<p>There are too many schools at this point in the search to go to each ones calculator and figure out what the estimated cost to us would be.</p>
<p>What is the best short-hand quick way to compare one schools real cost compared to others?</p>
<p>Average debt at graduation? Subtract average merit aid from Tuition, Room and Board? Etc.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Apply, get accepted, submit the FAFSA, and then compare aid packages.</p>
<p>I know. Sounds like a snarky/smart alec answer, but there is no way to know for sure what your individual aid package might look like until you are holding it in your hand. I didn’t even find a good way to ballpark an answer.</p>
<p>Comparing debt isn’t helpful, because it is student debt, not parental debt.
Comparing need met can be helpful, but unless it is 100%, it won’t necessarily have relevance to your family.
It can be helpful to know which schools have merit aid- but until you get the offer, hard to compare.</p>
<p>Aid packages can differ by shocking amounts of money. You really do need to wait until the offers are on the table. Sorry, but that’s the way it is.</p>
<p>Don’t know if this will help, but:</p>
<p>On the ‘long’ list I always start with figuring out a consistent COA for each school. This means looking up their tuition, fees & R&B charges on each website to give me total direct costs to the college. Then I add on my estimate for indirect costs (colleges will put these into their projected COAs, but each uses different numbers so they’re not comparable); for instance, I might add 1k for books, 1k for living expenses and a range from $500 to 1.5k for travel depending on how far away and how expensive air travel is.</p>
<p>After that I list any merit scholarships that my kid qualifies and has a reasonable chance for. I subtract the merit from the COA to determine a ‘best case scenario’.</p>
<p>I also list schools in order of selectivity, which for the most part (but not always due to factors like OOS publics) gives a general idea of who will be most generous with FA.</p>
<p>This just gives me a relative idea of what costs might look like. You should run COA calculators on schools at various selectivity levels (eg. run a couple each of safety, match and reach schools) to give you some idea of the range of how much FA you might qualify for. You also need to recognize where you fit as far as FA policies. Are you low income? Or do you make beyond what anybody but HYPS will give you FA? Are you in the middle and perhaps will get good FA from generous schools but little from less well endowed schools?</p>
<p>Again, this is what I do to give me a feel for the FA waters. I absolutely agree with the other posters that there’s no way of really knowing until you get your FA package from a school, and that amounts can vary widely. However, I think it’s a good idea to do some research and calculations to be sure you’re at least in touch with the real world of college FA.</p>
<p>I think you are trying to conduct an intelligent search based upon financial considerations. You don’t want to apply to schools that end up being unaffordable. Hopefully you can narrow the search before looking at costs because it is hard to get good cost information quickly and is largely dependent upon what your EFC is. If it’s $30,000 then looking for a lower cost of attendance makes sense. If EFC is $10,000 then I would suggest looking at % need met. However, there are two problems with looking at % need met. 1) The schools at or close to 100% are difficult to get in to. The closer you are to Ivy caliber, the more options you will find. For the 3.4/1800 student it is harder to come by schools with 90%+ need met. 2) % need met does not tell you HOW need is met. It may be composed largely of loans, and if you are looking for true aid rather than an extended payment plan this probably not acceptable.</p>
<p>I use the common data sets for the schools being considered. In section H the fin aid info is listed (H2 i-m) % need met, avg. FA package, avg. grant, avg self-help, and avg loan. I am going through this process for the 3rd time with my son and it just takes time to put the information together. I have probably looked up common data set info for 2 or 3 dozen schools and I expect he will apply to 5 or 7 schools. As others have indicated the only way you can really know is to apply, be admitted, and look at the FA package. For my first two in college there were some surprises, good and bad, when the FA packages arrived.</p>
<p>It will help if you and your child(ren) find the real safety (or safeties) first: Can pay for without aid other than federal(FAFSA) aid and/or guaranteed merit aid; Will be certain of admission based on stats; Offers the major(s) desired; and Kid will be happy to attend if all else goes wrong. With that solid foundation, then build the list upwards. Sometimes the kid is so happy with the safety, that the whole search process stops right there.</p>
