<p>I am almost wishing I hadn’t found this site…ignorance is bliss! Our oldest is a Jr in HS and has pretty good stats (#2 out of 320; 2190 SAT; 4.0 uw gpa; dedicated ECs and a job). We have started the process by reading tons of FA guide books and college guide books.<br>
My question to all of you is how do you know if the college is generous with FA? All of them claim to be - I have been surprised to hear about NYU. They have been sending materials to our house for a year and they all express how generous their FA packages are and how they don’t include loans.
Our student is doing her part - now that it’s our turn at bat I can’t help feeling like I’m in way over my head! We have a college savings account with a decent amount but it’s not near enough if the EFC calculator is any indication - and if what I am reading is true that EFC isn’t at all what you actually end up paying…uuggghhhgggg!!!</p>
<p>^^Oh, I’d agree. It’s scary as heck. I work with TRIO students, most of whom are low-income. I’ve had to be reasonably well-versed in fin aid (but am definitely no expert). Still, a few years back I ran a calculator and . . . ACK!!! Where do I get that kind of money?</p>
<p>The real advantage was knowing, in advance, to tell the kids what I could realistically contribute a year and that it was up to them how much debt they wanted to assume. Od1 will attend school at my employer for 2 years because of the tuition benefit for my dependants. Wasn’t her first choice, but she didn’t want loans. (Other 2 years have to be spent as a hospital clinical program, where there is no tuition benefit.) Glad the kid has inherited a good bit of my frugal nature.</p>
<p>The way you can get an idea about financial aid is to get the USNWR big book or on line service. In the front of the book, they have lists of those colleges that give the most aid. You can go down the list and see what percentage of students get financial aid and what the average amounts are. The same with merit awards. </p>
<p>If you go to the individual college listing, you can then get a breakdown on the money given in a particular year. It will give you the average percent of need met which is an important number. It also gives you the % of kids getting 100% of need met. Then it gives you a breakdown between grants and loans. It then does the same breakdown for merit money.</p>
<p>So,if your student is applying to a school where the average % of need being met is 50%, right away, you can see that unless your kid has something to buck the averages, you are looking at getting about half your EFC covered. Then if you see that 70% of the kids are getting 100% of their need met, you can see that unless your kids stats or situation is such that s/he is going to get a full need award, it is likely that s/he may not even get half of need. By looking at the grant/loan breakdown, you can see how much of the financial aid offered is loan. </p>
<p>With merit awards, you can get an idea of what %tile your student is in terms of test scores, and then see what % of the kids are getting merit money. If your kid is in the top 10% in terms of test scores and 25% of kids get merit money, it’s looking pretty good that s/he will get something. If it’s the other way around, the chances are just about zilch. Then looking at average award amounts, you can see if the merit awards are $1000 “tips” or a nice discount like $10K.</p>
<p>One other factor is that anyone, no matter what income level you come from can get merit aid. If your a middle class kid however, the merit aid can replace the bulk of the financial aid. Last year my son got into an honors college at an LAC and they gave him 25K merit aid. We thought, mistakenly that we would then get the financial aid our EFC allowed in addition to the merit aid. When the financial aid package came, it was the 25K merit and a 5K grant(this was a 52k school), the rest we were to make up. If he had been acccepted to the school normally, he just would have gotten 30K in financial aid(i am presuming). nothing to sneeze at mind you, but you would think that they would do something more for a kid who would be a top student at there college.</p>
<p>kanjad, just a note though I suspect you can glean this – also don’t count on on what others say re: which schools are most generous because YOUR kid might be that OUTLIER who pulls off a miracle. Example – my son’s dream school/program was a nationally ranking state flagship (Umich) in very hard admit program (small music studio, portfolio based). EVERYONE I KNOW told me Umich was not great with aid so be prepared for sticker shock. I didn’t even think he’d get IN to the program. He ended up with two generous merit scholarships. So there’s no reliable rubric. That said, you’ve already improved your odds by informing yourself well in advance! 
Cheers!</p>
<p>A lot of parents think that with merit aid, how they calculate is somewhat individual to that college. One Mom said her son got a merit scholarship which replaced most of their EFC contribution and another student got very little merit but more grant…she thought he had the better deal because there wasn’t a gpa attached.</p>
<p>Even with scholarships…for instance, D1 got a 5,000 named scholarship through Yale because of volunteerism, but it was applied to what Yale was giving to her in grant, nothing was taken off our bill. Another scholarship D2 received for 1500 was given to her and went toward her contribution which was about that amount. Everyone is different and how the college handles it. Bryn Mawr took a good deal of outside scholarships, some colleges will let you use them for your contribution, all things to ask ahead of time if you can.</p>
<p>kandjad - you’ll be OK if you have a financial and academic safety your D will be happy at. After that, have her cast her net wide.</p>
<p>I agree with Kmc. NYU is a school that is notorious for gapping kids in aid, but I know kids who got their best packages from their.</p>