<p>Unfortunately, my experience has been that a college touted as literally the #1 "little ivy" school for financial aid (hint: the President of the school just resigned today and the school is spelled "Swarthmore") did not offer my family enough aid for us to attend. Instead, finding a co-signer for private loans was suggested when my parents could not qualify for a DirectPlus Loan because of income issues. Unbelievable! Another school I applied to candidly admitted that that they could not meet all of a student's demonstrated need, but Swarthmore simply defined "need" to mean an arbitrary gross income. A little Internet research revealed my experience wasn't isolated - students with absent fathers, parents who had lost jobs, families with huge medical expenses - Swarthmore declined to offer more aid to enable them to attend or even return for a 2nd year. Touting promises they don't keep - you expect that from a business, not a selective college. Oh, wait - I guess it really IS about business after all. . . .</p>
<p>My daughter is attending Swarthmore after her gap year and her experience has been positive so far. I’m not sure what you want the response on the thread to be…</p>
<p>My daughter’s aid offer from Swat was not as generous as other comparable colleges last year. But I didn’t feel like they didn’t keep their promises. Every college reserves the right to define “need” via their own formula, Swat is no different than any other school. You can get all gooey about loving the school, but as you said, they are running a business. That is something anyone applying to college should keep in mind – that colleges are businesses.</p>
<p>OP. You have given only a portion of your story. Swat determines need based aid awards using parents’ income and assets. If you got no aid from them, your income and assets did not support giving you aid.</p>
<p>Swat was the most generous in fin aid to me back in the day* (but back in the day was 20 years ago).</p>
<p>*Other than for the in-state flagship, but back then, a Pell, Staffords, a small need-based grant from my state, and some work-study was more than enough to cover everything in-state, so that school didn’t actually have to offer any of its own money; my how times have changed.</p>
<p>Unless you ran the net price calculator before applying, and your family had a relatively simple financial situation (nothing complex like divorces/remarriages, small businesses, etc.), and the school’s actual financial aid offer came up significantly short of the net price calculator estimate, then it is hard to see an insufficient financial aid offer as a broken promise.</p>
<p>Swarthmore was less generous than comparable colleges when my D applied 4 years ago. Fortunately, she had other options. It’s important not to fall in love with a college before the financial aid package is determined. I certainly didn’t see it as a broken promise. Amherst and Williams proved to be the most generous. </p>
<p>OP, students applying to LOTS of colleges end up disappointed by the financial aid offers they receive. It’s too bad, but it’s not isolated to any one school. As others have said, there can be a difference between what your family has demonstrated as “need” and what the school does. And Swarthmore is also evaluating your application against everyone else’s. Spend a little more time on this site and you will see lots of people crying “poor-mouth” who are actually very comfortable compared to others.</p>
<p>In order to get some perspective on this, you do need to do a little research. It is entirely possible that Swarthmore’s financial aid formula gives your family less than other schools do. The fact of the matter is that, on average, when one looks at many students applying for financial aid, Swarthmore gives better financial aid packages than most schools in the country. Unfortunately, there is no statistic that is in the Common Data Sets that will show whether Swarthmore or any school meets X% of FAFSA EFC, on average,which would be a more accurate measuring stick in comparing apples to apples. To me, it’s idiocy, that we say a school meet X% of need as the school itself defines need. Two schools that meet 100% of need, could have entirely different definitions of need with a school defining need in a very narrow way.</p>
<p>Which is why there are the NPCs. Because S does meet 100% of need as they define it, and they have very few merit awards, for many situations, you can run your numbers through their NPC and find out what kind of a package you can expect to get from them and it should come out pretty accurately unless your family owns a business, or there is an unusual finanical situation. If you run your numbers through Swarthmore’s NPC, and the aid package comes out entirely differently from what they gave you, with no unusual family financial situation, then you do have a basis to complain. Especially, if you run the same numbers through some like schools, like Wesleyan, Williams, Amherst, Havorford, and they come up with different numbers or more strikingly if their packages are more true to NPC and more generous. </p>
<p>Just because a school does not meet YOUR ideas of what is adequate, any given person’s, in terms of aid, or anything really means nothing in the whole picture. If there is a true issue, like an inaccurate NPC, that’s a whole other story. Everyone has his own perception of what need is and what a generous aid package is. </p>
<p>There was another student on this board,early in the season, who applied ED to Swarthmore, was accepted and did get an inadequate aid package. This student’s family owned a business,and the expected contribution from Swarthmore’s formula using PROFILE was much higher than the family FAFSA EFC. For him, going to his state school, UWisconsin, would be far less costly as the sticker price was much lower, and the aid for his low EFC was better met. Swarthmore ignored his EFC and he got only federal entitlements towards it. He appealed the award and was denied. So he asked to be released from his ED contract, and that was that.</p>
