This guide is designed to answer one question for you: How are you going to afford United States Merchant Marine Academy?
You probably know that planning for expenses is an important part of the college application process. What you may not know is how many different things you need to keep track of to pay tuition and apply for financial aid.
Here's what we'll cover:
- How much does United States Merchant Marine Academy tuition cost?
- How much financial aid do students at United States Merchant Marine Academy usually get?
- How much debt is typical for students at United States Merchant Marine Academy?
- How much will United States Merchant Marine Academy cost YOU, and can you actually afford it?
- Is United States Merchant Marine Academy a good value for you?
- What are other schools that might be a better value than United States Merchant Marine Academy?
By learning more about expenses and aid, you’re already on the right path to managing college costs. Let’s get started!
School location: Kings Point, NY
This school is also known as: Kings Point, Merchant Marine
How Much Does United States Merchant Marine Academy Cost?
Knowing what a school costs is Step #1 in managing college costs. There’s more to think about than just the tuition—you also have to factor in where you'll live, what you'll eat, and more while attending United States Merchant Marine Academy.
The "Cost of Attendance" is the total amount of money the average student has to pay, WITHOUT any financial aid, to attend a particular school. Think of it as a school’s sticker price. It includes not just United States Merchant Marine Academy tuition and fees, but also room, board, textbooks, and personal expenses.
Here’s the Cost of Attendance breakdown for United States Merchant Marine Academy:
- Tuition and Fees $1032 $1032
- Textbooks $3794
- Other Expenses $4942
-
Typical Total Cost for On-Campus Students Typical Total Cost for On-Campus Students $9768 $9768
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How Much Financial Aid Do Students at United States Merchant Marine Academy Get?
The Cost of Attendance listed above might be intimidating. The good news is that most students don’t end up paying that full price to attend United States Merchant Marine Academy. Financial aid helps make up the difference between the Cost of Attendance and what families can actually afford.
Here we'll cover how many students get United States Merchant Marine Academy financial aid, what types of aid they get, and how much.
A Brief Intro to Financial Aid
Aid comes in many forms, including:
- Need-based grants
- Merit-based scholarships
- Student loans
This financial aid comes from a few different places:
- Federal aid comes from the federal government, or is subsidized by the federal government.
- Institutional aid comes from your school itself.
Generally, it’s better for MORE students to receive HIGH amounts of financial aid—this means students pay less for college.
Let’s take a look at how United States Merchant Marine Academy compares to other schools.
Overall Aid
Let's start with the overall numbers. At United States Merchant Marine Academy, we know that:
18% of Students Get ANY Aid
This is 68% LOWER than the average for Public schools, which is 86%.
This could be bad news - fewer students getting aid could mean students are paying more at United States Merchant Marine Academy than they would at other similar schools. It could also mean students attending United States Merchant Marine Academy are wealthier and need less aid.
To break this apart, we'll next look at each type of aid and how much students get from each.
Grants and Scholarships
We’re focusing on grants and scholarships first because they’re the most important forms of financial aid. Grants and scholarships are better than loans because students don’t ever have to pay them back. The more grant/scholarship aid students receive at a particular school, the better off those students are in the long run.
At United States Merchant Marine Academy, we know that:
10% Get ANY Grant Money
This is 63% LOWER than the average for Public schools, which is 73%.
Although it’s useful to know how many students get grant aid, it’s also important to know how much grant aid people tend to receive. The bigger the average grant award, the better.
So how much grant money do students at United States Merchant Marine Academy tend to receive?
Average Grant Award: $4075
This is $3194 LOWER than the average for Public schools, which is $7269.
Altogether, this is bad news - at United States Merchant Marine Academy, FEWER students get aid, and each aid grant is LESS than average. This is a double whammy that means students have to rely more on loans to pay for college.
How Much Debt is Typical for Students at United States Merchant Marine Academy?
Aside from grants, the other major way to pay for college is with student loans. Student loans aren’t free sums of money - you borrow a certain amount to attend United States Merchant Marine Academy, and then pay it back with smaller monthly payments after you graduate.
The more student loan money you borrow, the more debt you’ll end up with after graduation. Ideally, you want to minimize your student debt as much as possible. Less debt means less of a financial burden once you leave school.
It’s generally a bad sign if a school has many students taking out a lot of loans. This indicates that graduates have to worry about paying back big sums of money once they leave school.
