Parents of the Class of 2019

DS got into Villanova. He’s super excited, but no financial aid info yet, so we will see.

Congrats!!! Fingers crossed for a good solid FA offer.


Every time I look at DD's #2 choice (and most likely she'll attend if accepted) it seems the estimated cost of attendance increases. :scared1:
 
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2.5 hours isn't too bad. At this point, DD's choices are narrowed down to 10.5 hours or (gulp) 36 hours. Fortunately we have semi-local relatives near the latter so we can store her stuff and fly her home rather than moving her in and out by car every year, because I'm not sure how many times my old van would be up for that drive!

I’m considering renting a van to move DD rather than use my truck.
 
DS got into Villanova. He’s super excited, but no financial aid info yet, so we will see.
Congratulations! Dd got in in January, unfortunately Villanova gives very little merit aid. A handful get a full ride, some get invited to apply for a $15,000 scholarship, and that’s it. I’m not sure about need based. Two of dd’s friends just got accepted, and another wait listed.
 
DS got into George Washington with a $10k offer. It’s dropped in his list of priorities, which is actually fine by me bc of a few things I wasn’t that happy about. But still good to have options open. So far he is four for six and the last one we’re waiting on is Georgetown, which is a reach. I’d like to just find out so he can accept somewhere and get the ball rolling with deposits and orientation etc.
 


DS got into George Washington with a $10k offer. It’s dropped in his list of priorities, which is actually fine by me bc of a few things I wasn’t that happy about. But still good to have options open. So far he is four for six and the last one we’re waiting on is Georgetown, which is a reach. I’d like to just find out so he can accept somewhere and get the ball rolling with deposits and orientation etc.



Good luck Eureka!

We are in the exact same boat. DS is 6 for 6, just waiting on Georgetown, which will likely be a rejection. I just want it over with so he can start making a decision based on his acceptances. I think we will likely revisit most schools.
 
It has been a bad college-planning day, and I just need to vent here because I'm being "calm mom" for DD and DH is absolutely worse than useless in financial conversations because he'd borrow the moon if DD just asked for it.

DD was rejected by Wellesley. Disappointing, but I think she was more or less prepared for it. She saw some of the numbers of rejected students over at College Confidential and realized that this year's crop has just been insanely competitive. It is hard to take it too personally when kids with 1500+ SATs and a dozen or more AP 5s are getting rejected, you know?

Besides, she's been getting more and more excited about San Francisco. The research opportunities there are a clear cut above any of the other schools she applied to, other than maybe Tulane, and she really, really likes the Jesuit college atmosphere. But their financial aid offers came out today, and ours is dismal. The net price calculator was off by more than $20,000! So here she is, really excited about a school she applied to as an admissions and financial safety (their NPC was well within our budget, even assuming a margin of error of a couple grand) and leaning on that as a "this was meant to be" answer to being rejected from her top choice, and bam! We get hit with a bottom-line price that is laughably out of reach. She actually texted me while I was in a meeting tonight to ask me to come home, something she's never done through all the years of me getting my degree and now being back to work in a job that sometimes has me at 4 evening meetings a week.

The difference is entirely in their need-based award; she qualified for their second-highest automatic merit award and was invited to apply to the Honors College, but the grant is about a third of the NPC estimate. Seriously, what even is the point of HAVING a net price calculator if it can be off by that much?!? And they don't use one of those crappy, check-the-income-range NPC that clearly aren't more than the vaguest of estimates - they use the College Board calculator with a few university-specific questions added. I am so frustrated with this whole thing that I could scream. And of course, being me, I'm Googling like mad and poking around College Confidential and can't find anyone who has had a similar experience at all. Not like it matters, but I can't help wondering what went wrong, you know?
 
Ugh! I have heard of people renegotiating their financial aid packages before. But if it’s her first choice school,maybe it would be worth talking to them. Especially if their NPC was off by THAT much. I think it’s unlikely they could give you the entire amount, but if there’s a number in the middle that could seal the deal, it couldn’t hurt to ask.

I’m sorry though... that has to be EXTREMELY disappointing for all of you.
 


Colleen, what need based $ did the other schools offer? The only time we get anyis when we have more than one in college, and it’s alwayś the same from every college ($5000 in loans). I would call.
 
Colleen - I would definitely petition USF to ask for a reevaluation of your need based award. We had an accepted student reception for RIT last night and they said it's a pretty standard thing for many families to do. Give them details of other awards / grants / etc. that you've received from other schools and ask them to see if there is anything else they might be able to do. The worst they can say is no at this point. Good luck!
 
