Financial Aid packages

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
1

<p>Sorry to bother again with questions but ...
I really love Dartmouth and would love to apply early. I'm not sure if it will increase my chances or not but I just want to know so that if I'm rejected, which is a very likely possibility, I can focus on my other choices. Getting to the point - My Dad probably won't let me apply early due to financial aid concerns so I was just wondering what people have gotten in the past either ED or RD (how generous are they, how likely are they to give aid)? THANKS</p>

<p>p.s. our family income is about 50,000-60,000 Is this too much to really get a significant amount of aid?</p>

2

<p>Dartmouth offers need based financial aid and meets 100% of your demonstrated need. They really do try to make it affordable based on your family situation. Families vary in finances and situations so what worked for one family may not necessarily be the case for your family.</p>

<p>Did your dad run his preliminary numbers through Dartmouth's financial aid calculator?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/apply/financialaid/calculator/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dartmouth.edu/apply/financialaid/calculator/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>In order to apply for financial aid, you must fill out both the FAFSA and the CSS profile. </p>

<p>Demonstrated need is calculated as following:</p>

<p>Cost of attendance - EFC (yours and parents) = Demonstrated need </p>

<p>Dartmouth uses a combination of both Federal and institutional methodology in calculating your EFC and demonstrated need.</p>

<p>The cost of attendance for academic year 2005-06 is in the neighbor hood of $43,000 (don't have aid package at hand at this moment but there was a tuition increase from last year).</p>

<p>While your family income is 50-60000 in income, FA also looks at home equity, savings, etc. If you are "house rich" then yeas it can greatly impact your financial aid package. </p>

<p>Example if your house is valued at 750,000 and you owe 250,000 (remaining on the mortgage) you would have 500,000 in equity. FA would calculate a % of the equity in your home to be available for your education.</p>

<p>If your family is contributing to 401K the amount of $$ being deducted anually from the 401K is added back into income for financial aid purposes. For example if the father makes 60,000 after saving 6000 in to his 401k, then the income is 66000.</p>

<p>Other factors include the age of your parents (as a portion of their income is protected), the number of kids in college when you start attending, number of children if any in private school.</p>

<p>At the end of the day, the money part is a family decision. You need to have a serious talk with your parents about what they could realistically afford to pay and are willing to pay for your education.</p>

<p>My advice is that if you need to compare packages, then you should definitely not apply ED because you do give up your chance to compare packages. </p>

<p>The ability to compare packages worked to our family's advantage because D was also accepted to Williams. Williams gave a better package than Dartmouth, we sent Dartmouth the Williams package with a letter stating that Dartmouth was her first choice but Williams was more economically feasible for our family. Dartmouth met the Williams package increasing our scholarship aid by almost $4k.</p>

<p>hope this helps</p>

3

<p>Same thing happened to me, Swarthmore initially gave me the best finaid package, but then I did the appeal form and sent in the Swarthmore offer and Dartmouth adjusted my package by upping my scholarship by almost 4k. So they will work with you.</p>

4

<p>Same here, Stanford gave a better aid, and after I sent in the Stanford aid award, Dartmouth increased my scholarship by 1k. (Actually because I love Dartmouth, I wrote on the form a bit more money than I can afford. I wrote 500 dollars for Stanford and 1500 for Dartmouth. Based on my family situation, what they really calculated for my family contribution should be zero I think, and they meet what I "intended" to contribute. Later I found that 1500 was still too much a burden, so I sent in an appeal and Dartmouth kindly accepted it.)</p>