<p>Did anyone else get an insulting Aid package from VT yesterday? My D got an official looking envelope in the mail stating that aid info is available on line. She logged in and found the following.</p>
<p>"We are pleased to offer you the following aid package. $5500 in loans"
"Cost of attendance is $41000, your EFC is $21000."</p>
<p>It's cool if they don't have help for middle income families but don't patronize us with " we are pleased to offer...nothing"</p>
<p>Most publics offer very little to no need based aid to OOS applicants. Only merit and not much of that. Why would they? Taxpayers of that state pay for the school. They are not going to pay a subsidy for OOS students. In fact OOS applicants are cash cows. </p>
<p>It is not that you are middle class as much as you are applying as OOS. And even as an in-state applicant publics don’t meet need. </p>
<p>This should not be news.</p>
<p>Why were you expecting an OOS public to help fund your child’s education? Do you think the VA taxpayers want to do that? Do you want your tax dollars funding OOS students to attend your own state schools.</p>
<p>I know that sounds harsh, but think about it. VT charges high OOS rates for a reason. You don’t pay taxes there. You’re expected to pay the cost if you want to go there. Why would VT bother to charge a high OOS rate if it was then going to take VA taxpayers’ money and give it to you to cover those high costs? That wouldn’t make sense. They might as well charge everyone instate rates.</p>
<p>It’s cool if they don’t have help for middle income families</p>
<p>It’s not because you’re middle income. It’s because you don’t pay taxes in that state. A low income oos student wouldn’t get VT money either. A low income student would just get a 5500 grant from the feds (not VA).</p>
<p>As others have said, not just VT, but any school that is public and OOS for you will probably offer the same: very little if any FA beyond federal loans and the PELL if eligible. I’m in MA, and UMass Amherst loves OOS students, because they bring in the money. Makes complete sense.</p>
<p>The “We are pleased to offer” is just a computer generated standard statement with the numbers following. Don’t take it personally. They really aren’t going to say “Here is your sucky need-based aid award because you are out of state and haven’t contributed to the taxes that help support our school”.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>not unless they want to be known as annoyingschool. ;)</p>
<p>*I was curious of this as well. My D was accepted to Perdue, GA Tech and NC State but the packets that came didn’t mention any aid information. We don’t qualify for any needs based aid (at least on paper). Their web sites say they will be send by April but that’s cutting it close on deciding where to go.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any additional information on when/if these schools send merit based information. My daughter is a solid student, 2000 SAT, 3.95 GPA UW and tons of EC but probably won’t really stand out much among her engineering hopeful peers.</p>
<p>Still waiting on a few other schools to notify, VA Tech, U MD, and Florida.*</p>
<p>I hope that one of those publics is instate for your D. If not, you’ll likely be expected to pay full freight at them all.</p>
<p>If none of those are instate, and you don’t want to pay full or near full freight, then it’s unfortnate that your D didn’t apply to schools where her stats would have gotten good sized merit. </p>
<p>BTW…in one of your posts, you mention that loans aren’t a bad idea because new laws limit payments to 10% of income. That is only for federal loans. If your D borrows large amounts to attend any of those schools, she won’t have her payments limited. </p>
<p>Stafford loans are:</p>
<p>Frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500</p>
<p>Loan payments for the above is about $300 per month, so the law limits won’t likely affect her since she’d likely be earning more than $3k per month.</p>
<p>It’s not the point of not being offered aid, that was expected. It’s the fact of the being “pleased to offer” something that is available to any college student. Schools do have money for merit and my D has received some pretty attractive offers from Florida, Maryland and Clemson.</p>
<p>VT could have sent a simple sorry nothing is available e-mail.</p>
<p>Anyway, I was venting more than anything and I’ll be glad when this process is over. Still waiting to hear from Georgia Tech’s “aid package” and NC State is our in-state option which is a great engineering school as well.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, My D got her Merit letter last week from Maryland and Florida…and of course I’ve already mentioned VT. Noting yet from Perdue or GT although Perdue must spend a fortune of postage with their daily mailings. Good luck to your D</p>
<p>Congrats on the merit. How much did Florida, Clemson, and Maryland award per year? </p>
<p>Yes, NC State is a very good back up.</p>
<p>The 'sorry nothing is available" wouldn’t really be the right thing to send since loans are considered aid. And, many people would wrongly assume that they can’t get a loan if it wasn’t mentioned in their award letter.</p>
<p>Please understand. I “get” the frustration. I never liked the idea of “award packages” because they do sound like “free money gifts,” when in many cases they’re nothing but loans. I also don’t like the general term Financial Aid, because I think that implies free money as well. I wish there was another term used.</p>
<p>$2k Maryland
$5k Florida
$10 Clemson
Not in-state money but a nice gesture of let’s meet somewhere in the middle since we value your demonstrated abilities. </p>
<p>Yeah I don’t consider taking out a loan, aid. Imagine your employer passing out Christmas bonuses and inside the envelope was a loan application :)</p>
<p>It is also misleading since the Fin Aid office runs the hundreds of available scholarships. I know GT listed several hundred that my D would be considered for but if it’s strictly needs based then they should say so.</p>
