I am so sorry that this is happening to you! It sounds really disappointing. Do you have a printout saved of their calculator? It sounds like you may have made a mistake inputting information in their net price calculator. Maybe you did not include all income and assets. The Bryn Mawr NPC does include loans on their final page under “Potential Self Help Opportunities” for families over some income threshold. So not all families will see a loan in the NPC, but some do as part of the family contribution.
I ran the Bryn Mawr Net Price Calculator for my kid with our current financials and there were no loans in the calculated package. Then I hiked our adjusted gross income and suddenly loans did appear in the calculator. It was still a very generous package with grants, but it showed that in addition to a Bryn Mawr grant, the family contribution included student loans to meet the total net price. I think talking to the financial aid office is your best next step.
And that’s the problem. Your family income is high enough that BMC expects them to pay, but they cannot afford it because you live in a high COL area.
It sounds as if even with you taking out the max federal loan and working summers, you cannot close the gap without taking private loans, which would be a bad idea.
You can get into a good neuropsych PhD program from one of your in-state flagships in CA. I’m sure that you have plenty of schools that you applied to RD, including your in-state flagships, but if you don’t get an admit that you like, know that there is a very cheap way to an in-state degree from one of your flagship state U’s. You’re not going to like it, but it does work.
You go to the community college near your house while living at home with your family. You will get credit for all your AP’s (if you took the exams). You can also get credit through CLEP exams. Take a look at modernstates.org and see what the community college would accept. You go to comm coll this summer, fall, and winter, possibly summer '25 also, you take a heavy load, you get straight A’s, and you transfer to UCB or UCLA to enter as a junior in fall '25. You then spend as long as you like there, maybe 3 years, finishing up your undergrad and doing psych research at the same time. Then you apply to the top neuropsych programs in the US and Canada, and get a fully funded PhD there. You borrow the federal loan each year at the comm coll and flagship, come out with total debt of 27K. Your parents pay the rest.
1st order of business is asking for professional judgement, showing what expenses can’t be changed - uber and dining out can, but utilities and medical bills can’t, for instance.
You’re welcome. I came back to see if you had any updates, re-read your response, and I want to clarify something: my view is that graduating early is not ideal from the standpoint of not wanting to shorten the time at a college because of the wonderful experience. That said, I would not worry about it at all if it turned out to be the way you can afford your top choice. My idea may not work, but in my experience schools often significantly discount summer course tuition. If you’re able to do that for a few summers, you might add up enough credits to graduate early and will have saved some money. IDK how that would work at BMC, but I’ve known other students who have taken this approach and graduated early and thus saved a year’s worth of undiscounted tuition. But course availability, summer housing and all that has to be factored in. Overall, though, there are people who race ahead, graduate early and save a bundle. It’s just an idea to explore.
We rechecked the Net Price Calculator, and as far as we know, everything was accurate. I’m really not sure where the dichotomy occurred. Bryn Mawr is being extremely inflexible, and it’s very unlikely now that I’ll be able to attend. It’s a shame because I love BMC, but they clearly aren’t being accommodating.
That seems highly unusual and inappropriate of school not to honor NPC they create. I’m not sure if this is something that generally occurs, is it common? How frustrating there is no recourse
I hope you’ll do as MMRose suggests because it’s also possible that whatever is causing the discrepancy will cause a similar issue with some of your other schools as well…best to find out now more specifically what’s going on in case you can prevent finding yourself in a similar position in March/April after your other results come in. If you discover that there’s a correction to be made in the information you and your parents submitted, for example, then you could follow up quickly to make that same correction with your other schools.
My D23 had a few schools on her list that you have on yours.
The NPC for Bryn Mawr was extremely accurate for her (less than $300 off…the closest of all her schools).
For Smith, the NPC was also accurate for my D23 - only about $800 off, and Smith’s cost came in about $500 a year less than Bryn Mawr’s.
And I believe Oberlin is on your list? For us, they came in about $6000 above their NPC and quite a bit higher than either Bryn Mawr or Smith.
Of course it’s possible that merit aid could come through if you get in at Smith. My D got both merit and need-based aid from all three of those schools, so it was the need-based aid that brought it to the bottom line that we then compared to the NPC results. We had loans in the package from Bryn Mawr, but I didn’t count those when I was comparing one school to the other (I just took Tuition/Fees/Room/Board minus scholarships/grants that wouldn’t need to be paid back, and using that methodology, Smith and Bryn Mawr were almost identical in cost for us).
I agree with others recommending you/your parents have a meeting with a financial aid officer to get clarity on why the financial aid package is significantly different than the NPC.
Brief Update: I chose to attend Bryn Mawr College, and I am very happy with the decision! I am super grateful to Bryn Mawr for providing me with this opportunity, and I am excited for the next four years!
