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List view of 2016 Acceptances - copy and paste, and add your student here so we can celebrate!!!


FaithManor
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Scholarship news is in some ways more exciting/important than admission news, isn't it? Means that the school is a real possibility! Congrats to your kids on their hard work!!

 

We've got a new acceptance here. Well, a likely letter anyway! Please add Dartmouth College (likely letter) - Gr8lander's D

 

She is pretty excited because of the setting; she's a cross country skier and mountain runner, but we don't know how the finances will work out. Their engineering program is not ideal either.

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Okay, y'all were busy while I was off dealing with my folks, and taking my kids skiing while sick! Congrats!

 

I added our last outstanding school. Ds was accepted to the University of Rochester.

 

Now it is a waiting game of who throws the most money at him. I love U of R, but it isn't quite as strong in his major. He likes it A LOT as well, so I still think it is an option if the scholarship money is big enough.

 

Otherwise it will be WMU as a first choice for their BS in Freshwater Sciences and Conservation (the only specialty degree of this kind currently in the nation and one that will lead him fairly effortlessly into the Coast Guard after graduation as a marine scientist and conservationist) or Northern Michigan University because they also have an outstanding reputation for emphasis in water ecology within their biology and ecology majors plus a very strong working relationship with the Coast Guard in the Marquette Flotilla, and offer research options by the end of the freshman year. Actually, that right there is a strong factor for U of R as well, but it will be easier to get in with research on Lake Superior or at WMU on Lake Michigan, than it will be Lake Ontario with U of R.

 

He is rejecting U of MI. Good school. Just not exactly what he wants right now. I am sure he will take a ribbing from DD, a U of MI alum, and ds the current U of MI student.

 

Waiting game. Big waiting game until those financial packages come out later this month.

 

Sigh.....all the waiting.

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To update: Ds was invited to the Honor's College at Georgia State (his acceptance is already on the list).  He was accepted at the University of Oregon (but Honor's College notifications haven't come out yet).  And he has been accepted at Kennesaw State University.

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Quick question:

 

Why would a school come back and offer more merit aid, if you didn't ask for it?

 

Ds did apply about a month and a half before their deadline and had his answer in about a month, I believe.

Some schools, like WMU, have scholarship competitions. Ds had one at WMU ten days ago and it will be at least another week before we know if he earned any extra. Other schools have departmental scholarships that are decided well after the acceptance letters go out. NMU is one example. They inform you right away od the baseline scholarship for gpa/act/sat, but then there is a scholarship competition plus in February, a large number of endowed scholarships like the geography major scholarship, or the education department scholarship are applied for with an additional waiting period to see how that adds up.

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My daughter has been offered a few extra scholarships that we didn't know about in the months since admission at various places. I think there can be some unadvertised competitive scholarships and students are chosen from the pool of applicants. I suspect it is about sweetening the pot.

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Dd apparently got accepted to SUNY Stony Brook a while ago, but hadn't bothered to tell me.  Not her top choice school! ;)

 

Well, Stony Brook just moved waaaaay up the list!  She just got awarded a full-tuition out-of-state scholarship!!!  Woot!!!  :hurray:

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My daughter has already been accepted to Marymount University but also applied to their Forensic Scholars program which is direct entrance to their forensic psychology graduate program. We haven't heard about that yet but she was just invited to a special dinner they hold each year for the forensic psychology graduate students to meet people from the various federal agencies that employ and intern these students. I called to make sure this was right since she's not even an undergrad yet and they said 'oh yes - we have invited a few select undergrads this year'. So I'm thinking she has been accepted to the program :-). 

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My daughter has already been accepted to Marymount University but also applied to their Forensic Scholars program which is direct entrance to their forensic psychology graduate program. We haven't heard about that yet but she was just invited to a special dinner they hold each year for the forensic psychology graduate students to meet people from the various federal agencies that employ and intern these students. I called to make sure this was right since she's not even an undergrad yet and they said 'oh yes - we have invited a few select undergrads this year'. So I'm thinking she has been accepted to the program :-). 

 

That is very exciting news!

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We should start a decisions thread so it will be a lot easier to see who is going where. The accpetance thread is awesome but huge!!!!

 

Great idea! 

 

This is good to hear. I worry that ds is so caught up in looking at location that he isn't seeing the whole picture, especially the academic strengths that a school like Allegheny can offer. He's doing an overnight visit, so I am looking forward to hearing his impressions. Would your dd be open to some questions?  Please feel free to pm me.