To address the amount and type of debt that students take on, this section will cover:
- Loan Overview
- Federal Loans
- Other Loans
Let’s see what students at United States Merchant Marine Academy have to deal with:
Loan Overview
First, let’s talk about how many students at United States Merchant Marine Academy actually have to take out any student loans at all. The ideal goal is to graduate with little to no debt.
It’s very common for college grads in the US to graduate with some debt, but high percentages of students taking on loans at a particular school is a big red flag. In contrast, low percentages of students with loans is a sign that United States Merchant Marine Academy tuition is affordable.
So how many students actually end up taking out loans at United States Merchant Marine Academy?
10% Have ANY Loans
This is 48% lower than the average for Public schools, which is 58%.
It's a great sign that the loan percentage is so low at United States Merchant Marine Academy - in fact, United States Merchant Marine Academy is in the top 10% of schools in terms of how many students have to take out loans. This usually means the school has a strong financial aid program, and grants are enough to pay for the cost of college.
Chances are, if you attend United States Merchant Marine Academy, you won't have to take out loans yourself, which means you won't graduate with student debt.
Next, we'll look at exactly HOW much debt the average person takes out while in school.
Federal Loans
Now that you have a handle on the basic loan information for United States Merchant Marine Academy, we’ll get into some more nitty-gritty information on the types and amounts of loans that students typically have.
We’ll start with federal loans because, in general, federal loans are preferable to private loans. Federal loans tend to have low interest rates, which means they cost less in the long run. They may come with other perks (like subsidization or even options for loan forgiveness).
High percentages or amounts of federal loans still isn’t a great sign - again, you don’t want to see students burdened with too much debt. Generally, schools with strong financial aid programs will have students with more federal loans than private loans.
Let’s see how United States Merchant Marine Academy stacks up:
10% Have Federal Loans
At United States Merchant Marine Academy, 10% of all students take out federal loans. This is 47% LOWER than the average percent of students for Public schools, which is 57%.
Average Federal Loan: $3067
At United States Merchant Marine Academy, the average annual federal loan amount is $3067. This amount is $2524 LESS than the average for Public schools, which is $5591.
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What Would It Cost YOU to Attend United States Merchant Marine Academy?
Finally, we get to the bottom line: what will United States Merchant Marine Academy actually cost YOU? Every family has a different situation, and depending on your income level, you'll have to pay more or less to go to college.
What is Net Price, and Why Does it Matter?
Above, we've covered United States Merchant Marine Academy's Cost of Attendance (tuition, room and board, books, and more). We also covered its typical financial aid in grants, loans, and scholarships.
The Net Price is the total cost minus the total aid given. In other words, this is the price you have to pay to the school out of pocket. The lower the school's cost, and the more aid you get, the lower the Net Price.
We'll cover two ways to get your Net Price for United States Merchant Marine Academy - the fast way, and the precise way.
Net Price: The Quick and Easy Way
If you want a quick, general idea of your annual Net Price at United States Merchant Marine Academy, here's a handy chart showing the net price of real students. All you need is your family income.
| If your family makes between... | Your Net Price will likely be around... |
|---|---|
| $0 - $30,000 | $-769 |
| $30,001 - $48,000 | $2656 |
| $48,001 - $75,000 | $3740 |
| $75,001 - $110,000 | $6603 |
| $110,000 and up | $6603 |
Note that these values may be a few years old, and today's prices may be a bit higher.
As we'll discuss next, your exact Net Price will depend on other factors like the number of family members and total assets, but this represents the typical Net Price.
Net Price: The Most Accurate Method
Most schools have an updated Net Price calculator available. To find it, just google "United States Merchant Marine Academy Net Price Calculator" - the official tool should be one of the top search results.
Often the school will ask for more information than just income:
- The number of people in your household
- The number of family members in college
- Parental wages, income, and assets
- Student wages, income, and assets
This will take 10-15 minutes to complete, and you'll get a specific net price that's more accurate than the table above.
Can You Afford to Attend United States Merchant Marine Academy?
Once you have a Net Price estimate, you’ll want to figure out whether your family can afford to pay United States Merchant Marine Academy tuition and costs. Once again, the Net Price is the total cost of attending, minus the aid you can expect to get (grants and scholarships). It's the amount you'd have to cover yourself.
The US government has come up with a standardized way to calculate how much a typical family can afford to pay without help. They call this the Expected Family Contribution, or EFC.
As an example, a family that brings home $80,000 in income before taxes, with no assets and no other children in college, has an EFC of around $7,000. This is the amount the government thinks that family can reasonably pay, and the school will have to step in and cover the rest.
