URGENT! Double deposit! ED! No $$$ at all!
byanilla
96 replies5 threads Junior Member
This isn't a case that I am facing but one that my best friend is. 
Earlier this year, she had the privilege to be accepted into the awesome Brown University via ED. However, she hadn't received her financial aid package until today, and up until this point, she was quite confident that her package would be substantial enough for her to attend this Ivy. But, seeing that her FA package offered her ZEROZIPNADA dollars, her parents paid for her safety school's enrollment deposit.
Having already contacted the university, her parents were sad to hear that the Brown financial aid office could not pitch in any aid for her. However, they have already paid the enrollment deposit. My BFF still wants to attend Brown; this is her flippin' dream school, and she doesn't even care about the name. Just the environment and people and opportunities.
Anyway, what should she do?
She is wondering if it is possible to extend the decision, say, until July? She wants to see if she could work this summer/get scholarships/get MONEY in general. (Her other college isn't going to rescind her acceptance; they really want her).
tl;dr What to do when you are an ED acceptee, were denied financial aid, cannot afford the full tuition, and have a double deposit going on simultaneously?
18 repliesEarlier this year, she had the privilege to be accepted into the awesome Brown University via ED. However, she hadn't received her financial aid package until today, and up until this point, she was quite confident that her package would be substantial enough for her to attend this Ivy. But, seeing that her FA package offered her ZEROZIPNADA dollars, her parents paid for her safety school's enrollment deposit.
Having already contacted the university, her parents were sad to hear that the Brown financial aid office could not pitch in any aid for her. However, they have already paid the enrollment deposit. My BFF still wants to attend Brown; this is her flippin' dream school, and she doesn't even care about the name. Just the environment and people and opportunities.
Anyway, what should she do?
She is wondering if it is possible to extend the decision, say, until July? She wants to see if she could work this summer/get scholarships/get MONEY in general. (Her other college isn't going to rescind her acceptance; they really want her).
tl;dr What to do when you are an ED acceptee, were denied financial aid, cannot afford the full tuition, and have a double deposit going on simultaneously?
Post edited by byanilla on
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Replies to: URGENT! Double deposit! ED! No $$$ at all!
Does she plan on grad school?
What's her major?
She doesn't know how many loans that she can take out, but she is willing to take out the maximum amount of loans in order to attend Brown.
She plans on attending medical school.
Major is biomedical engineering.
If she wants to go to med school, she should go to her safety. I know it is hard to give up the dream school, but med school is going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. She should minimize debt now while she has the opportunity. What is this safety school anyway?
Have her contact brown's FA and tell them it is impossible for her to attend given the current award. This is a situation where she can back out.
Hope your friend gets it all sorted out and can attend though!
Second -- this story does not sound right. Brown provides at least a preliminary financial aid package to ED accepted students when they are accepted. So your friend must have known for months what her aid was going to be. And, if she accepted ED she was supposed to withdraw all other applications, so how come she has an acceptance somewhere else?
If your friend got limited financial aid, she needs to decline and go where she can afford. There's nothing she can do over the summer to make up a gap of $50,000. She shouldn't borrow more than the federal minimum, which is $5,500 for freshman year. There are no magical scholarships out there that will at this late date give her thousands of dollars, nor can she earn that much over the summer.
Finally, as a lesson to everyone else out there, don't apply ED anywhere if you need financial aid and you aren't absolutely 100% positive that you will get it.
Additionally, even working for a year won't solve this problem - the excess income will be taken into account and she will receive less financial aid the following year (unless she is already full pay). Even so, she can't make enough in a year to make a substantial dent in Brown tuition.
There is simply not a way to pay for Brown that is reasonable.
This is worrisome. This is exactly how people get themselves into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. Med school will likely put her 200k in debt, if you add another 200k from Brown she's looking at $2,000/month payments for the next 25 years. Think about how much money that is. It's not worth it for four years of undergrad when the safety will get her to the same place. Med school admissions are GPA and MCAT centered - if she does really well she can get into ANY med school.
Maybe it's different for ED, but I didn't think Brown had an enrollment deposit either.
To add my two cents, I would not recommend big debt for college in general, but especially when an alternative is available.
I knew at least 4 kids in my senior class who got in ED at schools and still followed through with RD. It's a rule with no enforceable penalty. The process has become kind of a joke in that regard.
To OP: Brown's endowment is the smallest in the Ivy League and pretty stingy compared to many of the elites. It doesn't compete well in FA. One's reason for going there can't be economics-based.
Thank you for replying, alwaysleah. I will inform her of the loan information and your advice. The college she is going to is Xavier, a historical black college, and they really want her at the university.
I have a good friend at a historically black college. I think that average SAT score there is like 1600 for all three sections. She's headed to grad school at Columbia next fall. She also got into Penn. Do well, and your friend can go to med school anywhere.
Brownford, ender94, thank you. I will express your condolences to her, haha.
fireandrain, I assure you that my friend did not receive her financial aid package until mid-April. I applied early action to a school and did not receive my FA until April 1. My friend nor her parents could access the FA right after my friend's acceptance into Brown. I promise you this; my friend's parents checked the FA status at least twice a week.
Thank you for your substantial advice. I will pass this on to my friend.
burry and umbofever09, thank you for informing me about Brown's "stinginess."
This situation of hers is confusing me at the moment too, but thank y'all so very much for your rapid replies. We are grateful for your help.
I'm now not sure if my friend was exaggerating her need for money. I'm not sure how wealthy her family is, and her parents are also paying for two of her sisters in college too.
Then again, Xavier seems to be miles behind Brown. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I would recommend Brown ONLY if she can graduate with less than 30k in debt.
She is very upset, though, because she wouldn't fit there. It would be four years of misery for her because her sisters go there as well, and from what she has experienced, she does not find Xavier socially fit for her. Brown is more of a fit for her.
I do agree that she should still choose Xavier since it would save her a chunk of her time and money.
However, Brown has high level research going on and phenomenal opportunities as well. I think Brown is one of the best schools for premed out there, especially with Pass/Fail. And it would suck to be miserable for four years.
Also, if she ends up changing her major, she needs to keep in mind what opportunities she'll have at each place.
Then she did something wrong. According to Brown's website about ED, "If you are accepted to Brown, you will receive your Financial Aid award at the same time as you receive your admission decision in the mail."
And if she didn't receive it on time, she had more than 3 months to get it.
I'm only following up on this for future applicants who may be concerned that this will happen to them. If you apply ED, your financial aid package (or, an estimate of it) will be received when you get your acceptance, and not four months later.
As for this: "I knew at least 4 kids in my senior class who got in ED at schools and still followed through with RD. It's a rule with no enforceable penalty. The process has become kind of a joke in that regard. "
Well, fine. It's like speeding, many do it but if you get caught it'll cost you. Guidance counselors are NOT supposed to send out transcripts, etc., to other schools if students got accepted ED, and if they are discovered by colleges that they are doing this on a regular basis, those schools could be blacklisted. Students' acceptances at all schools could be rescinded if they are caught. I don't want to get into an argument about it, but bottom line is that it's unethical behavior, and not something that should be encouraged.