Junior S will be applying next fall. Just started down the dark path of figuring out how much his half dozen choices will cost out of pocket.
All of our publics will be $20k per year on our nickel and so will the privates with his qualified merit/grant aid.
Not sure if it’s worth pursuing and would dearly appreciate any advice.
If you’re applying to the most well funded schools like HYPS, yes. For in-state public colleges, no. Unless you want your S to take a Stafford Loan. Schools will let you know if you need to file FAFSA/CSS Profile for merit aid (some do).
Run the NPC’s on the schools he’s applying to. As Erin’s Dad said, if they are well funded schools you may qualify for aid. The NPC should give you a good idea.
What is NPC?
And how do I find it?
Thanks for the help.
NPC is Net Price Calculator. It’s found on every college’s website. Google is your friend.
Just make sure you plug accurate numbers in the NPC. The results are only as good as the data you use.
You can probably do as well from privates if you look at the right colleges. Depending upon the type of student your son is, chasing merit can work to a degree.
I have twins who are seniors entering college in the fall and we would pay almost full price at our flagship state U, about $28k for tuition, room and board. No need based aid for us there; we didn’t qualify. One of mine applied to a slew of small private colleges that offered a combo of merit & need, and almost all had a net price lower than that $28k.
I can’t say this enough – run net price calculators, and run a LOT of them from a wide variety of schools. Google a list of schools that meet 100% (or close) of need – they’re not all Ivies. I ran literally hundreds when we were looking for schools, and they’ve turned out to be extremely accurate. They don’t all include merit aid, but you know what the worst-case scenario is, and many schools don’t give a lot of merit anyway.
Can I just compliment you on starting this now rather than next year? I’ve been reading threads where people applied to schools without considering cost at all, and it’s pretty depressing.
We have a similar AGI and just went through college application process. S got into one top 10 school (only need based aid) and 4 schools that offered merit aid. Our net price came out lower from the top 10 school because none of the schools that offered merit scholarships offered any need based aid other than loans. The need based aid that we received was even higher than what the NPC estimated. So yes, fill out the FAFSA in case your son applies to any well-funded schools.
You need to complete a FAFSA if you want to make out subsidized loans.
I suggest always doing the FAFSA because you never know what’s going to happen and it’s the only way to get Federal loans. You might not want them right now but things change, and the FAFSA doesn’t take too much time. If your AGI is that high and you apply to private schools with large endowments you have a good chance of getting some aid. A lot of them require the CSS Profile which is a more lengthy form but your chances are pretty good
Another reason to apply – your situation might change or the school’s criteria for aid might. (Tuition goes up, you have capital losses in a portfolio or change jobs, etc) I’ve heard of some schools that won’t consider you for financial aid in later years unless you applied from the beginning, as a freshman.
I am wondering wha private colleges you have found where the cost is 20,000 after the merit awards? Is that including room and board? The private colleges (small liberal arts) I have looked at so far all seem to be $25,000 and up even after their scholarships.
Some schools require that you submit the fasfa in order to receive any of their scholarships (even though merit based). Better safe than sorry.
@heffo2 I can tell you of a few of the least expensive ones we got, and no, they’re not below $20,000 including room and board. However, if you live nearby and can commute, or if you have need, the following are excellent options for private LACs.
Ohio Wesleyan:
Tuition: 44,090
R&B: 11,770
COA: 55,860
My daughter received $28,000 per year merit, which brings the cost down to 27,860 before any need-based aid or loans (and they do a great job meeting need).
Agnes Scott:
Tuition: 38,472
R&B: 11,520
COA: 49,992
My daughter received 21,000 per year merit, and was invited to fly in to compete for more, which we couldn’t do. They also did a good job meeting need.
Goucher:
Tuition: 43,416
R&B: 12,300
COA: 55,716
My daughter received 21,000 per year merit and excellent need-based aid.
Wells:
Tuition: 38,530
R&B: 13,360
COA: 51,890
My daughter received $25,000 per year merit, plus a $3000 grant for an off-campus experience. They paid travel costs for us to visit, up to $400. Need aid was good but not great.
Just some examples, but as you can see, they exist! I don’t know tons about large private universities, as we just looked at small schools, but I can tell you that with merit and need almost all of the schools we looked at ended up being less expensive than our flagship state U.
We were told at several schools we visited that they only give merit scholarships to students who have filed the FAFSA. It doesn’t sound logical, since a merit scholarship isn’t bssed on need, but that is how those schools do it. So if there is any chance your son could get merit aid, I would go ahead and file the FAFSA.
Some schools require that you fill out the FAFSA in order for the student to be considered for merit aid, as well as financial aid.
@Pheebers You may want to be press the schools about the merit aid. Scholarships and grants are different. If the merit aid is in terms of scholarships, what is required (i.e. GPA, service, etc.) to maintain it?
If the merit aid is in terms of grants, what percentage of students are given the grants for all 4 years and does the grant amount increase with the COA rising each year or decrease due to external scholarships or simply at the college’s discretion?
I have a friend who’s son has had a tough time as his grants were fully reduced by outside scholarships.
Just be sure to ask if what you are seeing will be there next year and on.
T
@ReturningFavor Thanks, it’s not an issue for us. My daughters are actually going to attend schools that meet 100% of need, and in one case our net cost was better than all of the merit offers I listed above. As I said, everyone should run a bunch of calculators and apply to a bunch of schools. The biggest reach, a small, very highly ranked, very expensive private LAC ended up being the least expensive school of all for us – significantly less than our in-state flagship, where we got no aid at all.
I just listed examples because someone asked for them and I thought it would help, but my kids aren’t going to any of those schools.
@Pheebers, thanks so much for the breakdown. Our in-state flagship (Illinois) is $30,000 so I am taking your advice and running the NPC on a lot of schools.Thanks!
@heffo2 You’re welcome! Just remember garbage-in-garbage-out. Don’t forget to include the untaxed $ you’ve contributed to retirement accounts, and if you’ve got non-custodial parents or own a business the NPCs are much less accurate. But for us, running them made a tremendous amount of sense and steered us towards schools where we got lots of $.