This is not a random post. Please believe me. I am being honest.
So I was just notified by my parents that both of the businesses (hair salons part of a franchise) they started in January of 2017, the businesses they moved from Indiana to New York for, the businesses they put their entire live savings into, the businesses they poured their heart and soul into, the businesses I dedicated so much of my time into every week, are being sold. My parents said they can’t continue with this. It was too difficult for them: the marketing, the employees, the lack of cash, the lack of knowledge overall about how to run it. It will take 8-10 years for my family to recover from this and now they have to take several loans out to still be able to live their lives. This might not be seem appropriate, but I don’t think I will be able to afford college much now nor do I believe they will be able to contribute anything. I was wondering if I should notify all of the 23 colleges I applied to (majority private top-30 schools) of this extremely large financial issue for my family. Thankfully, my mom and dad had a job alongside the businesses that they will still continue. This was just the best business decision to make since nothing was going too well. Some information on my family:
2016: near 90K
2017: near 60 to 70k
We are a 4 person family: 1 father, 1 mother, 1 sister in sophomore year of HS, and myself (a male student in my senior year of HS). Any advice on whether this is of significance to tell colleges about and how much they care would be of much appreciation to my family and I. Thanks.
Maybe you will get accepted to one of the VERY generous colleges that meet full need for all. Maybe.
Contacting 23 colleges would be a challenge. Your acceptances should be coming soon…with your aid packages. Contact your top choices ASAP, and explain the changed financial situation, particularly that the businesses are no longer yours…if that is actually true and they have been sold. The schools will telll you how to request a special circumstances consideration.
If all else fails, perhaps you can defer acceptance to a school…you would then reapply for financial aid for next year…taking a gap year before you actually start.
Or maybe a gap year will be in order. You could then apply to colleges where you would garner significant merit aid, assuming you have tippy top stats. Merit aid would not consider your family income.
Any chance in the 23 schools…there was a place where merit aid might come into play?
When you get the admissions offers, ask those financial aid offices for their “special circumstances” paperwork. That will give the aid offices information that might allow them to adjust your aid now.
Wait until you get your admissions offers and then ask for a special services review. Hopefully you also applied to schools that give merit.
If there are no affordable options I would defer admission during a gap year… as noted above… and reapply for aid. I would also apply to some other schools, including those where you may get merit.
It makes no sense to contact anyone now because they will not do anything until you have an actual package. Once you are accepted and receive a financial aid package each school has a process for financial review including the documentation that needs to be sent.
Are you a NY state resident? If the family income was under $110,000, you should then qualify for the Excelsior scholarship that covers tuition at SUNY/CUNY.
@mommdc I live in New York and am a resident. But my family moved here only for these businesses. I applied to SUNY Binghamton and Buffalo and was accepted to both. Binghamton COA is $28k and Buffalo is $19k (adjusted after all discounts). I also have been accepted into The Ohio State University, Penn State, Rochester (recently) and Northeastern (recently). I will be going into business/finance. However, my dream has always been to attend schools like Penn (Wharton), WashU (Olin) and UVA (McIntire) (where I have been rejected from) and HY, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and UMICH Ross. I was wondering if I should let the schools I got rejected from know now or even tell the schools now of my situation that I am expecting results from. Stats: 1480. ACT: 33 superscored, 4.0 UW, top 20%, Indian male, several AP classes, application is heavily about my passion for volunteering and bettering the world.
@dvrichard90 Why would you contact the school that you’ve been rejected to? Can you commute to either SUNY? The tuition costs are only 7-8k instate. Which one could you commute to?
SUNY Buffalo costs ~$22k/year. If you qualify for the ~$6500 Excelsior grant for families with incomes that are less than $125k, that brings the cost down to $15.5k. The federal student loan is ~$5500/year, and if you work summers you can probably earn $3k. That brings your net cost to ~$7k. Can your parents pay that? If not, are there any SUNYs within commuting distance? You may need to take a gap year, figure out what your parents can pay, and apply to schools that offer enough merit to cover the rest.
Bad news - Schools aren’t going to change their admissions decision based on a change in your financial situation. Even schools that are looking to admit more low income students are likely to not re-evaluate you based on a recent change of situation. They’re trying to find more low income students that meet their criteria.
Good news - almost every school will re-assess your financials based on a sudden change, so you might get more need based aid. However, it’s not as easy as just sending a letter saying this happened. They’re going to ask for details like a sales contract for the businesses, some concrete evidence that things have changed. Otherwise, as you could imagine, they’d be fielding last minute requests all the time.
30 schools is a very large number, you might want to wait just to reduce your burden moving forward.
Don’t bother contacting ANY school about your finances until you have been accepted and have their financial aid offer in hand. TBH, they are busy enough with accepted students…and frankly, they aren’t going to give you the time of day unless you have been accepted.
Once you have been rejected from a college…move on. That school is NOT going to care one bit about your family financial situation…you aren’t going to be attending that college.
In addition, you may need to adjust your thinking about college in general. It’s nice to dream about schools…but if you have applied, and NOT been accepted…move on for now. Look where you DID get accepted (that is affordable) and decide where you should go from that list of schools.
Then do really well where you are planted. Maybe you will transfer, or maybe you will attend one of those other colleges for grad school. But they are not part of the plan…now. So move on.
You got into Northeastern? Did you get a financial package from them? If you can appeal the package due to the new circumstances and somehow make this work, it could be a good option. With the co-op options you can earn money during your college years to help pay tuition.