<p>Got our first financial aid package today, from Drexel. They offered $5K in grants, $6K in loans. So that’s one that off the table.</p>
<p>According to this person, no. I say that because her claim is that those admitted first vs. last does not mean one applicant was weaker than another. She claims the order of being notified has nothing to do with being a stronger or weaker applicant. Yet they evalutate using an algorithm, so I don’t know what that means.</p>
<p>Sorry martina. That kind of package from a private school, would take the school off of the table for us too. Frankly I think that you can count on seeing your child offered 5500 in loans in many if not most packages. I know, the big question is how much in the form of grants.</p>
<p>Sharing son’s experience so far: (ACT 29, 3.1UW, 3.5W)
Accepted rolling: Univ of Pittsburgh in state (no$$, waiting FA), Drexel ($5,000 scholarship)</p>
<p>Accepted EA: Loyola MD (waiting FA), Ithaca ($7500 scholarship, $10,000 in access grants), Univ of Vermont ($3,000 scholarship), Univ of Connecticut (waiting FA), Hofstra ($10,000 scholarship),</p>
<p>Rejected: Penn State in state (offered Altoona campus)
Deferred: Northeastern</p>
<p>Still Waiting: American University, University of Delaware, Fairfield, Syracuse</p>
<p>Money a big concern, if we could have found even more suitable colleges would have gone for it!</p>
<p>Nice list, Frugola. You guys were ambitious! Does your son have a favorite? What does he plan to study. I wish my son had applied to a few more, but honestly, both he and we were exhausted and his fall class schedule was pretty challenging. I wonder how many schools we will look at with my youngest, who is only in 7th grade now, but has been on so many college tours, he’s a pro already! :)</p>
<p>He applied just to business schools. Right now our favorite is whoever gives the best FA package. Right now Ithaca and Drexel came in with their FA at Pitt’s instate price tag. If they all come in the same price tag, then Pitt or Syracuse. But he and I want the best deal in terms of coming out with low debt. This will probably come down to the wire.</p>
<p>We are also going with the best package, although I think one school is off the table now just because it isn’t the best fit. Still, with an amazing package, I would still send him. It doesn’t have some things that we would all prefer. We have 2 packages already and looking at sticker price and grants (merit and FA grants) those 2
schools are 2500 apart. The loans that they put in and w/s are identical btw.</p>
<p>The Stafford subsidized and the Stafford unsubsidized will usually total $5500.00. The student can expect to borrow that for Freshman Year, if they have demonstrated need. </p>
<p>That is what I have seen for the past several years or so, they all started offering the
$2,000 Unsubsidized Stafford on top of the Subsidized Stafford. </p>
<p>S has applied to schools with average percentage of need met between 87%-100%.<br>
These are averages of course, but we have found it certainly matters for FA packages.</p>
<p>Uggg. Just got our first Financial Aid/Merit Package Award. What a way to dash away pleasant thoughts of a school. Sorry folks, we’re not going to borrow 25K to have our #2college son attend your nice school. Hoping for better prospects from the others! </p>
<p>This 3.0-3.3 thread used to be fun! What’s happening?? LOL [sort of…]</p>
<p>ps: they always told me that having two in college helped ‘a lot’ when the financial aid packages came around…good lord, I hope it gets better than this!!</p>
<p>I have to admit, I’m looking at borrowing $25K as the best-case scenario. (Or were you talking about per year?).</p>
<p>Yes, that’s per year, for one child!!!</p>
<p>Ouch. That’s a deal-breaker, all right.</p>
<p>Have any of you looked into the private college loans…for needs beyond what the Stafford offers? Just wondering if one has to compare interest rates across various banks…</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Loans | Private Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/loans/privatestudentloans.phtml]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/loans/privatestudentloans.phtml)</p>
<p>Finaid dot org usually has helpful info on it, RTR.</p>
<p>After reading all the happy reports of acceptances, it is sad to see some of the FA news dash some deserving people’s hopes.</p>
<p>It is hard to believe the FA process could not be made more transparently predictable that people could know in advance the likely outocme and keep their kids targets realistic.</p>
<p>CapeCodLady Ouch! I remember sooo well when we got a similar financial aid offer from one of my D’s school. When I looked again the amount included a loan that would cover our EFC so deducting that improved the bottom line. Also deducting from the COA the things that we knew we wouldn’t be paying for like insurance and living expenses (those were on the kids through jobs and/or private scholarships) improved it even more. </p>
<p>Take another look at it with an accountant’s eye and it may be better than you thought at first. The loan we would actually need came down by the thousands. She didn’t end up choosing that campus but it would have been doable after we reworked the numbers.</p>
<p>Thanks, HistoryMom,
Since it is our second time around, we’re pretty good at reading the packages. Last time around I created full spread sheets, right down to the amount of work-study, etc. This package also had my son borrowing 5, 500 in Unsub and Sub Stafford Loans, which in itself is not bad. It’s our EFC that doesn’t even seem to take into account we will have two kids in school.<br>
Yabeyabe, I totally agree. If we could have more info than percentage of need met, and so forth, we would be able to gauge better which colleges would make the most appropriate applications. Again, since it’s our second time around, we’re used to the disappointment, as well. With my older son I was completely floored by several of the non-packages for our son. I wondered if they figured he wouldn’t go there, so they did not want to promise more? He was wait-listed at a safety school which we do sort of still chuckle about, chief reasons we believed at the time were need for financial aid, and because he had not visited. Some schools are very ‘funny’ about that. They measure your interest by your phone calls, emails, visits, etc. On the flipside, places like Yale and Princeton were more apt to say, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’ :)</p>
<p>Anyway, hoping for better news in the next month! Good luck to everyone~</p>
<p>ps: private parent loans have ridiculously high interest rates. I’d do an equity before taking out one of them.</p>
<p>So many people these days do not have any equity, CCL, or they have a home worth less than what is owed! Even the people who have an equity line of credit have had it REDUCED by the banks themselves due to the faltering real estate market. </p>
<p>A PLUS loan (for parents) should never be included in a FA package, that is not meeting the student’s need. A PLUS loan is a loan parents can get themselves, provided their credit rating holds up. In “Paying for College Without Going Broke” Kalman Chany refers to colleges including a PLUS loan in a FA package as “financial sleight of hand.” </p>
<p>I think RTR was referring to private student loans, which parents must co-sign for, not to be entered into without some serious thought! How long will it take the student to pay it back once he graduates and is it worth borrowing X amount, based upon the student’s chosen career path? Is that college worth it, graduating with lots of debt? Lots of things to think about before signing & co-signing private loans.</p>
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<p>I heard on the news this morning that statistic currently applies to one out of four homeowners. There is even a term for it. They say that one out of four homeowners is currently “underwater”. That is very sad for those who were counting on the home equity for retirement. Home equity loans are now tough to get, so colleges have a problem too. If families cannot afford the price of college, they more than likely cannot tap home equity. I think schools were relying on parents taking out helocs to fund college in the past. Now more families that cannot swing the cost and have to walk away from schools. They never really could affford the cost in the past, and borrowed on their homes. That option is now gone.</p>
<p>NEMOM, if you ever have the time to assemble a combination of your FA advice and reports of the your efforts to find good value schools, it would make a great article for a parenting or finance magazine or a good book–“Colleges That Don’t Ruin Your Financial Life”.</p>