<p>I do think schools should, and many do, compete for talented OOS kids. Many graduates end up living in the state where they graduate and become very generous tax payers. Schools that limit themselves to the best their state has to offer put themselves at a disadvantage in my opinion.</p>
<p>It is also misleading since the Fin Aid office runs the hundreds of available scholarships. I know GT listed several hundred that my D would be considered for but if it’s strictly needs based then they should say so.</p>
<p>I dont’ think all schools do this. At my kids’ undergrad, the scholarship office is separate. </p>
<p>I don’t think you should assume that the scholarships are need-based unless it’s an endowed one and the donor specified that. </p>
<p>I don’t think GT’s merit awards are need-based. I think their merit awards are “diversity-based” and “very high stats based”. I think GT uses their awards to help shape their frosh class to be what they want it to be…kids with very high stats, kids that add to ethnic diversity, kids that add to regional diversity, and more girls. :)</p>
<p>What was your D’s Math+CR score? I do think that if she applied to schools that are known for more generous merit, she would have gotten bigger offers.</p>
<p>Schools that limit themselves to the best their state has to offer put themselves at a disadvantage in my opinion.</p>
<p>State schools are limited by their budgets just like a household is. They may want to include more OOS kids, but if they don’t have the funds to award enough merit to cover OOS costs, then what are they supposed to do? Besides, there really isn’t any assurance that these OOS kids will stay in state. All the school knows is that - so far - the family hasn’t been paying taxes.</p>
<p>and, remember, a state school’s mission is to educate “instate kids”. Most can’t even give enough aid to the instate kids and their COAs are much lower.</p>
<p>Everything you said is correct, and like I said I was mainly venting. There is a problem with the system and all the schools play with the hands they are dealt. My D probably could have gotten a much higher award from a UNC Charlotte or Western Carolina but her passion is engineering and she wanted a top 25 engineering school.</p>
<p>I don’t remember her exact scores but 2000 SAT and 30 ACT, 3.96 AW GPA. Solid but doesn’t stand out at Georgia Tech. That’s her first choice and we may decide for her to go there regardless of awards.</p>
<p>Where is your D’s first choice? Sounds like she’s a solid academic performer as well</p>
<p>Dennis…who are you talking to when asking about someone else’s daughter. If its Mom2, she doesn’t have a daughter applying to college!</p>
<p>My mistake, sounded like she did in her post…sorry Mom2</p>
<p>"I was curious of this as well. My D was accepted to Perdue, GA Tech and NC State but the packets that came didn’t mention any aid information. We don’t qualify for any needs based aid (at least on paper). Their web sites say they will be send by April but that’s cutting it close on deciding where to go.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any additional information on when/if these schools send merit based information. My daughter is a solid student, 2000 SAT, 3.95 GPA UW and tons of EC but probably won’t really stand out much among her engineering hopeful peers."</p>
<p>Mom2 was quoting a post you made on a different forum.</p>
<p>LOL! shows how often I’m on here and how closely I read other posts.</p>
<p>Hey, she’s the one college bound not me and it shows :)</p>
<p>Ha ha…no, I don’t have any daughters. 
Just boys…one in grad school and the other headed to med school. </p>
<p>I don’t remember her exact scores but 2000 SAT and 30 ACT, 3.96 AW GPA. Solid but doesn’t stand out at Georgia Tech. That’s her first choice and we may decide for her to go there regardless of awards.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind paying, then great. But you have a very affordable alternative in NC State. I’m only saying that because your EFC is $21k, so paying $40k or so per year for GT sounds like a lot. </p>
<p>do you realize that when she’s hired, the company is going to pay her same regardless of where she went to school. The company will be paying the NC State grads the same as the GT grads. </p>
<p>Did she get any merit from NC State? What is the COA there?</p>
<p>Well congrats to you and your boys achievements. Techs Coop program(largest in the country by their measurement) is one draw. I guess it’s a pride issue too, you want to go to the best school you’re accept to which is Tech in her case for engineering.</p>
<p>No merit yet from State and COA is about 21k so about the same as my EFC. Of course the whole EFC thing seems to be an unreliable formula. My daughter’s friend’s parents just retired a couple of years ago after a very successful career with both parents in the 6 figures and a paid for million $ home but thier EFC is 1/4 what mine is. I’m a single parent renter,(just moved from Virginia after paying taxes for 7 years) go figure. But it’s all good. I have the ability (not the funds) to pay for where ever my D decides to go. If I live long enough I can pay for it, if I die I have life insurance so it’s win/win right :)</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that if you attend an out of state school, you may miss out on aid from your state government. Many states give out large grants to middle income families if a student attends an PUBLIC OR PRIVATE in-state college, but little or no aid if they attend an out of state college. </p>
<p>For instance, in PA, it may be the difference in receiving up to $4,000 a year for 4 years to attend a college in PA, $900 to attend a college in Delaware, $350 to attend a college in Virginia, and nothing if you attend a college in New Jersey. If another state does not let their grants for their students to be used in PA, then PA does not let its grants for PA. students be used in their state.</p>