<p>Does anyone have any experience with need based aid? Is Swarthmore likely to agree with the FAFSA EFC or is our EFC likely going to be higher than that? Does Swat usually meet demonstrated need? Thanks.</p>
<p>Swarthmore meets 100% of demonstrated need for all four years. Other than Princeton and one or two others, their loan portions are about as small as anywhere. With the exception of four scholarships a year for local area, they do not offer any merit-aid. It's all need-based so it's a great place to apply if you qualify for need-aid, not so good if you are counting on merit aid.</p>
<p>I don't know if anyone outside of the financial aid office could say whether the EFCs are "usually" higher or lower than the federal guidelines. Generally, Swarthmore is considered to have very good need-based aid, thanks to one of the highest per student endowments in the country. However, figuring out EFC varies so much from family to family that I don't know how to make blanket statements. </p>
<p>Swarthmore is a part of group of elite colleges that has tried to standardize methods for dealing with home equity, cost of living in various parts of the country, number of kids in college, etc.</p>
<p>If I were trying to maximize need-based aid, Swarthmore would be one of the top dozen or two colleges I would consider.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feed back. Our youngest starts next fall and is very interested in Swat. Our middle one is currently a sophmore at another private. Eldest is graduating. We will continue to have 2 in college for 2 more years so our EFC for each kid is fairly low meaning that each college needs to come up with significant aid for us to be able to do this. It worked out for #1 and #2 so we are hoping it will for #3 also. </p>
<p>However, he is being considered for a major merit award at another very fine school. If he gets that scholarship it will lock in his aid for 4 years and save us a great deal of money. But I think he really wants to go to Swat. If he gets the scholarship from the other school, it will be tough decision, especially since our "need" will evaporate when #2 graduates.</p>
<p>Shennie:</p>
<p>Your situation illustrates just how hard it is to make universal statements about college aid.</p>
<p>With multiple kids in college, your view of the elephant might well be that a generous need-based aid school like Swarthmore offers great financial aid. But, take the exact family income with only one in college and Swarthmore's need-based aid might pale in comparison to a merit-aid deal for a high-stat applicant.</p>
<p>Both conclusions would be both true and false, depending on the specific family situation.</p>
<p>Shennie,</p>
<p>My daughter is a Swat grad and was treated very well in the realm of financial aid. I didn't really have a way to compare offers, though, until last year, when my S1 was accepted to Swarthmore, but chose to go to Brown. The Swat financial aid package was the most generous, with Pomona a close second. Wash U was initially the least generous, but after I sent them the aid package from Swat, they raised his grant to match. Brown, naturally, would not "negotiate" and their package was ultimately the least generous. (Wouldn't you know!!) Our EFC was 27,000 on the FAFSA, but the Swat EFC was about 21000. They look at a lot of things in as generous a manner as possible.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info momof3. It is nice to know that Swat lowered your EFC. I think we will be fine the first 2 years with 2 in college, but I worry about how it will change when we only have 1. With merit aid you know what you will be guaranteed for 4 years even if you get no need based aid.</p>
<p>Merit aid programs can have their own set of pitfalls. At some schools, there rather onerous GPA requirements that have cost many a college student his aid package for slipping a semester.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone could provide information about how the finaid application is reviewed. Do they review the finaid application after an applicant is accepted? - which is more logical to me.. or Do they review the finaid app when they initially recieve it?</p>
<p>They review it at the same time as the application for admission. They have deadlines for finaid which is before the acceptance decision. Swarthmore has a special supplement that you have to fill out which asks a lot more detailed questions than the FAFSA and a separate evaluation of your EFC which might be lower than the FAFSA EFC since they ask a lot of relevant questions...</p>
<p>100% of need met</p>