<p>When first deciding where to apply to college, many posters have recommended that you determine those schools your family can afford, and apply to those only. If we had done that, my D's only choice would have been community college. However, with financial aid offers of scholarships and grants, she actually ended up with a few really nice schools (3 private, one public) to ultimately choose from without making us go broke or over extend ourselves. Without applying though, you don't know what the FA offers might look like. How are others determining the schools they should apply to? Are you limiting yourself to only schools with a sticker price you can manage? Just curious.</p>
<p>I agree with you that as long as parents and student understand the family budget - you really have nothing to lose by applying to a few expensive private schools - along with some more affordable options as well - and seeing what happens. Our experience with older son was that the most expensive private university he applied to also gave him the most generous FA package - bringing the cost down substantially - almost to what an in-state public would cost.</p>
<p>Based on that experience - younger son is applying to schools at varying price points - 2 in-state options that we can afford fairly easily, 2 OOS publics that we would hope to get a little merit and/or need-based aid and finally 2 more expensive private schools - that we cannot afford without a decent amount of aid. I like having varying options at different price points - should be interesting to see what the final price tag is for each school.</p>
<p>Son is not applying to any reaches - all schools are safety or match so as to increase his chances for merit aid. So - no limits based on pricetag at the application stage - but price will play some role in the final decision.</p>
<p>I think it’s can be a mistake to limit only to schools with a sticker price that is affordable. I think it’s terribly important to understand a family EFC federally and for privates and I think it’s a mistake not to have one or two college acceptances at schools that a family knows they can afford. After that…it never hurts to apply to a few places and wait to see what the financial aid package looks like. I’m a huge believer in building the list form the bottom up. I think it’s a waste of time and energy to the cast a wide net to 10 or more colleges on a wing and prayer that they might be affordable. I’m all about advocating doing the research and crafting a solid short list.</p>
<p>I agree you need to look beyond sticker price, but you also need to consider the FA and Merit stances of the schools the student is applying to. If the family is high income but can’t afford high tuition then don’t look at schools with good FA, look at schools with good merit. I am a believer in having a safety you can afford and are willing to attend, and then throwing in other schools you have a chance at.</p>
<p>There aren’t that many families who could afford even your most basic, inexpensive, state public school’s tuition out-of-pocket. I think the better rule should be apply to schools that you know you will be able to afford after graduation. Since many students have to rely on loans to pay for school then you should do research to see if your future career choices will even allow you to pay these back. If you know your career will be hard to break into, or if it will offer low starting salaries then don’t go to a private school that’s going to cost you $80K+interest (or more!) in loans.</p>
<p>I think it’s hard for people to let go of their dream school. It’s easy to imagine going to NYU all throughout childhood, but there comes a time when you have to grow up and look at things realistically. I think people feel like they’re letting themselves down when instead they should realize that there are many, many fantastic schools out there that are a lot more affordable and reasonable to go to. It wouldn’t hurt to apply to those dream schools just to see what you’re offered, but if you know you’re going to be struggling to find that extra money every semester then it’s just not worth the stress.</p>
<p>NO school is worth going anywhere near $80K in debt for. There are affordable alternatives that will give the committed student an equally good education. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>No I am not. In fact, I’m only applying to 4 UC’s and CSU’s out of 11 so the majority of the colleges that i’m applying to are private. My parents really want me to go to a college close by and stay at home so that alone cuts down $12k the tuition from room and board. I chose a lot of my colleges really carefully based on how much need-based financial aid they gave. i’m not saying i’m relying on financial aid to get me to a private school but it never hurts to try- you never know. i know lots of people who get more than half cut off of their tuition from financial aid. </p>
<p>also I’m applying to a few colleges that have a lower gpa average than my gpa and they would be more willing to give you financial aid if you have a higher gpa average than someone who has a lower gpa average or whatever. </p>
