Why is my aid so low?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

So first off, I’m a very poor kid from Kentucky that got accepted to Northeastern. I apparently turned in documents late, so I just today received my financial aid award. ~9k a semester. With the full cost of northeastern being 60k+, there is no way i would be able to pay 40k a year. There must be something wrong, because I am very poor.
I looked at my received awards, and the University Grant, the largest one, the one that is 40k, was missing from my award. Why would this be? They received the documents online, but are still processing. So what I’m asking is, what am I not receiving the university grant, what can I do to afford the school, and why is my aid so low?

Also, just to show how this seems so messed up, I used the official css northeastern calculator, and it reported that I would be taking 5,500 in loans and 2200 in student work and I would have to pay 25 dollars out of pocket.

PS. My family’s fafsa estimated family contribution was either 0 or near 0. Not close to 40k at all.

2

Did you miss a deadline? Is aid only guaranteed before a certain date? Is aid first-come, first-serve?

3

I don’t know what I would have missed. It is possible, but I thought if i missed a deadline I would just get aid info later.

4

Call the financial aid office and ask!

5

Where are you looking at the received awards? If this is somewhere not just on the EFC calculator, it may not be updated yet.

Call the financial aid office - they are the only ones that will be able to give you a straight answer.

6

Thanks! It was the award page on my portal. I’m praying that it is not updated.

7

Call to be sure - if it is listed in one place, chances are that it’s included. Hope it all works out!

8

Yes, call Financial Services to get more information. However, if you missed deadlines, it is possible that is the reason the financial award is lower than expected. I can’t speak for Northeastern specifically, but our counselor did advise us that financial aid is awarded on a first come, first serve basis and recommended we file the forms at the first chance possible. We also filled out the NPC for Northeastern and it was definitely not accurate compared to what we were actually awarded. It stated our cost would be $650, however, it is around $17,000.

9

If the NPC is off by over 15k, it is probably because you entered wrong information. I do not believe for a second that NU would offer such a tool if it was going to be that inaccurate.

Considering NU meets full need, I do not believe they’d ask you to pay $40k with a FAFSA EFC of 0. As you mentioned a large award you received in one place not showing up here, that seems like the likely problem and an easy fix with a call to financial aid. Good luck!

10

NPC’s are not good if your parent is self employed or you own rental property.