<p>This was posted on another forum and readers suggested I post it here. </p>
<p>My daughter is being heavily recruited by a NESCAC and a Patriot League school. She plays a sport very well and has a 4.23 GPA and 2160 SAT's. Both want ED. The Patriot League school will probably be up front with an academic aid offer within 48 hours. The NESCAC school says "use the calculator". I have a feeling they will both be about equal (as are the costs). My angst is that if my daughter ED's to the NESCAC we are flying blind on aid. We are not looking for a full ride, just partial help. Thrown on top of that is the premise of playing D1 or D3. Frankly, my daughter is not highly centric one way or the other. In the end it's "fit". The Patriot League school is bigger, very good academics, highly thought of, good athletic program and she would be competitive. The NESCAC is superlative academically, small, good athletics at a lower level (big fish, small pond). </p>
<p>The frustration is not knowing much about the realities of the NESCAC financial aid situation. Walking in blind is not particularly advantageous. If NESCAC's REALLY just "stick with the calculator" then at least we know where we stand. Question: do they typically stick with the calculator, or ???? Any perspectives or commentary on reality would be wonderful. </p>
<p>Insights appreciated. Apologies for the rambling...</p>
<p>kurt, others will know more about the actual outcomes of NESCAC and calculators. </p>
<p>Your scenario is a reason my daughter didn’t visit any D3 schools. She talked to one NESCAC who wanted her to come visit and made it sound beautiful and wonderful and all of that. But we can’t really afford the full cost and we won’t qualify for any aid. I think you said it yourself: it’s about fit. If the others end up not panning out, we’ll expend to D3 although we will have missed the ED deadlines of most.</p>
<p>Hard as it is, you’ll have to sweat it out till you get that Patriot League merit offer. This might sway you one way or the other. Does your daughter feel a strong pull towards the NESCAC?</p>
<p>As my daughter’s coach said, make a pros/cons list. I was going to tell her to make one, only weight things in order of importance, to help her if she got stuck between two schools with deadlines.</p>
<p>Good luck with the decision. There’s been a lot of that going on here lately!</p>
<p>She likes the D3 school. If she had never seen the D3 should would have no doubts about the D1 as it is a very nice school. We were just not planning on $54k/yr plus incidentals. I don’t want this to be a financial decision, rather, a fit decision. That “high ground” of the fit decision is great until one school costs $80K more than the other over 4 years, particularly when considering that grad school is yet another expense. All the schools typically talk about need-based this and that for admission. All well and good. But after admission comes the wallet and I don’t want to have to sell my home or eliminate my 401K to get there from here. The D1/D3 question… education first, athletics second. The D3 is, obviously, a less competitive scenario but at good as the D1’s academic base is (and it’s very good) the D3 is very exceptional on the education side. </p>
<p>Where’s the Tylenol? Advil? Maybe I should just pace, pace, pace…</p>
<p>kurt, I know exactly … forget the tylenol and join me in heading straight for the wine or hard liquor (others have as well!!!)</p>
<p>One NESCAC coach was in touch with my daughter because of a friend. Incidentally, this friend’s parents didn’t even bother with the FAFSA after the first year, if that puts things in perspective. Ask yourself will it make THAT big a difference, in terms of experience and in terms of success in the future. And then you have to decide if this NESCAC is that much ‘better’ … I am considering academics first as well … but I also think there are many ways to reach the same goal.</p>
<p>Hopefully, it will all be clear to you - and remember - you can spread that $80K out over 15 years if you want to. That’s how my husband sees things!</p>
<p>How financial gaps are met, varies from school to school. Bowdoin, for example, meets demonstrated financial need solely with grants. Other NESCACs use a combination of loans and grants…including the one where S1 has acceptd an athletic slot. </p>
<p>The financial calculator for S1’s NESCAC choice indicates there is a gap between the cost of education and our EFC. How closely this particular school meets that estimated need…and by what means, is a mystery to me, as well. I’ll be watching this post to see how others with first-hand experience weigh in. </p>
<p>S1 also has a chance to go to other DIII schools where he would likely qualify for merit/leadership aid…and to a couple DII schools where he could qualify for the same, plus athletic scholarship. It’s a big potential difference in cost, for sure. So many unknowns in this whole process… best of luck figuring it all out, OP~</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the two leagues, but here’s my perspective:</p>
<p>Financial aid representatives at each of the three LACs currently on my D’s list were willing to talk with me by telephone and answer my four financial aid questions–and nobody is recruiting my D for athletics!</p>
