<p>Almost done with S1's FAFSA & Profile submittals, and after running the estimated numbers through CB's EFC forecaster we're curious if our 'guesstimates' on the various net COAs (using CB's info on average merit, grant aid and loan awards per each school) will be anything close to the actual aid packages offered.</p>
<p>One of the schools he's applied to actually includes information on their website as to how they construct their award packages and the order in which the various components are considered:</p>
<p>COST OF ATTENDANCE (COA) - minus
1. EFC
2. Federal Grants
3. Merit Scholarships
4. Other Institutional Scholarships (Leadership, Athletic, etc.)
5. School Grant Aid
6. Outside Scholarships
7. Work Study
8. Student Loans
9. Other Loans</p>
<p>Nice to see it all laid out in black-and-white, which from what I can find isn't necessarily the norm. From what I've read on the CC forums, the award 'structure' appears to vary quite a bit from school-to-school, albeit steps 1-4 would appear to be very straightforward and typcial for most all schools. We were pleasantly surprised to see that this school applies grant aid prior to consideration of items 6-9. Another school he's applied to does not lay out their awards policy in such a straightforward manner, but gives 'scenarios' for different aid packages, all of which appear to include work study and student loans prior to any consideration of school grant aid and outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Ultimately we realize each school will have its own method of constrcuting their award packages and we will not know what he gets until he gets it. Curious to hear what has been the experience of those who have navigated these waters before with multiple S/Ds. Also, with the schools taking major hits to their endowments in the past couple of years, anyone seeing significant changes to how schools build their award offers?</p>
<p>Next step in the process. Was planning on taking CB’s school comparison template and going from there in Excel. We put together an Excel school application comparison template to work from, too, that has rankings, COA, financial aid info, ROI, etc., etc. Ends up being quite handy to refer to.</p>
<p>It’s much trickier to figure out a package with schools that give merit aid and/ or don’t meet need. Unless the merit is guaranteed, you can only guess. And then you don’t know whether they’ll add on any need based grant. The school you paint above is a total wild card.</p>
<p>For schools that meet 100% of need it’s easier to construct a package by accurately figuring out your EFC (per their methodology) and knowing their loan policies. Work study can differ by up to a couple thousand and there’s the possibility of a Perkins, but they are usually pretty straight forward.</p>
<p>2college2college. Thanks for the input. When you say the college I paint (FYI - Gonzaga) is a total wild card, I assume you’re refering to their policy of awarding institutional grant aid prior to consideration of work study and loans? Wild card in the sense that the policy is not very common I take it. It does almost sound too good to be true, especially if a student were to come up with a big outside scholarship. We’ll find out soon enough…</p>
<p>Wild card in that they don’t meet need so you have no idea if they’ll give a candidate zero need based aid or generous aid. Then, unless merit aid is guaranteed you don’t know what they’ll give your student. The only things you really know at a school that doesn’t meet need is Stafford loan and Pell Grant amounts.</p>
<p>I think you may be confused by how they handle outside scholarships. As far as I know, they always reduce need.</p>
<p>Huh. I thought I had read some previous posts in other threads where students/parents had complained about some schools reducing grant aid previously awarded - rather than need - after the fact when a student notified the school that they had been awarded an outside scholarship. Maybe I’m mistaken, though. </p>
<p>Regardless, that was the reason for the post - to try and get a feel for how the ‘system’ typically works (if there is such a thing as ‘typical’), all other things being equal. Our son has already received some merit awards (we assume they’re guaranteed at this point) and knows he will not receive any federal grants. So the obvious remaining major unknowns are grant aid and how that ties into student loans and filling any gaps. Dollar-wise, it sounds like it’s more a less a coin flip once you get past merit scholarships and federal grants. But at this point, if you had an idea of the order in which a particluar school constructed the back end of their award packages (grant aid, work study & student loans) as mentioned above one could potentially guestimate at a net COA based on average grant aid awarded for that given school.</p>
<p>Many schools will reduce their institutional grant aid when outside scholarships are received; others do not. One thing that ALL schools do, though, is reduce need based aid if necessary when scholarships are received. They cannot award need based aid that exceeds COA-EFC, which equals Need. So if a scholarship comes in that puts the need based aid in excess of Need, some need based aid must be reduced. At some schools, work study will be reduced first … at others, institutional grants will be reduced first … at yet others, subsidized loans will be reduced first.</p>
<p>Some schools use equity packaging, which is complicated but basically strives to put together a package that includes a combination of EFC and grants/scholarships that meets at target number. Outside scholarships may or may not be included in equity packaging.</p>
<p>Also know that if a student gets a financial aid award estimate that includes an institutional grant, but the student later gets a merit award from the school, the grant will in all likelihood be reduced by the amount of the merit award (as it does reduce need).</p>