<p>haha this thread is really funny to read…CMU is definitely my top choice, and i can’t wait to do a visit this summer!</p>
<p>question: i’ve heard before about the lackluster fin aid situation, but if i’m a <$60,000/yr. household, they HAVE to give me a ton of money, right? RIGHT?</p>
<p>Sorry to bust your bubble on fin aid…
CMU is not a “promise to meet full need” school. Their approach is on the website and described elsewhere in the CMU threads-- they strategically allocate money to build a diverse class-- diverse in talents, academics, socio-economics, etc.
Many many many student accepted to 2014 with excellent stats can tell you that they did not get a package that meets unmet need. If that is what you’re looking for…apply to an Ivy school-- they do promise to meet unmet need.
If you’re a female in SCS, MCS or CIT-- very good chance of a nice financial package if your stats are average or better.</p>
<p>does it help i’m also first generation?</p>
<p>Sydneys</p>
<p>Read this link…it describes their approach. Again, I cannot stress any more clearly - it’s their party- they give money where and how they want-- and don’t aim to meet unmet need – that’s not their philosophy and they are crystal clear about this upfront.</p>
<p>Basically there is absolutely no guarantee and you should not bank on CMU giving you a package that meets your financial need as defined by the COA - EFC…very very very very few CMU students have such a package. </p>
<p>[Admission</a> > Admission and Financial Aid](<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University)</p>
<p>mom2012and14 has left out a fairly important detail being that CMU will often adjust aid to compete with offers from peer institutions:</p>
<p>[Peer</a> Institutions - Institutional Research & Analysis - Carnegie Mellon University](<a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/ira/infox/external/peer.html]Peer”>Peer Institutions - Institutional Research and Analysis - Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning - Carnegie Mellon University)</p>
<p>So if you REALLY want to get a good deal at CMU, but you don’t necessarily fit into their model of a “diverse class”, your best bet is probably to also research the peer schools to find which ones are generous or meet full need, get in there, and then try and get CMU to match it.</p>
<p>BCO
Good reminder…I think I’ve said that in many other posts as well…including recently to a chance-me post with someone having a RPI medal…told him/her to apply to RPI get the medal and use it to bargain.</p>
<p>We did however hear from some 2014 students who still were not successful this year in getting competing offers…so it doesn’t always work…it’s still all part of their strategy…they need to want you for some “interesting” reason…(first generation is not such a reason).</p>
<p>@mom2012and14 I just want to say I can’t thank you enough for this information. My S will be applying for Fall 2011, and simply knowing that the financial aid offer will quite possibly not be great is very useful information. Most importantly, my S will hopefully not take this personally, and also he will know to put equal emphasis on apps at other universities.</p>
<p>@goodncolo</p>
<p>Your S should apply-- I am not trying to dissuade you – sorry if that is the conclusion you arrived at.
I’m absolutely crazy about CMU–! Both S and D are really happy at the school, they are getting an exceptional education, have great clubs and friends and their profs have generally been outstanding. My interactions with the financial aid admin have been very helpful. They’ve worked with us to make it work.</p>
<p>Their financial aid policy not exactly a hidden fact-- CMU is very open - it’s all over their website, they do not promise to meet unmet need. They clearly have a “strategy” in mind–they offer the money to attract “unusual” applicants-- those with unique talents, interests, accomplishments, etc.</p>
<p>GO for it-- but always have a financial safety.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>^hey mom2012and14… how did you work finances? Because I’m stuck in the middle-class “trap” :/</p>
<p>Basically my parents can pay about 10k a year, and that’s it :S
I’m guessing financial aid is going to be at a minimum at this school. So what financing options should I be looking at? Is the money still worth it…? I’m just afraid of graduating 150k in debt (that’s around 300k I would have to pay, after interest…!)
Thoughts?</p>
<p>@Eurozan. your family should do the CMU Early Estimate submission to see where they will fall with you. They were right on target with what they said in terms of the total offered and the percentage in each category.
