Theotherguy

Ah, Carnegie Mellon.

The school of my dreams, the pinnacle of the educational mountain, the light at the end of the tunnel, and the hole in my pocket.

To go to this school, I will have to turn down $14,000 from the University of Texas, $74,000 from Texas Agricultural and Mechanical, $84,000 from the University of Oklahoma, and $100,000 from Arizona State University. I will have to somehow make up the $200,000 total cost with scholarships, grants and loans, and hopefully manage to not bankrupt my family, which has $0 in total savings, $0 in total investments, $190,000 in real estate, and a gross annual income of just under $100,000. FAFSA says that my family can support $29,000 per year on college expenses, yet they are already paying nearly that much for my sister's education, let alone the $50,000 a year it will take to put me through school. My parents are worried. They are thinking about selling the house, taking out huge loans, or simply not allowing me to attend the university.

I hear financial aid at CMU is pretty much insubstantial, so I hope that I can bargain with the financial aid office into picking up more of the bill, but my hopes are quite frankly not very high. Student loans appear my only option. I promised myself years ago that I would never get into such a substantial amount of debt, but now it seems inevitable.

How are you all planning on paying for this? Do you think it's really worth it?

DAVIDGR

Why don't you wait and see what financial aid CMU offers you (assuming that you're offered admission.) However, if ASU is offering you $100k, you should seriously consider attending.

sanjaykalpa

I had called the admissions office and I was told that we would not be hearing about the financial aid that CMU will be offering till late March. Is that really true? I thought there was an advantage to being admitted as part of the early decision program.

stormgren

ASU offers all the National Merit Semifinalists something close to a full ride, which I'm assuming Theotherguy is. I got a similar offer, IIRC.

To theotherguy, I can't really offer all that much advice, being in a similar, albeit not nearly as dire (my grandparents are fortunate enough to have money) situation. However, I think you need to emphasize the fact that your parents are already paying for your sister's education to the Financial Aid office.

If there is ANY WAY to get financial aid (not scholarship) offers from other schools, those give you some bargaining power. Case is a good school to try and obtain an offer from, because they're generous. CMU will match all offers from competitor schools. However, you're ED so I'm not so sure about that...?

Sorry I can't help more. Good luck!

Theotherguy

I turned in my CMU financial aid estimate form.

I also used an online FAFSA calculator that said my parents have the ability to pay $17,000 a year, which seems very reasonable. (It said $30,000 a year when it was just my sister who was entering college).

We'll just have to wait and see what CMU claims our "need" to be.

evi

i pay 53k per year.....

bohbeep

Thats crazy......!
My family's EFC is only 830. The discrepancies are amazing.

But then again, I am a first generation student from the Midwest. I guess I should expect it.

thestressball

yeah, i just received my fat package today and my parents are worried about the cost. it's like...$47,000ish this year, right? how much does cmu give in financial aid/loans/scholarships? 'cause my parents won't be able to afford my attending cmu unless i get at least $20,000...
my brother is a freshman in college, so my parents have quite a heavy burden to bear...

mariusz360

bohbeep, I'm on your boat. My EFC is just a little over a 1k. Personally, I wouldn't consider attending CMU paying 50k a year because I want to go to graduate school. Try to get some grants/scholarships at any graduate school! AND they're so much more expensive!

RacinReaver

Find out what CMU offers you. If it's too much for your family to bear, then it's not worth taking out massive amounts of loans.

You can also also try bargaining with them by using the offers from other schools that you've received. I got them to double their financial aid offer by showing them what RPI had offered me.

JamiexAi

i'm actually really worried now :\ Our EFC is around ~1000 and I have three younger siblings my parents have to put through college... I don't know what I'm going to if I don't get substantial finaid... And I'm also worried because I turned in my parents tax returns a bit late. sigh. I hope they don't count that against me.

mrng

The other scholarships seems so enticing, I'm kind of in the same boat as everyone else. I got into CMU, but after all the jumping up and down and calling relatives the reality of a private school tuition set in. I visited a few times and they gave pretty much the same presentation each time and I remember the dean saying that students last year got an average of $23,000 (ish). This is somewhat optimistic for me since my family generally falls slightly below average (single mom, older sister in college). Maybe I can have my cake and eat it too.

silentsteps

@ RacinReaver, did you contact them via phone or e-mail? (sorry to steal topic )

RacinReaver

I called them via phone and when they wanted things I faxed it in to them.

When you need to do something important, you're always better using the phone. People can ignore e-mails or misinterpret what you're asking. When they've got you on the phone, they've got nowhere to go.

seanc

other private schools offered me just a little less than 2x the amount cmu offered. cmu is the most competative school i got into, ahead of hamilton.

would sending in hamilton's award influence a review of my finaid at all?