<p>Go to the school that gives a good aid packet, otherwise over time we will have a society of a middle class with a substantial amount of debt to pay back. The way BC figures aid is unbelievable. On their website they state if you are interested in federal aid only to fill out the FAFSA, but if in addition to federal aid, you are interested in aid from BC, then submit the CSS Profile. According to a BC financial aid officer, the Profile gives a better picture of what a family can actually afford to pay (their need) because it asks information about a family’s expenses as opposed to the FAFSA. The Financial Aid Officer failed to say that if your FAFSA shows that you can pay more than what the Profile indicates (which remind you the Profile is suppose to show more of your true NEED according to the BC Financial Aid Officer) than BC will use the FAFSA to determine whether you get any grant money from BC. I think the Financial Aid Officer should be candid with folks and tell them if you make over a certain income you WILL NOT GET AID FROM BC. In our case although the Profile showed a need of 20k in aid and the FAFSA showed a need of only 5k, BC offered $2400 in work study and $2600 in a federal loan. What happened to BC’s institutional methodology to meet 100% of need. Unbelievable.</p>
<p>Sorry about all my typing mistakes in my previous post. I guess I was tired. I agree about going to school where you get the best package. It is better for the students to graduate debt free. Have you decided where you are going?</p>
<p>I understand why my example of financial aid would not be compelling, but I think there is just one thing that could have potentially been misunderstood. When I said my parents were taping from their retirement funds, it was not as much an act of desperation as it sounds. My parents don’t have a lot of free-floating money for college, because they tucked everything away for retirement. So their 401k’s are quite large, and taking from them is not a terrible sacrifice.</p>
<p>Regardless, I wish all of you the best in deciding which college, financially and academically.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posts. My daughter received absolutely no aid from BC other than a federal unsubsidized loan and work study. BC was the only school she did not receive any type of aid. Of course, BC is her top choice, but she will not be going to BC because of the high cost to attend. She is so devastated and upset after working so hard to try and get into a school such as BC. It is apparent that BC does not stand by its position that it meets 100% of need (what they really mean is that we need 100% of your money). Our Profile showed we needed aid, but the FAFSA, which is so out of touch with reality, showed we needed less aid than the Profile. Of course, BC goes with the FAFSA amount in awarding aid. I attended the Financial Aid parent seminar at admitted student day, and the financial aid officer stood there and stated BC uses the Profile to determine BC aid. It is obvious in my daughter’s case, this was so far from the truth. I agree with the above post that BC should be truthful and let students and parents know before applying and paying an application fee and Profile fee, that if you make over a certain income, it is highly unlikely that you will receive any type of aid. If BC is open and truthful about their real financial aid policy, then an informed decision could be made whether to apply to BC or not.</p>
<p>Nilado (and others):</p>
<p>Please consider writing about your concerns to BC’s Provost, who ultimately oversees undergraduate admissions and financial aid. While it may not change your personal outcome, it might help others in the future. Good luck on your other choices.</p>
<p>Cutberto Garza
Provost and Dean of Faculties</p>
<p><a href=“mailto:bert.garza@bc.edu”>bert.garza@bc.edu</a></p>
<p>I just chose Santa Clara University over BC and remain hopeful of getting off the waitlist at Notre Dame. I’m very upset because I liked BC more, but I just can’t excuse putting my parents through borrowing heavily against the house and my dad’s business in this or any economy to pay for school. This is just a bit ridiculous. I think I will be writing a letter of complaint to BC because I am not the only student they lost because they have awful financial aid. I hope it will become better for students in the future. Otherwise, BC may become a school destined for mediocrity because it can’t get over its own ego. Whatever. I apologize to the many fine BC students and die hard fans, but the hell with the Eagles. God bless the Broncos and go Irish!</p>
<p>I agree Toast. You have made the right decision to not have your parents borrow against the house. BC is not worth the enormous debt. From previous posts I read on the Financial Aid forum, BC is notorious for not meeting 100% of “true demonstrated need.” As a result, they will definitely lose a great student body, including you and my D. I plan to write the school as well and I hope others will do the same, so that they can change their policies for future applicants in need of aid, otherwise they will not have an economically diverse student population. Good luck at Santa Clara!!! What is BCs loss is Santa Clara’s gain. I hope you get off the waitlist at Notre Dame, if that is truly where you would like to go.</p>