<p>Does the coach at the NESCAC school know that financial aid has shuffled you off to the calculator?</p>
<p>My son is a recruited athlete at a NESCAC school, he is now a senior
He did apply ED. His initial offer of aid was about 8k lower than we expected related to what the College Board calculator spit out so DH drove to the school, met with the head of FA and they substantially increased his offer of aid by about 8K. His aid has been very consistent since. After his first year, they went “no loan” so all in all I feel it has been a good experience and fair. The FA office is very willing to talk</p>
<p>MaryOC has it correct. You must know how the school meets the need after EFC. Some Nescac schools use loans yet others use only grants. My son attends a NESCAC who only uses subsidized loans in their packages, and both my son and I are ok with that. He needs to know he has a stake in all of this too. Other than that they used grants to meet the difference to the EFC. Other Nescacs offered a no loan package (Maine schools). </p>
<p>You should run the calculator, with accurate numbers and that will give you an idea of what to expect. Just remember that retirement contributions get added back to income in order to compute EFC, this is the most common mistake.</p>
<p>What does that mean " retirement contributions are added back into income?"</p>
<p>My D is a junior swimmer so we are just starting this process. I think this maybe my very first post! I have learned more the past two weeks on CC than you can imagine. While with swimming it easy to look up times to see where you might be a fit, her problem is she is finding schools where she will break the school record the first day or the school is too fast for her and the coach probably wouldn’t be interested. We have heard you should look at conference champs and see if you would score points. When we look at Ivy results she wouldn’t score points but is only a few seconds off based on her sophmore times. Is that still too far off to even consider an Ivy? (not HYP, too fast) Not sure if they only look at people who might go top 5? NCAA’s or what. Her AI is high although only just starting testing. Used her sophmore PsAT’s to estimate it. Hope there are some swim parents out there who know what I am talking about</p>
<p>I have now officially stolen this thread, lol. so will stop now. hee</p>
<p>You are getting good FA advice from posters above. I agree with Schokolade and I would take action with two items: </p>
<p>1) FA people are just like everybody else. Some are helpful and others not so much. I would call the FA office and ask to speak to someone about your questions. Call until you get someone who will talk to you. This is a big decision, and it should not be tossed over to an online tool. That is just plain lazy on their part. A very prestigous D3 school in our area did that to me last year. I asked to speak to the dept head, and I read her the riot act. If retail price is $53K a year, you can surely bet I’m not going to be dismissed that easily. </p>
<p>2) I would let the coach know that they sent you to the online calculator, and that you still have questions and need clarification. In that way, he knows you are trying and need help.</p>
<p>taymiss - congrats on your first post to cc!</p>
<p>First of all, it is absolutely true that you should look at conference champs and not school records or current swimmer times. Second, if she is a junior, her best times at the end of this season will be what counts.</p>
<p>As for the ivies, if she is good, they will recruit her. Look for top 16 at conferences. Any point scoring. Is she a candidate for relays? </p>
<p>Remember that unless you are at the top (at least junior nationals) the swimming money may not pay for much at most higher tier schools. And nothing at an ivy. However, they love the recruits who they can get through admissions easily. She should fill in their online recruiting forms this year if she is interested. Update them at the end of the season. She should drop time if she is a few seconds off.</p>
<p>PSATs are a good indicator…my daughter and most I have heard of do better on SATs than PSATs, even the ones taken junior year. Good luck!!</p>
<p>Sorry for joining in the thread hijacking!!</p>
<p>I realize this is off topic, but you need to know. Your adjusted gross income for tax purposes does not include any tax-free retirement contributions you made that year. In computing your available income for college expenses, therefore, colleges add your retirement contributions back to your AGI to determine total income. There are several possible reasons for doing this: one theory could be that you could cut back on retirement contributions in order to fund your child’s education for a four-year period. Another is that it would be unfair to give need-based aid to someone who chose to make huge retirement contributions that year while withholding aid from someone with the same gross income who didn’t do so.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that tax-free retirement contributions are added back when colleges determine your total income, but retirement assets (for example, in a 401(k) plan) are not considered when colleges determine your total assets.</p>