Paying off bills means different things to different people. So YOUR definition is really irrelevant (sorry if this sounds harsh). If your family had run up credit cards and needed the money from the retirement accounts to pay that off, it is not likely to ring any bells with a financial aid officer. Consumer debt doesn’t generally qualify as hardship. Unexpected medical bills which did not get covered by insurance? Those will qualify-- but there are ZERO guarantees that just because a university agrees to review your aid, that will mean an INCREASE in aid. You seem confused about what the terminology means.
Please, please please- take the time you are devoting to loving Duke and go find three colleges you can afford- today- without a special circumstance review. You will be mad at me right now, and very grateful come April. Worst case, you get accepted to Duke with a huge package and can post here “Blossom you were wrong” which will make me very happy. Best case- you will go to college without putting your family in further financial distress.
Agree with @blossom - falling in love with Duke is the easy bit
The hard bit is finding 2-3 affordable colleges that have your major that you would be OK going to.
@blossom or @thumper1 (I forget which, sorry) says to find ONE thing you love about each of these affordable safety schools.
My D is at one of her early acceptance affordable safeties because $$$. The thing(s) she loved: beautiful campus, personal tour, specialist lib arts prog in a big school, sunshine, wide range of people happy to be there.
And my niece was an English major at Louisiana Tech because she qualified for amazing merit. She graduated without debt and has been teaching English in Europe for several years. She doesn’t have a lot of money, but she has enough to live on … and she LOVES her life. That would not be possible if she had debt to pay off.
I’m not trying to be insensitive but your dad tapped his retirement to pay bills, your mom is on disability, and they have no savings? Covid and the economy are still an issue. You really should be looking for low cost options at this point. Apply to Duke but have some backup plans.
I seem to recall you’re an Illinois resident looking at STEM? In-state options would be a good start.
Doesn’t Illinois have some type of Exchange with bordering states?
For engineering as long as the school is ABET accredited you should be good. Going to community college or satellite campus for 2 years and then transferring is OK. The degree will still say XYZ university.
I am truly sorry about your mom and I hope things work out.
@blossom@CollegeMamb0 I am applying to 4 early action schools, 2-3 of which should be much more affordable. I definitely have backups if I truly can’t afford to go to Duke. I just want to be absolutely certain before I write it off as impossible.
I want to point out that a Special Circumstances review can take a long time, just when you want to wrap things up and commit. After freshman FA notices go out, they work on those for continuing students. Then see who IS taking the $, what remains in their bucket.
It could be June-July before you hear.
Be aware of all that goes into a wise decision.
You don’t need to write off Duke. But you also need to shift gears mentally from “Oh my gosh, I need Duke to understand our financial situation” to “It isn’t likely that Duke will be affordable, and that’s ok because I love ABC college and would be really happy there”. And that mindshift needs to happen NOW- before you get further in the process.
You haven’t yet explained your family’s financial situation in a way that makes is seem as though Duke is going to be financially affordable for four years. Your parents can live off less than half their earned income with no savings?
Agree with @blossom - Duke is a ‘wow, that would be amazing’ but it is unlikely
My D applied to Princeton because $ looked OK. She did her best on the app but knew it was a financial and admission super reach. She sent in the app and forgot about it. She was rejected, which produced little more than a shrug and a big hug from me. Her admission but financial rejection from Boston College she wasn’t bothered about as she only applied as dad went there. He got the big hug from me
Thank you all for your responses! I’d like to say that I just sat down with my parents and had an actual conversation about aid, ED, and everything else.
It has been decided that I will ED to Duke. I did not fully grasp our financial situation, but my parents are in agreement that they will be able to handle the cost of Duke, even without the financial aid office considering our one-time income a special circumstance. We’ve worked out a plan, and it seems like it will be just fine. I’m going to graduate with student debt, but who doesn’t? It won’t be debilitating according to the net price calculators.
No need for more responses. I think I’ve finally eased my worries.
Yesterday you said your parents gave you a budget of $17,300/year. Today they raised it to $50k? That’s an extra ~$130k+ over 4 years. If they don’t have that kind of money, please don’t ask them to borrow it. People don’t borrow 100 grand from their retirement funds when things are going well.
Good luck with your apps. I hope you follow Blossom’s advice to add a couple financial safeties to your list.
@austinmshauri No, I said that the NPC told us that we would be paying ~$17,000-$18,000 a year after my freshman year. My parents told me that had a maximum budget of $35,000-$40,000 a year. The only reason my freshman year will cost $50,000 is because we had a one-time income that was used to pay our bills.
You’re right. My father did not borrow 100 grand from his retirement plan because things were going well. My mother had lost her job, her disabilities had her hospitalized several times that year, and we incurred lots of medical expenses from both of my parents because both of them struggle with many different illnesses. It was a one time thing. We were struggling to get by. Now, we are not. My parents have told me that they will not need to take out any more retirement money in the future, so our AGI will go back to the usual amount.
I have added another financial safety to my list just in case. I now have around 4 schools tat should be affordable if I don’t get into Duke.
For what it’s worth, that was not my experience. We asked for a special circumstance review at two different schools (one large state flagship as OOS family, and one small private university), and both took about a week.
@brantly special circumstances considerations can take a lot longer than your experiences. Some of this depends on what documentation the schools request.
Some schools don’t do these things at all until after acceptance, actually that is always the case now that I think if it. You are asking for consideration because your financial aid package isn’t enough.
In ED cases, you might also need to request an extension on committing to the offer of acceptance. This would push that date out too.
Honestly, this student needs to really think about how he plans to apply. He needs to check to be sure that he can submit other applications along with an ED to Duke. Regular ED schools will allow applications to your instate public universities. Check and see what Duke allows.
This student doesn’t want to miss deadlines (which are early) for merit aid elsewhere because he put all his eggs in the Duke ED basket.
