<p>Just wondering about the financial aid at Amherst. My D would love to attend. She has applied to 9 schools, 3 give merit aid but are lower tier than Amherst. Amherst and Harvard are her top two choices but I do not think she will get into Harvard (CR score only 670 and M SAT II only 710). She is being recruited by an Amherst coach so I think her chances here are better than H. H has a great fin aid plan - we would pay about 10% of our yearly income so would not cost much more than a state school. How does Amherst compare with this? I think it might be the next most “generous” school on her list except for those that give merit aid. Here is the rest of the list: Dartmouth, Brown, Wesleyan, Conn College, RPI (merit $$), Providence college (merit $$) and Stonehill (merit $$ - but not much - already got that package). Stonehill is the only acceptance so far as she applied EA but all the others are RD because of needing to compare financial aid packages. What do you all think???</p>
<p>I think you'll know in about 45 days. :)</p>
<p>While Amherst has amazingly generous financial aid, I don't think it is as good as Harvard's for families above a certain income range. If Harvard's aid is really as it's billed --that a family earning 180K will only pay 18K-- well, I don't think Amherst can match that. If you're lower income probably Amherst's aid is more similar to something you might see at Harvard. (This is just my conjecture from reading around for awhile.)</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Amherst, and we have a pretty modest income (@60K) and his financial aid is very good. We still pay a chunk, unlike a few other top tier schools that expect no contribution from families of our income, but I'm not complaining! I feel gratitude everyday for the generosity of Amherst College, as does my son!</p>
<p>Modadunn,
You are right...I will know in about 45 days and I NEED to be PATIENT!!! But it is hard...... as I said in another post I am much more worried about this than my D, but then again I am the one paying for it all! I also think many kids at 18 years old don't really understand how hard it is to start out with a lot of college debt - how much that puts you in a hole for a long time. I really don't want either kid to graduate with a lot of debt, yet I want them to get the best education possible.</p>
<p>'rentof2<br>
Good to hear the FA is fairly generous. I will be the parent of two in college next year for that one year - I think that is why I am so stressed out about the money angle. Plus right now the economy is so bad....I's not sure anybody's job is really safe. If H's fin aid is as billed it is amazing and I am sure that is part of the record number of applicants this year, 29,000, wow. D would probably go to H if she got in but am not sure she wouldn't be happier at A if she gets in here.</p>
<p>Jessephen: The FA takes into account that you have two in. I have had two in for two years and it has only been minimally more expensive than one. Our FA has been really generous. The schools are Barnard and Williams. Oops. Sorry. (Amherst/Williams rivalry.)</p>
<p>Note: I am not saying Williams FA is better than Amherst. On the contrary. Trying to reassure the OP.</p>
<p>One thing that might help while waiting & wondering about FA is to look at the schools' policies about loans. Some colleges, like Williams, are now no loan for their FA packages, regardless of income. Others are no loan, depending on income. I believe Wesleyan is no loan for incomes below some figure. I don't recall Amherst's policy.</p>
<p>Another point re: loans, which you won't know until acceptances, is the ratio among grant money, loans, & expected student earnings, which could tie into work study.</p>
<p>Both Amherst and Williams are no-loan for students of all income groups.</p>
<p>Last application-season was interesting. The economic crisis had not yet hit, and top schools were in something that looked like a gas war as far as financial aid went. Princeton had dropped student loans earlier than anyone else, but following on that the other Ivies and the top LACs, also Northwestern, Stanford, and other schools followed suit to stay competitive for the best applicants -- plus, I think they also felt it really was the right thing to do. But it was like watching dominos fall when my son was applying last year. When he applied ED to Amherst, there were 3 schools that had dropped students loans from their aid packages (Amherst was one of them), and by the time RD decisions were being made there must have been 10 or 12.</p>
<p>Needless to say, we're not seeing that pattern continue in these distressed times. It does seem all the schools that previously dropped student loans are committed to continuing that policy.</p>
<p>A good friend of ours who is applying now was told, however, that there are instances where admissions at some schools that had been need-blind will be more need-aware this year. (This was not coming from Amherst, but from a couple peer schools he's applying to.) The message he got is that this will pertain more to special applicant groups like transfers, international students, that sort of thing.</p>
<p>That's just hearsay though.</p>
<p>Just as an aside: If a school doesn't specifically say it is need blind for international students it is only need aware for those students at other schools. We are not international, so I don't know how that applies at Amherst. </p>
<p>Interestingly, we are not candidates for financial aid. However, I find myself looking at potential school's FA policies just in case our world blows up at some point and we need it on some level. If the kid is happy at a school, you'd hate to see him have to leave. And while this certainly applies to my S, I think it should also apply to the friends he makes. It would be really too bad if you have friends that are forced out because the financial aid policy of the school is limited or whatever.</p>
<p>"Just as an aside: If a school doesn't specifically say it is need blind for international students it is only need aware for those students at other schools."</p>
<p>Of course, but I was just relating what was said directly to this kid and his mother by a couple peer schools. What they meant by it, I cannot tell you, but they said there were areas where they had previously been need-blind and where they were now going to be more need-aware. The kid and his mother got the impression that was referring to special applicant groups, but like I said... it is not entirely clear what they meant.</p>
<p>Likewise, I just read President Marx's update on the economy and the College on the Amherst website. In it he referred to increasing revenue at the school (among other ways) by adding about 100 students to the student body over the next four years. It naturally raises the question as to how they know it will increase revenue if they're not paying attention to what the newly-added number of students can pay.</p>