Accepted OOS to University of Wisconsin-Madison [but too expensive]

Colleges & Universities University of Wisconsin
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Beyond affordability of the net number, let’s do a deep dive into those NPC results…

1)your S is unlikely to spend $1200 on books or $2,288 on other expenses. Adjust those with your best estimate.

2)Note the $2750 work study number. That means they expect your S to work during the school year (summer ok too, some schools will even separate out expected summer earnings.) He will earn that week by week, so really half that amount is due upfront each semester so make sure to budget for that. I would encourage your S to work this summer with the idea he might earn that $2750 this summer and could not work his freshman year, or at least the first semester, so he has time to adjust to college.

3)The $8250 other aid and resources must include your S’s Pell grant which is $7395 (I know this because his SAI is -1500). Not sure what the remaining grant money is in that $8250 as the federal student loan of $5.5K and work study job is already included elsewhere. If he does get accepted to USC and the numbers are similar to this NPC result, you should ask what the difference here is. I am skeptical and am concerned you will have another $855 to pay.

4)I am controlling myself and not typing in all caps/yelling. I have worked with plenty of low income students and USC’s aid package is never adequate, including this one (I know it’s just an estimate right now.) For a kid with a -1500 SAI, this net number (not including books and personal expenses) should be close to zero. Put in some work study or summer earnings, fine. Even the $5500 loan. But, this FA offer is what’s called a gap. The net direct cost after I take out the non-direct expenses of books and other is $10423. I don’t know many -1500 SAI students with similarly low assets who can afford $10K (which already includes 2750 in work earnings and the 5500 loan…so really they are asking you to pay $18673). DO BETTER USC.

5)The federal student loan is $5500 first year, then $6500/$7500/$7500, so your S can take out a max of $27K in federal student loans during undergrad.

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Nothing else, lol

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In addition to what was said above - this USC estimate is based on 2024-25 costs it says. I wonder why it’s not updated to at least the current year, but you’d have 2 years of inflation to add in to the costs. Unclear ti what extent the aid offered would compensate for that.

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Do you think all the kids who apply to Harvard haven’t worked hard and shouldn’t get to pick? They have. Even kids who don’t have the grades and scores have worked hard and schools don’t have the room or the money to admit and fund them all.

It’s not just for college either. Not everyone can have the job they want, even if they have worked hard in college and are good people. But it usually works out in the end.

My kids wanted to go to college in California but I couldn’t afford it. They found good schools and were both very happy in the end. Would they have still picked a California school if I’d won the lottery? Yes. But when your son graduates he’ll be happy he doesn’t have student loans to worry about repaying.

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Good point, I wanted to stop my rant :blush:. Meet full need school NPCs should keep pace, but well, this is USC. Who knows?!

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@Mdssac is University of Virginia affordable? They meet full need for out of state students. I’m a little confused as to whether the cost to attend UVA would work for you.

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It looks like your son was awarded BANNER? Is that right? (Look for a notification letter in the portal or a notation on the financial aid PDF.)

$761 for a BANNER grant is wild.

BANNER is our Badger Aid for Nonresidents enrolled in an on-campus program at UW-Madison. It’s designed to assist Badgers from low-income households outside of Wisconsin pay for college through a combination of grants, scholarships, and work-study. The program commits to meeting a student’s institutional financial need for 4 consecutive years for incoming first-year students.

Until this year, Wisconsin used FAFSA only and BANNER covered full COA for all Pell-eligible OOS students.

This year they changed the program so it’s a promise to cover “institutional financial need,” defined as full COA minus Expected Family Contribution – which they are calculating using the CSS, rather than FAFSA.

So they are doing some math with the CSS whereby they are imagining that your “institutional financial need” is $60k minus ~ $5k work-study.

If you see the BANNER letter in the portal, it should tell you what numbers they came up with for your CSS-calculated institutional need and expected family contribution. Looks like they’ve calculated it as ~ $55k for your family.

You’re SAI -1500 – and you have no significant assets? Makes me wonder if this is a calculation error. I know that a low-enough income could trigger asset exclusion on the FAFSA and result in a -1500 SAI while still showing up on the CSS and being calculated into expected family contribution numbers. But if you really have nothing as far as monies… ?

Am also wondering if they did something wrong or weird bc they calculated our expected family contribution as ~$25k more than another school that also uses the CSS. While each school has its own way of crunching the numbers to determine EFC, I’m trying to imagine the math that gets them there and… Yeah I’m not seeing it lol.

This is their first year using the CSS, so I’m going to reach out and see if I can learn anything.

** UW offered my daughter more than they offered yall but not close to meeting our actual need, whatever weirdo math they’re doing up there. So I think I’ll reach out and see if they can share anything helpful.

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Wow! UC Berkeley is a VERY good university. You are very fortunate to have this exceptional opportunity at such a reasonable cost. It is clear that your child must have done very, very well and put in a lot of work to earn this opportunity.

For those of us who live out of state, UC Berkeley would be massively more expensive regardless of our need and regardless of our merit.

As a Stanford alumni (master’s) who ended up in the northeast, I agree. However, I can absolutely assure you that employers and graduate programs throughout the USA, including in the northeast, and throughout the world, know how excellent UC Berkeley is. Graduating with a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and then immediately heading east or northeast would definitely be possible.

