<p>regarding my post #13, I didn’t see that there is another student being discussed with a quite different EFC</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input so far. In hindsight my post looks so snobby right now…thank you for being so honest. To be honest myself, I don’t totally know where/how my parents spend their money. (For example, I can’t imagine that we spend my mom’s whole salary on those things, but again I don’t know.)
To answer a few of the questions that have come up, my siblings went to state/public universities–one went to a big out-of-state state school, and the other two went to the major public university in our city. Their college costs were considerably less than mine would be, so my family hasn’t really had to think about this before (which might answer the questions some of you have of “what else did your family think they’d have to do?” My parents didn’t know, and I had no idea what their salaries were or what financial aid was like with colleges.) Maybe this sounds conceited in light of my siblings’ education, but I just felt ND was the best fit for me. To be honest, I tried to be oblivious to the financial side of things in my college search because I wanted to find what was best for me, and now I see how that’s now probably hurting me in the end.
Just as a side note–I don’t necessarily want the conversation to change its focus to this–my favorite area of study is something that necessarily is not offered at public universities, so those are quite out of the picture, but I have my other schools, both of which have costs within my family’s range. I am still going to hold out hope because this is all prediction and speculation; nothing is certain as of yet and I am still waiting on whatever my FA package will be from ND. But I want to thank you all (again) for slapping me pretty gently back into reality.</p>
<p>I think sometimes some of of us forget that before we were cc addicts, or before we had been through this process before, we too didn’t realize all of this. I think it’s also difficult for HS students to have a true grasp of their families income and expenses–sometimes parents aren’t big on divulging this type of info. We see parents posting all the time after they have realized what you have.</p>
<p>I am not sure exactly how close ND’s net price calculator will be, but the place runs like a finely tuned, well-oiled machine. I would bet it’s very close. They meet need and do so nicely, but you do have a large family income. At that level, I doubt you are going to receive a favorable surprise with f/a. Did you also apply with your area’s Alumni Club? I am not sure if Alumni does that automatically or if you would have needed to apply separately. </p>
<p>I understand your passion to attend ND. I really, really do. If you were admitted to ND, you have the qualities to be successful anywhere you choose to attend. If ND doesn’t work out financially, you may want to consider looking at the list of colleges after May 1 that are still accepting applications. There may be some schools there that interest you and are financially viable.</p>
<p>Best wishes this works out well for you :)</p>
<p>Of all schools, Catholics, like ND, should take into account the number of children a family has, particularly if, which I assume, your family is Catholic (given the number of kids your parents have). </p>
<p>I would actually call the finaid office and say flat out, “We are a good catholic family and we have X number of kids, and some are still doing charitable work…etc…” Are you in contact with your family priest? Perhaps he could help you with this.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Poet, ND does consider family size just like every other college. The siblings have PAYING jobs. They are not doing charity work. One doesn’t even live in the home any longer. I’m not sure I understand what you think ND should do. The sibs are all older than 26.</p>
<p>Thumper is right.</p>
<p>It would be different if all these kids were YOUNGER and attending Catholic schools. Then ND would likely consider their Catholic school tuitions and the family size.</p>
<p>A large family isn’t going to get that consideration with the LAST child when the rest are thru college and earning money. </p>
<p>At this point, ND is going to view this student as an “only child”.</p>
<p>Nabian…you say that one sibling went to a big OOS school. Well that one probably cost more than $15k per year…how was that covered?</p>
<p>I highly doubt that ND will work out since they will expect your parents to pay for most of the costs. They will see that the older siblings are grown and not in school, so ND will assume that the family can spend mom’s income on school while easily live on dad’s income…frankly, that’s how many families pay for college. </p>
<p>If your parents are firm about only spend fifteen thousand, then you need to refocus on your affordable list. It’s unfortunate that you didn’t consider cost, because there are likely some similar Catholic univs or other schools that would have given you large merit for your stats. </p>
<p>What is your intended major?</p>
<p>What is it about ND that you like? </p>
<p>maybe you should take a gap year and reapply (and don’t take ANY classes during the gap year.)</p>
<p>I understand your disappointment. You’re smart (800M 720CR 800W SAT) and have a high GPA. Your public universities in TX don’t have the area of concentration that you want. Your safeties are Franciscan Univ and St. Louis Univ. </p>
