<p>My D has applied to RD Smith and I would like to hear from present and past students/parents regarding the "generosity" of Smith's fin aid, especially when it comes to changes in the family finances as the years go by, and how Smith has met or didn't meet the need. I know that Smith doesn't provide merit scholarships and that worries me in that generally merit aid falls outside the ups and downs of need-based aid.</p>
<p>A few things
I’m a current first year at Smith and Smith FinAid was BEYOND generous. My father was diagnosed with cancer my senior year, and Smith responded immediately to all email updates and was more than willing to adjust my financial aid based on my new circumstances. I’ve heard some people complain that Smith wasn’t generous enough, but that is mostly from my friends who are full pay or close to it who felt they should have gotten some aid. I’ve also heard of some people who started out full pay and expected to get aid as their savings dwindled who didn’t get aid later, causing some hardships, but this is not a common occurance(and most of it is anecdotal). Most of the people who are “high need” are well taken care of, but I know the aid budget isn’t perfect. </p>
<p>I feel Smith more than met my need personally and I know out of my friends almost all of them feel the same way. </p>
<p>Smith does have a few highly competitive merit scholarships(I got one) and they do help plug some gaps in finanacial aid. If your D would be lucky enough to get a STRIDE (and believe me, it’s largely luck) or a Zollman, she would have no loans in her finaid package if she’s on aid her first year and decreased loans throughout her four years (I think the TOTAL for all four years of loans for STRIDES is like 5k). Also, instead of work study money, you get your STRIDE research which is guaranteed money, and your D can still pick up another campus job (although she gets last pick of them).</p>
<p>I have read about the STRIDE but not Zollman. Do hope D could get a STRIDE, but as you say, it’s just luck which is a bit frustrating. D has very good stats and has already been offered excellent merit aid at Simmons College and Northeastern. Don’t know if that bodes well for Smith.</p>
<p>What does she want to major in? Most of the STRIDES tend to be science/math oriented. Not that there aren’t humanities ones, but a great deal are Chem/Bio/Psych/Physics</p>
<p>She listed undecided on app, but there may have been a place to put in what she is interested in which is neuroscience/cognitive science, gender studies, psych and sociology.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>It’s not easy to predict your aid in advance, so much so that it’s probably not worth stressing about (as difficult as that is). </p>
<p>Smith likes to say that it’s offers are usually with 1000 - 2000 dollars of those from its peer institutions. As they say on their website they do meet 100% of the demonstrated need of the applicant, but that’s need as THEY calculate it, which may or may not be how you calculate it. Doing an online calculation of your EFC through FASFA will give you some ballpark of how they will evaluate your need, but you have to keep in mind that that is adjusted in Smith’s formula by the information provided on your CSS profile which can cover things the FAFSA didn’t cover (if you own several properties or a large amount of property for example, income of a non-custodial parent, etc). </p>
<p>The merit angle is also difficult to predict, as many many meritorious students apply to Smith that never receive a dime of merit aid. But, then again, those scholarships exist, and someone has to get them, so there’s no reason it can’t be your daughter. You can’t really count on it, but you can’t discount it either. </p>
<p>From my years at Smith, it seemed that they were very responsive to changing family circumstances, hence why they want you to re-apply for financial aid every year. Note that they are responsive in both directions: an uptick in income may result in a decrease in your aid award, just as a downturn in income may result in an increase. As R6L said, they seem to be especially responsive to unforseen problems and they are willing to work wtih students to try and figure something out. They really want students to be able to attend and they want students that are attending to be able to finish.</p>
<p>Not only was Smith’s aid more than generous, but when my wife came down with an aggressive form of breast cancer and couldn’t work, they upped the aid in the middle of the year. Then, after she was in remission, I had a major heart attack and, again, they upped the aid mid-year.</p>
<p>We are very, very grateful. (Full disclosure: my d. was a Zollman, and in her senior year, was a Kahn Fellow. )</p>
<p>mini-- if you don’t mind my asking–what were your daughter’s stats that qualified her in the beginning for the zollman?</p>
<p>She was homeschooled. I’ll PM you.</p>
<p>My D is a Zollman at Smith. As noted, Smith actually does offer significant Merit Aid. We were told about 50 students per class are STRIDE students. I am sure there are some very worthy students who weren’t offered these programs, but they do offer quite a few. Here’s a page at the Smith site with more information. [Smith</a> College: Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/aid_merit.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/aid_merit.php)</p>
<p>“Significant” is in the eye of the beholder. Smith offers less merit aid (fewer awards with less money for “top” awards, and no small awards) than other schools - - schools that do not have Smith’s history of generosity with need-based aid. </p>
<p>I suspect that for those seeking merit awards, 50+ awards to an incoming class of 650+ aren’t really great odds. And while it is difficult for “outsiders” to predict who will get Zollmans/STRIDEs, I’m sure luck plays only a small role.</p>
<p>AMAZING financial aid. I’m so happy, my family couldn’t afford even a state or community college, but we’re going to be able to afford Smith with little issue. Feel incredibly thankful… haha you know who’s going to be donating once she’s above poverty line.
Also, talking to the fin aid office and such was easy, they were pretty calm, understanding, seemed to (somehow) have a handle on everything. I don’t feel like changes in need would be too hard to get through the fin aid office.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely recommend Smith to any future students in low-income households. I don’t really know the merit aid situation, but for those who do get it, it seems to be pretty bueno.</p>
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<p>Smith’s website is very misleading. A couple hundred ++ students are offered Strides, resulting in a 20-25 percent yield. The ~50 awarded figure is actually the number of students who <em>accepted</em> the STRIDE offer.</p>
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<p>[STRIDE</a> award hike aims to grab more top studens - News](<a href=“http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2009/10/08/News/Stride.Award.Hike.Aims.To.Grab.More.Top.Studens-3795839.shtml]STRIDE”>http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2009/10/08/News/Stride.Award.Hike.Aims.To.Grab.More.Top.Studens-3795839.shtml)</p>
<p>While a $15-20K/yr grant is nothing to sneeze at, the top merit grants at some hightly ranked schools range from $35K (full tuition) to $48K (tuition/room/board) - - in addition to number of half-tuition merit grants. Likewise, some of Smith’s peer institutions cap loans below the fed max, offering about $2kyr more in need-based grants than the Smith package. </p>
<p>That said, we have found the Smith packages to be quite generous. And, like mini and R6L, when we incurred unanticipated medical expenses, D rec’d a signif mid-year increase in her need-based grant.
But we all enrolled, indicating that we were all satisfied with the initial package. I have seen posts from admitted students complaining about their Smith awards - - those folks probably voted with their feet/wallets.</p>