comparing financial aid packages

Applying to College
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<p>IMO this approach is completely backwards. When developing your list of schools you should have an idea of where you stand on FA and scholarships with different levels of colleges (eg. HYPS with their new incentive programs, 100% need grant only schools, 100% need schools, schools that gap, schools with merit aid). If you go and apply to the schools you like without considering FA and scholarships, your after-the-fact look at FA packages will give you little if any flexibility. It will be too late to apply to most colleges or be considered for scholarships.</p>

<p>It’s not hard to go to a few of the college websites and punch some ballpark figures into their calculators first. If your dad is comfortable with 50+k X 4 years, then no problem, but if there’s some concern, the time to figure out how FA works is now, not when you start getting FA packages. Take a look at some of the sad stories currently on the FA forum, it’s this way EVERY year.</p>

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<p>I feel like washing my hands clean of this whole FA thing, because I feel like my dad’s expectations are unrealistic. He won’t say no to ED, but then he wants to compare financial aid packages. I spent over an hour showing him the endowment funds of all the colleges I’m looking at (to please him) and the average financial aid packages, but all he said was “those are just averages”, as if they don’t mean anything. Yes, they’re averages, which is what MOST people get. What makes him think he’s going to get more than that? I asked him how much he had saved for my college education and although he wasn’t forthcoming about it, I can tell that he has saved very little if anything. But, he told me not to worry about it and he would dip into his work account (retirement account maybe?) and that he was also saving now. And as I said before, I also recommended the FA calculator as you guys suggested, but he says it’s “too early”. Honestly, I’m just going to let this go and let him do whatever he wants. I’ll apply to schools that I love, ones I can see myself happy at, and then make my decision from the ones he can afford to pay for.</p>

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<p>banging head against my keyboard…</p>

<p>When you apply ED you are saying in exchange for an early decision, if accepted you will attend regardless of the FA package. You will withdraw all applications and will not create any new applications.</p>

<p>One of the drawbacks of ED is if accepted **You Will Not Have the Opportunity to CompareFinancial Aid Packages **</p>

<p>If your father is looking to compare packages, then you need to apply EA (which is non-binding) and RD.</p>

<p>He is right, he should not be looking at averages. For a school that gives averages, they could give a family in your position 2k in FA and they could give a family with a “0” EFC 50k in aid and the average FA would still be 26k. </p>

<p>There are a number of FA calculators he can run his numbers through:</p>

<p>He can run his numbers through the FA calculator right on CC</p>

<p>He could run his numbers through the FAFSA forecaster (for schools that only use the federal methodology)</p>

<p>[FAFSA4caster</a> - U.S. Department of Education](<a href=“http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/]FAFSA4caster”>http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/)</p>

<p>He could run his numbers through the college board FA calculator (he should use both the federal and institutional methodology)</p>

<p>[EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?](<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp]EFC”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp)</p>

<p>he could use Princeton’s FA calculator (ymmv if you are not applying to Princeton)</p>

<p>[Princeton</a> University | Princeton Financial Aid Estimator](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/estimator/]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/estimator/)</p>

<p>you could use Dartmouth’s FA calculator (which was pretty on point for our house. Again YMMV if you are not applying to dartmouth)</p>

<p>[Cost</a> Estimator](<a href=“Home | Dartmouth Admissions”>Home | Dartmouth Admissions)</p>

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<p>I think it depends, too, on your lifestyle. Honestly, given the way we live, if we had an income of 250K --even after all the taxes are withheld-- we could easily write a check to a college for 50K each year. Without breaking a sweat. On the other hand, we’re adapted to living on a pretty modest income already.</p>

<p>So it’s hard to say whether paying that amount out of income for your dad will be a problem. He may be right, it may not be. If you are concerned about it, then not applying ED is a good idea. Otherwise, apply widely in regular decision, rolling decision, non-binding EA or SCEA, and then wait and see what comes back.</p>

<p>In any case, you are a fortunate kid. Way more often we hear from students whose parents don’t want to pay for their college, or only agree to pay a limited amount – limited by ability to pay or willingness to. You have a generous dad and good financial resources. I hope you end up at a college where you’re really happy, and I expect you will.</p>

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<p>You sound like a very responsible kid, too bad your dad isn’t cooperating. He’s right about the FA numbers just being averages, BUT that’s WHY he should be running the calculators, to get a better idea of what your family will be asked to pay. </p>

<p>You’re in a tough spot as he’s not giving you all the information you need. My only caution is to try and keep working on getting pieces of information from him between now and when you apply. The problem with washing your hands of it and just applying to where you want is that if the FA packages come back and you really can’t afford the colleges you get into (particularly if you opt for ED) without taking out large amounts of loans, that will impact YOU much more than your dad. While he says he’ll dip into his work/retirement money, with the economic downturn, all bets are off in my opinion. </p>

<p>If you have the stats to be a competitive applicant at the schools you’ve listed, you are also competitive for merit scholarships, so do your homework and give yourself some options in case FA and your dad don’t come through. And I’m not just talking about your in-state public, check out the sticky threads on the FA & Scholarship forum and Parents forum. Also, these are good threads:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/219347-usnews-top-100-doctoral-colleges-merit-v-need-only.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/219347-usnews-top-100-doctoral-colleges-merit-v-need-only.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/219357-usnews-top-100-liberal-arts-college-merit-v-need-only.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/219357-usnews-top-100-liberal-arts-college-merit-v-need-only.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;