<p>Have you had a talk with your parents? It does seem as if there’s a lot of disposable income that might not be spent as frugally as it might be. Do your sibs pay for room/board?</p>
<p>I don’t think his safeties are SLU or Franciscan. SLU does give merit, but usually only about half tuition, that leaves too much uncovered.</p>
<p>This student’s safeties are schools that would have given him at LEAST full tuition so that his room and board costs would be covered by the family contribution.</p>
<p>I wonder if this student is a NMF?</p>
<p>edited to add…yes, he’s a NMF. He does have other options.</p>
<p>I see that he applied EA to ND, so he’s been accepted for months. Too bad the family didn’t do their homework about affordability a long time ago…or use the NPC back in the fall.</p>
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<p>I used the term “safeties” because the OP wrote this. Perhaps he will clarify.</p>
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<p>Nabian, it’s not that your family is so bad with money. Or if they are, they are in good company. We are in the same income category. We bought a house right up to what we could afford that had good schools, good community, easy commute to work,etc etc. We then had to support said house in the way it was accustomed to being treated. Things like a big house with lots of light fixutres is going to have a higher electric bill. Yard needed to be landscaped to a certain standard. Didn’t feel IKEA and Goodwill were the only places to go for furniture. Needed substantial window treatments,and etc, etc. Not necessities but easy to talk yourself into it. Plus with mom working, quicker convenience food and shopping can add a lot to monthly nut. </p>
<p>We entered an austerity regiment a few years ago, and it was really tough going. It showed us how spoiled and lazy we had become. We’ve been able to loosen up but still just have one old clunker of a car, and I plan meals very carefully with an eye to cost rather than convenience. We’ve prettty much stopped shopping for THINGS entirely. My youngest has no new clothes, all give aways and hand me downs and does fine. I stopped shopping for myself entirely. Since we are pretty much stuck with the house, we had to cut everywhere else to make this a go, and even then we can barely afford the $35K a year for our college kids’ costs. I just got the last $4K in payments due next month into our account to clinch our freshman’s first year in college. Getting that money together was really painful. I look enviously at the smart phones, Ipads . Kindles, etc. Don’t have any of that stuff. Need to have some work done on the clunker this summer and am hoping one of the kids can come up with some money to help out. Rug in our Dining room got ruined–it won’t be replaced, not at all unless someone gives another. Not happening. My youngest will be getting coupons to a sports store for athletic shoes he will be needing the way he is growing, and a new basketball as birthday gifts. We don’t even have Microsoft Word on our second hand computers that are give aways. Haven’t even bought a computer in 10 years! All the kids are working this summer and that will be their spending money for the year.</p>
<p>This may be totally stupid, but it’s a thought. I haven’t read all the posts carefully, so maybe you changed your original statement…that you kind-of did the financial stuff yourself without a lot of details available? Any chance you missed something that would change the numbers? Because 200K is a lot of money, so it should be apparent to you at this point where the bulk is going. What I’m wondering is if your parents might be donating a lot of their money to charity without really thinking about it. Specifically, to the Catholic church! If so, and if you want to go to ND, any chance you could get some kind of credit for this if you contacted them? Just a thought…</p>
<p>sofrustrating…that is a nice thought. BUT ND is not likely to change their financial aid calculation because a family is making donations to the Catholic Church…those donations already reduce the income on which the family is paying taxes. </p>
<p>At this point, the student needs to just wait and see what ND gives them for financial aid. The reality is that this may not be an affordable school for THIS family at this time.</p>
<p>Just to answer that question really quickly, we do contribute to collections but when I was copying our tax returns to send in for IDOC, I didn’t see that noted on the charitable donations section. There are a few things about us bringing things to Goodwill but I didn’t see that noted there–but it probably wouldn’t make too much of a difference. </p>
<p>Also, I realize this doesn’t solve the problem, but for some reason when I saw the $41k I hadn’t considered that my parents could still pay, say, ~$20k of that and I could take the rest in loans–I know I know, that’s too much to take on 4 times over and I’m not saying it’s a viable solution; that just hadn’t occurred to me when I saw it. I saw $160k total and panicked.</p>
<p>So, Nabian, if you don’t mind answering… what did you end up doing?</p>
<p>If you click on the member name, you will have the option of seeing previous posts, this member has not been active for almost a year.</p>
<p>Closing old thread.</p>