Which Colleges Have Given You Disappointing Financial Aid Offers?

Paying for College
81

<p>The message needs to get out to parents that they need to be looking at college and everything involved much earlier than they are. I started in January of my sons junior year. I thought I was way ahead of the curve. Was I wrong!!! But . . . I bet I was way ahead of 90% + of parents in my area. The world is such a different place than when I went to college . . . maybe there were scholarships, etc, but I certainly never heard about them. </p>

<p>It also makes a difference who your child is. My second kid will go to an in state college, haven't been able to drag him to a college yet, even when his brother has been visiting, he will go where his friends go, I could see him living at home to go to college. I really wouldn't need to start early for him . . . for son graduating this year, I was way behind the curve starting in January of his junior year. I have tried to advise other parents on this, but they really don't pick up on it.</p>

<p>The school doesn't even advise to get an early start. I requested meeting with school GC in February of Junior year, her comment was I was starting so early.</p>

82

<p>From a list I saw online, </p>

<p>1 Harvard University (MA)
2 Princeton University (NJ)
3 Yale University (CT)
4 California Institute of Technology
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6 Stanford University (CA)
7 Dartmouth College (NH)
8 Columbia University (NY)
9 University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill *
10 Duke University (NC)
11 Vanderbilt University (TN)
12 University of Chicago
13 Rice University (TX)
14 University of Pennsylvania
15 Brown University (RI)
16 University of Virginia *
17 Emory University (GA)
18 Washington University in St. Louis
19 Cornell University (NY)
20 University of Notre Dame (IN)
21 Northwestern University (IL)
22 Case Western Reserve University (OH)
23 Texas A and M University--College Station *
24 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY)
25 Johns Hopkins University (MD) </p>

<p>can we count on all these colleges meeting the full financial need of an admitted student? </p>

<p>I've seen a statement above in this thread that Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) gapped a current admitted student pretty badly. How about the track record of the other universities listed here? (Yeah, I know, some don't announce this year's offers until the weekend.)</p>

83

<p>Meeting full financial need can mean many different things as other posters have noted. If this thread is to be beneficial to others, now and in later years, that needs to be known upfront.</p>

<p>There is meeting demonstrated need (with varying loans, work-study, grant-in-aid, merit scholarships and endowed scholarships), "gapping" and there is "preferential packaging". There is also the possibility of changing aid after matriculation. Can happen after freshman year, sophomore, and junior years. This can be for the good and for the bad. Sometimes the additional is not broadcasted, it is for those who decide to matriculate.</p>

<p>Preferential packaging can be as different as there are schools. Stipends for research, book scholarships, computer grants, additional research and academic opportunities, special study-abroad programs INCLUDED in the financial aid package, travel re-imburement..... the list is endless.</p>

<p>With 4 kiddos through this process and the schools they applied to and were accepted to had financial aid packages that varied as much as $15K and that did NOT include the varying amounts of loans, work study, SEOG, student summer contribution, academic year contribution. All 4 kiddos had same EFC so that was not a variable in the equation.</p>

<p>Between the 4 there have been more 60+ aid offers. The most recent did include many of the schools tokenadult has listed and those did vary somewhat in HOW the need was met but did meet need 100%.</p>

<p>Others that met full need, Amherst, Swat, Colby, WPI, BC, Wesleyan, Davidson and others had huge gaps. Varied greatly. This is from our personal experience.</p>

<p>Hope it helps.</p>

<p>Kat</p>

84

<p>I think that the new finaid policy for the Ivies will be more smoke & mirrors. As I read it, they're talking about meeting the EFC with no loan - grants only - for upto $ 180k income. But the problem is the institutional methodology for how they calculate the EFC and no one has addressed that issue. If the Ivies calculate the EFC high, they're off the hook.</p>

85

<p>NYU. Rofl. No duh.</p>

86

<p>New College of Florida. University of Chicago.</p>

87

<p>Dear NYU,</p>

<p>For the love of God, my mother made less than $43k last year. Do you really think I'm going to take roughly $35k in loans for one year? That was just cruel, to accept me, invite me to the Baird program, and then completely screw me over financially. Your loss, though, I guess. You don't get this National Merit Finalist you tried so hard for if all you're gonna do is drown her in debt.</p>

<p>No love,
salamander</p>

88

<p>Tokenadult, my understanding is that neither Case nor RPI guarantee to meet full need.</p>

89

<p>
[quote]
my understanding is that neither Case nor RPI guarantee to meet full need

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I should definitely check this detail, as both of those are colleges with programs of interest to math-liking young people. </p>

<p>


</p>

<p>Is this a statement that New College of Florida and the U of Chicago significantly "gapped" an admitted student with demonstrated financial need? I wouldn't have expected that from U of Chicago this year--but that is DEFINITELY a college of interest to a lot of young people I know, so please tell me more.</p>

90

<p>I got financial aid packages (grants + work study + minimal loans) from non-ivies (Northwestern and Wellesley) that will allow my parents to pay a couple thousand less than our EFC. I was really surprised. </p>

<p>But I also got a financial package (from my state school...) that was 28k in loans.</p>

