<p>I'm referring to need only schools and not outside scholarships. I realize that desirability affects admissions, but does it have any impact on $ ? Or is everyone on the same "playing field"? So if I make 100,000 and have a 100,000 in assets and have a super hook child and you make 100,000 and have 100,000 in assets but your kid is the average accepted student... will my kid get more money?</p>
<p>I assume hypothetically no, but ????</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Are you talking about merit scholarships? </p>
<p>What is the super hook? super high stats?</p>
<p>At schools that are need based only, then your ability to pay is all that mostly matters.</p>
<p>If you need merit money, then be sure to apply to some schools where your child’s stats will give large merit…as back-up safety schools.</p>
<p>Academics, athletics, minority status all will bring $$ at certain schools, but certainly not all. Am I missing the point of your question?</p>
<p>Yes, I’m referring to financial aid only, no merit scholarships (as need only schools do not provide these). Will “super hook” (of any kind) get my child more financial aid — not scholarships/awards… just straight “ability to pay” money?</p>
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<p>If it is a school that offers NEED BASED financial aid only, your child’s financial aid will be based on the same financial criteria as anyone else who is accepted. At schools where loans are still packaged, you MIGHT (note MIGHT) see a package that is more preferable with perhaps less self help (loans and work study) and more grants. BUT the total will be the same.</p>
<p>Thank you thumper. That is exactly what I was asking, although how the aid is packaged isn’t an idea I thought of.</p>
<p>crazy…this would only be the case at schools that still package loans. Some of the full need schools no longer do so.</p>
<p>I think the answer is yes-- but perhaps less than inexperienced parents think ("My kid is a terrific soccer player; he will have a free ride anywhere) and less than experienced parents think (“It’s all about what the FAFSA and Profile say”). In my experience, we clearly had need-only schools sweeten the pot because they wanted my kid. It was clear when there were no loans and full need met when the school was neither a no-loan school nor a school that meets full need. However, we had some other things that were unclear that were less clear which I think were preferential packaging. Some schools that wanted my kid had a rather generous read on our financial need. </p>
<p>However, I wouldn’t expect this. It was sort of random. I would never have predicted the schools that did that.</p>
<p>I agree with 2collegewego. I think preferential packaging happens at need only schools but it’s impossible to know for sure and to predict.</p>
<p>A school that meets full need for some but not all applicants is basing the differences on something. No matter what it is, it might be called preferential packaging.</p>
<p>Schools that meet full need sometimes eliminate loans for some applicants; that could also be called preferential packaging.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg is straight up with the fact that they do preferential packaging</p>
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<p>Ah…but Muhlenberg does not guarantee to meet full need, and Muhlenberg also gives merit scholarships. Schools that have some “leeway” in how they award aid (e.g. don’t guarantee to meet full need…but can if they so choose, or schools that can offer merit aid to sweeten the pot) are better able to make “adjustments” to financial aid packages than those that award need based aid ONLY…and guarantee to meet need for all accepted students. Those full need guaranteed schools typically award aid based on parental financial information and the total package regardless of your “hook” is likely to not vary from another accepted student with the same finances. Simply put…the financial aid office at these schools may not even KNOW about your hook. They are plugging your financial information into their need based aid formula.</p>
<p>Now having said that…if you are an athlete, for example, and a highly desirable one…you may find that your financial aid PACKAGING (as noted in the Muhlenberg example) may include more grants than loans. Maybe…no guarantees.</p>
<p>Yes, you can get preferential packaging at some schools. Where it usually happens is at schools that include loans in the financial aid packages and/or do not meet full need. Even if Admissions and Fin Aid are separate offices, admits can be coded to be on the “A” list which means those kids get the best aid and other benefits like special invitation days,likely letters. </p>
<p>I’ve seen this very distinctly with NYU. I’ve seen kids gapped big time and kids getting the best FA package from them. All depends on how much the school wants them.</p>
<p>But if you don’t qualify for need and the school does not give merit money, it doesn;t work in a way that they will give you fin aid. You have to meet need requirements.</p>
<p>Back in the stone age when I was in college, my recognizable-on-CC-selective-LAC was very up-front about its aid policy. You received full need-based aid, or you were admitted with no aid. No one received partial aid. Every year one or two of the admit-deny students did manage to scrape together enough money so that they could attend, but most of them went elsewhere. I have no idea what the criteria was for funding some of us but not the others. Maybe the financial aid office simply assigned the money until it ran out? Or maybe they had some other system for determining who got it.</p>
<p>“Those full need guaranteed schools typically award aid based on parental financial information and the total package regardless of your “hook” is likely to not vary from another accepted student with the same finances.”</p>
<p>Thumper, this is what I meant by what experienced parents think. I don’t think it’s always true because it wasn’t true in our case but I can’t tell you the exact additional $ that some of these schools gave us because you never know what their contribution is. However, we had full-need guaranteed schools that read our financial need very generously – this includes Profile schools that are not considered the most generous on cc and their estimate was less than the FAFSA worksheet (despite my home equity). One thing several of these schools did was waive or reduce any deposit.</p>
<p>There are schools that offer preferential packaging. There are some that do not. There are some where it is touch and go. The fact of the matter is that you don’t know where you stand on these things until you actually get your package. You really can’t predict what kind of aid/merit packages anyone is going to get at a given school. Heck, you can’t even be sure you are going to get accepted at some of these schools. I know a number of kids whose parents are still shell shocked about rejections that their star studded kids got, and others that are still shaking their head over discrepancies in aid packages.</p>
<p>If you have a straight up EFC of zero with no issues to complicate the PROFILE, you know what you will get from full need met schools, but even then there are the issues of self help and what they call the student contribution which can make packages differ in terms of final cost to the student. </p>
<p>You can hope that you get a little sugar frosted on your package because your kid is particularly wanted by a school for one reason or other, but it’s not something to count on. More important is upping the odds for a good package itself.</p>
<p>I think “preferential packaging” is mostly a concept at schools that don’t meet need.</p>
<p>However, in the case of …</p>
<p>In my experience, we clearly had need-only schools sweeten the pot because they wanted my kid.</p>
<p>I think her kids are URMs with strong stats which may have been highly desirable for diversity. That said, I don’t know if the school she is mentioning is a “full need met” school.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t expect the ivies or similar to engage in much/any preferential packaging.</p>
<p>They do. I’ve seen Colgate and Bucknell do so. CMU will negotiate, they say, and many schools will re assess if a student has better offers from comparable schools.</p>
<p>Yes, these were full-need schools (with no loans) and yes, my kid who this happened to is a URM. I wouldn’t say it was about scores (the scores were in-range but not amazing for those schools) but my kid had a profile that I think these schools wanted. Kiddo didn’t want an ivy-- preferred lacs so the schools I am referring to are top lacs. But, just to be clear, we never even felt particularly confident that kiddo would be accepted. Only on cc did the parents tell us to shoot that high.</p>
<p>2College, our experience was similar. Some schools, even very good schools, do practice preferential packaging, even if they do not advertise it. I’ve read over and over on this forum that preferential packaging at 100% need met schools is in the amount of loans awarded, and the total package will be the same, but that just doesn’t explain what we saw. I think sometimes a kid just hits the sweet spot at a school, and if that school is one which uses this type of packaging, you can get very lucky. (And I mean that literally … there is certainly luck involved, since the school isn’t advertising what it’s looking for).</p>