<p>So I have been reading about paying for college and I am pretty keen on going to Emory. I am doing early decision there and I really want to get this straight before I make an decisions.
So Emory says its Average financial aid package $37,552.
What exactly does this mean? It this money I won't have to pay back or loans I will pay back or money my parents are "expected" to chip in? Can someone please clarify what exactly goes into a Average financial aid package and what I might be expecting to pay with parents who make over $150,000 combined.</p>
<p>Your parents earn more than $150,000 a year? If that is the case it is likely that Emory will expect a family contribution between $40,000 and $50,000 a year. Your need based aid will likely NOT be in the $35,000 range with a family that has a $150,000 income.</p>
<p>I would strongly suggest that you look for the Net Price Calculator on the Emory website. Put accurate information into that NPC…and you will get a pretty good estimate of your net cost to attend the school.</p>
<p>The average aid package doesn’t mean anything to you and your particular situation. The best thing to do is to go to the Emory finaid website and run the Net Price Calculator(NPC). Input accurate financial info for your family and see what it says. If you need help interpreting the results, post them here and people can help explain. With a family income over $150k you’re not likely to get a lot if any need-based aid. You may need to look more for merit aid. Run the NPC at the website of any other schools you are considering too.</p>
<p>To answer your question, the average package is the average money that the school will give an average, in terms of finances, family. It probably does include loans. But your family finances are well above average so run the NPC to see an estimate of what they may offer you.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1039”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1039</a> will give you the info you are requesting. But where it applies to YOU is what’s important. You come up with a big number on Emory’s NPC, and you aren’t going to get much or any aid even if 90% of the school get it. That’s the way it works. There may not be a single student in a school, by the way, that gets the average figures reported.</p>
<p>Here is a pretty good tool to use to figure out an “average” based on income: <a href=“http://www.tuitiontracker.org/”>http://www.tuitiontracker.org/</a>.</p>
<p>Emory is also a profile school so they will look at all assets including your house.</p>
<p>“Aid” packages consist of any combination of loans, work study and grants.
Total loans at graduation, do not include parent loans.
Does Emory meet 100% of need?
Most schools gap need.
In my experience, EFC is generally 1/4 of before tax income when family earns less than $100,000 and 1/3 of before tax income when earning more than.
When assets are large or when there is more than one household or self employment, the colleges own forms/ PROFILE , is likely to identify additional resources to be used.
Heaven forbid family has rentals that are being used as retirement investments.</p>
<p>I see. I filled our Emory’s NPC and my financial aid packet comes out to $20000 but I’m still confused on what exactly that will entail. Is that $20000 grant money I won’t have to pay back? Or is it a $20000 loan I will have to pay back? What exactly is this money? </p>
<p>Apparently Emory meets need (as they define it). <a href=“Commitment to excellence guides financial aid”>http://news.emory.edu/stories/2013/01/er_financial_aid/campus.html</a> I couldn’t find a recent Common Data Set but the one from 2011 <a href=“http://www.oirpe.emory.edu/institutional_research/Common%20Data%202010%202011.pdf”>http://www.oirpe.emory.edu/institutional_research/Common%20Data%202010%202011.pdf</a> shows that there is a self help component of ~$4K and a loan component of about $3K. The rest would be grant $.</p>
<p>If you actually ran the Emory NPC, the results are broken down by the type of aid. I just did a quick somewhat random one and it broke it down by grants, student loan, student work. The estimated remaining cost is what your parents are expected to contribute. I’m doubting you actually ran it. It looks like an incoming freshman is expected to take the $5500 federal loan and contribute $2500 from their own work. </p>
<p>Emory’s NPC will not only give you an estimate based on the numbers you plug into it, but will give a probable breakdown of how the money will be given, grants, loans, workstudy, </p>