 

I'm sorry, I'm just seeing this now, I'll send you a PM. My Content is very unreliable for me. 

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Hello everyone!  I want to share that Ds has been accepted to the University of Michigan and the University of Cincinnati.   And we were notified that he has been awarded a Chancellor's Scholarship, which carries a 4-year full tuition scholarship from TCU!  We are so elated by this news!   

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Since I live in WA, I never looked at the out-of-state tab there, but I was curious and checked. U-dub is not the worst on the west coast, that award goes to Berkeley. Michigan is also worse than UW for OOS tuition costs:

 

On-campus, out-of-state cost of attendance:

 

Michigan 57,432

Cal Berkeley 60,073

UW Seattle 49,338

 

But, no, none of these give significant aid to out-of-state students.

Some of my son's roommates & friends are attending Berkeley OOS and yes, I think they are nuts. Especially since they are from states that have good state schools of their own. But I think Berkeley is the highest not just b/c of tuition but because of the cost of living (reflected in the housing fees, both on- and off-campus -- ask me how I know :glare: ). Just for fun, here are the actual "tuition and fees" prices for these schools:

 

 

tuition + fees only, out-of-state, 2015-16:

 

Michigan -- $43,476 (frosh/soph); $46,528 (jr/sr)

UC Berkeley -- $38,140

UW Seattle -- $34,143

Edited by Laura in CA
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DS was accepted to Case Western Reserve University with a $22,500/year merit scholarship.  The cost of attendance is around $63,000/year, so he will be choosing a more affordable option, but still proud that he was accepted :).

 

This is the kind of thing that's been happening to dd with the private schools.  They give her what seems like a lot of merit aid, but the net cost is still $30-40K (yes, this is much more than our EFC - we have two going next year, after all) not even including the loans she'd have to take out.

 

There are two public schools (one in, one out of state) that haven't given her as much actual dollar merit as some of the private schools, but because they start less are so, so much more affordable - enough so that she won't have to take loans.  She'll probably go with one of those.

 

And those private school merit awards seem to be in fixed $ amounts, so even if they're renewable, wouldn't you end up having to paying more out of pocket each year as tuition increases but the merit award remains the same?   

 

Another nice thing about both the public school merit awards she's gotten is that they're a percentage of tuition, so it should be much easier to manage any cost increases.

 

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This is the kind of thing that's been happening to dd with the private schools.  They give her what seems like a lot of merit aid, but the net cost is still $30-40K (yes, this is much more than our EFC - we have two going next year, after all) not even including the loans she'd have to take out.

Are you sure you have the final financial aid offer? Merit awards are from the admissions department and need-based comes from the financial aid department, often in a later letter or portal update since they finalize their decisions after admissions.

 

But, yes, you're right about merit awards not increasing every year as tuition does. Even need-based grants don't necessarily increase, so ask!

 

It's something you have to bake into your budget.

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Are you sure you have the final financial aid offer? Merit awards are from the admissions department and need-based comes from the financial aid department, often in a later letter or portal update since they finalize their decisions after admissions.

 

But, yes, you're right about merit awards not increasing every year as tuition does. Even need-based grants don't necessarily increase, so ask!

 

It's something you have to bake into your budget.

 

Not from all of them, but we have got the final offer from some of them (and there are two schools that are still totally AWOL - one public, one private - not an acceptance or denial yet, no less aid offers...)  So, we could still have some surprises.  I totally didn't expect that full-tuition scholarship to that state school - I kept hearing the private schools were likely to give more aid.

 

It appears that the only 'need-based' aid we'll get is the standard loans, and not all of them subsidized - that seems consistent across all the offers so far that include those (I'm not actually surprised by this - we're in that 'earn too much for aid but not enough to pay' hole - the only reason we even qualify for gov't loans is probably the twin thing).  But... $5500 doesn't take much off of a $63,000 bill, even if there's $20,000 or more in merit on top of it.  A couple of places have offered her work-study, but that's barely a dent as well.  WPI keeps sending us dribs and drabs of more little aid; the latest one is only for one year and the net price is still well over our EFC (which we all know is already more than most people can really afford) - and then the next year that piece goes away and tuition goes up.  We can probably swing our EFC with the savings we have, but it will be tight.  Spending $10-$20K more than EFC (on one kid - we've got three!), and saddling her with debt after seems a bit... nuts.   Especially when there are schools that she can go to debt-free.

