Financial Aid throughout Academic Years

Folks, I agree that he should carry little to no debt. If he wants to splurge he can do it in graduate school. And private school (Syracuse) is not a done deal. All I wanted to know if financial circumstances didn’t change Y2Y, then could one expect receiving similar aid received in the first year. I’ve never filed for financial aid until this time for my oldest son. We have a set out of pocket amount we are willing to provide for tuition plus housing, etc. Same amount applied to all schools. With the exception of WV, all the other schools come out to roughly the same, including instate Rutgers which will be full-pay ~$30k ( he would stay on campus plus all their fees). Syracuse would only happen if they maintained their current aid offer throughout the four + years.

Most reputable colleges do not bait and switch. However, the need awards are based on the FAFSA EFC, so it does change as that number changes. THe federal part of the aid HAS to work that way, and most schools have policies that make it so that their need based awards also work in tandem with the need formulas. Most schools do not give more than what the FAFSA EFC generates.

However, costs do go up each year at most colleges. Allowable student loan limits increase from Freshman through Senior year. Most schools do expect the student to contribute more towards their educational costs as they move up through the ranks. Keep all of that in mind.

Great idea to talk to the financial aid officer and ask the tough questions up front, take notes so you have it in writing. That way you get a good idea how things work at that particular college.

Unless you have money to burn and are giving your kid a choice to stay in state or out of state, YOU pay the bill so YOU should have the final say on where your kid goes. It amazes me when I hear parents essentially saying their kid gets the final say on where they go to college and incur massive debt or force their parents to incur massive debt. We narrowed schools of similar cost down for our kids and gave them a choice. One of them at first wanted to attend Stevens… if I were rich and had money to burn, maybe—- but at 70+k???

My daughter is a sophomore at Syracuse (I live in NJ too). Her aid for sophomore year was identical to freshman year. My income and savings went up marginally, no real changes.

@mlescdv thank you! This was the information I was seeking. We are visiting the campus on Tuesday and plan to drop in the financial aid office.

Enjoy your visit to Syracuse! It’s a wonderful school. I’ve spent time on the Rutgers campus (my son took lessons at Mason Gross); they are very different vibes imho.

As others have said, make sure you know what FA can go up with the increase in tuition.

For one kid, she received merit that stayed the same, athletic aid that was ‘assured’ to not go down, and then some other awards that could be renewed or disappear. Her tuition increased by $2000 per year but the merit didn’t. Loan available increases by $1000 in soph and junior year, so that helped.

Other daughter also had a merit award that did not increase. After her freshman year the new students to the school got a much better merit award, but she was locked into the one from her freshman year. This seemed very unfair to me since they all had to pay the same tuition. The school really didn’t give need based financial aid but did have $1000 and $2000 ‘alum’ grants that were in part based on need. Sometimes she got one, sometimes not. That was frustrating.