<p>*I think the bottom line thing to understand early is that if you want to pay less than your EFC, your child will need to attend a school that ranks far below where she could otherwise go. This is difficult for many to accept. *</p>
<p>True…but maybe not “far below.” It will depend on her stats.</p>
<p>A good thing to do is first identify schools that give good merit scholarships (keep in mind that many schools don’t give merit scholarships, and some state schools don’t give much to out of state students. However, some do, so you need to identify those.). </p>
<p>Then figure out if the scholarships are assured or competitive and if there is a “need component” - often there isn’t but sometimes there is.). </p>
<p>Then figure out what the stats are for the top quartile of freshmen at that school. </p>
<p>But, usually, the top quartile of the school aren’t given the biggest scholarships. Often, the top 10-15% are given the biggest scholarships. </p>
<p>For instance, at my children’s university, they have about 5000 freshmen. Last year they gave 500 full tuition scholarships to students to students with an ACT 32+ or 1400+ SAT (Math + CR scores only). An ACT score of 32+ is about the 98-99 percentile nationally. So, essentially, the top 10% have full tuition scholarships. However, that isn’t typical for a school. This is kind of unusual.</p>
<p>“We hired an outside college advisor last spring and I’m now frankly wondering if this was a wise investment. It seems he’s better suited to find the aid for the families with a lower EFC.”</p>
<p>It probably is a waste of money because most financial aid comes from colleges, not private scholarships. In addition, you can find out virtually everything you need to know about a college’s scholarships by reading College Confidential (Parents Forum is especially helpful) and the colleges’ financial aid and merit aid websites as well as looking up their common data sets, which tell you what percentage of students who qualify for aid get aid, and the average % of their need that’s met.</p>
<p>Typically students have the best chance of getting excellent merit aid by applying to colleges that offer merit aid and where their stats are in the top 25% or so. In other words: at schools that would be considered safeties.</p>
<p>Realize, too, that most colleges can’t afford to meet the full financial need of most students. For such colleges, the students whom the colleges most want to recruit are the ones who get the best need-based offers, including the offers with the least loans.</p>
<p>Let your D know ASAP the financial parameters of college – how much you’re willing to spend each year. That will keep her from falling in love with a school that’s unaffordable. This is why my sons didn’t even consider schools that didn’t offer merit aid (We were in the bracket that is not wealthy, but that colleges think can pay full pay. Ha!).</p>
<p>NSM quote:</p>
<p>*
Let your D know ASAP the financial parameters of college – how much you’re willing to spend each year. That will keep her from falling in love with a school that’s unaffordable. This is why my sons didn’t even consider schools that didn’t offer merit aid (We were in the bracket that is not wealthy, but that colleges think can pay full pay. Ha!). *</p>
<p>Very true. Let your D know now what the financial parameters are. You have a younger child that will be following her. So, it sounds like you’ll have 7-8 straight years of college costs. If you’re not in a position to be paying out $200k or so for your 2 kids over 7-8 years, they need to know that.</p>
<p>Kids will sometimes pout and stamp their feet a bit (maybe not literally), but the earlier they know the truth, the better. No kid wants to tell their friends that they’re going to _______ University only to later have to say, “I can’t afford to go there, so now I have to go to _________”.</p>
<p>Don’t underestimate the value of a great PSAT score. Your child has 2 months (plenty of time) to study. We chose to get a tutor which definitely paid off as our S scored >14 pts higher than necessary to become a NMF in our state. This can translate to full rides depending on the school your child selects. There is a thread listing all these schools. It is worth the investment of time and money. Most people are not aware of PSATs potential value! Now YOU know.</p>
<p>…this flurry of great info. I’m having a meeting with our aforementioned advisor this week as a result of your tremendous input.</p>
<p>I will most certainly check out the PSAT threads as well.</p>