<p>My dad's an engineer and my mom's a nurse. She makes about $35,000 a year and he makes about $110,000 a year. They're married, and all four of my family members live together. (Mom, Dad, Brother, and I).
However, my parent's do not want to, and cannot afford to pay for both my brother and I to go to 40 or 50 grand a year colleges.
He's going to go into high school as I'm going into college, so that would be about $300,000 to 400,000 total.
I know there are cheaper colleges but to be honest, most colleges cost 40 to 50 grand a year. My parents also do not want me taking out a lot of loans because they don't want me to be saddled with debt as soon as I graduate from college.
I'm going into my senior year now, and am in love with BU. I can most likely get in as well.
Will I get anything?
I will probably get merit scholarships from some schools, but I don't want my parents to have to pay that much. If I don't get anything I'd definitely settle for my state school, but I want to achieve higher than that, you know?
I'm a white girl from New England, so that's already held against me.
So will I have to depend on strictly merit scholarships?
Thanks</p>
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<p>I’d say the majority of colleges cost less than that. </p>
<p>With that income, you’ll be expected to pay a darn good amount (upwards of $30,000) before colleges start giving you need-based aid (loans, grants, work-study, etc). You should look into schools that give out big merit scholarships or just look into schools that aren’t so expensive. You’ll be able to get a lot more help on this forum if you talk to your parents and find out what they are reasonably willing to pay each year.</p>
<p>The good news is that BU DOES give some generous merit awards, especially if you & your counselor know that it’s one of your top (or THE top) choice(s). One of S’s friends chose it over UPenn because they gave a MUCH better total merit &FAid package.</p>
<p>There are FAFSA calculators you and your folks could use to estimate what amount of aid you MAY qualify for. The bad news is that many Us meet a significant amount of “aid” with loans.</p>
<p>I agree that there are **many **school costing significantly less than 40-50K/year, especially in-state public Us & colleges. Another option some kids choose to save $$$ is to go to an in-state CC or U & then transfer after completing much of the basic coursework/generally requirements This means fewer years of expensive tuition & only the U you graduate from shows up in the diploma & most resumes.</p>
<p>In general, Us like to award MAid to attract students who are in the highest STATs of their applicants, to attract them to attend.</p>
<p>I’d caution that, for many schools, you can’t stack up merit scholarship and financial aid. For example, if a school originally determines your need is $26K a year without any merit scholarship and now you get a $10K merit scholarship, your need will be reduced to $16K. Or, in another word, the family’s contribution portion will stay unchanged.</p>
<p>A poster compared UPenn and BU. UPenn doesn’t give any merit scholarship and they reduce the financial aid package by the amount of any outside scholarship you receive. I believe BU doesn’t do that. So, right there, that’s a huge difference.</p>
<p>Just go ahead and apply to BU. You never know. Please apply to some financial safety schools as well. Your family is in a typical middle class dilemma: not too rich to pay your private education and not too poor to be paid by others!</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
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<p>No, not true. First you need to find out how much your parents are willing to contribute each year. That should help you figure out a list of colleges/universities where you can apply. You can certainly apply to BU and see what happens but make sure you have some colleges on your list that you are willing to attend and are affordable for your family. BU has grants and scholarships with grants based on financial need so no one here could predict how your family will be assessed since BU is also a Profile college. You will not qualify for any Federal “free money.”</p>
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<p>Not sure what you mean, held against you with regard to what? There is a limited appeal for colleges to build geographic diversity so you could look at colleges/unis outside the NE region, outside of a handful of colleges that are favorites with kids from the NE and therefore have priced themselves accordingly, costs tend to be alittle lower also once you leave the NE.</p>
<p>Your total family income is not in the low income range. Boston University does NOT guarantee to meet the full need of its accepted students…and they don’t (DS is a BU grad). With your family income, I would guess that BU will offer very little to NOTHING in need based aid. With regard to merit aid, yes they do offer merit aid but nothing is guaranteed in that department. </p>
<p>I would suggest that you get a broader menu of schools than JUST Boston University on your “dream list”. It’s a very expensive school, in a very expensive city. Your parents WILL be expected to contribute to your education and their family contribution will be in about $35,000 per year (that is 25% of their $145,000 a year income) or more. This is a guestimate but it’s probably close. You can run an online EFC calculator using the institutioal methodology to get a better guess…a guess. Also BU does require the CSS Profile so they do consider other assets such as the equity in your primary residence.</p>
<p>There are thousands of colleges that cost LESS than Boston University. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great school…but only if you can afford to pay the bills. Find out how much your parents ARE willing to pay for college. You will need to work within their budget unless you plan to pay for college yourself (and I seriously doubt you can pay $50K plus on your own).</p>
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<p>Outside scholarships MUST be reported to Boston University. It is very likely that they DO reduce need based aid as your need is reduced by these outside scholarships.</p>
<p>BU is going to expect your parents to pay for most of your education…and it will include student loans in your FA package.</p>
<p>Even if you get a merit scholarship from BU, they’re just going to apply it to need…it won’t reduce what your PARENTS have to pay.</p>
<p>You need a strategy based on how much your parents will pay and your stats…</p>
<p>Find out how much your parents will pay each year.</p>
<p>What are your stats? GPA? SAT or ACT scores?</p>
<p>Be SURE to apply to a few schools that you know FOR sure will give you large merit scholarships for your stats. Scholarships that are large enough that your family can pay for the remaining costs.</p>
<p>Cost/financial aid aside, figure out what characteristics appeal to you at BU - is it being in Boston, being in an urban area, is it the size, is there a particular major, is it the architecture…figure that out and then go find colleges that are “like” BU. As I mentioned earlier if you are willing to leave the NE, then look outside the NE corridor. These are the types of strategies for finding other colleges when you are looking to expand or broaden your list.</p>
<p>BU also had over 40,000 applicants for not even 2500 seats this year, so even top students were denied admission. Definitely find other schools you would love. Look for some schools with strong programs but without the “brand name” you instantly recognize. These might offer you the best aid overall.</p>
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<p>Not true regarding Penn… They apply outside scholarships to student contribution, then student work study, then if there is still outside scholarship above that amount, they will reduce the grant. They consider student contribution, work study and family contribution all part of the EFC. They won’t reduce parents part though. </p>
<p>From their web site:
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