kool321

I looked on the college board website and saw stats for FA. For example Syracuse U charges 39K a year for tuition. 80% of students receive FA and the average FA package for freshamn students is 33K. If I am understanding this correctly this technically means that the average Syracuse student will pay only 6K a year for tuition, the price of a SUNY school. Pretty much all private schools I looked at have similar stats. How can private colleges stay in business if they offer such generous aid? I dont qualify for aid so I feel that I'm overpaying for private colleges if most of my classmates go to Syarcuse at a state school price. I just want to know f I am misinterpreting the data. Thanks.

BobWallace

The average of $30,000 includes an average of about $8,000 "self help", meaning student work-study and loans. So the gift aid average is about $22,000. Of that some is usually going to be federal money (close to $10,000 if the student qualifies for Pell and SEOG), and some may be money from New York state grant programs (TAP and HEOP, as much as $8,000), so not much is actually coming out of Syracuse's pocket.

bchan1

In stats such as these financial aid includes loans - sometimes very large loans. You need to look for information that lists gift aid (grants and scholarships) apart from loans for students and their parents.

kool321

I looked at FA stats for private schools and about 1/4 of FA is given in form of loans, so a substantial amount is still coming frm grants and scholarships. Does the "average FA package for first year students" include private loans?

kelsmom

No, average FA packages do not include private loan amounts. However, it is very important to understand what "average" means. That includes all money awarded to all students, private scholarships/federal aid (including SEOG, Direct Loans, Perkins Loans, and Work Study awards)/institutional scholarships/institutional grants/state grants, divided by the number of students who receive any financial aid. Some students hit the FA lottery and some get only Direct Loans. So some students get what they want or need, while others get neither.

cptofthehouse

Most Syracuse students are not commuters, so their cost would be closer to $60K a year. Look at what percent get financial aid. At most schools, about half do. That the average package is $33k means that there are some kids getting full rides, some getting nothing and every amount in between with some just getting loans and work study.

Most schools do not give out their own loans, but some do. Don't know if Syracuse does--Cornell does, I know.

livesinnewjersey

I believe Syracuse has recruited scholarship athletes - a lot of them. You can bet they are the ones getting the $60K

Good questions kool

mom2collegekids

Since Syracuse is in NY, there may be a number of kids getting Pell, SEOG, loans, work-study and TAP...those funds would be from the fed and state gov'ts, not from SU.