Colleen27, I'm so sorry - your poor DD. This whole process is so stressful. Like others have said, I'd call the school to make sure that there wasn't an error somewhere. I've heard from other people that most schools have some financial wiggle room and will sometimes negotiate a better offer if you talk to them.
 
Ugh! I have heard of people renegotiating their financial aid packages before. But if it’s her first choice school,maybe it would be worth talking to them. Especially if their NPC was off by THAT much. I think it’s unlikely they could give you the entire amount, but if there’s a number in the middle that could seal the deal, it couldn’t hurt to ask.

I’m sorry though... that has to be EXTREMELY disappointing for all of you.

@Colleen27, definitely call and talk to someone. Explain the difference in the the estimate and the letter. There very well could be an error. Especially if she's invited into the honors track, they want her. Someone will at least take the time to look.

Yeah, I'm planning to call today. I can see two potential explanations for the discrepancy that could be helped by taking the time to make the call. The first is that there was an actual error somewhere, although I went over our FAFSA and CSS line by line last night just to make sure I didn't screw anything up and everything looks right on my end. The second is that, because DD's stats are well above their freshman profile numbers, they figured they were a safety school for her and chose to concentrate their grant aid on students more likely to attend. But we're ready to commit today if we can get the money worked out, so if that is the case maybe there could be some wiggle room.

Colleen, what need based $ did the other schools offer? The only time we get any is when we have more than one in college, and it’s alwayś the same from every college ($5000 in loans). I would call.

We have two other offers, one with significant need-based and and one with very little. Both are exactly what we expected from those schools, within a couple hundred dollars of their NPC figures. It is that discrepancy that is so frustrating - if we'd run the calculator and they projected a family contribution of 10x our FAFSA EFC/almost half our net household income, it wouldn't even have been on our list of places to apply. She only applied to one financial reach in that price range and it was to compete for major merit awards (two of which we're still waiting to hear on). But the USFCA calculator spit out a contribution of about twice our FAFSA EFC, high enough to feel believable, for lack of a better word - a lower contribution would have been a red flag that something wasn't right, since they aren't a meets full need school - but low enough to be manageable.
 
DD and I did our tour of UMass Lowell, she really liked it. Said the size is just right and that there was a lot of labs and research which she liked. We didn't tour the campus with the Liberal Arts degrees, just the ones with the housing and STEM degrees. (They're separated into 3 campuses and each tour is separate as well). It's moved to the top of her list. We also heard from Emory that she didn't get in, which isn't surprising because they pulled her 1st semester Senior year grades which weren't very good.

Still waiting to hear from Vanderbilt and Cornell, but I don't think she'll get into those, mainly because it's been so competitive this year. However, they didn't pull Senior year grades so they may be better than we think. One more week and then we'll be able to determine if we need to go back to a school to ask for more aid or if she's made her final decision!

If it ends up being UMass, there is NO WAY I'm driving her out there, it's basically a 3 day drive, so it'll be a couple of suitcases for clothes, and then a few trips to Target/Bed, Bath, & Beyond and where ever else for supplies, which sort of sucks because it means we'll be limited in selection and stuck with higher prices.
 
It has been a bad college-planning day, and I just need to vent here because I'm being "calm mom" for DD and DH is absolutely worse than useless in financial conversations because he'd borrow the moon if DD just asked for it.

DD was rejected by Wellesley. Disappointing, but I think she was more or less prepared for it. She saw some of the numbers of rejected students over at College Confidential and realized that this year's crop has just been insanely competitive. It is hard to take it too personally when kids with 1500+ SATs and a dozen or more AP 5s are getting rejected, you know?

Besides, she's been getting more and more excited about San Francisco. The research opportunities there are a clear cut above any of the other schools she applied to, other than maybe Tulane, and she really, really likes the Jesuit college atmosphere. But their financial aid offers came out today, and ours is dismal. The net price calculator was off by more than $20,000! So here she is, really excited about a school she applied to as an admissions and financial safety (their NPC was well within our budget, even assuming a margin of error of a couple grand) and leaning on that as a "this was meant to be" answer to being rejected from her top choice, and bam! We get hit with a bottom-line price that is laughably out of reach. She actually texted me while I was in a meeting tonight to ask me to come home, something she's never done through all the years of me getting my degree and now being back to work in a job that sometimes has me at 4 evening meetings a week.

