So many mistakes. So much disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Our oldest DD is a senior this year and we’ve made so many mistakes.

Her dream school is a T10 that we can’t afford. We’ve been upfront with her about it being too expensive. She said she just wanted to see if she could get in. Well, she got in and it’s been emotionally exhausting to deal with. The school keeps sending letters and packages. They recently offered to pay for her and a parent to fly out for their admitted student day, which she desperately wants to do.

She applied to another school T50 and applied for a prestigious full ride scholarship. She started getting excited about it and saying she would likely go to the school because of the scholarship program. She made it to the final round, had an interview, took a test, etc. Tonight she found out she didn’t get it. She’s been in tears. Says she’s no longer interested in the school. I get it. It put a bad taste in her mouth.

It’s looking like her best option is our state flagship school. We actually live in the town with the school, so this is not exciting to her.

As a parent I feel like we’ve made so many mistakes and the experience has been pretty negative overall.

[Anonymous]

Loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loans.

What’s your flagship ranking range and what’s the price different between it and your coa at a t10? What’s her career interest or major?

[Anonymous]

Not sure I understand. There are many schools between the state school and T10 that offer merit, which lower the cost to the same level of in state. Case Western, Grinnell come to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest DD is a senior this year and we’ve made so many mistakes.

Her dream school is a T10 that we can’t afford. We’ve been upfront with her about it being too expensive. She said she just wanted to see if she could get in. Well, she got in and it’s been emotionally exhausting to deal with. The school keeps sending letters and packages. They recently offered to pay for her and a parent to fly out for their admitted student day, which she desperately wants to do.

She applied to another school T50 and applied for a prestigious full ride scholarship. She started getting excited about it and saying she would likely go to the school because of the scholarship program. She made it to the final round, had an interview, took a test, etc. Tonight she found out she didn’t get it. She’s been in tears. Says she’s no longer interested in the school. I get it. It put a bad taste in her mouth.

It’s looking like her best option is our state flagship school. We actually live in the town with the school, so this is not exciting to her.

As a parent I feel like we’ve made so many mistakes and the experience has been pretty negative overall.

From the details, this is HPY or MIT then? They are the only T10 that have non-binding decisions released before today(JHU was today). If this is not a troll post and it is one of those 4, they provide some need based aid up into household incomes of 300k or so, and FULL tuition under 200k with normal assets. If you qualify for ZERO aid, in other words you are full pay, then you likely make over 300k household. How on earth could you not afford it?
They expect you to use your savings and 529. If you have none, you qualify for the most aid but only up to a point. Understandably, over 300k with some assets can afford one student at an elite school.
I ran the NPC for 300k with minimal assets and got 40k EFC, with normal assets it was EFC 62k. That means these schools still gave need based aid.

There is honestly no excuse for you not to be able to tighten your budget and afford it!

[Anonymous]

T10 is all private and need based and generous. If you can’t afford it then they will provide grants whatever to help pay. Don’t understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure I understand. There are many schools between the state school and T10 that offer merit, which lower the cost to the same level of in state. Case Western, Grinnell come to mind.

It is not as if this can change anything right now.

Can you appeal to the T10 for aid?

[Anonymous]

Did she apply for aid at the top 10 school? Top schools, especially Ivy, have great FA. Talk to the FA office.

[Anonymous]

OP here.

Flagship ranking is around 150. She got a scholarship so cost is 5K tuition plus housing (10K). 15K total.

T10 school. She got 20K in financial aid which would bring tuition down to 50K. Housing is about 15K. 65K total.

Engineering major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest DD is a senior this year and we’ve made so many mistakes.

Her dream school is a T10 that we can’t afford. We’ve been upfront with her about it being too expensive. She said she just wanted to see if she could get in. Well, she got in and it’s been emotionally exhausting to deal with. The school keeps sending letters and packages. They recently offered to pay for her and a parent to fly out for their admitted student day, which she desperately wants to do.

She applied to another school T50 and applied for a prestigious full ride scholarship. She started getting excited about it and saying she would likely go to the school because of the scholarship program. She made it to the final round, had an interview, took a test, etc. Tonight she found out she didn’t get it. She’s been in tears. Says she’s no longer interested in the school. I get it. It put a bad taste in her mouth.

It’s looking like her best option is our state flagship school. We actually live in the town with the school, so this is not exciting to her.

As a parent I feel like we’ve made so many mistakes and the experience has been pretty negative overall.

HPY and MIT are the only schools this could be and they do not fly students out to admitted days UNLESS the student qualifies for need based aid.
Troll post. Go away.

[Anonymous]

to be fair to OP, my kid got into HYP and we got about 10k in aid, appealed and got nothing more. they're not THAT generous. we make 300k live in nyc where taxes are 40%+. We have 3 kids. we live in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. we can't pay 75k after tax a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest DD is a senior this year and we’ve made so many mistakes.

Her dream school is a T10 that we can’t afford. We’ve been upfront with her about it being too expensive. She said she just wanted to see if she could get in. Well, she got in and it’s been emotionally exhausting to deal with. The school keeps sending letters and packages. They recently offered to pay for her and a parent to fly out for their admitted student day, which she desperately wants to do.

She applied to another school T50 and applied for a prestigious full ride scholarship. She started getting excited about it and saying she would likely go to the school because of the scholarship program. She made it to the final round, had an interview, took a test, etc. Tonight she found out she didn’t get it. She’s been in tears. Says she’s no longer interested in the school. I get it. It put a bad taste in her mouth.

It’s looking like her best option is our state flagship school. We actually live in the town with the school, so this is not exciting to her.

As a parent I feel like we’ve made so many mistakes and the experience has been pretty negative overall.

HPY and MIT are the only schools this could be and they do not fly students out to admitted days UNLESS the student qualifies for need based aid.
Troll post. Go away.

? she said they got 20k in aid. that's need based aid. you go away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Flagship ranking is around 150. She got a scholarship so cost is 5K tuition plus housing (10K). 15K total.

T10 school. She got 20K in financial aid which would bring tuition down to 50K. Housing is about 15K. 65K total.

Engineering major.

Then you make 220-300k, and can afford 65k. She can take out 5k in loans if you want, and since again this must be HYP or MIT, she can easily get a research position that will pay around 2k a semester, can likely make 5k + each summer.
Let her go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Flagship ranking is around 150. She got a scholarship so cost is 5K tuition plus housing (10K). 15K total.

T10 school. She got 20K in financial aid which would bring tuition down to 50K. Housing is about 15K. 65K total.

Engineering major.

The difference is only 50k!

Of course she can work part time to pay for the difference. Waitress, tutoring, etc. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to earn 50k per year.

If you are willing to pay additional 10k, that really helps.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I am not a troll.

The T10 school she applied EA so she’s known since December that she was accepted.

Interestingly enough the free flight/hotel offer was sent to her as “merit based” Even though the school awarded her no merit aid for tuition.