<p>i have no idea if the private schools i’m applying nearby (which are my top choices) will even give me enough financial aid but I’'m just hoping it will- like i said, you never know. a lot of schools have work-study programs which can be helpful as well. </p>
<p>You shouldn’t apply to a college and just assume that you will get enough financial aid- but like the other person said you know DO YOUR RESEARCH. Plus when you visit campuses it helps to go to the financial aid office and ask around.</p>
<p>A good book on the subject is “Paying for College Without Going Broke”, 2011 edition. It’s been recommended on CC before. Do not eliminate a college because of cost until you find out if you will qualify for scholarships/aid.</p>
<p>I do not believe the advice is or should be “Apply only to schools your family can afford”. At least, among the knowledgeable CC parents, I do not see that as the advice.</p>
<p>Students should apply to a portfolio of schools that include reaches (some of the reaches are generous with aid for low income applicants), matches and safeties. The recommendation for safeties is that one or more should be a financial safety, a school that the student is very likely to get in and the family can afford and the **student is willing to go to. **</p>
<p>Where realism needs to set in is that “If others do not work out, then the student should be ready to go the financial safety, knowing fully well that they had other options but could not afford it.”</p>
<p>As pointed out by redscarlett11, everyone needs to do their reserach. A portfolio of schools for one student will not be the same for the student in the next seat. </p>
<p>The problem occurs when students apply to too many reaches and matches and do not have an acceptable financial safety. It may be emotionally wrenching when a student gets to a higher rated institution but does not get sufficient aid, but if you have chosen your schools wisely, usually things will work out. Compromises may need to be made but that is par for the course.</p>
<p>The important thing is to be upfront with your kid that just because he gets in to a particular college, the finances may not work out if there is no merit or financial aid forthcoming, and he has to be willing to deal with that potential disappointment. You must have a safety that the parents can afford and the kid likes. If you as the parent do not think you could say “no” to an acceptance at a dream school even if you knew it would be financially foolish, perhaps you should put limits on your child’s applications that reflect that self-knowledge. But as others have noted, it’s hard to know what the actual cost to your family would be prior to acceptance.</p>
<p>Totally agree NJSue. It is the parents obligation to be totally upfront with kids about how much if any they are willing to contribute. EFC in this respect is meaningless and EFC is NOT a guilt factor. Our EFC is laughable it’s so high and it would be stupid for us to even consider it as a factor, it’s actually increasing while our income and assets are decreasing since 2007. It is the parents job to be honest and forthcoming. If it falls on deaf ears (which I’m guessing can happen) at least as a parent you’ve been upfront. There might be whining and tears in May (just remember age 3, 4 and 5) and soldier on.</p>
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<p>Where’s the like button?</p>
<p>I think the advice gives has been to remember that parents are first in line when it comes to paying for or financing your child’s education. </p>
<p>I believe that there has been much advice given about parents having the money talk up front with their kids regarding how much they are willing to pay or borrow to finance college. There are no magical money trees in the back yard.</p>
<p>There has consistently been talk about having one or more true safeties (this is the hard part); meaning a school where your child can be admitted (EA, or rolling preferred), a school where if this is the only school that your child was accepted to s/he would be happy to attend, and a school that is a financially feasible option for your family.</p>
<p>There has been talk about knowing the difference between federal and institutional methodologies regarding financial aid.</p>
<p>There has been consistent talk about how the FAFSA does not give you money. All it does is qualify you for federal aid. Most FAFSA only schools do not meet 100% demonstrated need.</p>
<p>There has been talk that reading what is on the school’s financial aid website can be a total game changer for people with a “complicated” financial picture (divorced parents, stepparents, business owners, real estate other than the primary home, etc.)</p>
<p>Averages are just what they state; averages. If the school says the average grant aid is $25,000, it does not mean that if you/your child is admitted they are getting $25,000. It could very well mean that one student got 49k while another student got 1k.</p>
<p>We have stated that even at schools that meet 100% demonstrated need, that financial aid packages can vary greatly.</p>
<p>The school, not you determine what you can afford to pay. </p>
