Not only is my granddaughter in high heaven over acceptance, but a LAX girl from her summer team just got in. She is not Varsity talent for ND, but has major financial need...Big Time...single mom...only child
She was told on visit to ND in late January.....while out for G'mom's funeral in Valpo area, that "Notre Dame meets the financial needs" of students like her.
In my sons' days, they gave squat. Have financial aid packages gotten better?
"Meets financial need" is just vague enough to be both truthful and misleading.
My experience is both personally anecdotal (4 schools including ND) as well as info from my wife's work with lower income NJ kids gaining college entrance. ND info is about 8 years old, so take it for what it is...
ND is not the best with financial aid and I think they feel they don't need to be. They have great outcomes and think the education is worth it and are comfortable that kids/parents will have loans from attendance.
That said, it seems kids fall into a few categories.
- don't need the aid... pretty fair, these kids get charged full whack
- really need aid... for kids that are really in need, and perhaps your daughters friend is in this category, the tuition can be handled by a combination of federal loans, modest parent contribution, university job. Again, this seems pretty fair and the University seems to do these kids right.
- could use the aid... these kids in the middle I think get a bit of a tough deal. ND does not seem to care too much whether the parent is putting other kids thru Catholic HS, multiple kids college education etc. These kids and parents get stretched quite a bit and parents need to step up to big loans both subsidized and unsub to make it work.
I think some other schools are more generous with aid and again I get it from ND's perspective. The education is great, the line is long, and the outcomes are excellent.
Again, great news for both of them!
The rich pay full. The poor get good help. The middle class get jacked around. They are not sympathetic. They definitely think their tuition is reasonable.
Advice: 1) Do not take the first year of financial aid as a reasonable estimate of what you will get in years 2-4. It changes, and they might pull a bait and switch and give you nothing sophomore year. There are no guarantees, except for the rich or the poor. They will not tell you that you are right on the line, and you could lose everything the next year. That is a risk you take.
2) If they offer loans, and you don't take them (e.g., maybe you are debt averse, and you decide to draw down your 529 faster instead, and hope to make up the money for your next kid), you are totally screwing yourself. You are basically telling them not to give you financial aid the next year. You have to take every loan offered if you want to play the financial aid game.
3) Do not have any savings at all unless it is in a 401k, IRA, or 529...retirement and 529 savings are the only savings which aren't counted fully. Saving for a car in your savings account? Notre Dame will count every dollar saved as available for them. Saving for a wedding? Notre Dame will take every dollar. Get a bonus from work?...ND takes it. Until your kids are out of school, you are not allowed to save for anything else but for paying Notre Dame. You must handle everything else with debt...pay for the wedding with credit cards, get a loan for the car, etc. It is all about debt.
4) They don't assume all of your kids are going to go to college. You get a benefit if you get two going at the same time. But, until that happens, they pretty much assume your other kids are going to be grocery store baggers.
Other schools are definitely more generous with aid. And, some schools will assess you once, and not change things on you a year later. For example, Miami (OH) does that. No bait and switch there. They assess you, and you will know what you have to pay for 4 years, so you can actually budget. I think people underestimate how awesome that is.