<p>Texas A&M gave me a pretty crappy offer. They gave me nothing but federally supported things like a pell grant, loans, and work study. So of the 36k COA I still had 18k that their offer didn’t cover and their offer was mainly loans.</p>
<p>Granted though, I am an OOS student with solid SATs/GPA but nothing incredibly spectacular like a merit finalist. The only thing I had goin for me was that I am from a “pre-engineering” program. So I am an OOS student with average scores for an engineering major… I can see that they have no incentive to bring me in. :(</p>
<p>Penn State University Park with the Honors College(41,000) pshhtt yeah okay
New York University (37,000) i knew it
Boston University (17,500)
Cornell University (15,000) =[ how can my dream school be so rude to me?
University of Rochester (Full ride) Now that’s what I’m talking about
(i applied to other universities as well but don’t recall their aid packages lol)</p>
<p>To be honest i’m really juggling with Cornell and Rochester. Although Cornell’s been my dream school and I can’t imagine going anywhere else, I’ve visited Rochester and it reminds me much of Cornell in many ways. And besides, how can i ignore their fabulous financial aid package? lol i’m pretty confused why I didn’t get much considering my EFC is ~8,000/yr, but looks like i’m heading to Rochester.</p>
<p>Drexel gave us the worst - granted it included a merit award of 16K but then only work study and stafford loans leaving a gap of 30K when our EFC is about 9K</p>
<p>Northeastern actually gave us a lot of aid and left a gap of 12K so only 3K over EFC </p>
<p>Otherwise it really seemed all over the board but most places gapped us at least 10K over EFC.</p>
<p>Due to federal law, the schools aren’t allowed to communicate with each other on financial aid and the process of determining EFC is actually incredibly difficult (house value, savings, family size, etc.)–more of an art than a science. If you really care about a school contact them and talk with them about your circumstances. I think keilexandra is right when she says:</p>
<p>Well, the school could argue that the federal loans are much, much more reasonable in terms of interest rates than any private loan anywhere else. That doesn’t work for me, but it’s better than private loans, technically, so that’s probably why they call it “aid”. </p>
<p>Sort of like how throwing out an angry rattlesnake as a rope to a drowning person might be considered “aid”.</p>
<p>@tiredandabused - that’s unbelievable! Pitt is supposed to be generous and I know a girl who had similar/less impressive stats and got nearly a full ride. That was last year, and she wasn’t a nursing student so that may explain some of the difference but still…</p>
<p>@Gardna…LOL!
Sort of like how throwing out an angry rattlesnake as a rope to a drowning person might be considered “aid”.</p>
<p>I have one D at UCD and one D at Cal Poly SLO, and the state fin aid package is not nearly as generous as the UC package. Of all the CA schools they applied to (we didn’t bother with out of state schools so they wouldn’t lose their Cal Grants), all of the state packages were substantially less than the UC packages. UC is very generous with grant aid when your EFC is 0, as ours is. My Cal Poly girl is going to be saddled with a lot more loan debt when she graduates than my UC girl.</p>
<p>Our EFC is $32K. My D has an GPA of 3.97, ACT of 33</p>
<p>She applied to: </p>
<p>Vanderbilt
Rice
Texas A&M
Baylor
TCU
SMU
UT Austin </p>
<p>She doesn’t qualify for need based aid. She received scholarships at all schools. In the final analysis, the amount we would pay varied only $1,000 across all 7 schools…this was a big surprise for us. She received the smallest scholarship from Texas A&M and the largest from Vanderbilt. Regardless of which school she picked we would be paying $12,500 per year.</p>
<p>Old thread but info still relevant and useful. We have gone the merit only route too, but our choices varied from full freight to full ride plus. My oldest got a scholarship offer from only one school which was a true admissions safety for him. The next one got a variety of merit awards but the largest was for $5k for the schools that were the most expensive, His best deal was at our state school that offered him $3500, which combined with the low in state sticker price made that the lowest cost. I think it depends on the schools chosen and the kids’ stats as to the spread one can get. My third one did apply to a wide variety of schools, some which were true safeties for him, and some that were reaches and matches. Though accepted to a top LAC and an excellent OOS school, both that had some merit programs, he didn’t make the cut for the money. It was pretty clear that he could do very well scholarshipwise at schools that were selective but with average stats significantly below his. My other guys did not apply to that wide of a field in terms of merit possibililities and the results showed.</p>
<p>In addition to the special full-ride-plus-books-and-summer-programs scholarships for the Honors programs that must be applied for early in the year, our local community college offers a number of need-based scholarships and special merit scholarships with cut-off dates that are May 1 or later. The Design School even has one with portfolio review in July! For students who used this CC as a safety school, there can be nice surprises that make going to the only place the family could afford even more affordable than expected.</p>
