<p>There are several school boasting for need-blind and semi-need-blind policy. By the way, I'd like to know the procedure if they decide to accept a kid and find out he or she needs FA. If FA is more than the school can afford, do they contact parent to discuss or just reject the kid? I see there are some differences between parent contribution calculated and I proposed in PFS (SSS). I didn't put lowball number but it would like to increase if the number is critical to the admission. However, I increase any number, my familiy has to find the way to make that additional amount of money. If anybody knows the procedure, would you give me a hint? Thanks</p>
<p>There are many things they could do.</p>
<p>They could “gap” you. That is, not offer as much as what the PFS recommends and hope you can make up the difference.</p>
<p>They could admit your student, but put them on a FA waitlist.</p>
<p>They could waitlist the student.</p>
<p>They could deny the student.</p>
<p>Most schools state somewhere that it is not their policy to admit a student if they cannot meet their demonstrated need.</p>
<p>I think it varies so greatly from school to school that your best bet would be to call the FA department. The secretary may be able to answer your question so that you don’t have to bother the director during this busy time.</p>
<p>If you are referring to the schools that boast near-need blind or say that FA is a consideration in only a small number of cases, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If they really want your student, they will more than likely meet your need according to the PFS. If you want to PM me with the specific schools you are referring to, I might know what their policy is from my experiences last year. (Or I might not!)</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. My D is applying for Andover and Exeter. My D did her best and I see there is no big worry about her admission except FA.</p>
<p>At Andover, you shouldn’t have to worry. Exeter is very generous with FA but is not need-blind. There is really nothing that you can do about that except hope for the best. I believe that Exeter would either WL or deny rather than discuss. Keep in mind that Exeter will send an award for the grant covering tuition and fees but will also contribute towards books, a computer and music lessons. These things can add up quickly and their covering most of these costs has eased the burden on our family considerably. Also, tuition balance can be broken into ten equal payments through a third party and if I remember correctly, only costs a small service fee (no interest). That also makes it easier.</p>
<p>You can discuss after the admittance. Though I haven’t personally contested our award, I know several families at both schools who have called and said something along the lines of “it’s just not enough to make it happen” and some kind of an agreement was reached. Once a school makes a committment to a student, they’re pretty good about making it happen.</p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind at these two schools is that you cannot assume that a WL or denial is because of FA. There are just so many really great kids that they have to turn away every year, FA and FP. And you never can tell how they will make their decisions or what they will be looking for. So try not to worry too much and I hope you have really great news on March 10.</p>
<p>Thanks for the detail information. BTW, I was told that there will be FA and Merit based Scholarship. Does anybody know abou the difference between FA and Merit Based Scholarship?</p>
<p>In my experience, the school makes admissions decisions in a “blind” manner. However, the next step is to look at the FA needs before a letter of acceptance is sent. If the school feels that a student’s FA need cannot be met by the school…even though the admissions committee accepted them…then they may be wait-listed or declined. My son was wait-listed at a school because they could not meet our FA need. My interpretation is that there were other candidates that they wanted more than my son and made FA available to them. So even though admission decisions are made blindly…at they end of the day it’s about how much they want your kid and how much they want to give him/her to attend.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about other schools, but Andover (my alma mater) accepts students regardless of their ability (or inability) to pay. The school has an enormous endowment and prides itself on accepting “youth from every quarter.” I had classmates from the Bronx as well as Greenwich. I was on financial aid when I was there, and even though Andover was not yet need-blind, my parents had enough help from the school to ensure that we could afford my education.</p>
<p>“In my experience, the school makes admissions decisions in a “blind” manner. However, the next step is to look at the FA needs before a letter of acceptance is sent. If the school feels that a student’s FA need cannot be met by the school…even though the admissions committee accepted them…then they may be wait-listed or declined.”</p>
<p>I have wondered about this myself. This seems reasonable, afterall college admissions committees probably would like to think that every letter of acceptance that is sent out, that there is a strong likelihood that student (can afford to attend) and will ACCEPT. So that they don’t have to goto their wait list or have the financial aid office overwhelmed with parents/students trying to increase their FA package.</p>
<p>Agentwood, what you described is exactly why I always say that in a sense, ALL financial aid is merit based. The parents prove the need, then the student proves the merit.</p>
<p>For those schools, it is truly “need blind”, as they put candidates in the acceptance pool regardless of their capabilities to pay. From there, I believe they will trim FA candidates from bottom to stay within their FA budget. For some applicants affected due to FA reasons, it is not so much that the schools are “need aware”, but candidates themselves not merit enough. So very true, all FA are merit based.</p>
