Hi!I applied RD go NU and I’m still waiting for my decision. It’s the last school I need to hear back from and NU is my dream school. I fell in love when I looked up NU and I hope to get accepted and go there. The biggest concern I have rn in going there is just financials. I’m willing to pave my way through college with as much work as I can but my mom is really concerned about not being able to afford it. I’m willing to take on loans and be responsible for them but she still worries. Advice?
I remember how nervewracking the wait was - I wish you the best of luck!
In terms of the financial situation, Northeastern does guarantee to meet 100% of your demonstrated financial need should you be accepted. That will come through a mixture of grants, work study, loans, and merit aid. All of this information will be included in the acceptance packet.
It sounds like you have a good, open discussion going on with your mom when it comes to this and that’s a plus. However, I would not recommend taking on more loans than you can handle for college, especially if there is a more financially viable option available with another school. I understand that Northeastern is your dream school but if the financial situation ends up being too overwhelming to handle, then that will likely be detrimental in the long run. Yes, many students do take on some type of loans while in university … but it should not be to the extent that it becomes unmanageable to pay off post-graduation.
Your future career plans should also factor into this decision - are you planning to pursue graduate school or some other type of professional education after? That requires more financial planning and if that is the case for you, then it’s another thing to consider when making your undergraduate plans.
Co-ops (that are paid) provide some amount of income for students during those respective semesters but you should not necessarily count on it being able to cover the entirety of your finances either. Some students also work part-time while in classes but that will depend on schedules.
Lastly, you can always look up outside scholarships to apply to. (And you can be doing this right now!) These are usually a couple hundred to thousand dollars and require nothing more than short essays for the most part. They’ll stack up quickly and there are quite a lot of them out there aggregated into databases that will fall in line with a quick Google search. These might help towards your situation.
You can always reach out to your financial aid advisor when the acceptance packet comes and the financials are laid out - they can answer any questions that you might have in greater detail than I can.
I hope this answer helped you a little bit more.
Right now, it’s all a waiting game for that acceptance letter. Again I wish you the best of luck :) Feel free to send any more questions my way if they come up!