The difference is entirely in their need-based award; she qualified for their second-highest automatic merit award and was invited to apply to the Honors College, but the grant is about a third of the NPC estimate. Seriously, what even is the point of HAVING a net price calculator if it can be off by that much?!? And they don't use one of those crappy, check-the-income-range NPC that clearly aren't more than the vaguest of estimates - they use the College Board calculator with a few university-specific questions added. I am so frustrated with this whole thing that I could scream. And of course, being me, I'm Googling like mad and poking around College Confidential and can't find anyone who has had a similar experience at all. Not like it matters, but I can't help wondering what went wrong, you know?
I'm so sorry. That's crazy. Like others have said, I hope you can talk to someone to appeal or at least make sense of why it was so far off.
 
If it ends up being UMass, there is NO WAY I'm driving her out there, it's basically a 3 day drive, so it'll be a couple of suitcases for clothes, and then a few trips to Target/Bed, Bath, & Beyond and where ever else for supplies, which sort of sucks because it means we'll be limited in selection and stuck with higher prices.

And there’s always Bed, Bath & Beyond’s Pack & Hold service, so you won’t be stuck with only a limited selection there.
 
DD and I did our tour of UMass Lowell, she really liked it. Said the size is just right and that there was a lot of labs and research which she liked. We didn't tour the campus with the Liberal Arts degrees, just the ones with the housing and STEM degrees. (They're separated into 3 campuses and each tour is separate as well). It's moved to the top of her list. We also heard from Emory that she didn't get in, which isn't surprising because they pulled her 1st semester Senior year grades which weren't very good.

Still waiting to hear from Vanderbilt and Cornell, but I don't think she'll get into those, mainly because it's been so competitive this year. However, they didn't pull Senior year grades so they may be better than we think. One more week and then we'll be able to determine if we need to go back to a school to ask for more aid or if she's made her final decision!

If it ends up being UMass, there is NO WAY I'm driving her out there, it's basically a 3 day drive, so it'll be a couple of suitcases for clothes, and then a few trips to Target/Bed, Bath, & Beyond and where ever else for supplies, which sort of sucks because it means we'll be limited in selection and stuck with higher prices.
If she goes to Lowell, it's less than an hour to New Hampshire, which has no sales tax. So you could potentially rent a car and go shop there for supplies. (Native New Englander here, lol)
 
And there’s always Bed, Bath & Beyond’s Pack & Hold service, so you won’t be stuck with only a limited selection there.

I hadn't thought of that, we'll have to look into it!

If she goes to Lowell, it's less than an hour to New Hampshire, which has no sales tax. So you could potentially rent a car and go shop there for supplies. (Native New Englander here, lol)

The young man who gave us the tour of the residence area is from New Hampshire and mentioned that. It's on my radar if it ends up being the case!
 
I agree with those that say appeal or speak to someone. Dd wants to go to Hofstra University on Long Island but their financial offer was 28,000 a year where Ithaca offered 21,000 a year, when we went to the admitted students day at Hofstra they suggested she do an appeal an send Ithaca offer with it. Dd filed her appeal last week an today they called to say they offered her another 8,000 scholarship which brings the cost down under Ithaca offer. Still a lot to attend but she is beyond excited.
 
Still no answer from San Francisco. I spoke with an extremely unhelpful woman in their financial aid office who knew nothing and wasn't interested in volunteering any information unless directly asked for it (like the name and contact info of someone who might actually be able to answer my questions). She really didn't even seem to get what I was asking until I explained it three times, and then her answer was basically that "the computer does all that, we don't have anything to do with it". But I did eventually get a name and e-mail address for an assistant director of financial aid who deals with incoming freshman accounts, and I left him a message and sent an email including the saved NPC results and a bit about our general circumstances. Hopefully we hear back soon.

In other news, she did get in to Bryn Mawr. Not sure what to do with that factoid yet because this sets up a dynamic where the smarter financial plan is the school with fewer opportunities in her field and a less attractive campus environment. And even with as sensible as DD has always been, I'm not sure how well she's going to navigate that choice. But we're tentatively planning a spring break trip out there so maybe seeing the campus will help.
 
Congrats on the Bryn Mawr acceptance! I hope the higher up at USF can help out and make the numbers work.

DD was rejected at her #2 school today. I’m so disappointed for her although financially it’s a relief. Of the remaining schools I don’t have much hope for acceptances so we’re going to have to really do some soul searching in the next 10 days. It’s so hard for these kids today. On the bright side, in 10 days the decision will be made and the agonizing over!
 

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