I think that most college-bound students are constrained by budget issues.

Stanford is a very good university. For me it was a very good fit and I loved it. However, a student does not need to go there just because they get in. Between UC Berkeley and Stanford, if I got into both I would go to whichever was the better fit or whichever would cost less (and it might be a tough decision). They are both excellent.

Good luck with applications to USC, UCLA, and Stanford. However, with a very affordable acceptance to UC Berkeley, your son is already doing exceptionally well.

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If Berkeley is affordable then you win! Plenty of time to leave CA after college. And the student can look into options to study abroad or at a partner university to expand horizons.

Good luck with upcoming decisions but IMO its all good at this point.

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Most state universities do not offer need-based financial aid to out-of-state students.

UCB at <$10k per year looks like a good admission. Why does he want out of California?

(Also, UCs are a lot less than $90k list price for California residents.)

Yes, the (unfair) reality is that parent financial circumstances and choices are the main factor in a high school student’s college selection. Only within those cost constraints do the student’s college admission credentials matter.

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Ding ding. You have a winner. Huge congratulations on that. Even with your research you should know it’s much harder to o get OOS money. He has been accepted to many fine schools. I have only read this far but you’re talking about some of the very best universities on earth. I want a Ferrari. But my car will have to do. He will get an excellent education at a very “Affordable “price point. He is a very lucky kid. There are “thousands “of students that match his profile. Not everyone gets merit. There is only so much to go around. You can appeal and attempt to get more. Which I would do but it won’t be a huge difference but everything counts. I know many kid’s that are in state to Michigan and don’t want to go there since it’s in state. Like with Berkeley you have a fantastic ROI at a nationally branded school with Alumni that can help him in the future. “We don’t always get that we want”.. I believe the Rolling Stones said but that to me is a hard accomplishment to pass up on. Maybe the story gets better as I read more but Cal for $10,000/year….. He can go wherever he wants to in 4 year’s.

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For those asking about UVA, I agree, should be a full ride or close. Something is wrong here. See attached pic.

I can show all the financial aid summaries if it helps others. Here is UVA. Going to call them Tuesday..

To answer some of your questions, no, no home equity, i rent, no savings, unfortunately no nothing. Since wife passed away 2 years ago it’s been difficult, her income is gone. My income went down 80% (self employed) from covid and really hasn’t gone up. Im in the auto business and no new inventory to speak of so no inventory no $$$ for me. Go try and buy a lexus or Toyota these days actually since covid really.

No, can’t afford 20, 30, 80k a year. Yes can do 10k MAYBE 15K… Looks like he’s STUCK here in ca. I know, I know it could be worse i agree.

This is a work in progress though. Need to call these schools, need to wait for all the other schools to come in also. Of you all are interested in will pay all that as it comes in. Ih, he did get into SMU (cox) and they did offer $$ but just not enough to make it there.

Not complaining at all. I just want my “Little boy” to flourish from all HIS hard work.

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Internationally branded school…

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Yes. Thanks for the correction . Lol.

Also the OP should know he can do internships in different state’s to get out of California.

But Cal at this price is a gift.

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Something is off then. Did you fill out CSS for them ?

They do note to expect $7k year in loans and note that UVA is not direct admit for business.

And there will be a cost getting there.

https://sfs.virginia.edu/uva-financial-aid

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Stanford: Just personal expenses (books, miscellaneous, travel)=$6,458 so if your net cost is $5,000 it means they’d give your son $1,458 for books ($500-600?), travel ($200?), so they’d fund his personal expenses, and NO loan! So fingers crossed :crossed_fingers:he gets in.
Much better than USC (Since they package a loan and work study into their financial aid).

If any future applicant’s parent with a negative SAI is reading this, private meet need colleges are typically cheaper than OOS public flagships - colleges like MIT, Princeton, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Williams, Vassar, Holy Cross… Public universities serve their State although they admit students from OOS since they pay much more than residents.

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I would call the FA office this week too. But, they are so far away now I wouldn’t hold my breath. And don’t even get me started about UVA graciously offering $9K in loans, above and beyond the $5.5K federal loan.

Sharing these FA offers is really helpful for others to learn from, so thank you for that. There is nothing better than seeing actual examples of FA packages, especially from meet full need schools, to demonstrate how very different the levels of generosity are. (Leaving open the possibility that UVA has somehow made a mistake, although their being in the loan business is something commonly known.)

Perhaps we should start a thread where students post actual FA offers and we dissect them so everyone can learn.

Big picture I would tee up with your S that as of now the only affordable offer is UCB. While I understand he might be disappointed, it’s an outstanding option and one that many -1500 SAI students don’t have.

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@DadTwoGirls

I totally agree with you. Which ever is the better fit for him. He hasn’t got into Stanford and 98% chance he WON’T but for him, between there and Berkeley? Stanford all the way. He’s also waiting on Duke but that’s another few % chance. Thank you for your comment.

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@happy1, I want out too! Lol… Yes, definitely a win with Berkeley and he is blessed. Let’s see the rest of the results first. The young man will have a home (school) 100%.

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@tsbna44

Yes did css months ago. All was filled out correctly. Checked and recheck not only by me but counselors as well. Im going to call Tuesday I’ll let you all know what the scoop is.

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