<p>Either I am really slow or some of you are not making senses. </p>
<p>Are you saying there are two departments in one school. One of them only does admission and the other only does financial aid. A student could be "accepted" into that school but will not be able to attend there because "short" on paying the bill? Why do they accept that student at the first place, knowing he/she could not afford it?</p>
<p>I think we are in the worst position - not poor enough to be "low income" but not rich enough to pay the "full price". </p>
<p>Here is what I got from the discussion here:</p>
<p>D will send application for admission and merit aid at the same time to a school. If she got in, she will then apply for FA to cover the difference between merit aid (if any) and EFC. If the FA package is not good, we just forget about the admission and move on.</p>
<p>Well, they don't know that. Many people do pay more than their EFC. They take out loans, use more of their assets than the EFC assesses, the kid works during the school year, etc etc. </p>
<p>Our EFC went down this year. Our son's school, which is a 100% full need, gave us a grant which we didn't get the year before. If they hadn't, we'd've paid ourselves. But we are darn glad we didn't have to!</p>
<p>In any case, this has pretty thrown everything I thouht I knew under the bus. My previous believe was that when a univ issued an admission letter, that univ will cover any and all financial differnece between COA and EFC. I have not had any idea that one's ability to pay will be such a big factor in most univerisities other than the top few.</p>
<p>I am willing and ready to pay our shares (EFC). But I know there is a big gap between our EFC and the COA of most universities.</p>
<p>As many have said, there are also tons of schools which give sizeable merit awards, too. It sounds as if your D has a good academic record, so that's another way to go.</p>
<p>Also, it should be noted that because most schools do not pledge to meet full need, does not mean they never do. Many students needing FA get adequate amounts to meet their EFC. </p>
<p>All of this is why it's good to research and apply to a range of schools both from an academic and finanical aspect, so that you can then compare FA offers.</p>
<p>They're just aren't any cut and dried answers, though the questions are good ones!</p>
<p>In our daughter's case, admissions and fin aid were separate. She just applied. After acceptance, she received merit offers. In the mean time, we completed FAFSA and Profile (for the schools that required it) forms. Financial Aid letters arrived. I guess we were lucky, all the schools came within $6,000 of our EFC and had work/study ($1500), Perkins Loan($3000), and Stafford Loan($1500) for the first year. So, basically they got to our EFC but after scholarships and grants they needed the w/s and loans to get there.</p>
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<p>If the FA package is not good, we just forget about the admission and move on.>></p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Each family needs to determine what they are able and willing to spend on college expenses BEFORE the applications get sent (my opinion)....so that students know up front that the finaid package they receive will (or won't) affect their decision to enroll at that school. </p>
<p>But basically...yes. If your family feels the finaid package is not going to work for your family...then yes, you would have to move on. However, in most cases, students are receiving multiple acceptances and finaid packages to compare at the same time. You usually don't do one school...then toss that one aside if it doesn't work out, and do another. The most important thing to remember is that the computed EFC (whether institutional or federal methodology) may not match up with what YOUR family is willing or able to pay. </p>
<p>And most important...IF financial aid is a significant consideration, DO NOT APPLY EARLY DECISION ANYWHERE.</p>
<p>There are some "need blind/meet full need" schools out there that offer merit scholarships. Those merit scholarships are HIGHLY competitive...highly. They are offered to only a small number of students (e.g. the merit scholarships at Duke are quite limited and are for very high flyers)...ditto Vandy.</p>
<p>All this is in that thread at the top of the finaid forum here...Preparing for Financial Aid Applications. I'm sorry I'm not savvy enough to post a link to that thread....maybe someone else can. You will get much more information by posting on the finaid thread than here.</p>
<p>Are you saying there are two departments in one school. One of them only does admission and the other only does financial aid. A student could be "accepted" into that school but will not be able to attend there because "short" on paying the bill? Why do they accept that student at the first place, knowing he/she could not afford it?</p>
<p>Because families vary in their ability/desire to take on additional debt- not everyone has extensive debt. For example- our EFC was $13,000 but our only debt was our mortgage- no car loan, no credit cards. ( of course this was before D attended college ;) )</p>
<p>I think we are in the worst position - not poor enough to be "low income" but not rich enough to pay the "full price".