<p>One other thing I thought of, all bets are off for fin aid at out-of-state public schools. The FA stats reflect what in-state students are getting and you shouldn’t expect anything other than loans from those schools.</p>
<p>Although the OOS publics with guaranteed merit awards are making attractive offers to a lot of students right now, you can’t rule them out categorically.</p>
<p>I think it’s best to compare “basic costs”…like…</p>
<p>Tuition (note if there are upcharges for taking more than 15 credits per semester - this can be HUGE at privates or OOS publics)</p>
<p>Fees (all fees…university, health, course, activity, technology, etc, etc, etc.)</p>
<p>Room (comparing a similar type of housing option)</p>
<p>Meal Plans (Be sure to compare similar meal plan…10/week or 15/week or whatever)</p>
<p>There can be hidden costs that need to be considered for comparison…like FEES (some schools charge a ridiculous amount in fees…which sometimes allows them to pretend that their tuition is lower)</p>
<p>Some schools have unbelievably low estimates for transportation! Even if you commute, your costs will be more than the $200 per year that some claim…parking alone will cost that.</p>
<p>Books are going to be about the same wherever you go. </p>
<p>Travel can matter if some schools will require pricey travel costs.</p>
<p>Personal expenses depend on how thrifty or “not thrifty” your child is…ha ha.</p>
<p>*Average debt at graduation? Subtract average merit aid from Tuition, Room and Board? Etc.
*</p>
<p>Good heavens, no.</p>
<p>What would “average merit” tell you? It isn’t average merit across the entire student body. It’s average merit across the few that were awarded merit.</p>
<p>If only the top 10% of freshmen are offered merit, and they’re offered an avg of $15k per year, what is that going to tell you if you’re NOT a top 10% student?</p>
<p>At MOST schools that give merit, only a small % are awarded merit…not the entire student body…not even the top 50% of the student body would likely get merit or substantial merit.</p>
<p>Also, it’s an AVERAGE…that means of that top 10% that were awarded merit, maybe the top 2% got $30k, the top 5% got $20k, while those closer to the 10% mark only got $10k.</p>
<p>The same goes for “average need met.” It doesn’t mean much unless the % is 100% of need met. And, at OOS publics, you often really can’t use those stats since they mostly apply to instate kids whose costs are MUCH lower. It’s easier to meet nearly all need at an instate public with a COA of $18k then it is if the student were OOS and his costs are $35k. </p>
<p>also, since some people have highish EFCs, those kids’ need can often be met or nearly met with a Stafford loan and maybe some work-study.</p>
<p>Do not compare until you have merit or grants in hand. Then subtract. Don’t just look at total award…that may include larger loans, larger work-study, etc…look at the details.</p>
<p>Average debt at grad doesn’t tell you much either. It doesn’t include Sallie Mae loans, private loans, Plus loans, debt put on credit cards, etc.</p>
<p>One thing I took note of was the % of students receiving merit (non-need) awards. I put this in my spreadsheet of information as a data point. My D2’s list had schools from 0% merit to 67% of students receiving merit. My D started with @ 28 schools so I did a lot of research - I wonder how many you have that you can’t research them? At schools where she was well above the stats and likely to get merit we made sure to show the love so they would not think they were only a safety. All the schools that made the cut (11) are all schools she would attend (at least that is the plan).</p>
<p>I agree with NewEnglandMother. Check the Common Data Set for schools. One thing to look for is how generous they are with need-based aid too. This gives you an idea of how much they have in their coffers. Between that data and non-need based aid, you can develop a picture of what’s realistic. shoot for schools where you or your child is above the 75% in test scores so the school will want to entice him/her. This is not easy in the beginning but is worth it in the long run. I did this to come up with an initial list for my D before she could get attached to a school for the wrong reasons. Of her acceptances, she’s got a 100% tuition scholarship and a 84% tuition scholarship. We are still awaiting word from her reaches but she knows that she has a couple of options that will not bankrupt us.</p>
<p>I agree that you need to start with safeties that your child WILL HAPPILY attend. We said, it would be a school that kiddo would attend even if only guaranteed merit (based on website promise due to scores & NMF) would be affordable for us. After that, we let S choose other schools he would attend if the cost of attendance was around that ballpark (otherwise he understood we just couldn’t afford it). If S was not guaranteed merit, he would have had to choose at least one U we could afford with NO aid at all (likely in-state flagship). </p>
