Best finaid for family of aprx. $150,000

<p>I know that colleges give need-based aid by looking at income, stocks, and other aspects. If my family's full "worth" is then around $150,000 and I have an older brother who's going to be a frosh at a public school, what colleges still give lots of aid besides HYPS tp families with a higher income that's not high enough to pay $200,000 for college? Do any have good scholarships too?...and while my grades and rank are awesome, my test scores are so-so....28 ACT and 630 Math 630 Lit 780 Writing...I'm hoping to bring up my scores..and I haven't taken the SATIIs yet...so its not likely I'll get certain merit based scholarships...basically are there any good private schools I should still look at that I could get into or any that just give out great aid to upper income families even if I dont have a chance at getting in...just curious</p>

<p>Also, anyone know about the above info for these schools:</p>

<p>Rice
Notre Dame
Emory
Pepperdine
Villanova
Holy Cross
Duke
Dartmouth
Cornell
Fordham
Northwestern
Washington University in St. Louis
Vanderbilt
Columbia
University of Chicago
Boston College
New York University
Georgetown</p>

<p>Bump......</p>

<p>"Great aid to upper income families" = merit aid. Get more solid stats (I'm always wary of projected scores) and then look realistically at where you fall above the 75th percentile.</p>

<p>Rice is right next door for me so I've considered it, but they have a really notoriously terrible financial aid system where basically they barely give out anything. National Merit gets a couple thousand but its like 33k/year for tuition.</p>

<p>I'm in a pretty bad spot because we make just enough not to qualify for most need based aid, but not enough that my parents can just pay my way through college. Nevertheless my dad told me not to consider cost.</p>

<p>I can only imagine Columbia out of those schools would grant need-based aid with that sort of income. The rest of the schools would offer very little and probably none. The only schools that routinely give people with that sort of income financial aid are HYPSM, which are huge reaches with the stats you presented here. However, if you have a sibling in college already, things may change a bit but still not that significantly because your bro is at a presumably cheap school.</p>

<p>CoffeeAddict, you will need to run your numbers through the financial aid calculators to get a better idea of your family's expected family contribution (EFC). You say that your worth is $150,000. However, the formula to determine EFC is based on a income & assets assessed at a particular rate depending on your family situation. You can't just add everything up. Visit finaid.org and use the calculators. The federal methodology, based on info gathered for the FAFSA, is used for Pell grants & that sort of thing ... you most likely won't get those. FM is also used for Stafford loans, but if the school uses the Profile in addition to the FAFSA, they base the rest of your aid (other than Pell & certain other federal grants) on the Institutional Methodology, which may or may not be the same number finaid's IM calculator gives you (each school has its own rules for IM). If you use the calculators, you'll at least get a decent idea of your family's EFC. This will also take your sibling into consideration if in college, and the EFC you get will be for 1 student. You might find out that you do have a calculated need, after all.</p>

<p>Realize, though, that even though your EFC is a certain number, a particular school may not award you enough aid to bridge the gap between the cost of attendance & EFC. I agree that Columbia is the best bet of the list for need based aid, if you do qualify.</p>

<p>does worth = 150,000 mean all your family's assets total 150,000? That's not really that much especially if its home equity. The annual income is more of a factor than savings. Some colleges will provide you with their own FA calculator or give you profiles of students who receive financial aid.</p>

<p>150,000 was just a general amount of the things they actually consider like income, stocks, etc. not really sure about the actual total...im gonna look into that online calculator...thanks for the replies...anyways, at what act or sat score will i normally be able to get some aid? does anyone know how hard it is at fordham, pepperdine, or holy cross?</p>

<p>Here is a list of colleges that promise to meet full demonstrated financial need of all admitted students -- keep in mind that even then "meeting full financial need" can mean different things at different schools. </p>

<p>Amherst (MA)
Antioch (OH)
Barnard (NY)
Bates (ME)
Beloit (WI)
Bowdoin (ME)
Brown (RI)
Bucknell (PA)
California Institute of Technology (CA)
Campbell University (NC)
Carleton (MN)
Chapman (CA)
Claremont McKenna (CA)
Clarke College (IA)
Colby (ME)
Colgate (NY)
College of the Holy Cross MA)
Columbia (NY)
Connecticut College
Cornell
Dartmouth
Davidson (NC)
Duke
Emory
Franklin and Marshall (PA)
Georgetown University (DC)
Gettysburg (PA)
Grinnell (IA)
Hamilton (NY)
Harvard
Harvey Mudd (CA)
Haverford (PA)
Lafayette (PA)
Lake Forest College (IL)
Lawrence University (WI)
Macalester (MN)
MIT
Middlebury (VT)
Mount Holyoke (MA)
Northwestern (IL)
Oberlin (OH)
Occidental (CA)
Pomona (CA)
Princeton
Rice
Salem College (NC)
Scripps (CA)
Smith College (MA)
Southern Arkansas University
Stanford
St. Olaf College (MN)
Swarthmore
Talladega College (AL)
Thomas Aquinas College (CA)
Trinity College (CT)
Tufts University
University of Chicago
University of Pennslyvania
University of Richmond
University of Virginia
Vassar
Wabash College (IN
Washington University in St. Louis
Wellesley College
Wesleay University
Williams Colelge
Yale University</p>

<p>Source: AdmissionsAdvice.com:</a> Which Schools Meet Full Need?</p>

<p>Coffeeaddict - you cannot add the income and assets together as they are treated quite differently by the FAFSA formula. Income has a certain amount of protection then a % goes to the EFC with the % going as high as 47% as the income rises. Assets also have a separate protection but the maximum % going to the EFC is 5.6%. So $100,000 income and $50,000 assets would produce a much higher EFC than $50,000 income and $100,000 assets.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies...out of the schools I listed, do I have any chance of getting any good merit based scholarships?</p>

<p>To be honest, I don't think so. You need to set your sights on schools where your stats put you at the top of the pack. You'll have to look at lower tier schools for merit. That doesn't mean they aren't good schools!</p>

<p>That's about what my family is at.
You're looking at an expected family contribution of around 25k
I'm assuming most of those schools have sticker prices of about 35k + 10k for room and board? The schools should cover everything but your expected family contribution, leaving 25k for you to find ways to cover.
Merit aid from those schools is going to be very competitive, I wouldn't count on getting much. Look for private scholarships and expect to be taking out some loans if your parents aren't going to contribute their expected amount.</p>