a variety of circumstances has had to watch my kids realize that dreaming something isn’t the same as being able to achieve it.</p>
<p>***Is your D at peace with attending a comm. college if UO is not affordable? I would think a strong student like her might not find comm. college a great fit. ***</p>
<p>A student with her eyes on UO who has her stats would not find a cc to be a good fit. The whole time she would be kicking herself for having been so stubborn. Also, since the best merit scholarships are given to incoming freshmen, she would be giving up the opportunity for good merit scholarships if she goes to a cc first. Transfer students are usually only offered small scholarships, and are sometimes given worse FA packages, because of “enrollment management.”</p>
<p>Do you think she’s refusing to apply in-state because she feels that then UO will automatically be ruled-out once you compare the costs? I understand how a young person can see things in that way, but she is SO shooting herself in the foot with that kind of thinking.</p>
<p>This is likely her big concern. She’s afraid that if her in-state FA packages meet need, while her OU package is less, you’ll make her go to the in-state.</p>
<p>**Why not put that concern to rest right now with a written agreement? ** Why not present her with this…if OU’s FA package will only require up to XX in loans to attend (including any gaps), then you can go there - no matter what the other schools’ packages include. However, if OU’s package includes XX+ in loans (including gaps), then you’ll go to in-state (assuming that is affordable.)</p>
<p>If your D is like many, many college girls, she’s going to want to do a study abroad. While tuition costs aren’t usually higher for study abroad, there are often a lot of costs associated with it. My son’s study abroad was around $9k more. So, your D also needs to keep that in mind. If she chooses a school that she can BARELY afford, that will be ALL she’ll be able to afford. She won’t be able to do these “extra things.”</p>
<p>As for loans…this info might be helpful to you…</p>
<p>If a student borrows a TOTAL of $20k for undergrad ($5k per year), his loan payment will be about $230 a month for 10 years (similar to an extra smallish car payment).</p>
<p>If a student borrows a TOTAL of $50k for undergrad ($12,500 per year), his loan payment will be about $575 per month for 10 years. A person would have to be earning about $70k per year (unlikely for a new grad) to comfortably pay that back while also paying for his own rent, food, car, clothes, entertainment, etc.</p>
<p>BTW…Does your D know UOregon’s Cost of Attendance (COA) for OOS students?</p>
<p>These are for the current 2009-2010 year; Next year’s prices will be higher.</p>
<p>COA U Oregon for OOS students</p>
<p>non-resident tuition…$23,718
matriculation fee…300
housing/meals…8,640
Books…1,050</p>
<h2>Personal/Transportation/Misc…2,412</h2>
<p>Total COA…36,120</p>
<p>Long ago (D is now a senior in college) D got into U of O honors college and was offered the WUE award. Back then the 5 WUE honors college awards were need based as well (the regular U of O WUE awards were not, but those were tied to specific majors). Honors college WUE awards were for any major and you could change majors. Our EFC was no where near 0. Tough decision but D decided to attend another LAC in Oregon that offered her more aid. She really wanted to be a duck and is considering grad school there now.</p>
<p>My D also applied to and was accepted to UO under WUE as a physics major. Her stats were about what your D’s were. She was offered the WUE tuition discount and nothing else except loans.</p>
<p>(Of course, our EFC wasn’t 0, but it was the year her dad was diagnosed with cancer and we had $45,000 in uncovered medical expenses --I would have expected a bit more help than just loans. UO was just not very helpful about FA.)</p>