<p>Question about Financial Aid: </p>
<p>So my family makes around 110,000 and since Pomona determines need through a mix of Federal and Institutional, they want us to pay around $32,000. However, my parents and I can't afford this due to other financial obligations (retierment, mortgage etc.) Pomona is one of my top choices, but it looks like Claremont Mckenna has a better system of doing financial aid because they look at Fafsa on Federal, which would be $24,000, and look at CSS on Instutional (i'm not sure what this would turn out to be...). The CSS thing would help us because we don't have a huge house, my dad drives a 20 year old car, etc. therefore i'd prob have to pay maybe around 25,000 at Claremont which my parents say would be a stretch but do-able.</p>
<p>A) Is it worth applying to Pomona if it is out of reach financially?</p>
<p>B) Would Pomona change if Claremont gave me a bettter offer? Could I simply tell Pomona the circumstances and would they change their offer?</p>
<p>skyhawkk08 - Where are you getting these figures and the information about what each college looks at and would expect you to pay? If you're getting them from online EFC calculators, let me just warn you that they aren't necessarily accurate. In the end what each college offers you tends to be fairly different from what the EFC calculators tell you.</p>
<p>Personally, I doubt that the packages that Pomona and CMC would give you would be drastically different. In fact, everyone I've talked to here at Pomona is extremely happy with their financial aid and many have said that Pomona offered them by far the best package. I can personally attest to the fact that Pomona looks more closely at the CSS Profile than the FAFSA and really considers all facets of your family's financial situation, including home mortgages, car loans, etc. I'm not sure how good CMC's financial aid is, but for what it's worth Pomona is ranked #2 for "Students Happy with Financial Aid" by the Princeton Review, while CMC is #7. If you look at the profile for Pomona's admitted Class of 2010 at <a href="http://pomona.edu/ADWR/Admissions/Forms/2010profile.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://pomona.edu/ADWR/Admissions/Forms/2010profile.pdf</a>, you can see that within your income bracket 91 students received a financial aid package that averaged about $26,000 each. Considering that the comprehensive cost of attendance was $45,006 for the 2006-2007 school year, that means that the average family contribution for that income bracket was $19,000. That sounds like pretty good financial aid to me. Try to see if you can find similar info for CMC straight from CMC itself.</p>
<p>Given these facts, I would not rule out applying to Pomona. Who's to say that they won't give you a good aid package? And yes, Pomona's financial aid is very flexible about giving students more money than they had originally calculated. Most of the time they will give you more if you just call them and discuss it with an officer (students who personally did this have told me), and aside from that there's also a formal appeals process. And when you tell them that a comparable school has offered you more money, they tend to be even more willing to listen and expand your financial aid package.</p>
<p>If you get accepted to Pomona and can't go because of finances they will work with you and especially will want to have you choose Pomona over CMC. My son did recieve a little more at CMC and Pomona matched it. They are wonderful in fin aid. If you truly want to go apply.</p>