<p>If you don’t apply and get accepted to a wide range of schools, you will never know what you could have gotten in with financial aid.</p>
<p>^^You can probably copy and paste that a zillion time between now and May.</p>
<p>Also ,parents, please be honest with your kids about how much you can afford to help out. If you know that after a year or two it might be hard to contribute that extra $10K for each tuition payment, tell them. </p>
<p>And fellow students, even if your parents promise you they’ll help pay for school keep in mind that things do happen. The economy can crash. People lose their jobs. Even your relationship with your parents can change (there have been a few heartbreaking posts about this problem). A number of problems can go wrong and suddenly your parents might need that extra $15K they offered to keep it all under control. So even if you’re getting generous offers from parents or other relatives don’t go too crazy on your college choices. </p>
<p>The important thing with financial aid is to look at the big picture. Is your scholarship going to cover every year or just two semesters? Will you be able to reapply and keep that work study job each year? It’s easy to say “I can just take out an extra $5,000 in loans” when you first go to college. It’s another thing to have to be able to do that each semester. Will your career choice be able to support your loan payments? Think ahead and consider how these choices will effect you each semester and after graduation. </p>
<p>Sometimes students don’t take loans seriously because it seems like they won’t have to worry about them for a long time, but college goes by a lot quicker than you think. You don’t want to be panicking after graduation because all of a sudden that debt is very real.</p>
<p>1st time college parent here. Based on spending way too much time reading CC, the main advice I have obtained is to make sure that financial safety’s are included in your list. Not to be the ONLY school on the list. However, I have also learned that many top tier schools do not offer merit aid, or not much of it, and not to hope for “full rides”, or any significant merit aid at those schools. We are not in a position to pay for $50,000+/ year for school, and will not qualify for any need based aid.
We have decided to be involved in choosing the schools my son will apply to that are financial/admission safety’s. Schools that he can get into pretty guaranteed based on stats, and schools that will offer him significant merit aid (based on guaranteed aid/history of giving aid). If he wants to apply to a few financial reaches just to see, we will entertain that, but sending an ap to every Ivy/top teir school is not financially prudent.
My concern would be DS falling in love with a school that he was admitted to, and being unable to afford it. So we are having many frank discussions about finances in my house to manage expectations.
Interestingly, DS is starting to really like one of the financial/admission safety schools that was identified. So he may decide not to apply to any top tier schools.
I don’t think I have ever received advice not to apply to financial reaches…just to be realistic and have a plan B. You are right, you never know what might be offered!</p>
<p>When first deciding where to apply to college, many posters have recommended that you determine those schools your family can afford, and apply to those only.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever read any posts where people have said that.</p>
<p>I know that I often say that you need to determine how much your family will pay because that (and stats) will often determine where you should apply. I know that I often say to protect yourself by applying to at least 2-3 schools that you know you can afford with assured grants, scholarships, small student loans, and/or family funds…and then apply where you want, and apply to some others “just to see what happens.”</p>
<p>But, yes, your situation can influence your application list.</p>
<p>1) if you have high stats, high unaffordable EFC, then apply to some cheaper schools and some schools that will give you large merit. </p>
<p>2) If you have strong stats and low EFC, then apply to the schools that meet need or give huge merit.</p>
<p>3) not a good idea to apply to OOS publics that don’t give OOS need-based aid or merit if you have a lot of need or parents won’t pay much. For instance, if you have a 1900 SAT/3.5 GPA, you need lots of FA, then not it’s not recommended that you apply to a UC as an OOS student. </p>
<p>4) if you have good stats, a low EFC, and you live in a state that gives generous need-based aid, then include a few instate schools on your list.</p>
<p>5) if you have an NCP who has a high income, but won’t contribute to college, then not too wise to have a list full of schools that require NCP info. </p>
<p>So, yes, your stats and the amount your parents will pay can influence where you should apply. Nothing wrong with applying to a few “maybe a surprise will happen” schools, but if all your schools are like that, you could end up a very unhappy person in the spring. </p>
<p>Without applying though, you don’t know what the FA offers might look like.</p>