<p>And don't even get me started with UMich..</p>

91

<p>UMich & UCLA sucked in FA</p>

92

<p>
[quote]
UMich & UCLA sucked in FA

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You are out of state for both schools, so what really did you expect? Remember state universities obligations are to first and foremost provide an affordable education for their state resindents whose tare their taxpayer base and monies subsidize the university.</p>

<p>UMich uses both the CSS profile to distribute institutional funds in additon to getting merit money. IF received no or little aid from Mich, then the following happened; the school believed that you had no financial need (your family could afford to pay) and they did not may not have considered you eligible for merit $. In all of this, your financial safety is your own state U system.</p>

93

<p>It would be helpful, as other posters have pointed out, when commenting on school's FA package, to say, for example, "My EFC is $5,000 but College X costing 50,000 only gave me $10,000 in grants and the rest in loans." </p>

<p>This is a really useful thread for applicants. FA expectations should be addressed before the application fee is paid!</p>

94

<p>I read this thread, NYU is supposed to be stingy.</p>

<p>They offered me 25k in loans
and 26k in scholarships and grants.</p>

<p>And my dad is paying 25k.</p>

<p>Makes the decision SO much easier...</p>

<p>Grinnell is also good
my dad stated he's going to pay 25k or so
and they offered me 18k in scholarship and grants
and 4k in self-help.</p>

<p>I am waiting for other decisions, but these were so great...!!!</p>

95

<p>
[quote]
They offered me 25k in loans
and 26k in scholarships and grants.</p>

<p>And my dad is paying 25k.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>The cost of attendance at NYU is high, but it is not 75k oer year.</p>

<p>testing for understanding...</p>

<p>You state NYU gave you 26k in grants/scholarship
25K in loans</p>

<p>If your dad is going to pay the 25K, isn't this a wash?</p>

<p>It sounds like your dad will pay the same 25k no matter which school you attend.</p>

96

<p>My D</p>

<p>Kenyon -- great merit aid ($16 K science scholarship -- supposedly their most prestigious award) ridiculous need aid ($1.5 K). The amount that Kenyon expects us to pay is roughly equal to other colleges my D has gotten into, which says to me that Kenyon used the scholarship to replace the need award at a 100 percent tax rate. I was very offended. </p>

<p>Wesleyan U -- aid package was roughly $7-9 K worse than other schools where my D has been accepted so far. </p>

<p>St. Olaf -- D received an $8.5 K merit scholarship (the highest they award to a regular admission applicant), but no word on need based aid. I expect Olaf to be very competetive financially once we get the rest of the aid package. As a family, we specifically targeted a few schools that were in the Midwest and might have a stronger interest in a female student from central NY, and schools that had a strong academic reputation but a little bit higher admit rate.</p>

<p>Carleton -- Solid offer of need based aid. D received prestigious scholarship (I think -- hard to find out how many others were awarded) that carries no funding. I find this much more honest than Kenyon. All grants, no loans. </p>

<p>U of Chicago -- D accepted quite some time ago, but no word on financial aid. We have very high hopes that the award will be generous. Chicago has that reputation, and they seemed to like my D.</p>

<p>In sum .... Wesleyan was disappointing and will get rejected. Kenyon's total award was OK, but the merit aid effectively reducing need based aid dollar for dollar angered us, so they will get rejected. Carleton's offer was solid. Still waiting on aid packages from Olaf and Chicago, but they are still very much on our radar. My D has not heard a peep from Reed, Grinnell (another great school with a reputation for generous aid), Princeton or Amherst.</p>

97

<p>treeman, if you expect your financial situation to improve over the next four years, you might want to keep Kenyon in the running, since need-based aid would decrease in that case, whereas merit aid will remain steady. Just a thought in case it applies to you.</p>

98

<p>2blue -- You may be right, but at this point in the process its hard to keep emotions out of the final decisions. Good counsel, though. Thanks.</p>

99

<p>


</p>

<p>Hi, treeman, thanks for the information. I'm not understanding the part of your earlier post about the tax rate--are you saying some awards are taxable, and some are not, or are you saying something else?</p>

100

<p>
[quote]
MIT, my parents are middle class and my expected STUDENT contribution is well over 10k, almost as much as my parents'. It's ridiculous.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>As Director of Financial Aid at MIT, let me say that the only two reasons a student may have a Student Contribution higher than our standard (which for Freshmen this year is $1900). Since I don't know who the individual is who posted, I cannot comment on which of these caused her/his Student Contribution to exceed our $1900 standard:</p>

<p>1) The student has earnings which are extremely high on his/her own. While typical student earnings (in the range of up to $5000 or so) will not cause an EFC, if a student earns greater than $9000 or $10,000 in the year prior to their arrival, we may expect a higher contribution. To get to the $10,000 level, the earnings from the past year would have to be at least $25,000 (which seems unlikely).</p>

<p>2) The student has (in his or her own name) a trust fund. In most cases, we treat student assets as family assets and include them in our EFC at a rate of somewhere usually between 3 and 5%. If the student has a trust fund, however, we do treat these assets as specifically student assets and assess a much higher annual rate on these assets.</p>

<p>So you are aware, we do hear appeals on this issue, so red remote, please be in touch with us.</p>