<p>I'm just curious to see if anyone really believes (or has actually experienced) that a private college/university can actually offer a student more money <em>or</em> better scholarships/grants than a public university?</p>
<p>Yes-- that’s usually the case. Privates have more money to offer in grants and scholarships. But their price tag is higher, so they may, or may not, be cheaper for a particular student when grants and scholarships are figured in.</p>
<p>We’ve found that some of the selectve LAC’s end up costing just a bit more than our UC’s after grants and scholarships are figured in.</p>
<p>this would be my situation:</p>
<p>a private school’s total cost (work-study + loans + parent contribution): 10k
a UC total cost (UCSD, in this case): 17k</p>
<p>also remember that most private schools use the CSS profile, and that can greatly influence your EFC. in my case, we have no home (renting) and just a bit in savings, but i would suppose if your family owned a house, the EFC would be driven up like crazy.</p>
<p>Lots of privates don’t use Profile-- I think most just use FAFSA. Most of the top privates use Profile.</p>
<p>Daughter applied to 5 private LAC’s in the Pacific Northwest. 3 were FAFSA only.</p>
<p>Yes, but the schools that don’t use Profile almost never meet full need.</p>
<p>For the low income, private colleges that meet 100% of need will very often be cheaper than their state schools. The few that have no loan policies are often much cheaper.</p>
<p>None of the three FAFSA-only LAC’s we applied to meet full need (for all).</p>
<p>But that’s no reason for those with need not to apply.</p>
<p>Of the three private FAFSA-only LAC’s we applied to:</p>
<h1>1 meets 86% need, on average, and met full need for 25% of applicants with need.</h1>
<h1>2 meets 89% need, on average, and met full need for 25% of applicants with need.</h1>
<h1>3 meets 92% need, on average, and met full need for 20% of applicants with need.</h1>
<p>By comparison, here are the two Profile LAC’s:</p>
<h1>1 meets 85% need, on average, and met full need for 25% of applicants with need.</h1>
<h1>2 meets full need.</h1>
<p>So it’s not so clear a distinction, and it makes sense for families with need to cast a wide net, including some of the privates that meet most, but not all need, particularly those that are FAFSA only.</p>
<p>Daughter got into all, and two of the FAFSA-only schools ended up being less costly than the 100% need met Profile school.</p>
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<p>That’s easy. Harvard College, a private college that is part of Harvard University, will give any admitted student who’s family income is $60,000 or less, a full ride. No public university can come close to that commitment. And, if the family makes between $60,000 to $150,000 (or so), the maximum EFC is 10%.</p>
<p>Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia gives EVERY student a full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>It depends on the schools and the student. I have seen just about every combination of merit/financial aid from publics and privates. If you are going for the money, you need to cast a wide net and look for schools that want you. That is where the most money will come. I have seen kids get the best package from OOS publics that are in general, stingy with money for those that are not in state. I have heard many times how NYU gaps big time and have seen those gaps, yet I know a number of kids whose best package came from NYU. I’ve seen kids get packages from privates that beat out their own state school costs. </p>
<p>I was a bit surprised that my latest one in college did not get much from our state schools. He got a small award. With his test scores, and with what his brother got, I would have guessed that he would have gotten much more. He got a lot more from private colleges. However, our state schools costs are low enough and the privates are so high that he still would have done better with any of our state schools in terms of bottom line cost. He got nothing from the one OOS public on his list, but a number of kids in his school with similar stats have gotten some nice merit money from that particular school. </p>
<p>Operadad, there are kids who can get merit money from schools that are full ride pluses. They can be private or publics, and a kid who is Harvard material would be a candidate (though not a sure shot) to get such scholarships. My son got a full ride + from one of our smaller state schools without our having to fill out any financial aid forms. There are any number of private colleges that on an individual basis can beat out public schools and vice versa.</p>
<p>From our personal and admittedly limited experience: </p>
<p>State school offered a tiny little grant and gigantic loans. They would say they met our need.</p>
<p>Private offered generous grants, a substantial merit scholarship, a small loan and half of the work study that the state school offered. Out-of-pocket would be several K lower than our FAFSA EFC. They would say they met our need and then some.</p>
<p>Bottom line: The private ends up being substantially less expensive to attend.</p>
<p>OP: You sound a little skeptical, and I don’t blame you. I first heard about this phenomenon when D was a high school freshman, and I couldn’t quite believe it. But, at least in our case, it turns out to be true.</p>