<p>List was built up after that. He repeatedly asked GC what Us gave substantial (5 figure) merit awards for students with his stats & built his list using many of those Us that were attractive to him as well.</p>
<p>Sorry, I have not posted thanks or PMs to all of the recent posts.</p>
<p>The information you gave is extremely great and a ton more helpful than all of the books and online articles I’ve read.</p>
<p>Maybe when this is all over I’ll write my own book. ;-)</p>
<p>No spread sheet would have prepared me for wildly different financial aid from different schools that came after admission and I am glad I did not try to “guess” (up to 25K difference per year from the least generous to the most generous school). </p>
<p>What worked for us: Have the kids pick out the schools they would like to apply to, make sure there is a financial safety they would be happy to attend, make sure there is a financial safety that they can be sure of admission to, and wait for financial aid/scholarship offers. Make a decision of where to attend only after the financial aid awards are in hand. DS is at his match/financial safety and DD is at dream school</p>
<p>We did eliminate some schools based on total cost and % receiving aid and where my kids weren’t at the tippy top. The kids can come up with a list of 20 schools so there is a need to eliminate some into some reasonable amount. Two kids have managed to whittle down a list of 20 to a list of 10 to thoroughly research down to 5-7 apps (one did 5, one did 7). From the financial perspective it came down to a couple financial safties and the rest matches and reaches that had a reasonable expectation of being able to afford based on hard research and anecdotal research on these forums. We ran financial aid calculators with each and knew reasonably what we would be expected to pay. </p>
<p>I built a spreadsheet and included much of what is mentioned above. GPA, test scores, total cost that we calculated not what the school used, any automatic awards for the out of state publics the kids had, % receiving non-need aid (this is important). Mostly the kids used the spreadsheet for eliminating. S1 put big red Xs on some and left it on the front seat of my car. They liked all the schools on the list and really did without prompting come to the conclusion that colleges where we were likely to be close or full-pay probably weren’t “worth it” which is good because my cost/value equation is fully formed. If you aren’t working with an incredibly high stat highly desirable kid it’s not that difficult to get a pretty good grasp on what colleges will cost you if you know your expected contribution. </p>
<p>The only college that surprised me in the entire process with two kids was Hobart William Smith with S2. I really think that’s a sleeper/hidden gem college in many ways. I really liked that school and the package we got was a very nice surprise, but alas he didn’t choose them.</p>
<p>*The only college that surprised me in the entire process with two kids was Hobart William Smith *</p>
<p>I was thinking about maybe HWS for my D (they have a D III rowing team) but their web site (and wikipedia) talked about it being actually two colleges who “share.”</p>
<p>Not really sure how that would work out.</p>
<p>Off topic but it’s interesting, the colleges are combined…one campus basically. They have two separate student governments. There is a men’s dean and a dean for women. The women voted no on sororities, but the guys voted yes to fraternities for instance. I believe the diploma says Hobart for one and William Smith for the other but I’m not sure. I think my son wanted something different. He really is a quintessential HWS kid and I could see that he “fit” so perfectly, but I think he wanted something alittle different.</p>
<p>Do you know approximately what your FAFSA EFC is? Since ours was/is high enough that Merit was going to likely be a more important factor in lowering our out of pocket costs than need-based aid, I made a spreadsheet that listed COA, maximum “realistic” merit (if they offer one free ride per year, I assumed my kid wasn’t going to get it…), and whether or not they “meet full need”. But I did go to each school’s site to read their merit scholarships page to get a reasonable number to put in for max merit based on my kid’s stats, and to figure out if they meet full need (and if so, based on FAFSA only or additional forms such as CSS Profile). For a school that was still of interest even though the merit didn’t look promising (or the school didn’t offer merit) I would in fact go through their online calculator (if they had one, this was last year so many schools did not) but that was a little later in the process once we were whittling down the list a bit.</p>