This may be a stupid question, but my daughter accepted an offer from a D! school for about 40% of the $65,000 annual cost. Would she still be eligible for academic $? She does not need it per say, but with her brother already at a NESCAC school (where our EFC is conveniently a couple thousand over the total annual cost), I am hoping to be able to take a vacation someday and/or retire before I die.
Also, does anybody have any experience and/or had success in going to the financial aid office at school #1 (the NESCAC school) for the older kid as a senior and finally getting them to throw you a bone after sending them nearly $200,000 for the first 3 years?
If you have an EFC at or above the cost of attendance getting need based aid is not likely. With two students in college your EFC may decrease to the point that may qualify for aid.
As for merit aid it would depend on your daughter’s stats. Are they in the top 25% of admitted students at her school?
An athlete can’t take need based aid from the school with athetic aid, or the need based aid counts against the team maximum scholarships (most coaches don’t have that cushion).
She can take athletic money and merit money. The merit money must be available to other students under the same conditions as it is offered to athletes. If the school gives merit to all students with a 3.5 and 30 ACT, the student can take that and stack it with athletic money. The student can also accept any federal loans or grants, and any state or outside grants even if they are need based (Pell grants SEOG, state grants), and even if the school controls the awarding of the grant (seog, competitive merit award like a president’s scholarship). I think my daughter has 10 lines of aid on her bill: athletic aid, merit aid, visiting award, alum award, state grant, state merit award, federal loan…
As for the son’s school, it is up to them whether to consider the second child’s tuition when awarding financial aid. Some schools ask how much you are paying to the other school(s). The FAFSA doesn’t ask, so even if the daughter’s COA is 100% covered, you still get credit for 2 in college. My other daughter’s EFC is half because she has a sister in school (fafsa only school), even though I don’t pay anything for the sister. The CC line usually is that schools do a 60% calculation, that your son’s school would take 40% off his EFC. Worth a try.