<p>Let’s emphasize though, that this only works for the low income in general. For many, except for at the very top colleges with large endowments, their state schools will probably be cheaper.</p>
<p>For low-income students that are competitive, it can be easier to get a good deal from a private school. I’m a junior, but I’ll probably take out $10,000 a year in loans (I have no out of pocket contribution) whether I go to the flagship or a private school, but if you get enough merit aid and you choose wisely, you can definitely get more money out of a private school.</p>
<p>“Let’s emphasize though, that this only works for the low income in general. For many, except for at the very top colleges with large endowments, their state schools will probably be cheaper.”</p>
<p>I agree that lower and middle tier privates cannot afford to be so generous (I’m sure they would like to be! Hendrix, for example, was more expensive than instate publics for us).</p>
<p>At top twenty privates our experience is different. We do not have complicated finances (but do own a home and file the 1040 with itemized deductions) and schools like Vandy, WashU and Rice only expected us to pay our federal EFC. These are “elite” privates with very large endowments and can afford to be generous - each follows the “if you get in we will make it affordable” rule.</p>
<p>I would encourage all whose profiles make them competitive for admission (and can afford to pay the Federal EFC) to apply to these types of schools. Just don’t expect them to exceed the EFC and they may not match EFC if you have a lot of assets (including lots of home equity), own a business, …</p>
<p>“OP: You sound a little skeptical, and I don’t blame you. I first heard about this phenomenon when D was a high school freshman, and I couldn’t quite believe it. But, at least in our case, it turns out to be true.” – LasMa</p>
<p>Yeah, because I’m looking over my finaid offers right now, and how they compare is really amazing to me.</p>
<p>At the private university I applied to, the difference b/t the COA and my package is only $1950 (with tuition, room, board, and fees covered). The package did include loans, but they’re manageable.</p>
<p>At the OOS public (but highly regarded) university the difference between the COA and my package is $2390 (with tuition, room, board, and fees covered). The package did include loans, but they’re manageable.</p>
<p>However, at the in-town public state university, I’d still have to cough up roughly $5600 for my freshman year.</p>
<p>My youngest is at a private school in another state and our out of pocket is cheaper than if she lived at home and commuted to the state U.</p>
<p>It happens alot. Just pick the “right” private school and get a great merit scholarship.
In PA the state offers grants but you generally won’t get a grant from a state school.</p>
<p>The information available to us that gives % of student getting % of need met, % of students getting merit money are all averages. Not very helpful when you apply to any given student, particularly if there are special circumstances involved. You can get a bonus for being the right sex, selecting the right major, coming from an desired geographic area, having certain test scores, bringing a special talent to the college that they want, bringing diversity. All of those things can figure in the financial packages. </p>
<p>The averages are helpful in giving you a good general idea how the school is in terms of giving grants, loans, aid, awards. If you have a kid that is clearly in the upper echelons in terms of test scores, for example, and he has good grades, recs, etc to boot, it is a good bet that he would be one of the kids getting a merit award if 25% of the kids do get merit awards. If the average award is only $1000, you should not be thinking in terms of that kid getting a full tuition award, especially if only a handful of such awards are given, and your kid has no true hook. You have a pretty good idea who is getting that kind of money. But if the school has numerous $10-20K grants that it gives to competitive students, your student would be in the running for one of those, especially if he is a male in a school that gets more female applicants, is not going for a very common major, is out of the geographic common area. That is the strategy we used, and it worked very, very well.</p>
<p>Except for the very top school, financial aid is also often packaged in terms of how desirable the student is. The kids that are on the top of the colleges’ wish lists will get the juicier packages with less self help. There might even be some sweetners in the package that bring such students over the actual need numbers. I have seen this. Every financial situation is not always viewed equally. The more the school wants a kid, the more they try to give a favorable package.</p>
<p>hmom5: It depends on your definition of “low-income.” Our EFC is $16K, so you can probably extrapolate what income neighborhood we’re in. And yet the private school’s offer was far more attractive than the state school’s offer.</p>
<p>I guess it’s not that surprising, now that I know more about the workings of FA. The state school has a formula, and that’s pretty much it. The privates, of course, have their own formulas, but they have much much more flexibility. I think they can do pretty much whatever they want to attract a desirable student.</p>