<p>My daughter is trying to choose between Brown/Williams/Bowdoin. She is an athlete and is planning on studying premed. She is a very hard worker, not your typical genious. So, she will be juggling athletics/classes/work study. My problem is the money that these colleges charge. Will one of these schools be able to give a better financial aid package than the other; I've heard that Williams gives more grant money. We are a middle income family, she is the youngest of 3, our oldest daughter graduated, the middle daughter is graduating in May and going on to grad school in the Fall, and we have student loans out that we are helping pay back for them. We have found that getting a loan is much harder than it was 6 years ago. Our EFC on the FAFSA is of coarse more than we could possible come up with. So, what to do. One school wants her to sign a "likely letter". So, in her heart if she signed this letter she feels that it would be binding. And she is so excited about going to this school. Is it worth it to take try to take out the loans for undergrad? She has a few other schools which might give her more money and she has applied for a lot of scholarships. Do you have any suggestions??? I would love some help here. Thanks for listening and hopefully helping,</p>
<p>If she has been accepted at all three can you ask and get your finaid packages ASAP? If she is still waiting to hear from one or more, can you get early estimates? Many colleges will do early estimates…never asked about “early” finaid packages…but all you can do is ask. Have you done any institutional or federal calculators to get an understanding what how having only one student in college that counts impact you?</p>
<p>one thing to consider if all three financial packages are roughly equal is the difference between DIII and DI schools. brown is DI and for most sports the level of training and competition is intense. williams and bowdoin are DIII, albeit both part of what most consider to be the best DIII athletic division in the country. still, the amount of training at williams and bowdoin for any sport will likely be less than at brown. something to keep in mind for a student athlete interested in med school down the road. </p>
<p>they’re all great. i say, if you can afford a trip, have the student do overnights at each. get a feel for each place. i’m sure one will stand out.</p>
<p>All of those schools, as far as I know, only award need-based aid. If you don’t believe you would qualify for that, then that is something to consider. And they are all very expensive schools. With the intention of med school down the road, debt for undergrad would be a poor option, in my opinion.</p>