<p>If one of the top boarding school admits you, and you're applying for financial aid, do they normally give enough so that you really can afford the rest? I would think they would (otherwise they would be messing up their yield, admitting kids they knew couldn't come), but I don't know. Do they offer enough so that the family can just barely afford it, or enough so that their finances are comfortable? Thanks :) Happy Boxing Day.</p>
<p>It's like colleges, what you think you can afford and what they do often differs. I don't know any aid students who did not feel like it was a stretch for the family.</p>
<p>Here is the best answer I can give you... It depends!</p>
<p>I'll start with the basics - the SSS financial aid submission. It is much like the FAFSA process for college FA. Your folks enter information like Income, assets, liabilities (loans, debts, etc), and information about other family expenses (other children in tuition collecting schools, etc.). The SSS reports back a figure to the school called the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) (and to your folks for an extra fee) of how much they believe your family could afford to spend for that year to send you to any private school.</p>
<p>Your family files additional paperwork with the school giving further details that may not be included on the SSS form for example - costs associated with caring for a special needs sibling.</p>
<p>Next the schools have policies for how much of the EFC they will give grants (not needing to be repaid FA) for. The top schools are generally well endowed and will fund grants for 100% of the match to EFC (in other words Grant + EFC = 100% of cost of attendance). Some schools may only fund to say 80% of EFC match, which often leaves parents to take additional loans above and beyond the EFC to fund their child's boarding school fees.</p>
<p>Now we get into how "need-blind" the school is. My humble opinion is that none of them are completely need blind. Schools typically use FA to get candidates to attract candidates who have qualities about them that they don't have or get enough of from full-pay candidates. These may be specific needs such as a hockey goalie or oboe player for their orchestra, or people with interest in particular academic programs. There are also diversity goals they set (URM, geographic) that may also require the use of FA offers to fill those slots.</p>
<p>So to fill these slots needed after the accepted full-pay students have been sorted out, they will rank FA applicants who fill the various slots based upon quality of applicant and sometimes FA need. They will also look at how many needed slots an FA applicant can fill. For example a URM from the south who is a star quarterback fills 3 targeted slots and has a much better chance of getting the best FA offer (or any FA offer) than a quarterback from NE who may not be a URM.</p>
<p>May not sound fair, but with limited enrollments, schools must try to get as many goals achieved for their FA dollar as possible.</p>
<p>Hope this gives you some insight.</p>
<p>Thanks, goaliedad. Very thorough post.</p>
<p>I have a question. My father's wife (he married her over the summer) has a trust fund or large bit of inheiritence or something. However, she is not in any way one of my legal guardians, nor do I live with her full time (legally or in practice), so she is not filling out the financial aid forms. However, she is attending graduate school, and my dad is paying for some of it, and since FA is partially decided by the money going out of a household for things like university, what will happen with that?</p>
<p>SSS requires your stepparents to fill out the forms.</p>
<p>Ah, sorry. My parents are handling FA forms. I must have been confused.</p>
<p>pretty,</p>
<p>While it is not your place to give financial advice to your parents (nor is it mine), I would guess from what you have mentioned that your father will be writing quite a bit of information in your FA applications.</p>
<p>If I had to guess, since you have not been adopted by your new stepmother, her trust assets probably would not enter the FA picture, although I'm sure it is quite complicated given that the assets are not fully available to finance the schooling she is scheduled to take (because of your father's support).</p>
<p>My guess for your situation is that your FA award will be based upon how much they need you as your situation can be read many different ways. If you have talents that they are in short supply of and are a desireable candidate (the interview and essay are key here), the top schools will find the money necessary to make it happen. </p>
<p>My one piece of advice here (from first hand experience) is that if you are not comfortable with the first FA offer and you have extenuating circumstances in your family (the stepmother in school may qualify), your father might want to appeal the FA decision and give more information about those circumstances.</p>
<p>I haven't kept score on where you are in the application process. Have you turned in your paperwork (essay) and had your interview yet?</p>
<p>I'll give you one big hint on one of the underrated things (beyond a needed skill) that makes you stand out in an interview and I think made a big difference in how FA turned out for my daughter. That hint is to be somebody that the admissions person would want as a friend for their daughter to be hanging out with.</p>
<p>As much as schools want serious scholars, athletes, and artists, schools want people whom they would send their own sons or daughters to school with. People who are fun loving, caring, respectful of relationships. They want people who will make a boarding community a close knit group where great friendships are formed.</p>
<p>You will probably be asked about relationships with coaches, teammates, classmates, etc. If you talk about them as people and how you relate to them as people, it goes a long way. So many high-flying students make the error of talking about the people around them who contribute to their success more as props.</p>
<p>I've had about half of my interviews, all of which went quite well indeed (Milton and Andover went fantastically). I have not sent my essays, but all but Andover, which is almost done, are finished. I think the essays should be decent.</p>
<p>One poster last year, I think he went by AES, was a sought after URM candidate who go into all the top schools but got very different offers of aid from each. You might do a search to get the specifics, but he ended up at SPS which does seem to be the most generous. Makes sense as they have the highest pp endowment.</p>