For College Freshmen, First Test May Be Financial Aid

To high school seniors, getting accepted by a college is half the battle. The other half is now arriving in mailboxes.
Colleges are sending out financial aid award letters that list the cost of a freshman year and how much of it will be covered by grants, loans and work study or come out of the family’s pocket.
The information can be confusing. A recent Harvard University study of top high school seniors found that some had “self-defeating” responses to aid. For example, students were “excessively attracted” to loans and work-study, although those have less value than grants.
Families usually have until May 1 to respond. That leaves just a few weeks to compare aid packages and make a decision that could have financial repercussions for years beyond college. Students leave college with an average of $18,900 in loan debt, according to Nellie Mae, which provides loans.
Jamees McGeever, a 19-year-old college freshman, weighed aid offers from eight schools a year ago. “It was really a roller-coaster ride. I was going to one college one second and the next second I was going somewhere else,” McGeever said. “I was at the point of tears so many times.”
At the start, her heart was set on George Washington University in Washington, D.C. After attending a small private high school in Atlanta, the Georgia native relished the idea of a big school in Washington.
The freshman year price tag was $40,000 with housing and other expenses, and the school’s aid package totaled $17,225. That left a $22,775 shortfall.
Her mother, a single parent who is retired, wasn’t in a financial position to help, McGeever said. The teen would have to make up the difference in loans, something she didn’t want to do.
She also turned down offers from two other Washington schools, each with an annual cost of about $40,000. One offered only loans; the other’s aid covered just half the cost.
As McGeever was resigning herself to staying in Georgia, where she could attend a state university tuition-free, she received offers from Skidmore College in upstate New York and Goucher College in Towson, Md.
Skidmore’s package of a loan, work-study and grant covered $27,100 of the $37,500 school-year costs, and the college courted McGeever by flying her in for a visit. But Goucher’s offer required less borrowing. In response, Skidmore sweetened its offer, and Goucher countered.
McGeever chose Goucher, whose aid package of $24,725 is mostly grants and scholarships. The school year costs $31,000, leaving McGeever with about $7,000 in loans.
A student also can appeal an aid package. Schools often revise their offer if a family’s finances take a downturn, such as a job loss, experts said.
A big aid package that consists mostly of loans may be worth less than a smaller package with more gift aid.