<p>What is the financial aid like at Smith?</p>
<p>I found it to be generous and close to my EFC. This, however, does not mean a free ride.</p>
<p>“reasonable.” I.e., tracks closely to what you should “expect” to pay but still expensive enough that for many it hurts. </p>
<p>We borrowed quite a bit because we didn’t have savings and it’s easier to spend money than to pay it back. That said, some of the best money we ever spent and no regrets. Our D borrowed about $20K of her own, doing okay paying her loans back. She lucked out (with big assist from Smith) and was employed in a decent, albeit not terribly high paying, job upon graduation.</p>
<p>Ours was about double our EFC (which was not very high to start with). The difference was primarily due to being in a location where real estate is very expensive, and the house having been paid off for a number of years (i.e. lots of home equity).</p>
<p>Ours was pretty much a mach for EFC with the plus that very little of it is in loans. There is a small amount attached to student employment but my daughter has never had the time to earn close to the allotted amount.</p>
<p>Smith is quite generous with their financial aid. I came off the wait list and was given everything I needed to be able to go. Granted I still have loans, but they are much less than what I would have had if I went to a different school. Just for reference - I live in a rather undesirable area and my family (1 parent) does not own property.</p>
<p>Hmm. I want to correct a possible false impression. D’s job actually pays decently for a first job and more importantly, it’s a terrific job for her career aspirations, not just a “marking time” kind of first job. It just doesn’t pay at the IB levels so many students are looking for. And she’s gotten decent raises for the first two years. Won’t be a raise next year because she’ll be heading off to grad school.</p>
<p>Back to FinAid per se: I know the daughter of a single mom with a moderate income job who went to Smith for about $6K per year net cost. Smith seems to do a very good job for students from economically modest or distressed backgrounds. (And I have no complaints about that.) We’re more in the “too much to get good financial aid, not enough to easily pay” category, which is a very large category. Smith made it possible. And as I’ll say to anyone who asks, some of the best money we ever spent.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you for all the information (especially @TheDad) and (@PickUpSticks, @Overwhelmedma, @Susgeek, @akebias). I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>Milestone achieved: with today’s loan payment, we’ve passed the 1/7 point on paying back our college loans. Only a few months until 1/6! And about 9 months after that to the 1/5 point. Woo hoo! (We take our joy in small measures where we can find it.)</p>
<p>(For those not familiar with interest, increasing amounts of each payment are applied to the principal. Ergo, for D’s first year…the payments are rolled together…almost 2/3 of the payment is now going to principal. Only about 45 percent of the fourth year is currently applied to principal.)</p>