Sitting alone at a table on the Quad, Kamari McNeely ’24 sat at a table at school and prepared to open her decision letter to her dream school, Tufts University. Bracing herself for the worst, she read the letter and felt excitement and joy wash over her — she had been accepted into Tufts University regular decision. Relieved at the news, she texted her parents, who immediately congratulated her. However, her excitement was cut short just a few days later when she got her financial aid package back. The university offered her $20,000 per year, leaving her and her family to cover the rest of tuition costs, approximately $70,000. Despite exploring all possible financial options, McNeely said Tufts remained financially out of reach.
“My parents saw the financial aid package and immediately told me we couldn’t afford Tufts,” McNeely said. “I tried to bargain with them and find a way where we could make it work there. [My parents] told me to reach out to the financial aid person at Tufts. I got in touch with him, and I had a meeting with him, and he was just very short with me. He gave a very negative vibe and wasn’t willing to negotiate my package, so I turned down the offer.”
Student financial aid in the U.S. is funding that is available exclusively to students attending a post-secondary educational institution. Student aid encompasses grants, scholarships, work-study jobs and loans, according to the government office of Federal Student Aid. Students can receive financial aid by applying directly to schools with forms like the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile. Schools use this data to create financial aid packages, which may include federal, state and institutional aid, according to Franklin University.
Upper School Dean Sarah Miller said understanding different forms of financial aid forms and being in communication with colleges about special circumstances is essential for students seeking financial assistance.
“Every college uses the FAFSA form, and most private colleges use a unique form called a CSS that provides an additional layer of information about your family’s income, assets and any special circumstances,” Miller said. “If a family has currently or recently incurred a truly out-of-the-norm financial hardship, whether it’s the loss of a home from the recent Palisades or Eaton fires, or a family had to sell a business that was their primary source of income colleges often have unique circumstance forms that a family can fill out.”
According to a Chronicle poll, 27.2% of students said they have applied or will be applying for financial aid during their college process. 72% of all undergraduates received some type of financial aid, with an average amount of $14,100, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. McNeely said the financial realities of college admissions deeply affected her mental health.
“If my parents had all this money that a lot of students at the school have, I would have gone to Tufts [University] right off the bat,” McNeely said. “Financial aid is just something I had to factor in. It definitely affected my mental health when I saw people being able to get into the same schools as me and also be able to attend them because they could afford it. ”
76% of high school students said the financial aid amount awarded to them and the overall financial aid process were the top drivers in their choice about where to go to college, according to CNBC. Maylie Macias ’26 said financial aid will be crucial in her college decision, especially as a first-generation college student.“
Financial aid will be one of the biggest factors of where I go, and the school that gives me probably the most aid will probably be where I end up going,” Macias said. “This process will be my family’s first time going through [it]. I didn’t grow up in an area where they emphasized the college process, and there weren’t a lot of resources or awareness about what programs and scholarships to apply for. If not for Harvard-Westlake, I wouldn’t have the amount of knowledge that I do right now.”
McNeely, who is now a freshman at Skidmore College, said it is important for students on financial aid to be realistic about their options.
“Make your list of colleges you want to apply to and then the colleges that you can’t afford,” McNeely said. “It may not be where you want to go to or want to look into, but [you] have to be realistic. You’re on financial aid, and you have to keep that in check when you see your peers getting into schools. You are not in the same situation as them, and acknowledging that can help you cope.”
Early Decision (ED) is a binding commitment, meaning those who apply in that round must attend the selected college if they are accepted. The only way to get out of the commitment is if a student cannot afford the financial package a college gives them, according to U.S. News. Micah Parr ’25, who applied ED to Emory University, said he eliminated any school he knew his family would not be able to afford.
“I took out schools like New York University (NYU), Northeastern, any schools that whenever I looked up and I’d see average cost of financial aid was over like $35,000,” Parr said. “I instantly crossed colleges off my list for early decision application because I knew that if I used my original opportunity and put it on a school that I couldn’t pay for it even if I liked it, then it just wouldn’t be worth it to apply for early decision.”
One way to come up with money for college is through various online scholarships. Many websites, such as bold.org, BigFuture by College Board and scholarships.com, allow students to submit applications for these scholarships through essays. If selected, participants can win amounts of money spanning from $500 dollars to $20,000. 44% of students said they would switch their top choice school for just $5,000 more in scholarship aid, according to Ellucian, an education technology company. Macias, who has had to search for scholarships, said the process is overwhelming.
“I’m getting a $1,000 here, $500 there, whereas people who are not on financial aid don’t always have to consider that,” Macias said. “There are so many scholarships, and it’s hard to choose where I will spend time applying to or trying to figure out what’s gonna benefit me more. It’s hard because I don’t know how to pick and choose where I’m spending my time and where I’m putting myself out for these scholarships.”
The outstanding federal student loan balance is $1.693 trillion; 42.7 million student borrowers have federal loan debt and federal student loan debt represents 92.4% of all student loan debt and 7.57% of student loan debt is private, including $29.3 billion in refinance loans, according to Education Data Initiative. Parr said due to a lower financial package than expected, he will have to take out loans.
“I remember scrolling through the email, just looking at it over and over and over again, and I was like, ‘This is all I got?’” Parr said. “I was very panicked. It was nowhere close to the amount that I thought I would get. I chose Emory precisely because I thought it would give me a decent amount of financial aid. I went home, talked to my parents multiple times, and afterward, we figured out that we could afford it, but I would have to take out some loans.”
Miller said honesty in financial conversations is key for both students and parents in navigating the college process. “The most challenging thing is having difficult conversations between students and parents early on, so a student has a sense of what their parent is comfortable paying if cost is a factor in the process,” Miller said. “The other piece is that if a student doesn’t know that the price of tuition is going to be a factor in the process because the parents haven’t felt comfortable being transparent with their student about that, it can be really frustrating at the end of the process when a student sees what options they’re left with, thinking that a parent might pay for any school they’ve been admitted to.”
Parr said navigating the college application process with financial aid in mind made him rethink his approach to safety schools in creating a balanced list. “Even though there are certain out-of- state schools like University of Texas at Austin and University of Wisconsin-Madison that are great schools, it was very daunting knowing that even if I got in, I wouldn’t be able to afford it, even if I had a very high chance of getting into some of those,” Parr said. “I’d have to apply to safety schools that aren’t as popular to see which ones would give me the best scholarships to see which ones I can afford.”
Miller said financial considerations and transparency with the deans are crucial in helping students make informed college decisions.
“We encourage students who indicate to us that finances are going to be an aspect of how they choose a college to apply to a very wide variety of schools, not just in terms of selectivity, but in terms of financial aid structure,” Miller said. “There are some schools that guarantee to meet a student’s need, as is indicated on the FAFSA, to the fullest extent, and there are other schools that are really up front that they’re need-aware.”
McNeely said her process may not have been what she expected, but is glad it turned out how it did.
“Honestly I can’t tell if I like Skidmore yet, but I do think rejection is redirection is very true,” McNeely said. “Through Skidmore, I was able to do my first semester abroad, and I enjoyed it. Even though the college process didn’t turn out how I expected it to be, I still feel like somehow I was put in the right direction. I got the option to study abroad during my first semester, and not many freshmen have the opportunity to do that. There were some good and some bad aspects, but I have learned much about myself from the college process and my freshman year.”
