<p>Good story jazzymom - My elder son is attending Denison also without us breaking the bank; he loves it and is doing well there, and has had many very nice academic opportunities, including a paid research job this summer. Life is good and we WILL retire someday.</p>
<p>JM,, thanks for providing that example. our situations are somewhat different. While we do have one younger son, we are pretty good in our retirement savings (knock on wood). </p>
<p>If you have had read my other thread, you would have seen that my D's aim are all very high, the like of Yale, Duke, etc. etc. If she would even consider Denison (the one in Granville, Ohio?), we would have much less of a problem. </p>
<p>For the benefit of those who does not want to go over all three pages. basically, D is looking at all these expensive high ranking U. It is a shock to me to learn that it would take brain and wallet to attend one of those.</p>
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An intern in my department told me that a 28 ACT will get one a ton of money. We have our fingers crossed
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<p>Sounds a little optimistic - probably depends on the school (and what you consider a ton of money). My D has a 32 and that got her @ $6,500 a year at her flagship State U. A 28 would have got her about $2,000 a year at her school. Check out the schools your D may be interested in and see what scholarships they have available. Schools where she is in the top few % statistics wise will be the best bet for merit money. So a school where 28 puts her in the top 5-10% would be one that might give her money for that 28.</p>
<p>Dad II, unfortunately, your daughter's score of 28 is on the low end for Yale, Duke, and the likes. She shouldn't get her hopes too high...</p>
<p>Presumably your daughter is pretty smart with grades and scores like those, so she may not be all that surprised. Now if you've led her to believe that the family can financially support her at any college she can get into, then I guess you need to have a discussion. There are lots of excellent schools at which she might qualify for substantial merit scholarships, and there are some excellent posts in the financial aid section explaining how to compare financial aid offers. </p>
<p>I went to a UC campus (back when they were dirt cheap) because that is what I could afford. Life worked out just fine. I'm sure your daughter's life will also work out just fine even if she doesn't attend one of those "top ten" schools she's got her sights set on. </p>
<p>Relatively few families have the resources to say, "money is no object" when it comes to college. You won't be alone.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>D's aim are all very high, the like of Yale, Duke>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>I hope the comment about the ACT score of 28 wasn't referring to the OP's daughter. That kind of ACT score is not something that will stand out in applications to Duke, Yale or the like. It certainly will not provide for merit aid at Duke.</p>
<p>Re: payment...yes, college is expensive. If you think you're depressed reading these posts, wait until you get the first semester bill and realize that you have SEVEN more to pay before your child graduates (and the price will likely increase between 4 and 5% each year).</p>
<p>Dad II, my daughter also had high aims and a 28 on her ACT. First of all, I have to tell you -- I don't think that 28 is good enough for schools like Yale and Duke. All the colleges publish a "range" of test scores of their enrolling classes each year. They report this in a document called the "Common Data Set"; you can get this information by looking up the colleges at the Collegeboard.com site as well as many other sources on the internet. </p>
<p>The "range" is the "middle 50%" of students. For example the range for Duke is 29-34. This means that half of all the students enrolling had ACT's in that range; 25% had higher and 25% had lower. So an applicant with 28 is in the lower end of all applicants. </p>
<p>That doesn't mean that the student won't get in, but it does mean that the student needs to have something extra that outweighs the test score. </p>
<p>My daughter was admitted to two colleges where the ACT range was 29+ even though her score was 28, but these were two colleges that we knew would look at things other than my daughters' test scores. One college was University of Chicago, which says that test scores aren't very important to them; Chicago also admits more than a third of its applicants, which is more than many of the elite colleges. </p>
<p>All the colleges also report what factors are considered for admission: which are "Very Important", which are simply "Important", which are merely "Considered". You can also find out this information from the College Board site at <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D">www.collegeboard.com</a>. So if you were to go to the Duke web site, you would find that "Standardized Test Scores" are listed as very important. </p>
