Financial aid

Ok so I’ve been reading about the FAFSA all day,ugh. Anyway it appears we won’t get any federal aid since our income is too high and we have 1 kid. Only eligible for that federal loan.
Anyway I am using an example of a school costing $40000. Our EFC on one estimate chart is about $14000. So our need would be $26000 then. Is it unheard of for a school to meet all that need? I know that’s another forums question but I want opinions from MT college peeps since you have experience with the same types of schools we are looking at.

From my experience most of the schools do not meet full need . We did have a couple come close but those also did include the the federal loan

The schools that have great FA and that meet full financial need, are typically not the schools that have MT programs.

But with good standardized test scores + good GPA, one can rack up some nice sized merit aid at the MT schools.

Northwestern University guarantees that they meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for every admitted student. In our experience, when we had two kids enrolled and had need, they met it all with grants (free $) versus loans.

Many schools have a financial calculator which may provide helpful information.

Well on our list we have quite a few public schools that we are out of state for. I’ve been told that these schools will give little to no money to us since we’re out of state. Seems true as I just did the net price calc on one and it gave like $2000 and that’s it. Will the OOS schools be stingy on all aid then? Even merit /talent aid??

Depending on where you live have you checked if there are reciprocity agreements with the schools you are interested in? We are in the mid west and there were several schools that were close to instate tuition once I looked at that.

Both of our kids found that well-endowed Private schools were more generous with aid than State schools could be. Plus I remember Berkeley calculated need-based aid for OOS students as if they were paying IS tuition, so their FA offer was particularly non-competitive.

I want to ammend post #3 above… NU’s package did include a $5k Federal loan, but the remainder was grants.

If you have strong ACT/SAT (act of 30 or above) scores or are a National Merit Finalist, some state schools will offer fairly generous academic scholarships. But in general, we found private schools to be more generous than public schools.

And Utah, Texas State and I believe Montclair offer instate tuition to OOS MT majors (check the requirements). OU offers free tuition to National Merit Finalists.

Yes, Utah has in state tuition with residency of one year. Some talent scholarships as well. Apply by December 1st at all schools to maximize chances for merit if your student qualifies. Utah does offer one full tuition talent scholarship per year.

Western Michigan offers in-state tuition after one year with easy residence requirements - get a Michigan driver’s license and go to summer school:

While d’s largest scholarships in total dollars were from private schools, her three least expensive schools were all public, paying out-of-state tuition but with very good merit scholarships (Florida State, Wright State, South Dakota). As I recall, Florida State offered her in-state tuition.

Just to toss this comparison in w/ the public vs. private $$ …

My oldest (non MT major) is at a private (Vanderbilt) who says they’ll meet all demonstrated financial aid. Her first year ended up being cheaper than our instate public (Indiana University) where she received the biggest automatic merit aid award offered.

My youngest (MT major) is at a private (Nebraska Wesleyan) which ended up being several thousand cheaper than a public (Southern Illinois University) where she qualified for in-state tuition. (Actually NWU was also slightly cheaper than Indiana University as well.)

Obviously, everyone’s financial situation is different … but while we’re not the Hiltons or the Rockefellers, we are not destitute either. I’d say we’re a fairly average, two parent, middle class family.

Indiana U is just expensive. We are out of state, D was awarded largest merit award, and cost was the highest of all of her choices- which was a shame, because they have a great program.

Thanks for all your info! I’m really learning a lot since this is my only child going to college. The whole thing is keeping me up at night worrying we won’t be able to afford the schools that accept her. We’re middle class too and no other kids so our EFC is higher then I thought it would be. The stress is making me a wreck

@theatrework - I feel your pain, and was also in a state of shock when we initially saw our EFC (when only one was in college we paid full tuition), but if it’s any consolation we just finished up paying first kid’s tuition and are two years into kid #2, and it honestly has been far more manageable than DH and I initially imagined. We did not chose the cheapest options (both kids had a full ride offer) but have absolutely no regrets. We reminded ourselves that college is not just an investment of money but also of four prime years of our kids’ lives, and we wanted that time to be very productive. We now consider it to be some of the best money we’ve ever spent.

@theaterwork … I’ll also add that lots of schools have school year based payment plans that can break the $$ into more manageable chunks.

I agree with Momcares about how view changes- and that when I spend the $$ I believe in what it is going towards. D did not choose her MOST expensive option (that was Boston) but she was far from cheapest (my alma mater- where she would have been tuition free- but BA rather than BFA) I Was heartsick worrying that she would get into one of her dream programs and we would have to say no. In the end, we are committed to making it work. My advise is- if at all possible, choose a school that YOU love too - it makes writing the checks (ok, today it’s transferring funds, but the other sounds better) a little easier. You and your D need to agree on what is important in a school. D’s final 11 were primarily (a couple wild cards and mom’s extra safety) schools that we knew met everything on BOTH our lists.

Wondering…when running net price calculators (granted I am estimating test scores and GPA at this point) but ballparking averages…what if the calculator says they are giving nothing?! One of these was a private school too (Wagner). Guess the SAT score I entered and GPA wasnt enough for merit aid…so confusing…

@theaterwork, at some point you may need to stop playing with that calculator and actually just have a serious conversation with your (daughter?). The reality is the net price calculator messes around with the data asked for on the FASFA but if I’m not mistaken, does very little to factor in schools that require the CSS profile which is whole other nightmare set of questions and digging up data that is hard to find to put on forms that are painful in comparison to fill out and and and… serenity now. Don’t ask. Your daughter is just a junior. Enjoy the honeymoon period until you have to know.

The serious conversation with your (daughter?) will need to go something like this: “we can afford X. Any school that comes in at X+ you need to know is beyond our reach. We will endeavor to do our best by you but know going into this whole process that we have a line in the sand and it looks like X.”

And then the game is all about X. And fabulously expensive private school which may for whatever reason want your (daughter?) may come in on the right side of X. Or fabulously expensive state school may come in on the other side of X and it’s out. Or dream state or private school that you never thought she would get into will come in way over on the wrong side of X but you get so swept up in the whole magic of the moment that you get creative with how to pull it off and ask a long lost childless uncle for help and he grants it. (WAY better idea than taking out huge loans btw which is NOT a good idea for this field AT ALL.)

Have the conversation. That’s the key. The calculator tool is great to get basically informed but it isn’t a true predictor of the outcome.

I am doing the calculators because that is what everyone keeps telling me to use to get a ballpark if the school is even do-able. My D knows where we stand in contributing money and she knows that the school she wants when it comes down to it may not work out, etc. There is no use applying to schools that are on the pricey side tuition wise if they are basically going to give us nothing. Waste of time in my opinion. MT is such a pain anyway with having to apply to a bazillion schools that we need to concentrate on the ones that are most likely to work out financially and just hope she would get an admittance to some and hope they have a good program and…and…