<p>How much gap will lead to rejection category? I think there could be some limit for them to call ‘accepted’, ‘waitlist’, ’ rejected’. How much gap will be too much? I see there is $6k difference in my case. I am thinking of increasing my contribution a little bit to reduce the gap. I am not sure how much I could afford more but I will try my best and ask school to try their best later. Thanks for the valuable information.</p>
<p>There are three numbers:</p>
<p>SSS EFC, BS EFC and your own contribution $amount entered on PFS.</p>
<p>What matters is “BS EFC”. If the BS is going to make a commitment on an applicant, they are going to cover the difference on top of the BS EFC.</p>
<p>Ideally your own $ amount should come close to the BS EFC, except when you would have extra recourses, such as taking a loan, having a wealthy relative, etc. Not sure how helpful for you to raise your own $ amount, as it may just make their BS EFC number look bad, or paint yourself into a corner. </p>
<p>I just hope in the end, schools will trust quality more than quantity. If they really want to pay out less money, they can always pick more FP candidates, most of whom are pretty good any way.</p>
<p>I’d be cautious on how much you offer to pay. Difference of a few thousand IMO is reasonable (you didn’t calculate it with a formula after all), but if it’s a huge difference then you’d better have a good explanation of the “special circumstances” of yours. If a school sees there’s no way they could meet your unreasonble request, they may WL your otherwise admitable student, knowing you’re unlikely to attend if they can’t offer you an amount at least close to your request. Of course, if that’s the effect you want that’d be fine, otherwise I say give it a second thought.</p>
<p>Thanks for the recommendations. I’d like to have some more time whether to increase my contribution or wait until the decision made from school. I am not sure how much gap will be too much for school to accept a kid. My D did her best and hope to have a good news next month.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I think the school is going by its own EFC in concluding how much a family can really contribute. If someone artificially boosts the family contribution, or forgoes applying for FA all together the 1st year, I don’t see much positive outcomes out of it. On the flip side, if the family # is too low compared to BS EFC, the schools will need more than just clarifications. </p>
<p>I know the SSS# is bogus, but I don’t know how a school is going to reach its own EFC. From other threads, it appears the BS EFC is more reasonable than the SSS#. As to the family contribution, it is not hard to find out what’s on the table after all the essentials. It could be more or less than the BS EFC. I doubt the school is giving much credence to this number any way.</p>
<p>I know a single income family who applied to PA with full FA, which means they put zero for their family contribution as they really cannot afford anything even though they earn far more than the 80k. Somehow PA’s EFC showed they could afford a half, so it gave the kid an acceptance plus half FA. That family decided not to attend, but ended up attending after PA gave them a full FA. All I am trying to say is quality, quality and quality,and let the school figuring out numbers.</p>
<p>I agree with what a lot of people are saying that it is all about making sacrifices to afford the best education for the kids. But there is a limit or cost on how much sacrifices one can really make, and private school is NOT the only way out.</p>
<p>Well maybe. No one except AOs or FA officers at individual schools know the details for their respective schools, so you could be right just as likely…</p>
<p>It is curious about the financial award profiler from Philips Exeter. The award for the family income 75k to 100k is lower than for the family income 100k to 120k. $31,196 versus 33,019. The lower the income, the less the award at several profiles.</p>
<p>I think you are overanalyzing this to death. There are other circumstances that a school takes into consideration besides income, such as how many kids are actually in any other or even in that particular private school for that family, travel distance (those airfares from singapore or north dakota do add up), illness, etc.<br>
Be honest as to your ability to pay without incurring any onerous burdens on yourself (loans). I think that a few thousand dollars wont make the difference to a school. When you are considering full aid versus 5-10k aid then we can make assumptions. However a school will be able to find a few K here and there to make sure a candidate they want goes.
In terms of need blind - as far as Im aware only SAD and PA say that they are need blind not PE.</p>
<p>The profiler is a compilation of FA awards. Not a specific one. It’s just to give you a ball park figure. So you could be a family in a higher income bracket with 4 kids, while someone in a lower bracket has 2 kids. Or one.</p>
<p>Also - the family in the lower income bracket might have a house that is paid off, more money invested in stocks, etc… while someone who makes more might have less invested (repeat - has more kids which is like a black hole on grocery bills - lol!), large medical expense, etc. and/or college expenses.</p>
<p>What we’re saying is that the FA is based on YOUR specific financial circumstances as well as income level. There are just too many variables to think otherwise. </p>
<p>If you really want to make yourself crazy - put in a really high income and note that in some of those cases aid goes out.</p>
<p>I got a “grid” one time that showed the average aid at each level and it’s really more equitable than one would believe looking in from the outside.</p>
<p>Don’t sweat it. The only dollar figure that counts is the one on the parent letter in your acceptance package.</p>
<p>A lot of valuable information going on and thanks for sharing your information. I am sure that schools are going to do their best to support a kid if they really want to have the kid. Good luck to everybody!</p>