<p>Congratulations. What a great choice to have. Because NEU is Early Acton, it may be a few months before they give out the merit awards. You might want to peruse the website about merit aid and see if tells you when those awards are given. My kids all got their Early Action school merit packages in the spring. If you can’t find info about it, or if it appears that NEU does give out awards with their acceptances and you did not get anything, pick up the phone and call up admissions and ask if there are any awards still out there that you could possibly get and what the time line is for them. </p>
<p>Are you eligible for financial aid? Have you run the NPC for your family for NEU? Are you applying for financial aid? If your EFC is too high to get much or anything from NEU, then you know that merit, loans and your family and your bank accounts are wht will have to pay the costs.</p>
<p>Is it worth it to got to NEU for the full sticker price vs a full ride from A&M or Alabama? I don’t think so if you have to pay the full sticker price for NEU. Even though the Co-op can defray some of that cost, the differential is still too much, but that is a decision, you and your family have to make. If $15K a year is what your parents are willing to pay, and you have to come up with the rest, you may have a huge gap. You can only borrrow $5500 this first year, and if your parents cosign, it’s their loan, on their credit reports as well as yours, and if anything happens to you, death, disability , drop out, and you can’t or won’t pay, they are on the hook 100%. So bear that in mind. This is not like cosigning a car loan which is far more limited in $ amount and duration. This things can go on for 25 years and amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars with the interest factor involved. </p>
<p>It’s all wee and good be planning to be a MEchanical Engineer, but sometimes these things don’t pan out. The engineering dept has more drop outs than practically any other in most schools. ALso I don’t think that it’s worth a big 6 figure debt to get a Mech Eng degree in Boston at NEU vs A&M…</p>