<p>Toast:
While I fully understand your disappointment, your reply does raise two questions:</p>
<p>1: How can you be placing total blame on BC? Shouldn’t you also be looking at yourself for not doing enough legwork a year ago researching BC’s financial aid?</p>
<p>2: When schools admit off their waitlist, many do not follow the same “need-blind” policies they use during regular admission. Do you really believe if Notre Dame accepts you off their waitlist, that it will be with a generous FA package? Your post implies it will.</p>
<p>Toast:</p>
<p>Congrats on Santa Clara. It’s a great school, and I have never met anyone who didn’t have a great experience there. I’m assuming that they offered you merit aid?</p>
<p>Take some time so you can write a thoughtful letter to BC, which may help others in the future. </p>
<p>But unfortunately your assumption about ND’s finaid maybe incorrect. Based on what I have seen on cc, ND’s need-based aid is not much better than BC’s. A couple of years ago, my son’s roomie, double legacy at ND, local resident – been to football games since he was one, life-long Irish fan, dreamed of being in their marching band, etc etc, had to turn down ND because his package at several other schools was just too rich to pass up.</p>
<p>Hopefully, the WL will comes thru for you but don’t be surprised if the finaid is not what you desire.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I admit that perhaps I was a bit naive in what I assumed financial aid to be like at BC. I am the first of my siblings to apply to college, so hopefully my brother will be more informed when he gets around to it. I assumed that 100% of meeting financial need was exactly far less subjective than it is. So, I did take it on too much faith. That said, I also want to say that I love Boston College, and it seemed like a great place. If it weren’t for the financial situation, I would happily be there. I just do not want to offend anyone lucky enough to be attending this coming year. I also know that financial aid at Notre Dame operates on a similar system, but I have only seen one complaint this year on their forum whereas well over fifty are posted on BC’s. I have also posted a thread there specifically asking if they will expect my parents to take out mortgages and such to pay. I am absolutely willing to make sacrifices to attend college, and I am not being greedy. My family can pay for most of the cost of college or concievably, all of it, given a reasonable plan. Mostly my family and I are just hoping that Notre Dame will work with us. Boston College told us not to waste their time with our financial concerns. If Notre Dame will give us an inch and offer to help us figure the mile out (to be rather cliche), we will make it work. At the end of the day, it’s an attitude. Santa Clara has it, I hope Notre Dame will, Boston College does not. However, I apologize for what may have been a rather brash previous post and congratulate all those attending Boston College this coming year. It is a great school in all but this particular area (and it may yet improve here too), and you guys deserve it. Congratulations.</p>
<p>toast:</p>
<p>have you run the finaid calculators on collegeboard? Do you have an idea what your Profile EFC is? The reason I ask is that, as the first to attend college, the numbers change once siblings are attending college as well. For example, if your Profile EFC is $50k today with one child in college it will still be $50k with two in college. The difference is that the number is basically cut in half for each child (some colleges only cut it by 40%). Thus, your EFC would be $25k and your sibling’s EFC would be $25k. At that point, but colleges will offer need-based grant money for both of you.</p>
<p>Just something to consider.</p>
<p>Toast, I forgot to update you on the appeals. My apologies. My mom called Jenna Brown of Student Services last week and asked about reconsidering, they talked for quite awhile to no avail. She basically said that our EFC to them is $50K and suggested we should automatically be willing refinance our house (mortgage paid off for 10+ years already) to help with the cost.</p>
<p>That is how they define need. “Oh, you have a house that you can potentially refinance. Assets! You don’t need any help!” That really says a lot about BC’s attitude and Toast, I agree with you.</p>
<p>As a lifelong BC fan/obsessive, I just can’t bring myself to eliminate the school. (and even considering Notre Dame–I mean, South Bend Community College–would be heresy! :P) I absolutely love it and my parents have even offered to cover the first year and $25K each year thereafter. But I don’t know. Perhaps BC is totally right/in the majority in how they define aid, but as I said earlier, two other amazing universities (CMU and William and Mary) have decided I deserve upwards of $25K in aid, and so even though my heart often screams BC, my head just cannot justify it. I am also willing to make sacrifices, but totally unnecessary ones? Is BC worth the large extra effort? Their brash attitude hints that maybe it isn’t. And to me that’s just a shame.</p>
