<p>Booklady-- let them know. They do look at net.</p>
<p>Well, they will see it when we submit the 2013 1040 and W2s. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if this might be the case if the PFC is 0 (meaning parents are expected to contribute nothing)? In other words, would a school simply deny the student if they don’t want to add a full-aid student, or would they offer less FA? I’m just curious, bc we got our PFC and they say our contribution would be nothing (we make considerably less than most schools’ “cut-off” for full aid), and honestly, I think I would rather they just decline my son than to accept him and ask us to pay more than we can afford. It would be a big stretch, but I <em>THINK</em> we could afford up to 10% tuition, but when you add in books, laptop, etc, etc, etc, I don’t know that we could even afford that!</p>
<p>The schools sometimes take other factors into consideration that SSS doesn’t. That is why the number from the schools can vary from the PFC. Each school has it’s own formula, and you’ll see that reflected in comments here that awards vary from school to school. Good luck. Also - sometimes the acceptance decisions are online, but FA awards are mailed. </p>
<p>moosie: Yes. Schools that guarantee to meet the full need of every admitted student could waitlist or deny your student for FA reasons. Other schools might admit but waitlist your child for FA. Don’t stress about the 10 percent–I seriously doubt that that would make a difference to a school’s FA budget and so wouldn’t affect the decisions. </p>
<p>Thanks, classicalmama 
I honestly would rather the school flat-out deny if the FA isn’t available. We actually have to make our decision by mid-March in order to guarantee a spot in our co-op for next year, so if we get wait-listed, even if just for FA, I think we would probably just pull out. It’s really hard to tell what we would actually do if we were sitting there with the admissions letter in hand but being wait-listed for FA, because the registration fee to hold our spot in co-op is a mere pennies compared to a four-year prep school education. So I think we would probably sign up for co-op and then forfeit the deposit if we end up getting the FA. I just didn’t know if it was customary or common for schools to still admit kids even if they weren’t able to give the full FA shown on the PFS. What you said makes total sense - I would imagine it’s a case-by-case, but that most schools would rather just give the spot to someone they know can pay…</p>