Yes…and this all should have been clearly discussed before applications were sent!
I agree with everyone that has said the discussion about how much the parents are willing to pay each year should have been discussed earlier in the process. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed. Here we are with only about 3 weeks left before he has all of his decisions and that conversation will happen. I hope this ends with a positive outcome for OP but it may not end with the outcome OP envisioned.
No, it isn’t too late. IMO there is no reason to wait until the #s are in front of them to start this discussion. It should start NOW. If parents are willing to be full pay no matter what, but want the OP to have a foot in the game by having a job or paying some out of his savings (hopefully a family with a $600K income and a kid interested in business has taught him something about earning and saving $).
So far, IIRC, the OP hasn’t said the parents are not willing to be full pay-- just that s/he is looking to “lighten the burden s/he is putting on them”. If they have a dollar cap that they can/will pay, the OP should know this before the admission results come in. If there really, really are some financial issues that are considerations, the parents can ask for professional judgment. But many of the schools use the profile so that information could have been addressed ther/then. No one wants" to spend $60+K/year, but if your parents are able to, you are a lucky person.
Did you complete the SSA application? With your ACT scores you should have also received merit aid from IU. When did you apply? You may want to look one your one.iu account. Don’t hesitate to call the office of scholarships. They are super helpful! Most everyone I know that applied to IU has gotten info online and in the mail. But they do have rolling admissions so maybe you just recently applied. Good luck to you! @TexasDA
@TexasDA I mentioned the location because SMU attracts many of its students from the Park Cities. The school is certainly not strapped for cash. In an urban setting, the houses surrounding the school are really big/$$. Due to space constraints, they won’t be as big as the ones you’d find in a suburb. Since you live so close to SMU, why don’t you just contact their office in person and ask these questions?
The OP petitioned IU for direct admit to Kelley because he missed the Novermber 1 application deadline.
It is very possible,that this student missed the deadline for other things too.
Ah, I think I missed that. Missing dates is a bummer. @thumper1
It is unfortunate when people don’t notice scholarship rules or deadlines, and then hope after all is said and done that the money will fall out of the sky
Data point of one here. D with ACT of 32, weighted GPA close to 5, UW gpa 3.9 maybe? EFC estimated at 35000. Villanova offered a grant of $9k and expected us to finance the rest through parental contributions and loans… They were pretty clear when we toured they don’t meet need. And we were pretty clear we would not pay $50K+ per year when there were more affordable options.
The schools that did offer significant merit aid - as stated in earlier posts, were schools where she was in the top 10-15% of the applicant pool. Providence, Stonehill, Elon, Loyola Md, Catholic. S, a few years later and with similar stats, received strong merit offers from Centre, Valpo, Bradley, Scranton, and Fairfield and a decent offer from Butler…
Unfortunately OP, most of the schools on your list don’t need to provide merit scholarships to attract students. They have so many top students applying who can pay they reserve their money for families that otherwise could not dream about paying. What little merit aid they offer goes to students who are high enough stats to be in Ivy range. Your goal of helping your parents is admirable, but would have reaped more benefit if it had been a factor when creating the list of schools to which you applied. Hope something works out for you.
Villanova is a Profile school, so EFC isn’t particularly relevant.
They meet, on average, about 80 percent of need and are working toward 100 percent. A $9K FA grant – not a scholarship – combined with a $5,500 Stafford loan (Federal max), plus some work study, maybe $2,500, comes to $17K. If you’re package included no work study, then this is off a bit.
$64K-$17K=$47K, or about 75 percent of your EFC. Taking into account that the school used institutional methodology, in addition to the federal methodology, the number doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
Except for Ivies and a select few LAC’s, schools that meet 100 percent of need with offer loans at the Federal max. $27K for four years.
As for the OP, merit is the best option.
@middleman68 Thanks for the explanation, however I already understand how need and merit based aid, loans, and works study are allocated - my point was more that if an EFC of $35k (and yes, I realize profile schools are different but EFC is the only standardizing factor here) only nets $9k with higher stats, a family with an EFC > $100K is unlikely to net much at all at a school such as Villanova.
The number wasn’t far-fetched, but for our family did not make sense when other schools were offering merit $$ that brought the total COA to tens of thousands less (per year) than the total COA of Villanova. But that was because we researched merit aid ahead of time and the kids applied mostly to schools where they expected - and received - substantial aid.
Merit would be an option for OP, however if you read back on the thread OP is a senior who has already submitted applications - and a number of the schools OP applied to, such as BC, NYU, and Villanova, are not likely to offer merit aid based on OP’s stats.
@Middleman68 the statistic about meeting 80% of need is meaningless in the big scheme of things. This includes kids with $2000 of need…or $3000 of need…or less…which can be fully met with the Direct Loan.
It does NOT mean that the school will give you 80% of YOUR need.sorry…that’s not what it means.
And anyway…it’s not relevant to this thread as this student doesn’t have financial need. At. All.
SMU RD acceptances should be coming out soon. With OPs stats he should get some merit money.
@jym626 “IMO there is no reason to wait until the #s are in front of them to start this discussion.” Well, sure, they can have this discussion but it’s late in the fact that if the discussion had occurred prior to OP applying to schools, OP could have created a different list. There is no guess as to what the numbers will be for OP. They are full pay. Assume no merit aid and their worst case scenario is the COA. Best case scenario is they get merit from somewhere and that will be nice for them. Whether they have this conversation today or in 3 weeks, I’m not sure much will change.
True, OP has not said that the parents will not pay. However, and I hope I am wrong, I’m reading a little between the lines and thinking parents with $600K in annual income do not fill out the FAFSA. That is beyond a student saying they don’t want to put all of the burden of their education on the parents, and that is not a parent saying we want you to have skin in the game. Again, I hope I am wrong.
@paveyourpath - From what we have read, sadly this family has not done enough advanced planning. Several deadlines seem to have been overlooked or missed, and IMO, waiting yet again to have this conversation and then possibly having to begin the search for a gap year is foolhearty.
If parents reassure the OP that they will pay for college but want him/her to get a summer job and have some skin in the game, fine. If they say “we will pay only X and will not take out a parent plus loan but you will have to take out an unsub loan and take the rest from your savings”, then as you said, they can pretty easily calculate, with whatever SAR or FA reports they have gotten thus far and/or run the NPC for each school to gauge what they will cost (yes they will be full pay, save any merit grant the kid may get) what they are looking at, and the kiddo can begin, if necessary, to look into gap year programs. Best not to miss any deadlines on those either. JMO.
@thumper Thanks for the primer. I never said they met 80 percent for everyone, simply that they came close in this one case which was offered as an example of lousy aid.
And there are, in fact, colleges where the OP can still apply to receive merit if that is absolutely necessary.
Other than UA-Huntsville or Birmingham, what colleges could this student apply to…and still get merit.
@Middleman68 I never said the aid was “lousy”. I was just trying to set a realistic expectation of what was offered to a student with higher stats and a much lower family income. At a school like Villanova, without significant need, the offer won’t be much.
The students who are most successful at pursuing merit aid start the process long before sending in the first application.
There have been posters here with ACT 34-35 who’ve been shocked at how little Nova offered.
This student simply needs to talk to parents…tell them that privates will be $65k-70k per year and will they pay that. If they won’t, then how much will they pay.
My brother in law is very wealthy, but he insists that his kids work summers and pay for their books and a few things. We need to know what these parents are expecting.
Yes, exactly. They likely are thinking like you BIL and will pay. It is great the OP wants to lighten the load. This may not be a “problem”, just a question.