Colleges use this number as a guideline to decide how much aid to give you, but it's just a guideline. Some schools will be stingier with aid, and you'll have to pay more than the government's suggested EFC.
So we're going to calculate your EFC and compare it to United States Merchant Marine Academy's Net Price. If the Net Price is higher than the EFC, the school will cost more than you can typically afford. It's a simple equation:
Net Price - Expected Family Contribution = Deficit (extra cost you would need to cover)
We've constructed a simple tool to figure out whether United States Merchant Marine Academy is affordable for you:
Affordability Calculator
This tool will calculate your Expected Family Contribution, or EFC. In order to calculate this amount, we need just 4 pieces of information from you. We won't save this data.
Finally: Is This Price Really Worth It?
Chances are, college won't be cheap. Even if you have a few top choice schools in mind like United States Merchant Marine Academy, it's still useful to explore broadly.
A few questions to ponder:
- How much better off will you be if you attend United States Merchant Marine Academy as opposed to a similar, but cheaper, school?
- Have you considered a range of private and public schools? Big and small?
- What if you didn't attend college at all? (This is extreme, but just worth considering even for a second.
Here's our take: college will be a really important stage in your development. Going to a better, more reputable college will usually pay off in the long run. By going to a better college, you'll be surrounded by a more interesting community, find it easier to land a job, and open up opportunities.
To determine the value of United States Merchant Marine Academy, we're going to rely on reputable ranking lists. These consider factors like reputation, student selectivity, income after graduating, and more to determine the value of a school.
Value Judgment
So how does United States Merchant Marine Academy stack up?
High Value
Based primarily on its academic reputation, we consider United States Merchant Marine Academy a high value school, placing it in the top 20% of schools in terms of value.
As a regional school, United States Merchant Marine Academy may not have the national reputation of schools like Stanford or Boston University, but it's still considered to be one of the best schools in its class. This means your classmates will be well above average and you'll belong to an exciting community. Furthermore, graduating from here will make you pretty competitive in the workplace.
On the value ranking lists we used, United States Merchant Marine Academy didn't appear in the rankings. This usually means that, compared to other schools of its reputation, the net price is relatively high. This can be because of a higher tuition cost, lower financial aid support, or more.
Overall, we still believe attending United States Merchant Marine Academy is a good value, and it's likely to be a good investment in the long run. However, if you can get into a better school, with a better reputation and lower costs, this can be an even better decision.
How Do You Get In?
Since United States Merchant Marine Academy has a strong reputation, you'll have to submit a competitive application to get in. This means you need above average SAT/ACT scores compared to other applicants, as well as a solid GPA and overall application.
How do you compare to other students accepted to United States Merchant Marine Academy? Check out our Admissions Guide to United States Merchant Marine Academy.
What Other Schools Should You Consider?
Your next step should be to get a better idea of costs and aid availability at similar schools. If you’re interested in United States Merchant Marine Academy, you should check out some other high-value schools that could give you more bang for your buck. Get started here to check both in-state and out-of-state schools that might provide a better value.
Better Value Schools
Finally, we're going to look at schools that might offer a better value than United States Merchant Marine Academy. To compile this list, we first find schools at similar academic levels, so you have a similar chance at getting in. Then we select schools that better value for you, by being more affordable or having a higher quality of education
It’s hard to know exactly what schools will be a great value for you without information on your family income. Enter your family income here for the best recommendations for schools:
In-State Schools
There are a lot of potential financial benefits that come with attending a school close to home. For example, in-state public schools tend to have subsidized tuitions for state residents. Students may also have the chance to save money if they choose to stay at home.
If you’re looking for good deals on schools in your state, you should start by checking out the following colleges and universities:
| School Name | Location | SAT | ACT | GPA |
|---|
Out-of-State Schools
You can still get a good value on your education if you choose to attend an out-of-state school, especially if you qualify for generous financial aid.
If you’re interested in getting an education out-of-state, start by checking out the following colleges and universities:
| School Name | Location | SAT | ACT | GPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berea College | Berea, KY | 1217 | 25 | 3.62 |
| Berea College | Berea, KY | 1217 | 25 | 3.62 |
| Berea College | Berea, KY | 1217 | 25 | 3.62 |
How would your chances at getting into United States Merchant Marine Academy improve with a better score?
Now that we've figured out whether you can afford United States Merchant Marine Academy, we need to focus on getting you in. A big part of this is your SAT/ACT score.
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