<p>For Chicago, the "very important" factors are "Character/Personal Qualities; Application Essay; Recommendations; Rigor of secondary school record; Talent/Ability." Test scores are merely "considered" -- so that told us that for Chicago, the test scores were the last thing they looked at, and my daughter's essay, recommendation letters, and special talents were far more important. So she submitted an extra essay, and an extra recommendation letter, and even sent a DVD showing some of her dance choreography work, even though Chicago does not have a dance department. She was accepted. </p>
<p>So my point is, its not impossible to get into a college where the test scores are on the low end of the range, but you have to think carefully about what the college might want in a student, and whether the student has those qualities. </p>
<p>Obviously, you can not expect to receive merit aid from that sort of college -- colleges that give merit aid only give it to their strongest applicants, so you can expect that those will usually be the ones with the highest test scores.</p>
<p>Here's some more information about financial aid. </p>
<p>First of all, your FAFSA EFC is significant for determining eligibility for federally subsidized programs -- like work study, Pell grants, and subsidized loans (Perkins or Stafford). In general the Pell grants only go to very low income families, unless the family has more than one child enrolled in college at the same time. The subsidized Stafford loans are available to any family who has unmet need, according to the FAFSA EFC, after the college financial aid and any outside scholarships are taken into account -- however, the amount of these loans is limited to $3500 for the student's first year. </p>
<p>However, I do not know of any college that promises to meet your FAFSA EFC with financial aid. Most of the colleges that promise to meet "100% of need" define "need" as whatever they say it is, usually using information from the CSS Profile. For example, my daughter's FAFSA EFC is about $8000, but her college expects us to pay about $12,000 more than that. A lot of that extra $12,000 is because of my home equity, which is a factor the colleges look at but which is not counted in the FAFSA EFC.</p>
<p>If you have good credit, as a parent you will be able to get a PLUS loan - a PLUS loan can be good because you are allowed to borrow up to the full cost of attendance, and many colleges that accept students without giving enough financial aid to meet the FAFSA EFC will recommend the PLUS loan. </p>
<p>It sounds like your problem is that you have a lot of other outstanding debt and monthly payments. There are some types of "good" debt that the colleges will consider --for example, if the debt was incurred because of high medical bills, you could send the college a letter explaining that they might adjust the financial aid accordingly. When I say "good" I just mean some sort of expense that the college will have a lot of sympathy for. Most consumer debt will not be considered.</p>
<p>One thing you can do to help with financial aid is restructure your debt by refinancing your house (if you are a homeowner). Then you will have a reduced debt load and also a reduced home equity -- both which will help you pay for college. </p>
<p>One of the ironies of the system is that the need-based aid system is that the hardest schools to get into -- like Yale or Duke -- also tend to give better aid packages, with more grants and less loans, than many schools that are easier to get into. So its not bad for daughter to aim high -- but you just have to get a good sense of what your EFC will be, not only with FAFSA but also with the CSS Profile. You will find calculators you can use to predict that amount at the collegeboard.com web site and at <a href="http://www.finaid.org%5B/url%5D">www.finaid.org</a></p>
<p>Sorry, my fault for leaving the wrong impression. OTOH, thank you very much for not "laughing at me" about apply to Yale with a 28 ACT.</p>
<p>My D's ACT composite is not 36 but not far from it, with an essay of 12.</p>
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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.
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The deadlines for filing for financial aid at most schools (for regular decision) are generally mid-February or earlier. Financial aid offers usually accompany the acceptance decision or are issued shortly thereafter. You cannot wait until you get the acceptance to apply for financial aid other than merit. There's not enough time between the April 1 acceptances and the May 1 response date for colleges to assess the FA applications.</p>
<p>Yes, that means you have to file FA applications for schools that your D hasn't been accepted to yet.</p>
<p>Dad II, well as long as your daughter's ACT scores are in the 30's, then her scores will maker her competitive at the Ivies.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>My D's ACT composite is not 36 but not far from it, with an essay of 12.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>Thanks for the clarification. Congratulations to your daughter. You might also want to look at schools like UNC-Chapel Hill (which along with Duke offers the Moorhead Scholarship), and University of South Carolina which has the McNair Scholarship. U of South Carolina is a hidden gem and their honors college and scholarship programs for high achievers make the cost of going there more than reasonable.</p>