 

Are we stingy stinkers?  I have a friend who's a single mom who's taking out what amounts to over 1/2 her annual salary in loans for her (fortunately only child) dd's college, for four years (in addition to the loans her dd is taking out herself).  I hyperventilate just thinking about that, and it's not even my money to pay back.  But... how does that get paid back?  Off her social security payments someday?  Then what will she have left to pay rent and eat?  Sorry, taking a turn into WTF is wrong with this system rant...  But how can colleges expect that people just 10 or so years from 'retirement' or often forced lay-offs for older workers that then can't find work at their old salary again can pay back these tens of thousands of dollars of loans when most people haven't even saved more than a few thousands for retirement???  That's totally aside from the debt they're saddling the kids with...

Edited by Matryoshka
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Not from all of them, but we have got the final offer from some of them (and there are two schools that are still totally AWOL - one public, one private - not an acceptance or denial yet, no less aid offers...)  So, we could still have some surprises.  I totally didn't expect that full-tuition scholarship to that state school - I kept hearing the private schools were likely to give more aid.

 

It appears that the only 'need-based' aid we'll get is the standard loans, and not all of them subsidized - that seems consistent across all the offers so far that include those (I'm not actually surprised by this - we're in that 'earn too much for aid but not enough to pay' hole - the only reason we even qualify for gov't loans is probably the twin thing).  But... $5500 doesn't take much off of a $63,000 bill, even if there's $20,000 or more in merit on top of it.  A couple of places have offered her work-study, but that's barely a dent as well.  WPI keeps sending us dribs and drabs of more little aid; the latest one is only for one year and the net price is still well over our EFC (which we all know is already more than most people can really afford) - and then the next year that piece goes away and tuition goes up.  We can probably swing our EFC with the savings we have, but it will be tight.  Spending $10-$20K more than EFC (on one kid - we've got three!), and saddling her with debt after seems a bit... nuts.   Especially when there are schools that she can go to debt-free.

 

Are we stingy stinkers?  I have a friend who's a single mom who's taking out what amounts to over 1/2 her annual salary in loans for her (fortunately only child) dd's college, for four years (in addition to the loans her dd is taking out herself).  I hyperventilate just thinking about that, and it's not even my money to pay back.  But... how does that get paid back?  Off her social security payments someday?  Then what will she have left to pay rent and eat?  Sorry, taking a turn into WTF is wrong with this system rant...  But how can colleges expect that people just 10 or so years from 'retirement' or often forced lay-offs for older workers that then can't find work at their old salary again can pay back these tens of thousands of dollars of loans when most people haven't even saved more than a few thousands for retirement???  That's totally aside from the debt they're saddling the kids with...

 

The aspect of the increasing tuition costs that disturbs me the most is that the money is seldom going to the faculty that is doing the actual teaching.  Good professors rock kids' worlds and I can't really think of anything more important that I want my ds to get out of college. 

 

Back to your original comments, we are in a similar situation, except we don't have twins.  We can do the EFC, very barely, on dh's income, but the goal is for me to go back to work full time when this school year ends.  I am very stressed about this as I have been out of the work force for a long time.  I'd love to start somewhere like Trader Joe's, just to ease back in, but that may not be an option.

 

8Fillthe Heart's advice on picking affordable schools is always in the back of my mind and yet, I am not sure we accomplished that.  The merit aid he's received places the LACs at nearly the same price as our state universities because he would be unable to get merit at them and no financial aid, but they are still expensive, as you pointed out. 

 

That said, we won't tap retirement or loans.  Sailor Dude is required to cover the indirect costs like books, personal items, and maybe travel.  He works full time in the summer and we've learned the hard way with the older kids that it's definitely important for our students to have skin in the game.

 

 

 

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Matryoshka - Be careful of things containing the word tuition. I have heard that tuition is often held fairly stable while "fees" rise greatly. This is a political thing. Fees are unnoticed while tuition rises are scrutinized. Last I checked, state tuition was a quite small percentage of the cost of attendance. Fees were much higher. And then there is room and board. Just be careful...

 

Nan

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Matryoshka - Be careful of things containing the word tuition. I have heard that tuition is often held fairly stable while "fees" rise greatly. This is a political thing. Fees are unnoticed while tuition rises are scrutinized. Last I checked, state tuition was a quite small percentage of the cost of attendance. Fees were much higher. And then there is room and board. Just be careful...