<p>Then Carlton, another PROFILE school, offered him a much better aid package as their aid formula took a more generous approach to his family business situation. This was entirely unexpected, as he had pretty much resigned himself to the possibility that none of the PROFILE schools were going to meet his need as FAFSA defined it. </p>
<p>This student, whose case is in on the boards from ED results, happily got a much better aid package from Carlton than Swarthmore, and he could have written your post, given his personal experience. Unless you are in a similar situation, unless you give more info, you really cannot say what you did and have much merit in your accusations. So do the work, before bandying such accusations,making such proclamations. IT is entirely possible that Swarthmore’s formula is more stringent than most other schools of its calibre or even among those schools that boast meeting 100% of need, but the facts you present, which are very few, and based on just one personal experience, one cannot come to this conclusion. I can tell your right now, that the student’s situation as I mentioned above, does lead me to believe that S’s formula certainly could be less generous, a lot less generous than Carlton’s for family businesses, and I’d relate that student’s story as a cautionary tale for those owning businesses and looking for fin aid, but your experience is not worth telling anyone at all. It says absolutley nothing useful and reeks of sour grapes.</p>
<p>So do some work, and give out some straight out facts other than you not getting the aid you say you need and deserve. What schools met your need better? Comparisons of various NPC scenarios of Swarthmore’s formula vs other like schools. You give some hard facts and maybe we’d give you some merit and consideration. Otherwise, nope. Just another complainer who did not get what he wanted.</p>
<p>Do they make big promises though? I looked at their site and it didn’t seem like much of a promise. In fact they say…</p>
<p>“Although we believe that the primary responsibility for financing education lies with students and their parents or guardians, we stand ready to help fill in the gap when family resources do not meet our costs. Swarthmore’s strong financial aid program demonstrates our commitment to the principle that all capable students have access to the College.”</p>
<p>They don’t say they WILL fill the gap… only that they will help fill it. They even say that while their aid doesn’t include loans that families often take-out loans to help pay for their portion.</p>
<p>I think this might be the case of “reputation” over “truth.” People talk about how great their financial aid is because for some… it really is awesome! However, there doesn’t seem to be any real promise that they’ll meet full need or that loans won’t be used.</p>
<p>It sucks but most people don’t get to go to any college they want. </p>
<p>“Meet full need” can be construed as a promise – but students have to be aware that the definition of “need” varies at different schools, and may not be the same as what the student and family thinks they need.</p>
<p>That is why the student and family should use the net price calculators before applying to get an idea of expected financial aid.</p>
<p>Nothing OP complains about sounds unique to Swarthmore or even unusual. I’m also a little put off by the sense of entitlement. It’s like being gifted with a BMW and then complaining that it doesn’t come with free gasoline.</p>
<p>That is the crux of the problem: “meets full need”. A lot of people think that their own definition of need is what will hold. Not so, and schools have their own definitions. It’s a rude awakening what these formulas expect you to pay and they don’t care if you are taking care of granny or tithing or live in an expensive area or only have been making that kind of money recently. </p>
<p>Just for the OP’s benefit, I am posting a query from another (now closed) thread.</p>
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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1653973-high-income-but-can-t-afford-college-p1.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1653973-high-income-but-can-t-afford-college-p1.html</a></p>
<p>It’s posts like this that make some of us cynical and occasionally unsympathetic to the complaints about inadequate aid.</p>
<p>Though “we stand ready to help fill in the gap” is reminiscent of BU’s old wording (“we will help you find the resources,”) it doesn’t automatically mean their money. And “help” is only help. “all who demonstrate financial need” means they get something, not perfection.</p>
<p>Agree with all who say, the NPC should have been run. When a family is so dependent on aid, they have to take this entire aspect with the utmost seriousness. No assumptions. </p>
<p>Some schools will “candidly admit” they can’t underwrite all kids. But even the most generous leave many families with some stretch. it;s hard when the family encounters unexpected challenges. But this is a big responsibility for all parties. </p>
<p>I think the OP just wanted to complain. Hasn’t been back!</p>
<p>I don’t think kids like th OP get it, or in many cases their parents either. I don’t know anything about swat fin aid per se, but I did meet a lovely young girl and her mom several years ago here in atlanta. The girl was a QB finalist, and though not matched ended up getting a fabulous full ride to swat. I think the OP doesn’t see the whole picture. His parents make 200k per year? That is more than I made in the last 10 years combined. Boo hoo…</p>
<p>P.S. Usually when parents are denied a Parent Plus Loan, it is not due to income issues. It is because they have not been paying their bills…on time. </p>
<p>According to my limited immigrant understanding of English “Swarthmore’s strong financial aid program demonstrates our commitment to the principle that all capable students have access to the College” implies that everyone will be able to afford Swarthmore if accepted due to their aid. If this is not true then they are engaging in misleading advertisement.</p>
<p>CCDD…the devil is in the details. Swat gets to calculate and determine a student’s financial need. Often, what the family thinks they need and what the college determines their need to be are NOT the same.</p>