I am currently applying for colleges and my number one choice (St. Olaf) only has an ED choice for submitting applications before the deadline. I want to apply early but I am nervous that the binding ED could get me blacklisted if I decline for finical reasons. I would need the majority of my tuition paid for through loans, grants, and scholarships as I need to pay for it myself (without help from family), and I cannot afford the 50,000ish that is the listed tuition price. I know that my need based finical aid will be low (if any) because my parents income is more than 100,000. Lets say St. Olaf offers me a 25,000 tuition after scholarships, loans and grants. I know I can’t afford this because I would need to find a job that pays me 25,000+ every year which isn’t very reasonable. Am I allowed to decline their offer even though that finical package of 25,000 may be looked at as “generous” because of my family’s income? I would preferably want a tuition around 10,000 at the very most, so I would probably decline offers of 15000 or higher for tuition. Can I get blacklisted for this?
Thanks in advance for anybody who answers. Feel free to ask me any clarifying questions in case I wasn’t clear enough!
Have you run the Net Price Calculator for St. Olaf? I would suggest running that and seeing what their initial EFC is. If it is a number that you are not comfortable with, then you shouldn’t apply ED, knowing up front that you won’t get the support you need. If it’s close to what you need, go ahead and apply and if the actual is far off, you would have a legitimate claim to back out.
Have you run the Net Price Calculator? If so, and the financial aid is clearly not going to be enough to make the school affordable, then why would you waste your ED application when you know you won’t be able to attend?
Technically, you can get out of ED for financial reasons, but that is meant for need based applicants. If you are chasing merit, than ED is not the right option for you
First, you start with the NPC, as advised. You need to be informed before applying. Qualifying as independent is much harder than your parents deciding not to pay.
And I don’t think you mean decline offers of 15k or higher. I think you mean decline offers leaving you a bill of more than 15k.
But how will you pay even 10-15k? We advise against loans other than the student Direct loan, which is $5500 for freshmen.
Sorry I don’t quite know how to phrase it cause I’m new to applying and confused at some parts. But yes I mean only having to pay $10k or less after using the 5500 loan for freshman. I figure that I should be able to hold a part time job that makes roughly 10k or less to pay the extra. The NPC put my estimated scholarships and such at around $35,000, which is right on the border. Also, my parents said that they are willing ti pay for general living expenses (not room and board, more like clothes, toiletries, some gas money, ect…) so would that not make it possible for me to register as an independent? Also as wisteria mentioned that I if I’m pursuing merit based ( which I’m guessing is the majority of my NPC cost) I shouldn’t do ED, but the reason for me doing ED is so that I have a better chance at getting accepted. Generally based on the college stats st. Olaf provides, those who apply ED have a significantly higher chance of attending than those who don’t. Thoughts?
If you’re under 24, unmarried, and not in the military your parents finances will be used to determine your aid. With a $100k income, I don’t think you’ll qualify for a Pell grant. The most you’re guaranteed is a ~$5500/year federal student loan. If you work summers, you can probably raise ~$3k/year.
What are your stats? If your parents won’t pay for the billed expenses, you need to look for colleges that offer merit or commute to a local school.
My act is 27 ( I’m a poor test taker), my GPA is above 4.0 weighted and 3.8ish unweighted. I plan to graduate high school with my AA degree by doing full time pseo (currently have 47 pseo credits, will graduate with 62). My pseo/ college GPA is 3.52. I am 2nd in my hs class and will likely be 1st by the end of this semester. I feel that with that and several long term volunteer positions plus several varsity sport letters I should be able to get a decent merit based finical aid, I just don’t know if it’ll be quite what I need.
You may not want to apply ED if you are looking for merit aid and if there are other schools where you think you could be happy and successful that might give you more money. With ED, you have no option to compare offers. Usually, but not always, the best merit aid is from schools at which your stats put you near the top of the admitted student pool. If St Olaf is the only school you really want to go to and it looks like the money may work out based on need alone (including your parents income which is required), then take a chance on ED.
You Cannot afford to apply ED. Your family’s income will (most probably) make your expected contribution MUCH higher than you can afford alone.
You need to be looking at other options (like test optional schools for potential merit). Your ACT score is just not all that great for most merit aid. Have you tried the SAT?
Please don’t count on a school-year job that will pay 10k unless you have some special in-demand talents. The chance of getting such a job may be a problem depending on what’s around and competition. and work paying that can require a fixed hours commitment, not be so flexible if something comes up at school.
Work Study is generally about 10-12 hours/week, usually right on campus unless community based,somewhere around $10/hour (sometimes more, sometimes less, depends on the school.) Hours can be flexible. See if it’s already included in the NPC results.