<p>Following up on a post from another thread. Do financial aid stats lead you to any accurate (key word) conclusions about your S/D's opportunity for aid?</p>
<p>Compare the below and tell me what you think you know (the actual school name is irrelevant) in relation to your S/D's ability to get more aid. Cost is approx the same.</p>
<p>School A
Full-time freshman enrollment: 1,947
Number who applied for need-based aid: 1,628
Number who were judged to have need: 1,242
Number who were offered aid: 1,242
Number who had full need met: 335
Average percent of need met: 78%</p>
<p>Average financial aid package: $21,961
Average need-based loan: $4,406
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $16,431
Average non-need based aid: $7,186
Average indebtedness at graduation: $31,469</p>
<p>School B
Full-time freshman enrollment: 1,042
Number who applied for need-based aid: 836
Number who were judged to have need: 656
Number who were offered aid: 656
Number who had full need met: 112
Average percent of need met: 63%</p>
<p>Average financial aid package: $16,681
Average need-based loan: $3,690
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $14,859
Average non-need based aid: $12,247
Average indebtedness at graduation: $29,296</p>
<p>The numbers are reported by the colleges themselves and no one checks up on them.
There is no “Financial Aid Police” so to speak. </p>
<p>I have always found the numbers to be helpful, although remember that old book, “How to Lie with Statistics?” I think there is a lot of that going on with these numbers. </p>
<p>Sometimes “Average Percentage of Need Met” is very helpful. </p>
<p>I only had my children apply to schools that had 85%-95% of need met. You really have to do your homework. Schools that meet 100% of need are too difficult to get into.
One child went to a public school OOS, but COA was much less then & we could afford it.</p>
<p>If you calculate your own EFC on Collegeboard or in “How to Pay for College Without Going Broke” (Princeton Review 2011 Edition, used with 2010 Tax Returns) then you will be able to see which schools “gapped” you & by how much. “Gapped” being unmet need. </p>
<p>So it does matter where your child applies, no one wants to be looking at a bunch of acceptances around April 1st, with financial aid packages that are just not “do-able”.</p>
<p>*Number who were judged to have need: 1,242
Number who were offered aid: 1,242
Number who had full need met: 335
*</p>
<p>I don’t have a lot of confidence in these numbers. Another student posted recently that his school had better FA stats then above, yet his aid package had huge gaps.</p>
<p>The above numbers in example A do show that only about a quarter of the kids had their need met. That suggests to me that THOSE kids either had little need or they had super stats and got merit and aid (preferential packaging). The numbers in Example B are even worse.</p>
<p>In my opinion, schools with stats like the above are only possible for those who can pay for most/all costs…or…maybe for those who have such incredible stats that the school fills need with scholarships, grants, etc.</p>
<p>I would say that school A probably has a more need-focused policy for FA and school B is more merit-focused. It’s really difficult to say exactly what the low # of full need met means…I would not worry about that at all! Outside of recruited athletes and those with huge merit aid, it’s sometimes the kids with the lowest EFCs who are also instate for the school (and get instate rates, if public, or benefit from state grant aid) who get full need met. Remember, meeting need includes everything…from Pell to workstudy to Stafford and Perkins loans…except for parent loans.</p>
<p>If you know your EFC, you can probably estimate your eligibility for everything except institutional aid. If the schools have published scholarship requirements, you can determine what merit aid is likely. I would use the average percent of need met to determine what the projected institutional need-based grant would be…I’ve seen so many FA packages, from both publics and privates, where that number was dead on or very, very close to the average percentage reported to College Board that it does seem to be fairly accurate.</p>
<p>Don’t forget KingJulian, many privates engage in “preferential packaging” so that for a student the college really wants, that student will get a great FA package! For a student who may be further down in the applicant pool their package may be loan heavy & very little grant money. </p>
<p>Does your child have any hooks? Athlete? Plays unusual muscial instrument? Legacy?
A male applying to a mostly female school? A female applying to a mostly male school?
OR really high SAT/ACT scores that can help boost that school’s profile of entering freshmen? Offer geographical diversity or in other words, college needs more students from OOS. </p>
<p>It isn’t too late to keep looking around, some deadlines can be Feb 1st, Feb 15th, or even March 1st, so keep that in mind!</p>
<p>My son squeezed merit money out of a school that gives out very little. He was a good candidate for the school but not the very top. But he got into the state part of Cornell and told the college that his parents were preferred he go there for value reasons, but that maybe he could swing it and would give it his best if they could help out. They requested documentary proof, which S provided along with other scolarship offers from other schools. He got additional funds. </p>
<p>It all depends on how badly the school wants you.</p>