<p>Getting into around $75,000 of debt to make up for what your parents won’t pay for the three years seems way too high.</p>
<p>g-man:</p>
<p>$25k/yr is just too much to absorb.</p>
<p>W&M is a fafsa-only school, which does not count home equity. Fortunately, the Virginia schools meet “full need” for OOS’ers. (Indeed, I think Virginia is the only state that meets full need for OOS’ers.)</p>
<p>And yes, home equity is an “asset” counted by BC and all other Profile schools. Some of the more generous schools cap the equity used in the EFC at a multiple of income; Stanford is an example. I don’t think that BC caps equity, however, so that $500k in equity is considered the same as $500k in cash sitting in the bank. Such a policy hits those on the coast particularly hard. OTOH, having home equity is better than no equity, and to be “fair” to renters…</p>
<p>Both W&M and CMU used the Profile. W&M just snuck it in after we initially applied for FA, casually asking for the Profile as well (I too had seen that it was FAFSA-only, so this was an unwelcome surprise – thankfully it didn’t hurt me). And, after I got in, they sent us ANOTHER form; this time a “Weekly Expenses” chart. It was stupid; basically repeating stuff in the FAFSA and Profile.</p>
<p>I understand why schools why schools use home equity, but other schools seemingly take into account much more than that, which is far more accurate of an assessment of a situation. Both of my parents are unemployed and even though they saved for many years, their assets (mainly tied up in the stock market) have gone down considerably over the last couple years obviously, as well as the home value. That and we have no income, although my dad is looking for a job as we speak.</p>
<p>I get that their “need” definition may work out great for a lot of people (i.e. renters) and I just got unlucky based on what assets and such we have. But I seem to have quite a lot of company in this situation, and since other schools with much lower endowments assessed my need to be much higher and gave me actual scholarships and not just puny federal loans to meet it, yeah, I do question their methods a little bit. Obviously it hasn’t prevented BC from putting together an amazing class of students year after year and increasing socioeconomic diversity (IMO), but for me it just reflects horribly on the school, or at least the administration.</p>
<p>Ahh gingerbreadman, I’ve been crossing my fingers for you and I’m so sorry that it didn’t work out regarding the FA. I’m so impressed by your wonderful parents, who unemployed have offered to give you what they can. You are lucky to have them. IMO, BC is not in the cards for you and you would be better served to look at the other two great colleges W&M and CMU. They are both wonderful, congratulations! Actually, since you live so close to BC, you will get the best of everything! On the breaks you can hang out with your BC buddies and during the school year you’ll be having a blast with your new college friends. Once you choose between W&M/CMU, you’ll become a part of your new school and will establish a new, strong bond with your school. I am a strong believer that everything works out in the end as long as the intentions and actions are positive and genuine. I wish you and your family the best.</p>
<p>Thank you so much. Your message means a lot to me.</p>
<p>I think you are spot on. I did not expect my parents to offer that much just so I could go to BC and I really appreciate them doing that It showed me how much they realized I love it. Still, I ended up going with your advice and chose W&M late Sunday night (still had a heck of a time deciding, even between CMU and W&M). It took a lot for me to turn down BC, but I am so excited to join the Tribe family (one of the reasons I chose W&M is because of how much it feels like a big family!), and I now truly think I am capable of keeping my bond with BC even if I go to another school, which was a really hard idea for me to embrace. I wore my W&M t-shirt to school on Monday to celebrate, but Tuesday was back to the usual BC shirt and hat. Some people thought I had changed my mind haha, but I was just showing the love.</p>
<p>It is true, whenever I’m on break I can just wander down the street and onto BC’s campus, and by now that feels like home just as much as home does. 
I will definitely sneak into the student section at a few football games this year!</p>
<p>I definitely think I made the right choice. It’s tough to pass up a chance to be part of BC '15 and I still wish I could have been, but $30,000 extra in savings per year is a nice consolation prize. Plus I am really looking forward to forming that new bond with W&M. Thanks again collegecarla.</p>
<p>gingerbreadmann,</p>
<p>That’s wonderful news! Now you belong to 2 colleges! W&M is a great school. During this admissions process (Nov-Mar), I’ve noticed that the W&M admissions college representative would often log into cc to reassure applicants and answer questions. I find this impressive and indicative of how much W&M cares about its students. Now that you’ve made your decision, you can finally kick back, relax and enjoy. Congrats!</p>