<p>Yes and no. I know FOR SURE that if we applied for need-based aid even at the ivies we would have gotten zilch. </p>
<p>If you apply to a public that doesn’t give its need-based aid to OOS students and your lowish EFC exceeds Pell, then you pretty much know that you’ll be gapped big time.</p>
<p>But, if I know for sure that I have a lowish, but affordable EFC, and I apply around to various schools known to give good aid, then I could have some pleasant surprises…especially if my stats were highish for that school.</p>
<p>My sons applied to a few schools that we didn’t know what merit they might get. Some we were pleasantly surprised, some were a disappointment.</p>
<p>By using the FAFSA calculators and taking careful readings of the school policies on merit aid, we were able to get a very good idea what our financial costs and merit offers would be at each place S applied. The offers/responses came back almost exactly as we had predicted. When posters advise to apply to places you can afford, they don’t mean “the sticker price”, but the price you reasonably think it will come down to for your child.</p>
<p>*When posters advise to apply to places you can afford, they don’t mean “the sticker price”, but the price you reasonably think it will come down to for your child *</p>
<p>Exactly…the advice is to some homework on various schools’ policies, some FA calculations, etc…and then apply to some schools that will likely work, a couple schools that you’re certain will work, and a few “maybe, let’s just see what happens” schools.</p>
<p>Some kids will just apply to an array of schools with little thought of family finances, a school’s aid/merit policies (especially for OOS publics), etc and then end up with a handful of acceptances but no affordable schools. There are some kids (and parents ) who just say, “we’ll look at the FA pkgs when they arrive and see what works.” Well, what if nothing works?</p>
<p>It’s not enough to “apply widely” and “cast a wide net,” a student needs a strategy based on what a family will pay, EFC (FM & IM), personal stats, strength of stats at particular schools, and what a school’s aid/merit polices are.</p>
<p>So, the concern isn’t “sticker price”…the thing to look at is the expected family cost after reasonably expected aid/merit has been awarded.</p>
<p>Cast a wide net, for sure. I am cringing at the thought of paying my son’s tuition at a local U, which is not the state flagship. I will be paying more in tuition for him than I paid for D’s tuition/room/board/fees at Vanderbilt. He is a high stat kid, but for various reasons, he chose public U’s. Last year, he attended a stay-away state school & we paid about 1.5 times more than we paid for D (for a year). This year, he is at home & we are paying a little over one time what we paid for D. </p>
<p>The moral of the story: Sometimes you get lucky, so give it a shot! We were very lucky with D’s costs. We can pay S’s, but it pains me to pay so much for an education that is fine … but frankly is not as good in many ways as what D received.</p>
<p>S did get accepted to a private school he would have liked to attend … but their aid was just not do-able. We had had the cost conversation beforehand, so he was not surprised when I told him that it cost too much.</p>
<p>We’re in a situation where most of our family income comes from a small business, whose results gyrate pretty substantially from year to year. This year is a lousy year, and since it is the year that will be used for DD’s freshman year FA calculations, we expect to get at least some need-based FA at at least some of the schools where she’s applying.</p>
<p>However, we’re projecting that next year will be a substantially better year (we have a money-losing operation that we’re contractually obligated to keep running until the end of this year, when we can and will shut it down). That means that any need-based aid we get for the freshman year is likely to go away for the sophomore year.</p>
<p>The absolute LAST position I want to put myself in is to have to say to my DD, “Honey, I know you’ve studied hard and done well your first year in college, and made a lot of friends, but we just can’t afford to send you there next year. Sorry.”</p>
<p>Therefore, we (jointly, with DD’s full understanding and buy-in) have made the decision that she will only go to a college that we can pay for with no need-based FA, other than unsubsidized Stafford loans (if you can even call them FA). If she gets some four-year-renewable merit money, that will, of course, go into the available funds pool. If we get need-based FA for the freshman year, so much the better, but we’re not going to depend on it. </p>
<p>Yes, that may (will) limit her options. But I cannot see a responsible alternative.</p>
<p>Fortunately, we already have a rock-solid financial safety, a college that we’ve visited and that DD likes a lot, and might even choose over some of the other, pricier alternatives on her list. There’s also a good possibility that she may qualify for a four-year tuition waiver at our state flagship U - but we won’t know about that until next spring, and at this point in time, she thinks she’d rather go to a smaller school anyway.</p>