@happycamper206 Unfortunately, the FAFSA doesn’t “qualify” you for any amount of financial aid. It’s just a suggestion to colleges about what your family might be able to afford and, imo, it’s not terribly accurate anyway.
FWIW, we received our package yesterday via portal (nothing in the mail.)
D20 received, in addition to the Presidential Scholarship, the EA award and various loans. She was really honored and excited to receive the Presidential, but this package does not make the school affordable for us. Happily, she has a number of other much more generous offers right now, and is looking forward to getting decisions from a few more schools. She will decline LMU.
Probably a crazy question, but how do you decline? We don’t want to take someone else’s spot and I know others who are deferred would like to attend. We can’t swing LMU financially and would like to let them know. I’m sure it’s obvious but I can’t seem to figure it out. Thank you.
@2tiredmomma In the Applicant Status portal, just under the section that provides the link to the Future Lions portal, it provides a space where it asks for confirmation of intent to enroll. There is a place to check “Yes” and under that “No. I decline my offer of admission.”
I have to admit I am finding this whole thing confusing… Most posters on here (at least that shared specifics) received merit aid ranging from 2000 to 35,000 which brings the cost to between 70k an 37k each year. The posters on here almost all say “Not enough, we are going to move on.” How do small private schools exist in this environment? I understand some families will take on 6 figure debt for undergrad. We won’t/can’t. Our son applied to 3 private Catholic schools (LMU is one) and our EFC is 40k per year (which we can not even remotely touch and would leave our son roughly 100,000 in debt for undergrad).
School 1 offered Dean Scholarship and our out pocket would be 58,000 per year
School 2 offered Presidential Scholarship and our out of pocket would be 40,000 per year
School 3 offered Arrupe and our out of pocket would be 45,000 per year.
Are parents honestly doing this?
School 4 is an out of state large flagship that offered 4 years tuition and we would pay 13,000 per year.
School 5 is our in state flagship that offered a small merit scholarship and we would pay 25,000 per year.
Son has 4.0 unweighted and 34 ACT and good but not great activities.
Why would the powers that be at schools 1-3 think he would consider enrolling?
This is our first child going to college so others may have learned these lessons long ago. I can’t understand the funding structure and mindset that allows schools 1-3 to continue to operate? Whew.
@JD7777 I think LMU’s yield is about 18% and I suspect one of the reasons it is that low is the cost. My D20 has a 4.0/4.63; SAT of 1580 (taken once); NMSF; SAT2 Math 800; Bio 780; Many APs and DEs, including Calc2; Stats and Span 4; Varsity sport; Lifeguard; volunteer tutor; swim coach, etc, etc. The merit hunt is tough, but we knew that going in and are grateful for what D has been offered thus far. The cost of higher education is just insane.
eta: In an attempt to answer your question, schools 1-3 may not care much about whether your kid enrolls. They are interested in hyping up their application and acceptance stats to appear more competitive.
I admit that I am surprised by the amount of money they offered my son, as I had reviewed the 2023 class posts and was expecting much less. I personally am only comparing schools pricing by adding tuition and room&board numbers, without health ins, fees etc to keep it apples-to-apples. So my best price is likely SDSU at about $25,000 and I compare everything else to that number, which makes LMU “affordable” for us at about $6-$7k more. We know CSU is not for profit, so I’m pretty sure that the net price is a “bargain” (at least for our West Coast desire) for university.
So, LMU would not even be in the discussion absent the amount of money they’re offering and I can’t imagine paying full price or even close to full price instead of going with CSU, UC, or even CC w/ transfer into those, later. Honestly, I don’t know if I’d pay $70k for Stanford even. But it’s really hard for me to digest that anyone could hope to get through 4 years of University without spending at least $100k and I have no idea either how people manage.
That’s why I’m a little surprised that so many apply to schools like LMU when they have perfectly respectable State Schools available at a fraction of LMU’s pricing. We’re resigned to paying the price to school our Son in California, but what motivates others? I suspect it’s the volume of App’s they receive that justifies in their minds what they are “charging.”
Hey guys. If you are sure you will not be attending lmu, PLEASE decline the offer immediately. That way, funds can be available to those who appeal and those deferred can start being admitted. Put yourself in their place and decline the offer. Thanks
My daughter (Nor Cal) STILL has not received the envelope with her financial award information! (Did receive the emailed version). Anyone else also not received it?
Does anyone know if appealing a financial decision is likely to make a difference? I don’t know anything about this part of the financial game (which is what it all seems like to me) and wondered if it would be worth trying.
I’m also hoping to appeal. EFC of 3k and they’re expecting me to pay 48k (40k w/ loans) a year??
I’m very confused about the financial aid appeal process though–does anyone know if just not being able to pay is enough of a reason for an appeal, or does it have to be a change in income/something similar?
@cheerprima18 The EFC isn’t really as important as the NPC on the LMU website. Did you run that? If the amount differs from the aid you received, you might want to mention that. Also keep in mind LMU does not profess to 100% meet need, so an appeal may not yield a whole lot.
@amsunshine I did not run this, thanks for the tip! I’ll get on that. We can definitely pay more than my EFC so I don’t need LMU to 100% meet that, but I do need more than they’re currently offering to consider attending. I might contact financial aid on Monday as well.