<p>Hello All,
My daughter put a lot of effort into her essays (as I am sure they all did!) and we filled out everything on time and the FA forms are all in and while I feel pretty zen about her acceptances/rejections and hope that they reflect good fits/not good fits, I DO worry about the FA piece. Or pieces... It's such a quagmire!
Our EFC came out a little less than what we said we could pay which feels good and somewhat accurate but I have heard from so many that the awards are ALL over the place. I have searched and searched for statistics and incidents of how close the EFC is to the Actual Award and there is not a lot of info- some but not much. Anybody out there have anything to add here?<br>
Also- are there any of you who live in a town with no high school and the town subsidizes (10,000) per student where ever they go? We detailed this in the PFS but of course the computer is just going to spit out a number and not be able to identify it is a town who is paying for the majority of what our family estimates we can pay. The FA committee will certainly see it. I wonder what their response will be? Is this rare? I am sure it is not common but have you all heard of this?</p>
<p>Are there others out there chewing their nails over the FA piece?
And I seem to miss the part about how schools send FA info. if 5 of the school notify her by email and two by regular mail, how does the FA awards come (if indeed she is accepted) . Same day? Typically a little later? Only to parents? All through snail mail- any in parent emails?</p>
<p>A snow day, my husband is away, the kids are all happily engaged in play and too much time to think, think, think...</p>
<p>Last year, all of the FA letters came addressed to me. Some were in separate envelopes in her acceptance package, and all but one came via snail mail. One came in the parent version of the email acceptance letter (click the link below to access your enrollment contract and FA award…)</p>
<p>The school my son is applying to says they send FA award letters with acceptance letters - not sure if that means same envelope or separate, but they said they are both mailed at the same time and it made it sound, at least to me, that they would come together. I too am a bit stressed out our PFS showed that we would qualify for full aid, and I’ve heard of families qualifying for full aid but being offered spots w/o getting a FA award, or a much lower award than they thought they would get. Not sure if that answers your question, but from what I’ve heard, it varies from school to school, which is probably why you or I can’t find a definitive answer. No way of truly knowing until we get that letter. I heard from some parents that the school my son is applying to will not accept a student if they cannot offer a FA award to cover what was determined by the PFS, and I think I would rather have it that way than be told he has the spot but no FA. </p>
<p>As for the school district funding, I think that would’ve been an excellent question to ask of the AO. I hear from people who say it’s not a good idea to call AOs this time of year bc they are so extremely busy, but perhaps you can send them a quick email with “Financial Aid Question” as the Subject? Our AO was SUPER awesome in replying within a day or two, even last week (we had some additional questions about our PFS as well). Hope you get some answers!</p>
<p>The money your school district will pay is not coming out of your pocket so I think that the BS would consider it outside funding not part of your EFC. I believe they would create a package of X dollars from family, X dollars from local school district, and X dollars of financial aid from the BS.</p>
<p>Fresh Look, I have read of the approach some towns take to outsource high school by subsidizing tuition at private high schools. I assume the FA officers at the schools you’ve applied to will know of the program(s) as well, especially if they’ve ever enrolled children from that town. </p>
<p>If the FA officers have any questions, they will contact you. Once you know your child’s admissions results, you can contact them. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks Periwinkle- funny you should say that- one of the schools JUST contacted us about the town contribution- they wanted to know the exact number and how much it fluctuates form year to year. They said they had only seen this ONE time before. I am hoping if they are poking around in our FA file that perhaps that might be a good sign? Aye yay yay… </p>
<p>Alooknac- ouch- So it sounds like we would be on the hook for that amount- the computer thinks WE can pay that… mmm… it will be interesting what they decide…</p>
<p>Fresh - perhaps if one school had a question, they all may? Does the town have something online that describes their policy? Do you think it may clarify things if the schools read it? In which case it may be worth sending an email to the FA offices that is “official” from the town?</p>