<p>Does anyone know if you can expect the same mix of grants vs. loans for all four years of college? Or do schools "front load" grants for freshmen in order to entice them to attend if they are kids which the school wants to attend?</p>
<p>In our case, we're hoping our DS will get some good merit aid. (He's a NMSF with a good but not perfect GPA.) Our income is pretty variable (we own a small business) so we think our EFC will be about $25k this year, but it could vary significantly in future years.</p>
<p>So, if the kid gets an offer with a lot of merit aid this year, but our income goes up next year, will he continue to get that merit aid? I understand the EFC will get recalculated each year, but how about the mix of grants vs. loans?</p>
<p>Generally merit aid is not tied to EFC, so it should remain constant for 4 years. There may be conditions for its renewal, such as maintaining a certain GPA. This should be spelled out in the school’s award letter.</p>
<p>You can probably expect the COA to increase every year, so if merit aid stays constant, you can expect to take out more loans to cover the cost.</p>
<p>When your son receives merit aid, check the renewal provisions for his merit aid. Usually it will tell you whether it’s renewable and for how many years…and what it takes to get that renewal (e.g. certain GPA, filing of Finaid forms, etc).</p>
<p>Need based aid is applied for annually so your fluctuation in income would affect that from year to year if the school(s) meet full need. If they don’t, then if your income goes down, they will not be under any obligation to increase your aid if they don’t meet full need. If your income goes UP, they would likely reduce need based aid if your income rises over the threshold for which your need based aid was awarded.</p>
<p>I am sure it is one of those things that varies by individual school, student, situation. My daughter has had less loans and more grants in each passing year. But her EFC went down the 2nd year making her eligible for more grants, and her major is a SMART grant major so that bumped her grants by $4000 this year (and should next unless disaster strikes). </p>
<p>Her need based grants are all federal (+ a small state one). The one I wondered if she would lose when she got the SMART is the SEOG, as I know the school has limited funding for those. But that didn’t happen.</p>
<p>Most colleges have difficulty having enough financial aid money to support all of their students who need it. Many colleges have found that students won’t come or will drop out if they have large amounts of loans freshmen and soph years, so many colleges will increase loans for junior and senior years.</p>
<p>As long as your EFC remains the same, you can expect the same mix of loans and grants. The staffords do increase each year and the colleges do expect you to take them. I also feel that some schools do give freshmans a better deal to entice them, and then do not offer more aid, once you are there. I feel that is my D’s situation. She appealed her FA in sophomore year, even though the tuition went up and our EFC stayed same. Princeton Review says that they meet approx 68% of need, that is not our case, they meet 50%. I’m not sure iof that 68% is grants or the combo of loans and grants.</p>