<p>*Momtocollege…I am not sure what you mean when you say "most schools don’t meet need and most schools will ALREADY include full student loans in their FA pkgs so those aren’t available to also cover “family contribution” or gaps. "</p>
<p>Can you tell me more about that?*</p>
<p>Here’s an example…</p>
<p>COA = $40,000 (for instance, an out of state public)</p>
<h2>EFC = $25,000 </h2>
<p>need = $15,000</p>
<p>An FA pkg to go towards that need might be:</p>
<p>$5500 in student loans
$2500 in work study
$3000 in a merit scholarship</p>
<p>So, that FA pkg would provide $11,000 towards that $15,000 need (leaving a $3k gap).</p>
<p>Well, let’s say that you can’t afford to pay your $25k per year EFC (plus the $3k gap), and you wanted your child to take a student loan to help out. Your D wouldn’t be able to do that because her loans would already be in the FA pkg for need.</p>
<p>* So anything over that 25%estimate is what the schools might aim to fill thru scholarships and loans, but many schools may not have enough to offer to be able to fill that gap. I guess that may be where being a highly desireable student can help? Schools may steer more of their resources toward your child if they really want them to attend…and that could be the funding to fill that gap (or even more if they reeeeally want them),*</p>
<p>Some schools don’t give merit (like MIT or the Ivies). And, all their students are exceptional, so they only really care about getting more ethnic diversity and maybe regional diversity. Even then getting a more desirable pkg can be iffy. I helped an African American Valedictorian with very high SATs try to get a better pkg out of MIT. MIT was willing to fly him out to get him to commit, but not increase his FA pkg. He ended up at Columbia which was also great. </p>
<p>Since MIT and other elites are super hard to get into, your D will have to include other choices. Are you still instate for Florida? If so, she’ll have Bright Futures and her pre-paid. :)</p>
<p>If she were to include schools like Purdue and UMich, getting aid may not happen. Neither can be depended on for merit scholarships (at least large ones), so being expected to pay nearly all costs could happen. </p>
<p>OOS publics (except for UVA and UNC) charge high OOS rates for a reason…they expect you to pay those costs. UVA and UNC do give need based aid and meet need…but they’re the exception.</p>
<p>There are some OOS publics that will give large merit scholarship for high stats or being a NMF. If your D does have high stats, apply to a couple of these as back-ups.</p>
<p>Do you think she’ll have the test scores to be competitive for MIT…and GPA?</p>
<p>Schools that don’t meet full need gap any amount they wish. That is why the term admit/deny applies to schools that admit but are actually denying because the gap is so large it would be impossible to attend</p>
<p>Yes…schools admit students without knowing whether they can attend. Most schools are “need blind”. They don’t first look to see if the money is there. So, when the FA office puts together the FA pkg, there can be some huge gaps. The school really has no idea if there’s a grandparent that will pay or a non-custodial parent that will pay (if that income isn’t included), so they just send the FA pkg out (gap and all) and the family decides what they can do…or not do.</p>