No my daughter doesn’t go to a Florida public school, but you are right that Florida doesn’t offer a lot of need based aid from their schools. Many students who have a $10k EFC wouldn’t need any need based aid as the merit aid would take the COA down below that $10k EFC level. There are also separate state need based grants to very low income students, so a student with Pell, SEOG, a state grant and BF may not need any institutional aid. The only students I know who got institutional need based aid were Pell eligible. DISCLAIMER for Belknap, I don’t know all 500k+ students at Florida public schools, so this is my experience for my kids and their many friends who attend Florida public schools, from attending financial aid meetings at the high school, at the colleges, talking with other parents in the same boat. One friend of DD’s did have a low EFC and she got aid from FSU, but after Pell, SEOG, BF, and I think another scholarship, her need wasn’t very high.
Bright Futures is entirely merit based (with other requirements like community service). It is not awarded by the schools but by a central agency. The schools merely apply it to the bill as directed. Of course many kids with EFCs above $10k qualify, because it is not a need based aid. It can also be used at private schools.
I don’t understand why the concept of a gap from a public school is new. We talk about it all the time on CC, that students know they will not get federal grants, know they don’t qualify for merit (or do get it) and then are SHOCKED when the school doesn’t meet the EFC, even if that EFC is low. Or give anything toward the gap. My daughter, EFC of $0, was gapped. No institutional need based aid.
My other daughter, at a Florida private, gets no institutional need based aid because she can’t accept it. She does get state aid, merit aid, some school grants - no institutional need based aid.
You know, the universe of students attending college isn’t limited to your kids, other kids you know, or even all the kids attending Florida public schools.
@twoinanddone if I may ask, I assume you did a lot of research before and after your D at the Public applied. Did she look at meet full needs schools? Was the merit she received the best deal? I will be discouraging K2 from applying to most publics as she will probably qualify for good need aid and will need a full need school and most publics do not treat OOS. Ones I will let her consider include UNC and possibly UVA.
Why couldn’t your other daughter accept need aid? Sorry just curious, do not mean to pry.
My daughter at the private school cannot accept need based aid from the institution because she has an athletic scholarship. She can have other types of aid, but not institutional need based aid as it is an NCAA issue. Just something we had to account for when using the NPC because if the NPC said there would be need based aid, I knew we couldn’t accept it. I don’t recall any schools showing need based aid for her with an EFC of $15k; I must have missed all those big offers of institutional aid.
My daughter at public school goes to Wyoming. She found Wyoming when she was a junior and she was one and done. No interest in looking further. I like Wyoming because it is very straightforward. Price is $$, you can get merit aid, you can get department aid, you can get federal aid. She loves the size, the course selection, the people. Neither daughter had any interest in elite schools and I didn’t push them or suggest them. Athlete daughter was invited to Smith, but it was pretty clear to both of us it was not the right school for her. My kids are both very young and not very worldly. Both enjoy being small fish.
I focused on making the schools they chose work financially and that was a better method for us than applying to a lot of schools and hoping for good financial aid. Was it the BEST deal? I don’t know, but the prices worked for me and I was happy they could go to the schools they wanted to. One of my big hopes for them was to spend 4 years at one school. They went to 3 different high schools, and I didn’t want them to have to transfer because of money. We tried to pick schools that were very affordable to give the best chance at the four year goal.
We wanted to try to stay in our state because of distance and future professional school tuition being substantially lower by staying instate (D is in conditional acceptance pharmacy program). Also we can get about $2000 state grant.
We save on travel costs because she is only 2 hrs away.
It worked out that my D got full tuition at her first choice. So what we pay for room and board is less than our EFC.
She could have gotten automatic merit at another school but it was twice as far.
Most full need met schools are very selective. And if your financial situation changes you can get less aid in future years.
With merit, as long as a certain GPA is kept the tuition is covered and in our case even adjusts with any increases.
So I would put some automatic merit, competitive merit and some full need met schools on the list.
@BelknapPoint@thumper1@twoinanddone, thanks for all your help and input on this thread. We had sent appeal letters with the corrected FAFSA & CSS PROFILE to 2 schools: Northeastern & GW. Northeastern came back yesterday with an additional $2,500 scholarship and $11,300 in grant aid, all on top of the $18,000 Presidential scholarship he had received. Of course in the meantime, we had all wrapped our heads around the idea that we weren’t going to get anything from either school and son had more or less decided on GW. Now we’re back to square one because instead of the 2 schools being equal in cost, now NEU is about $15,000 less per year. We have not yet heard back from GW, so fingers are crossed like crazy.
Anyway, I just wanted to express my deep and sincere thanks to you, BelknapPoint! You really helped me understand the forms and the 529 accounts in a way that no one else anywhere was able to do. We had a slightly weird situation with the 529s being custodial and I never would have figured that out without your help. Thanks again.
Excellent report! I’m glad that we were able to help you out. I have dealt with custodial 529 plans for a number of years now – even if you understand the concept, it can be difficult trying to work through FAFSA and Profile that first time. Now that you know the process, it will be much easier in the following years.