Not really-Low income students are in the worst position,( or students whose parents refuse to help at all) generally their background and resources are less than middle income students.
Full price also varies- are you talking about a prestigous and expensive private university, or are you talking about an instate public university?
Often honors programs at public instate, have merit awards attached- giving the opportunity for a very good education at a very low price for the same caliber of student that may also be considering the prestigious private.</p>
<p>*Here is what I got from the discussion here:</p>
<p>D will send application for admission and merit aid at the same time to a school. If she got in, she will then apply for FA to cover the difference between merit aid (if any) and EFC. If the FA package is not good, we just forget about the admission and move on.*</p>
<p>We applied for aid before admission- You can file FAFSA january 1st, and PROFILE before that. By the time all the ducks are in the water- re recommendations/essays etc., others are already in line at the aid office.
I would recommend applying for aid as early as possible, you can always refine the numbers.</p>
<p>I think it is better if a school is " need aware" rather than "need blind"
Need blind school just means they don't consider ability to pay for the education, when they consider offering admission.</p>
<p>Your EFC could be zero and it could be an OOS school that doesn't offer aid to OOS students. so the most you might get could be a subsidized Stafford loan.</p>
<p>There are also many many stories about students offered aid at privates which made it more economical to attend those $40,000 + schools than the state schools. One of my colleagues is sending his second child to Pomona for less than it would have cost him to attend a UC campus</p>
<p>"A student could be "accepted" into that school but will not be able to attend there because "short" on paying the bill? Why do they accept that student at the first place, knowing he/she could not afford it?"</p>
<p>Welcome to America. What do you think all the complaining about affording higher education is about? You are part of the majority of families that is trying to figure out how to pay for it all - and maybe feeling a little snubbed that their hard-working, top student will not have the pick of any college s/he chooses. So no, it is not easy. And no, the colleges don't especially care how you figure out how to pay that bill, so long as you pay. A nice college savings fund is pretty important.</p>
<p>Dad II - You can see test scores (and lots of other good stuff) by college at collegeboard.com. Duke reports that the middle 50% range of their accepted students score 29-34. (So, 25% score higher and 25% score lower. Be careful evaluating that lower 25% - there can be lots of athletes, legacies, developmental admits, and URMs in there.)</p>
<p>DadII, many schools list their requirements for merit money on their website. Many also show how much money each grouping of GPA/ ACT/ SAT usually receives.</p>
<p>DadII- I hope your last comment was tongue in cheek. You'd be doing yourself (and kid) a disservice by not taking advantage of the accumlated vast knowledge on these boards.</p>
<p>You can gain alot just by research, reading on your own.</p>
<p>But here, you can get a broad spectrum of experiences and methodologies.</p>
<p>Again, like all info, you have to sift through it, and use what works for you.</p>
<p>If you want depression, wait till the tuition bills come. ;)</p>
<pre><code>I'll give my friend's D's recent experience as an illustration of how varied aid offers can be. I don't know her EFC, but the discussion she had with her D at application time was this: we have invested enough to afford four years at a UC. No matter what the EFC from a private college says, we as parents cannot afford to pay beyond that as 1. there are two more kids coming up behind you and 2. we have not saved anything for retirement yet and 3. we will not saddle ourselves with additional debt for college for child #1 due to points one and two above. D. was accepted to Bowdoin, Scripps, Oberlin, Kenyon and Denison and to four UCs, including Berkeley. None of the UCs were the right fit for her --- she wanted a much more intimate college experience.
Bowdoin and Scripps offered no merit aid, and no FA other than loans so she dropped them from consideration. (She would have had to go into debt herself for the $80,000 to $100,000 difference and I doubt her parents would have co-signed.) Oberlin offered a modest FA package, mostly loans, and the D did not like her accepted student visit so dropped that one. Kenyon was more generous, enough to make it doable, but Denison came up with enough merit aid to make her four years in a private college practically debt free and she liked Denison better so that's what she chose.
</code></pre>
<p>The point is that there's nothing wrong with your D applying to the prestige colleges that meet 100 percent of need without loans, but she shouldn't fall in love with the idea because it might not happen. She needs to have a list that includes financial safeties that she would be happy to attend --- and they are out there if you look for them.</p>