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My counselor told me to definetly do Santa Clara because I go to a Jesuit high school and they tend to give a lot more money to people like me and he thought I could afford it.
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While it’s true that some of the Jesuit univs do give merit to their Jesuit HS applicants, be sure to still have your parents run the NPC on SCU’s website. The “generosity” isn’t usually much, and it gets applied to “need”…it doesn’t get subtracted from the amount that your parents are supposed to pay.
SCU doesn’t “meet need”.
For instance…
$55k COA for SCU (I’m guessing here, haven’t checked actual COA)
$20k EFC for your family (again, guessing)
$35k of need
IF SCU gives you a Jesuit award, that will get subtracted from the top…
$55k COA
$25k Jesuit merit award (based on your stats…that’s why my nephew got for similar stats)
$8k (mix of loans and work study ~ self-help)
$33k of “aid”
your family would be paying $22k and you’d have the self-help
So, as you can see, the “family part” wasn’t reduced at all. So, have your parents run the SCU NPC. It’s a very good school and if your family will pay, then super.
I do not think that UTexas gives much aid to OOS students. GT sometimes gives some. Please have your parents run the NPCs on those schools’ websites.
Do you know what your family’s EFC would be?