<p>Hi, I'm a junior right now, and i'm just starting to look at colleges. I don't really know a lot about the financial aid process. </p>
<p>Well, with my UW GPA of around 3.5 or 3.6 (in rigorous, but not incredibly so, classes), SATs of 680 CR, 700 Writing, and 720 math, I feel like I could definitely get into some good schools. However, I have very few extracuriculars (varsity tennis 4 years, part-time job, not much else). My family is very middle class, and my parents have already sent my brother trhough college. I will be in college in two years, and a year after that, my sister will. I am going to need a lot of financial aid, preferably not in loan form, to pay for college. </p>
<p>One school that really interests me is Ursinus in Pennsylvaina. Could I expect to get good financial aid here?? At which other small LACs could I expect to get good grants or scholarships?? Some places I am looking at: Lawrence, Beloit, Pitzer, Pomona & Claremont McKenna (I know, huge reaches), Ohio Wesleyan... How about these places?</p>
<p>I know that Ohio Wesleyan does give generous financial aid, and your scores more than qualify you...sorry, but I do not know about any of the other schools and financial aid.
Also, middle class is a pretty vague term...you might need to be more clear, in terms of family income.
Any chance you could add in some volunteer work, to round out your extra curriculars?</p>
<p>Don't know anything about the particular schools you listed but it is really impossible to say what sort of need based aid you would get anywhere. Need based aid depends on your 'need' which is calculated based on your family income and assets - not on your academic stats. </p>
<p>To have a better chance for merit based aid make sure you apply to some schools where you are in the top few % Stats wise.</p>
<p>OK, like I said, my parents will send 3 kids to college when its all done, and they make about $80,000 a year. </p>
<p>as you can tell, I don't really know how the whole financial aid deal works, but I am thinking that I will need to go somewhere where I am an upper-tier student to get good financial aid... is this true??</p>
<p>so, i guess my question is, what should I consider financial safeties?</p>
<p>Actually, you need to go somewhere where you are in the upper tier to get merit aid not financial aid (and of course reasearch what type of merit aid they give)</p>
<p>Financial aid is another monster all together. Most private schools use the FASFA plus either the CSS profile or their own financial aid forms (Many state schools only use FASFA) FASFA only considers income and assetts (savings, stocks etc) while the CSS profile and school aid forms usually consider the equity in your home. Then, if you need to look at different schools and determine what percent of need they meet. If your family makes 80K and own their own home with some equity in it, you may be very unhappy with your financial aid. We were and we make less. </p>
<p>Financial safeties would be either a state school, or a school that gives great merit aid for people with your stats.</p>
<p>Need based aid and merit aid are two different things. Need based aid is based on your financial need as determined by the school using the income and asset information of both your parents and yourself. Merit based money is based on your statistics.</p>
<p>Need based financial aid. For FAFSA only schools you complete FAFSA. FAFSA produces a number called the EFC (Estimated Family Contribution). The school takes your EFC away from their COA (Cost Of Attendance) to come up with your 'need'. Your need based package is based on this 'need' and may consist of grants (federal, institutional and State), loans and work study. Schools that do not meet full need may also gap you - for instance your need may be 15,000 and they may award you 12,000. You can get an estimate of your EFC using the calculators at finaid here
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml</a></p>
<p>Siblings only make a difference to FAFSA EFC when they are in college at the same time. So your older brother that has finished college will make no difference. The sister going at the same time will make a difference in the years you are at school at the same time. The parent part of the EFC is divided between the siblings so if the EFC is all based on parent income/assets and is 16,000 with one in college it will be 8000 per student with 2 in college.</p>
<p>With an income of $80,000 you will not qualify for federal grant aid as the main federal grant, the Pell, requires an EFC of @4040 and other federal grants such as SEOG, ACG, SMART require Pell eligibility. For federal aid you may qualify for loans and work study. Most State Us do not have a large amount of institutional need based grant money available. </p>
<p>Many private schools require CSS/profile in addition to FAFSA for their institutional need based aid. CSS/Profile asks for a lot more information than FAFSA.</p>
<p>For merit based money you need to be in the top few percentage points Stats wise for your school.</p>
<p>WELL, my parents have said that they will pay only whatever it would cost them to send me to UMass... and I REALLY don't want to go to UMass.. blahh</p>
<p>Beloit gives merit scholarships of up to $15,000/yr. Your GPA and test scores will qualify you to attend a Presidential Scholarship Weekend next February, where you'll be interviewed by two faculty/administration members and two students. Some awards are also available to those who don't attend, but I'm not sure how many. </p>
<p>Beloit seems to be quite generous with merit aid. If the school seems a good fit for you, I'd give it a shot.</p>
<p>Kalamazoo and Earlham are two other good midwestern LACs where you might expect merit aid.</p>
<p>Congratulations on looking into these issues as a junior, and for taking the lead instead of your parents. You are ahead of many students who think about these things too late, if at all.</p>
<p>You have received some very good advice. I don't have much to add, except to say that with a family income of $80k, it is possible your family's EFC may be in the ballpark of what it would normally cost to attend UMass. Which means the additional costs of attending a private LAC could be covered by need-based FA. I'd encourage you to run your family's numbers through a couple of different EFC calculators to get a feel for this.</p>
<p>In looking at schools, it's important to figure out whether the schools you are looking at meet full need, or typically gap. Also, get a feel for the typical debt a student who receives financial aid graduates with, as this will let you know whether to anticipate getting a $4k loan each year, or whether higher loans may be required (due to not meeting full financial need). If possible, try to find a school that typically meets full need (or supplements need-based FA with academic scholarships) where you are in the top 5% of the students accepted.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind at most schools, receiving need-based FA means they will expect you to work to earn $5-$6k per year in the summer and work study during the year.</p>
<p>Finally, you have two semesters left that matter in terms of your GPA. Even if you can't pull the GPA up a lot with the remaining classes, showing an upward trend in your JR and SR years may help with your admissions.</p>