I also suggest you do a FAFSA estimate so you know what EFC would be calculated and what you might expect from all schools. If this differs drastically from 10k, you need to discuss everything with your parents. Keep in mind, you can borrow, work summers and work in school to increase your options.</p>
<p>They don’t want to loose a good student and tried to help within reason. examples:
When we’ve had issues with payments, they worked out an extended payment plan without interest.</p>
<p>When external scholarship funds were late, they removed the interest charges.</p>
<p>When there was a job loss, they recalculated the EFC and adjusted the package.</p>
<p>They increased the initial offers both times given offers elsewhere.</p>
<p>They were never rude and always treated me respectfully when I called with a question. I did not find the same to be true when attempting to negotiate with other schools before the deposit was placed.</p>
<p>They stuck by the FAFSA EFC – but they gave some merit when other competitor schools had given Merit.</p>
<p>The reality is that FAFSA models are really a shock regardless of where you go to school – they don’t match what families believe they can afford and are often 2-3x the amount and then you’re screwed big time. A good question for any school upfront is to know how much of the financial aid package is going to be straight scholarship/grant vs. loans and work study. One of the reasons our family could not afford Cornell is because of the mandatory student self help-- which really is ADDED to the EFC rather than a part of the EFC. That was a student summer job, work study and student loan-- all total $10k more than the EFC. <strong><em>– go screw yourself cornell. No other school pulled that “magic”. Just the same, Cornell was third or fourth choice anyways for both S and D - so no loss there, just *</em></strong>ed that they didn’t have that info in front of applicants-- but I give this as an example of the weird things out there and it’s important to read carefully upfront at every school you consider.</p>
<p>Ugh, but I’m not applying to any of CMUs official “peer” schools other than UPenn… and I don’t think I’m getting in lol >.<
So if I get like a full-ride at my state-flagship or whatnot I don’t think that will boost CMUs offer :3</p>
<p>But my question is about borrowing. I understand that I will have to take out a loan if I want to go to CMU. What I’m asking is, did you guys find that aspect manageable? If it’s not private, can you describe how your finances played out (numbers-wise)? If you feel more comfortable you can PM me… but if you feel it’s personal information, don’t feel pressured ^.^</p>
<p>Ahhh the middle class…</p>
<p>I got 5.5k in unsubsidized loans haha. Needless to say my parents weren’t too happy, but they didn’t take the piddly pity offering either and I’m still here. Thank you savings…</p>
<p>Loans are totally manageable, at least for most middle-classers. </p>
<p>I’m in the same boat, more or less. As an incoming freshman they basically gave me 15k in loans and a measly 4k grant. I also got work study and some random $300 scholarship (which made no sense because realistically I’m sure I was at the bottom of the merit pile, and probably not poor enough to deserve the ‘middle class’ non-merit scholarship either). My family is more towards upper middle class, but we have three kids in college at the moment so it’s been rough trying to pay for it. </p>
<p>Last year I held two jobs for a total of about 10-20 hours on any given week. It really wasn’t bad, I made good money (~$150 a week) and I had plenty of cash to take care of things like food, books, and hanging out with friends. The loan payments are/were deferred until after graduation, so there’ll be none of that for a while.</p>
<p>This year, I’m not sure what happened, but they gave me another 10k in grant money. Good grades? Being sexy? Knowing kung fu? I’m not sure what I did right. But it was helpful. Subsequently I don’t have to work this year (I’m overloading on units so this is a good thing) and I get to focus on my studies and worry less about school.</p>
<p><strong>SPOILER ALERT</strong>: If you plan to study abroad for a semester or year, it’s almost always much cheaper than CMU. The university in Japan I’m looking at has an $8k tuition for the semester. You could save money -and- go somewhere exotic. Also, Snape kills Dumbledore.</p>
<p>
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOyesOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO</p>
<p>I’m cool with holding a job during the summer, but during college seems too brutal… so 5k a year is taking off via a sumemer job. 10k a year from parents paying. I have 2.5k in savings now and will probably bump that number to 5k by the end of the year - QUESTION - my dad suggest me to put it in an IRA so it doesn’t get taken off of financial aid… but is that really necessary? I think CMU gives crap aid anyway… =_= If I keep it at least I’ll have 5k more to pay for college…
So in total 40k from parents plus 20-25k from me, plus 20k (if completelykate is really from the uppermiddle class and that number is indicative…) from CMU. CMU costs 200k so math yields: 200-40-25-20 = 115k… that’s about 225k, (maybe 200k after factoring in CMU’s lower rate for fin-aid loans) after interest! So basically… 200k=200k i’m paying for CMU all by myself lol! That, as opposed to my state school, for which I effectively pay… NADA (0. Zip.)</p>
<p>So is the money worth it?</p>
<p>Well… I’d enjoy CMU a lot more. The nerd-cool vibe the school is me. I’d have babies with CMU if i could. 