 

Nan

 

 

No kidding... one of our state schools has over 6k in fees. 

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Matryoshka - Be careful of things containing the word tuition. I have heard that tuition is often held fairly stable while "fees" rise greatly. This is a political thing. Fees are unnoticed while tuition rises are scrutinized. Last I checked, state tuition was a quite small percentage of the cost of attendance. Fees were much higher. And then there is room and board. Just be careful...

 

Nan

The MA school is thankfully off of both tuition + fees, because as you know 'tuition' in MA is more like a fee, and 'fees' are actually well over 10x 'tuition'. The NY school where it's just tuition has only about 2K in fees, the big number is indeed tuition. Not all states have done the switcheroo, apparently...

 

Yeah, and we'll have to cover room & board. That, fortunately, is within our EFC.

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Are we stingy stinkers? .

I think we probably win the award for that. My kids' budget is about 1/4-1/3 of our EFC. That is the long and short of it. We won't take out loans. We won't cosign loans. We cannot afford our EFC---that pretty much is the end of the discussion. Our oldest started college in 2007. Our youngest is in K. That is 25 straight yrs of college. Some of those yrs have more than 1 child. )

 

We can barely cover room and board. They can get high merit $$ or they can live at home. (None of them have lived at home, yet. Though our current 8th grader wants to attend the local U bc it has a great meteorology dept.)

 

Guess what? Our kids have managed to attend school very cheaply and have all had great experiences. Our older 2 have good careers. Our college sophomore is excelling. No debt for us. No debt for them. Good educations.

 

Zero regrets for walking away from top schools with big price tags for lower ranked schools with top $$ scholarships. :)

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DS was accepted into the University of Washington! Yay for him!

 

:thumbup:

 

Good thing I was not the one who brought the mail into the house today.  The gold envelope looked like the kind we get credit card offers in, and I'd have ripped it in half and recycled it!  Dh said he thought the same thing, but then took a closer look.

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Regarding aid and merit scholarships, etc...

 

DDs financial-totals have been interesting - MOST of the schools she applied to basically balanced out in the end as far as cost goes. Some gave more academic aid... some gave more financial aid... some have higher tuition... some have room & board that is a third higher than others.... and, in the end, it's mostly a wash.

 

Which was really surprising to me. I thought we'd have a clear winner (financially-speaking). In the end - even the state school she applied to (lousy merit aid) - is turning out to be more expensive than some out of state options (but, of course, we have to foot the travel bill...).

 

And, so far, it's been 100% that when she received merit scholarships, she's not received a penny in additional financial aid, despite what the financial calculators told us to expect. (with the exception of one private university... she received a $2,000 grant in addition to their $15,000 merit scholarship). Just loan options.

 

And WHY can't the universities GUARANTEE cost-of-attendance for four lousy years??!?!! INCREASE it each year, if they must, for each incoming freshman class... but keep the tuition the same ALL FOUR YEARS!! THAT is where the government should nose in. How on earth can we even begin to plan how to pay for something of this magnitude when it's going to go up random amounts each year? I wouldn't buy a house like this!!

 

Alabama was the only scholarship she received that specifically stated that it would cover FULL TUITION, no matter if the price increased. All the rest were flat $$ amounts. :/ Still leaves about $19k per year to pay out of pocket. :huh:

Edited by hopskipjump
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Regarding aid and merit scholarships, etc...

 

DDs financial-totals have been interesting - MOST of the schools she applied to basically balanced out in the end as far as cost goes. Some gave more academic aid... some gave more financial aid... some have higher tuition... some have room & board that is a third higher than others.... and, in the end, it's mostly a wash.

 

Which was really surprising to me. I thought we'd have a clear winner (financially-speaking). In the end - even the state school she applied to (lousy merit aid) - is turning out to be more expensive than some out of state options (but, of course, we have to foot the travel bill...).

 

And, so far, it's been 100% that when she received merit scholarships, she's not received a penny in additional financial aid, despite what the financial calculators told us to expect. (with the exception of one private university... she received a $2,000 grant in addition to their $15,000 merit scholarship). Just loan options.

 

And WHY can't the universities GUARANTEE cost-of-attendance for four lousy years??!?!! INCREASE it each year, if they must, for each incoming freshman class... but keep the tuition the same ALL FOUR YEARS!! THAT is where the government should nose in. How on earth can we even begin to plan how to pay for something of this magnitude when it's going to go up random amounts each year? I wouldn't buy a house like this!!

