Well, you could get an education at Stony Brook as well, so while there is plenty to complain about in the US system, in your case, there are affordable options.
Also, Trinity College Dublin and UCD are a little cheaper than Oxbridge.
Also, most publics don’t offer good fin aid to OOS.
Also, NYU isn’t a public so doesn’t differentiate between OOS and in-state and tends to give poor fin aid anyway.
Finally, CMU and Brown aren’t rich. Compare their per capita endowments with HYPSM, WAS, Rice, and Grinnell. Or Oxbridge and Ivies/equivalents like UChicago/Northwestern/Columbia/Penn or WashU/Emory.
NPC is the “Net Price Calculator” that pretty much every US college has on their website, in which you fill in your financial data and they give you an approximate calculation as to how much it will actually cost you. There are some variables that make it less accurate- lots of property investments and owning your own business are two of them- but if you didn’t run them you didn’t do your own homework well.
A HELOC is a Home Equity Line of Credit- basically borrowing against the equity investment in your house (or other property).
If you didn’t know that state universities in general, and the UCs in particular, do not give out of state students financial aid I am sorry…but again, you didn’t do the homework.
Neither of your parents have been employed for the last 6 years, yet Brown- which meets 100% of demonstrated need- estimates that they have sufficient income to pay $40K pa. Brown is quite specific:
[quote]
For families (including both parents) with a total income below $60,000, and assets less than $100,000, no parent contribution is calculated towards the Expected Family Contribution (EFC)/quote
Clearly, your parents have substantial assets and/or unearned income (from your own post, enough to holiday in France while unemployed). That they don’t feel that they want to spend the money for Brown or Cambridge is their choice. Of course, it is their right to make that choice, but excoriating the US government and educational system for your parent’s choices is not reasonable.
Finally, I’m pretty sure that you can’t transfer in to Cambridge for Physics: you come as a first year or not at all.
To learn what a lazy river is, type Texas Tech lazy river. (due to Texas heat it may not be as unnecessary as we may think, but it’s still a resort amenity.)
I agree NYU was especially egregious. But that’s NYU… They probably thought you’d pay.
UC’s don’t give financial aid to oos students. It’s very clear on all financial aid pages.
You may have gotten Regents if you’d applied to UCSB CCS (it’s a special program like a grad school for undergrads in a few specialties, including math). But I don’t thinkbit’d have made such a big difference in costs.
If your parents have been unemployed for six years and you’re still not eligible for much financial aid, they must have had incredible investments and assets - arent’they willing to sell some stock for your studies ? How have you even survived with no income for six years? Do you have a house your parents can take a HELOC on or have they used it up? Are they looking for a job and expecting one? Are you currently working anywhere to help fund your studies?
You can run the NPC on colleges to see which ones won’t cost too much.
(NPC 's are supposed to be run before you apply to any college. Most colleges weight assets differently and it’s crucial to run them before you apply if you’re living off assets. To give you an example, run the NPC on Princeton, Yale , and Brown. You’ll see how running the NPC would have prevented costly mistakes.)
In particular, run the NPC on HarveyMudd and Northwestern, which have accelerated tracks for math and would be interested in an IMO competitor.
Why did you turn down Georgia Tech? Does the reason still hold or would you consider them? You could write to them now and explain you made a mistake in turning them down, you thought 25k would have been too much for your parents since they’re unemployed but in fact they’re willing to pay that but of course now that you know that, deadlines have passed for weeks- would they be willing to give you a second chance after you spend a gap year in France? You could even apply Ed (or equivalent). And of course apply for the scholarships available, deadline October 15.
What job do you have right now? How much have you saved?
@katliamom : “Clearly, your parents have substantial assets and/or unearned income (from your own post, enough to holiday in France while unemployed). That they don’t feel that they want to spend the money for Brown or Cambridge is their choice. Of course, it is their right to make that choice, but excoriating the US government and educational system for your parent’s choices is not reasonable.”
This is where the misunderstanding lies. As I said before they do have 50,000 in savings for my college education. I don’t know about substantial assets. You mean our house? What should we sell our house just so I could have a college education? Ridiculous. If the educational system in America expects parents to make sacrifices of that nature, then there is most definitely something wrong with it.
It’s not a matter of my parents not wanting to spend their money for Brown/Cambridge. It’s that they DONT HAVE THE MONEY. My parents still believe we were cheated by the financial aid offices at these schools because we simply don’t have the money. 50,000 is one year of college.
Please don’t make assumptions about our financial situation and what we can afford. I wasn’t “on holiday” in France. I was there for a math competition, and we stayed with family at no cost.
@bitznbatzn I think you meant to tag @collegemom3717 in your response. #63
Bottom line: you and your family made serious mistakes in your application process. You didn’t run NPCs, so you didn’t know how schools estimate financial need – clearly schools have a different idea of your financial status than you and your family. You applied to schools known for giving no, or very little, aid. You turned down a very good school.
Yet this isn’t a catastrophe. You do have options, including the option of taking a gap year, and reapplying sensibly the next time. If that’s the route you take, have your parents read the Financial Aid thread of this forum: maybe they’re not filling out the FAFSA papers correctly, giving schools an incorrect picture of their finances.
