<p>Cal gave me a completely different financial aid package compared to the other UCs. Davis and San Diego covered full need (about 21k) with no loans or work-study, but Berkeley saddled me with 15k+ in loans as well as work-study.</p>
<p>^ quite the opposite with me. Cal gave me 5k loans and 3500 work study.</p>
<p>We are in Los Angeles and FAFSA Family Contribution of $37K. Meaning, we need to earn $60K before taxes, to meet the FC. Ouch.</p>
<p>For 09-10 freshman year
UCs: Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Davis, Berkeley — no merit scholarship such as Regent’s
Brandeis: no merit scholarship
Univeristy of Maryland: waiting to hear about merit scholarship</p>
<p>Need to choose between Berkeley and University of Maryland. But UMD is really in the running if they give some merit money.</p>
<p>36k grant from U of Rochester. SUNY Binghamton only provided loans.
Sister goes to Cornell and parents make <65K so our EFC is low.</p>
<p>Ouch! University of Maryland gave us ZERO merit money.</p>
<p>nice packages for my D at Emory and American: the cost of attendance it’s almost the same at both and they offered all grants but $8000 in work study and loans($2000 WS and 6000 in loans) not bad for an $45000/49000 education! we are happy with FA!</p>
<p>Georgetown meets 100% of financial need but its institutional formula yields an EFC that is more than twice the FAFSA EFC. Over 4 years, the Georgetown cost would be $30-80,000 more than other similar schools (e.g Northwestern, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt).</p>
<p>UNR (in-state) gave me only the 5500 Stafford Loans and 1000 Merit Scholarship, plus 2500 for my Millenium Scholarship</p>
<p>Temple gave me 9100 in grants, 1000 in work-study, and the 5500 in Stafford Loans</p>
<p>After all’s said and done, i may not take the Stafford’s, due to an inheritance coming up…</p>
<p>It seems like after all the financial aid, both school’s costs are pretty similar, so I’m definitely just going across the country in a better location for pretty much the same price as if i were to stay in-state…</p>
<p>Aid at the University of Chicago was horrible. According to their calculation of EFC, my family qualifies for nothing more than a $3500 subsidized Stafford (to go towards the 55000 COA). My family’s federal EFC was somewhere in the range of 30000. </p>
<p>The U of C was by far my first choice school, and I was devastated when I found out. I do, however, have a few comparably good schools with significantly more generous aid offers to choose from now, but I am starting to feel somewhat apathetic about the whole college decision process. (sigh)</p>
<p>Congratulations to all those that received great aid offers from the U of C and wherever else they may have wanted to go.</p>
<p>^ Holy crap - did you have savings or something? Otherwise your EFC shouldn’t have hiked above 40000!</p>
<p>Vassar College
COA: $55,000
EFC: $29,000</p>
<p>Award:
Grants: $10,000
Loans: $3,500
Work study: $1,700</p>
<p>Gapped $10,000 by institutional methodology</p>
<p>^ Um, that’s not gapped. That’s meeting full need… it’s just that your IM EFC rose.</p>
<p>I understand what you were trying to say but your phrasing is incorrect.</p>
<p>UMICH:</p>
<p>COA: $44,991
AID: $29,228, with $6,000 in loans, with 3,000 in work study
EFC: $0
GAP: $15,763</p>
<p>Really sucks to have the school you really like give you this much of a gap. But it’s understandable, I’m out of state and poor. What was I thinking?</p>
<p>I’m going to try anyway to attend here. I’m going to call the school tomorrow and see if maybe they can give me a few thousand more. Being a URM and a full need student, I’ve applied to over 10 need based scholarships (most of which are renewable, I believe only two aren’t.) And I’m still applying to more. And maybe I can get 1500 from my summer job. I can maybe even acquire more money by illegal means. (jk or am I?) lol</p>
<p>[Cal (UCB) has been the most disappointing]</p>
<p>I’m in the same situation as arduouspallor with UC Berkeley. I’m getting around $20000 as opposed to the $28000 I actually need, not counting the loans. My EFC was 0.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten accepted into Northwestern and U Chicago with great finaid packages (my family will have to pay about $3000 at most per year), but I’m pretty sure I’ll just stay in California for my undergrad years.</p>
<p>Reading posts replying to arduouspallor calmed me down a bit about the $8000, but I’m just worrying about whether or not I’ll actually be able to find a job and maintain a good GPA at the same time. My parents make around $16000 together, and they are very, very adamant about paying not more than a couple thousand a year for my college tuition. </p>
<p>What makes this harder is that I also got into UCLA with a Regents’ scholarship (but not one for Cal!), and I saw that my freshman year will be pretty much free. The $26000 something is all paid for, and I’m apparently guaranteed 4 years of housing and parking. My parents also strongly disapprove of me attending Berkeley because Cal guarantees housing for only the first year and after that, I’ll have to find an apartment. I honestly don’t mind having to live off-campus, but it’s the cost of living on my own that’s causing the anxiety. Even with roomates, I’m afraid I won’t be able to afford it without driving myself into debt or something worse.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I’ve made up my mind that I don’t like UCLA (the campus, the people, bad first impression, etc.) and would much rather attend Berkeley. I’m going up to the Bay area this weekend, and I expect myself to fall in love with the school.</p>
<p>Is this liking and disliking a college too petty of a factor in deciding where I should attend? I admit both are good institutions with strong programs for my major, and I decided that finaid would be the deciding factor for me. But there’s just something terrible about having to stay in Los Angeles for another 4 years.</p>
<p>I need some objectivity and sound reasoning because apparently I can’t provide myself with any of that at the moment</p>
<p>ETA: Sorry, didn’t mean for my post to be so long. Will delete if needed</p>
<p>Visit Chicago and Northwestern–both are equally as good as the UCs, probably better for undergrad, and much more affordable (since you’ve already ruled out UCLA).</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’ve got the time and/or means of going to Illinois.</p>
<p>I haven’t completely ruled out UCLA… the financial aid they’re giving me is almost tempting enough to reconsider my dislike (haha)</p>
<p>yeah. my sister is going to vandy with close to full scholarship</p>
<p>I’ve read most, but not ALL of these posts. What is troubling to me is the “EFC” folks are posting for Profile schools. Profile does NOT compute an EFC. The SCHOOL uses the information on the Profile to determine their awarding of their aid. In many cases, additional assets are applied on Profile that are not considered by the FAFSA (most notably, non-custodial parent info and home equity). </p>
<p>Folks applying to Profile schools should NOT assume that the EFC computed by FAFSA will be what the schools will use in awarding institutional aid.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, exactly - that’s what I was telling afaceinspace.</p>
<p>It’s odd though, because schools that don’t meet 100% need (i.e. BU) don’t tell their calculated EFCs either… so I don’t even know how much I was “gapped” by!</p>
<p>UF</p>
<p>Grants $3190 per semester
Loan: None
Work Study : None</p>
<p>My efc is 2193 and for a full year its 16,990 plus I turned in my FASFA early and I’m a first generation student. I was highly disappointed the worst part is that I committed to the school and told all the colleges that I got in that I wasn’t going to go. =[</p>