 

Alabama was the only scholarship she received that specifically stated that it would cover FULL TUITION, no matter if the price increased. All the rest were flat $$ amounts. :/ Still leaves about $19k per year to pay out of pocket. :huh:

 

The part in bold is exactly what we found. The lowest merit aid added a much higher institutional grant. Higher tuition had lower living expenses. In the end, the bottom line is predominantly our EFC. Imagine that!  With the exception of one school, the bottom lines are within $2-3000. Only one school guarantees the same rate for four years and they are the most expensive one.

 

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I guess I'm surprised when colleges give good merit awards that still leave families gapped wrt to their EFC. What's the point of a merit award if you are still gapped after you get it? Not to mention the fact that so many of us (for various reasons) are not willing to pay the EFC!

 

We are all stingy stinkers; that's why schools have to give us merit awards to even get in the running. I do feel bad for parents who give absolutely zero support and won't even help the kid qualify for financial aid by filing a FAFSA, but there's no reason to apologize if your willingness to pay does not match the FA office EFC. The formulas are very broken in many cases, and each person knows their own situation best.

 

 

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Our schools have ranged from just below our EFC (merit aid at a state school) to about $10,000 over. The final four schools that he had narrowed to before offers came in, all came in within $2000-3000 or so. Interestingly, the most expensive school so far is probably the least prestigious on the list.

 

One school does the four year guarantee on tuition. It is the most expensive school but I bet by senior year the others will have caught up.

 

So far all FA packages have been what I expected due to automatic merit aid and net price calculators. Of the final four he considered the scholarship/grant aid was in different amounts but added up to similar total. Scholarships are guaranteed for four years but also have stipulations.

 

For us, the key to getting the cost to our EFC or slightly below was 1) automatic merit awards (ds had a great and diverse resume of extra curriculars but he did not win any competitive scholarships) and 2) applying to schools he was at the very top stats wise. The two with the biggest grant aid were schools that only meet about 75% of need generally but both met our full need. Ds was at the 95th percentile ACT score for those schools.

 

Also check out what housing option is figured into the FA award. Housing at some schools can vary widely in cost. One school figured the award using most expensive dorm. If ds gets into cheaper dorm that knocks $3000 of the cost! I suspect another school might figure award using least expensive dorm to make it look cheaper.

 

Very frustrating that there are so many variables and so much can change from one year to the next.

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The part in bold is exactly what we found. The lowest merit aid added a much higher institutional grant. Higher tuition had lower living expenses. In the end, the bottom line is predominantly our EFC. Imagine that!  With the exception of one school, the bottom lines are within $2-3000.

 

See, I guess this is what's really surprising me, as I kept hearing about that kind of experience here.  We've had completely the opposite experience.  To give very rounded, ballpark numbers (not including books/transportation):

 

State-school A: after merit (% tution/fees),  EFC less $2K  (also paid coop program and additional $4K freshman research grant)

State-school B: after merit (% tuition)          EFC less $6K

Private school A: after merit/institutional grants/student LOANS:    EFC plus $20K  (except first year additional $5K scholarship)

Private school B: after merit/institutional grants/student LOANS:    EFC plus $10K  (also paid coop program)

Private school C: after merit/institutional grants/student LOANS:    EFC plus $5K

 

And the difference with the last three will just keep going up and up and up as costs increase, as the aid is all fixed.  And I'm not even 100% sure that all those institutional grants over merit are for all four years.  With such a big difference even with them, though, the point seems a bit moot.

 

But they're all wildly different in terms of cost!   And what are those private school thinking??  It's lovely and flattering that so far she's been accepted everywhere she's applied, but really folks...

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:thumbup:

 

Good thing I was not the one who brought the mail into the house today.  The gold envelope looked like the kind we get credit card offers in, and I'd have ripped it in half and recycled it!  Dh said he thought the same thing, but then took a closer look.

 

Congratulations to your ds/dd!

 

He has not actually received the envelope yet. With the help of a friend, he was able to see on-line that he has been admitted.  He read the statement about a dozen times to ensure he was understanding correctly :laugh: .  Ă¢â‚¬â€¹For some reason, we will both feel relief when we get the actual envelope in the mail.

Edited by bugs
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