<p>For starter, list the official COAs for the schools. Then list what she has received so far. That leaves what cost is left. That is all that matters: what the student and family has to pay. All the awards, scholarships up to the whazooi mean nothing without that bottom line. I know it was sobering to me when my son got over $30K for one school, but it barely covered half that cost. </p>
<p>What is the FAFSA EFC estimate at this point? Are any of the schools PROFILE schools,and if they are, do any of them guarantee to meet full need? If you can run a NPC at a school that guarantees to meet full need and has no merit aid, that will give you some idea what a school like that is going to give in terms of need based aid. It only goes down from there, unless your niece gets a merit award greater than the need.</p>
<p>Schools can vary widely on how they handle need/merit. Heck, they can vary widely just on the need component. You get two school that cost about the same, and both guarantee to me full need, and one can use the Federal and state money towards the financial aid, including any loans, throw in work study, so the student has stated need met, but will have to come up with every bit of the cost left and work time, and all of those loans are used towards need so those venues are closed. A similar school could give all grant money for the need, leaving the student the full Stafford unsubsidized towards her part what’s left to pay, and also leave her time free to find part time work. Two like schools might even come up with whole other definitons of need when they both say they will meet in 100%. Also some schools will permit layering of outside and even inside scholarships. Others will not but will reduce the grants last. Others will take it dollar for dollar against school grant money. So when you have financial need, it is wise to cast a wide net.</p>
<p>So the simplest way to reduce all of this is what is left to pay after the school gives its merit and financial aid awards and you put the federal/state entitlements in the mix if the school hasn’t already used them in their own financial aid packages. Asterik the schools with work study awards, because those are hours that she has to work to make that money which means that many less hours she can work to pay for any costs that are left.</p>
<p>So what you get is not important. It’s what is left to pay, and what the school left you to pay it. </p>
<p>Just to let you know, usually, the merit awards are issued without regard to a student’s need situation. At most schools, they are then integrated into the financial aid packages. So, yes, that $14K scholarship will reduce the defined need at the school, most likely. If she has $30K of need at that school, as the school itself defines need, the $14k will reduce that to $16K and then that school will try to come up with an aid package, usually including work study and loans including the Staffords to meet that $16k. Unless they are a school that guarantees to meet their defined need, they may just leave some need unmet and refer the family to PLUS (Parent Direct Loans) to borrow the rest. ANd that is just the part defined as need. THe rest is entirely up to the student and family. </p>
<p>I agree that a local option, several local options are important. That’s $10K right there if she has 3 meals and cot available. Both my college son and his cousin got their best deals, by the way, by local catholic school that offered each of them (and they live in two separate locales and these are totally different schools) full tuition scholarships, so that they could have continued to commute to school for free after high school. Their next least expensive option was community college or a local state school. One of my other kids did get a sweet deal at a local state school where it would have been free tution there, but these last two boys did not get any such offer, so in their cases, private was less expensive that public. Our cousin did get some small award from a local 4 year state college but its cost was more than the cc, and commuting costs since it is further from home would have been substantially more than the cc and the private catholic college, both of which were within 15 minutes of home. He also had a job already with flexible hours in that area, so he could have gone to college for virtually free with parents providing the home to live.</p>
<p>My son found out that using up every bit of the Stafford loan is NOT a good idea when some STUFF just happened second semester that brought his cost up higher. He did not have to borrow to go to the school he chose, after what we agreed to pay, so he had that buffer. He had no work study, so he did get a part time job at college, but had to drop that due to course needs. Also found out that he needed to take a summer school course to switch majors as he wanted to do and still be on track to get out in 4 years. So it doesn’t end after one gets the package and if you pick one with no wiggle room, when things happen, the financials can become a crisis.</p>