And it looks like the job opportunities are better, too. The only question is, are they better enough? Anyone have some stats on what the average finance concentration at Tepper makes? Better yet, the 25% percentile? And what of Computational finance (I’ve heard some numbers… and they sound sexy.) The average stats that the whole school posts are too general and not too supportive… an additional 5k in salary is not gonna convince my parents xD</p>
<p><em>HALP</em>
As each day goes by, I wanna be a tartan more and more ;')</p>
<p>Stop speculating.</p>
<p>You need to submit a CMU early estimate form:
[Admission</a> > Estimate Form](<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University)</p>
<p>Also, do the FAFSA estimate.
[FAFSA4caster</a> - Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf]FAFSA4caster”>http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf)</p>
<p>I’m not speculating, I’ve already done an EFC estimator and have used previous people’s finaid amounts 
I’m not sure if there is a need for me to actually submit an actual official estimate form - it doesn’t affect my decision or not whether or not to apply - by the time we make college selections, we have the actual financial aid results.</p>
<p>Thanks for the links though.</p>
<p>(Edit: Oh and by the way, yes 10k is far less than the EFC of around 25-30k. This is because my parents are immigrants who came here when they were 35-ish. They started with literally no money and savings, and a very low income. Now, my dad, who is the single wage earner, is making a very resepctable income as a programmer… but we still have no savings… D: To make things worse, we’re going to have to blow a lot of money on home repairs due to extenuating circumstances…)</p>
<p>I don’t even know if it’s possible to take out $200k in loans. You can get federal loans for a few thousand a year, but the rest would have to be unsubsidized loans from a bank and they would accrue significant interest before you even graduate. $200,000 repaid at ten years would have a minimum monthly payment of $2,300 a month. That’s over $27,000 a year. That’s more than I’m making as a grad student. Which, I should mention, you would probably never have the chance to be because non-subsidized loans can’t be interest-free deferred, so every day you’re in grad school you’re either paying a boatload of interest in forbearance payments or not eating.</p>
<p>If you think that’s not much money when you’ll be making, say, $70k a year (an optimistic estimate) and you lose approximately 30% of it to taxes you’re left with 22,000. I don’t think that’ll leave you a whole lot to live on in the expensive financial areas business majors typically work.</p>
<p>I was able to graduate CMU with only about $18k in student loans, all of which was subsidized except for $5k (which I paid off prior to the repayment period, so I didn’t have to pay any interest). It was due to me earning a couple of scholarships, bargaining with other peer schools (if you don’t plan on applying to any peers, then maybe you should), and graduating a semester early when my family’s EFC skyrocketed.</p>
<p>You should definitely take a look at a student loan calculator, such as the one here: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Loan Calculator](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Loan Payment Calculator - Finaid) to figure out what sort of loans you can actually handle. A good rule of thumb I’ve heard is you shouldn’t have more in loans than you’ll make coming out of college.</p>
<p>@Racin, it’s not 200k in loans, but that’s how much I would end up paying after interest… it’s still a lot of loans though… :|</p>
<p>Even still, $115k in loans is a pretty extreme amount (monthly payment would be about $1400 a month, higher than my girlfriend and I pay for our apartment in Los Angeles). You’d be putting about 25% of your pre-tax income towards your student loans. This would pretty much rule out any sort of education after graduating, other than perhaps a company-funded MS or MBA.</p>
<p>Personally, even as someone who absolutely loved their time at CMU, I can’t see any school being worth that amount of money.</p>
<p>Does the fact that you applied ED mean you’re out of luck even if you get a better deal at a peer school? In getting more financial aid, I mean, not switching what school you go to.</p>