If taking a gap year isn’t for you, then go to Stonybrook.
Cambridge is also a (very fine) option, although, quite frankly, I’m not even sure if your family would qualify for college loans to pay for it. Your parents would have to co-sign, and lenders may not want to finance borrowers who have had no income for the past six years.
Something simply doesn’t compute.
Your parents are unemployed and you have $50,000 in assets - that would mean 100% tuition at Brown.
Do you parents have stocks, investments?
How have they been living for the past 6 years?
Do you own your house outright? If so, you’re not expected to sell the house, but to use HELOC - something that doesn’t exist in France, but exists in the US: you get a loan with a favorable rate based on your house’s equity value.
Did you fill out the FAFSA and CS Profile right?
You’re not a French citizen, right? Otherwise you could check if you could get a “bourse du CROUS” - you’d have to register with a French university in the math section, something like UMPC I suppose as Math isn’t “contingenté” and I don’t think Physics is, and show up for exams in order to keep your grant. After a first year in Math and Physics with some CS and English, you’d pick “parcours bidisciplinaire intensif” in Maths and Physics.
http://www.upmc.fr/fr/formations/diplomes/sciences_et_technologies2/licences/licence_st_cycle_d_integration/mipi.html
http://www.upmc.fr/fr/formations/des_licences_a_la_carte.html
If you have French citizenship, you could contact them and see if you can still register.
From a concrete standpoint, it allows you to get a grant while at Cambridge in exchange for 4 days’ presence per term in Paris.
@MYOS1634 :
“If your parents have been unemployed for six years and you’re still not eligible for much financial aid, they must have had incredible investments and assets - arent’they willing to sell some stock for your studies ? How have you even survived with no income for six years? Do you have a house your parents can take a HELOC on or have they used it up? Are they looking for a job and expecting one? Are you currently working anywhere to help fund your studies?”
See this is what I still don’t understand. We don’t have incredible investments/assets. My mom has got some income here and there and my dad had money saved up from his career, but not enough to pay for 50,000x4=200,000. They still have to live their own lives, pay for my sibling’s education. Of course they’re looking for jobs.
I agree something still doesn’t compute.
Now that I know what NPC means, yes we’ve done this obviously.
To be honest, I turned down GeorgiaTech because it’s in the south.
Never had a job, nothing saved.
What’s your fafsa efc?
Your Css profile efc ( "institutional ")?
What’s your house 's equity?
Did you make a mistake on the fafsa?
Are you an American or a French citizen? How long have you lived in the US? Your reason for not choosing Georgia tech is baffling, because Atlanta is consistently at the top of cities young people want to move to - music and film industries, lots of good jobs, relatively low cost of living, lots of 20-somethings. Overall the South is the area of the country growing the fastest.
Perhaps you worried about humid heat and conservative culture. Perhaps fear of a certain presidential candidate whom you may see as representative of the Southern way of thinking. So you tried to 'protect ’ yourself?
Unfortunately, that lack of information, or that prejudice, kept you from a university that was great for you. If you attended LLG would you be willing to reapply? This would require you to contact them asap to explain the fact you regret your decision and would like to apply Ed next year…
(I think that if you attend LLG you’ll want to go back to the US or attend Cambridge after a few months to a year. The prepa really is tough to withstand for someone who wasn’t raised in the French system, even more than for those who were.)
You will not be able to take out any loans for which you will need your parents as consigners.
You say they are living on their savings (Dad) and odd bits of income (Mom). I cannot imagine they have any credit if there is no income to make payments with. Borrowing on their house is a huge risk in this situation and worth going to Stony Brook. If they have other assets they could easily liquidize you can discuss with them whether they could give you a loan. When will your sibling go to college?
Your budget is the 50 K that has been saved for you and the 26 K you can take out in student loans, possibly 45 K if your parents can’t take out further loans for you. That could make Georgia Tech work. I would contact them ASAP. Also all other schools that are still in the running on whether they can offer you deferred entry.
Then you go to France for a year, in order to get it out of your system and hope for one or several options to work out.
Something will come up to make Cambridge affordable (Just kidding. Sorry, it sucks, because the UK system sounds like it might work best for you, but it is not affordable, period. Not an option.)
You might love and excel in the French system. You stay on to try for Polytechnique or Normale or whatever. Whatever you do in France will be affordable at least. Might even make you happy.
You go for another round of applications for scholarships at American universities and colleges, applying strategically with the central goal of getting COA down to your budget, and enrol at the one that works best for you as long as it works better than France. You will always have Stony Brook, right? What about Alabama?
Edited to add that it is possible that people have made mistakes in the FA process which might help with doing better in the second round, or (which I think is more likely) your parents have very good equity in a very nice house. Yes, if your parents are living on assets, they may be required to melt down their assets in order to finance college for you and your sibling, and yes, it might mean downsizing. Depending on how old your sibling is, for instance, they may very soon not have to live in a place with good schools, with a large backyard and plenty of space inside and out for kids. It is a option.
Even if you do end up enrolling in Stony Brook or another financial safety after one or two years, you will always have Paris.
@bitznbatzn : any update?