Financial question

College Majors Musical Theater Major
41

@craspedia, the rub is, if you want to apply for student loans (or have your daughter do so which is a reasonable way for her to start to build a credit history), you have to check the box and submit the FAFSA and whatever else the school requires to process your aid application fully. I honestly don’t know how the magic behind the curtain works but logic says if you apply, and are deemed need ineligible other than loans and the schools know it prior to deciding on your admission status, you are no less favorably looked upon than the kid who applied and didn’t check the box. Zero is still zero no matter how one gets there.

The bigger risk as far as admissions goes is being a marginal admit (academically, artistically or both), and checking the box and having obvious financial need. Anyway, I’m not really sure it is a game one can truly figure out the rules in advance as it as @connections points out, highly individualized and that applies to both the student and the schools. We knew we wanted the student loans so that was the priority.

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Do you think you are less likely to receive merit aid if you don’t “check the box” saying you are applying for need-based aid?

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craspedia, there is no right answer–it truly varies from person to person.

But yes, fewer colleges are need blind now: For instance, see this article in the New York Times: “Aid Changes Raise Issues of Diversity at Colleges,” by Richard Perez-Pena, Nov. 30, 2012.

The tricky part is where the line in the sand is. For me personally, there was no question–we could not afford without aid (our EFC was often under $5K). But I have known some people “check the box” without really thinking what it means. I don’t want to make anyone hysterical with worry. It’s a non-transparent process and there really and truly is no way of knowing if in your individual case it will matter. I just believe that knowledge is power and everyone should know what their choices are.

Again, it is simply impossible to know what the right answer is in each person’s case. But it is also important to be fully informed in this very confusing process.

craspedia, regarding your ‘merit aid’ question-that is also hard to answer since a lot of merit aid is subjective and can be tied to need or may not be—that is, it will depend on how much the college wants you and whether they feel they need to give you money to attract you. Part of their decision can be based on whether they feel you wouldn’t come otherwise–but it may not be based on that. You just don’t know. Again, the process is individual for each college, depending on many factors: their endowment, their discretion & power in being able to give grants/scholarships (merit or merit/need) in the theatre program as part of the bigger university, how much they want you, etc.

This is why it’s important to apply to a range of colleges–Traditionally people talk of reaches, matches & safety in the context of getting in, but for most people it’s good to have reaches, matches, & safety in finances too.

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My experience was that colleges take your EFC and tear it into little pieces while laughing hysterically, but I know @connections’ kids had better luck.

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Oh geez. This all sounds like such a crapshoot. We can’t afford our EFC either, that’s why the hope for merit.

It sounds like we might have a slightly better chance of admission by not “checking the box”.

46

I remember my husband exclaiming once or twice, “We shouldn’t have had her check the box!” when D was rejected, lol. His father’s heart just couldn’t grasp that they just didn’t want his D. :wink:

Seriously, we did wonder how much this comes into play in admissions and if we should have done as the person in the example above did: not check it, and deal with financials later. It may have had nothing to do with admissions, but it may have. Who knows? It’d be interesting to go through the process simultaneously both ways (with all other factors identical) to see if outcomes would have been any different!

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For both my kids, we checked the box for FA and submitted FAFSA (older D had several schools that also required the CSS Profile). I didn’t worry about this factor in terms of it affecting admissions odds. Didn’t know if we’d get any aid, but tried for it. Both daughters did receive FA and their admissions’ outcomes were quite positive overall.

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Sadly, times have changed significantly in the past 10 years, particularly since the crash. :frowning: When my oldest son went to Tisch back in 2007, money in general (not just at Tisch) was a lot more available and need blind was a lot more common. Nowadays, because of the economy, need-blind is less common (as I referred to in the Times article).

I’m offering my limited experience as I have 5 kids with a range of 10 years and I’ve muddled through this process now for 4 of them! Every year we apply, I spend many sleepless nights in anxiety for the finances (on top of getting in!).

The way we’ve navigated it has been a combination of luck & strategy. Having good stats helps. For instance, to use an easy example, if you have a 2400 in your SATs, you are going to be more valuable to some colleges (even some BFA programs – depending on the school). But in a technically lower tier school, you may be really desirable with “just” a 1750 SAT. And that “lower tier” school may end up being phenomenal for your kid.

But never underestimate luck in this process. I do think it’s worse now than before (how luck plays into it all). That’s why it’s good to apply for a range of reaches, safeties and matches economically as well as academically.

For instance, it’s hard to predict whether the college will adhere to FAFSA. I agree, some colleges seem to just tear it to little shreds. I mean, I had a rough year once when my EFC was literally 0, and that was the year RISD offered no grant/scholarship money to my daughter at all. It was entirely a loan offer, which Stafford maxed at around $6K/year. The rest was supposed to be made up by magical pixie dust, I guess! However, I happen to know that that same year, RISD offered another student a very large need-based talent scholarship. My daughter wasn’t as ‘wanted’ as that student. We had no way of knowing that ahead of time though.

But back to what I said, the best way to see whether you stand a chance of getting any money is to look at each college’s endowment and their stats on meeting need (but again be careful to see how much is met in loan versus outright grant). Also you can read between the lines in how they present themselves. Some colleges might say something like, “We are deeply committed to ensuring a diverse range of students” and others might say, “Here is a link to outside scholarship offers in case you want some.” Guess which one is more likely to give need/merit money?

However nothing is ever written in stone, and you can only go by likely and unlikely. There are always exceptions. Just don’t put all your eggs into one basket. Try as best as you can to know how you fit in terms of being a safety, reach or match for each school. This is a very individual process.

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I agree with everything @connections has written. Her advice is very sound. Also, yes, there is less need-blind admissions than in the past.

By the same token, financial aid at some schools is better now than it was 10 years ago. My D attended Brown University. We were quite pleased with the financial aid she received. However, right after she graduated from Brown in 2008, the FA policies got WAY better at Brown and at other schools of its type. They REALLY boosted the aid for certain income levels. Had she begun college just four years later than she had, the amount of aid she would have received would have been way higher than the already pretty substantial aid we received. If only!

(I write this as I am literally taking a break from writing check after check for both of my daughters’ college loans this month to four different schools…two undergrad, two grad…ka ching!)