*** “At most schools, financial aid and merit aid do NOT stack” *** - That is a VERY important tip, so I’ve added teh emphasis for the OP but also for any skimmers in the future?
Clarkson - DH and I are grads from 1980s, and we thought it was a terrific school. But despite the other majors available on campus, it is mostly a STEM/Engineering school. It is probably not a good fit for a student with evolving views on college major (including mention of English). If she likes the town, Potsdam could be a good choice, except maybe to pricey for OOS.
@taverngirl Franklin & Marshall is really expensive and gives NO merit aid.
Has she looked at Hofstra? It’s not small LAC, but compared to UConn it will feel a lot smaller. It’s a fairly easy commute from Connecticut and they offer a LOT of merit aid. I’ve had fairly average students offered $25K/year.
I think that’s a very broad statement. Federal and state need based aid usually does stack with any merit aid even if issued by the school, and with outside merit aid like Bright Futures and Hope. Why would a school not want to stack outside money whether it is need based or not? It is less money the school needs to award.
I have one kid in a private school that stacks everything. I have another in a public school that stacks everything. I am working with a guy who cannot stack athletic and merit (and can’t get need based from the school because of the athletic), but if he gets other need based or other outside awards, it may be stackable.
To be more precise – a family’s EFC is their EFC, and merit aid from the school (and often from third parties, surprisingly), reduces loans and work study on the financial aid side of the ledger. While there are specific instances of schools that do stack, in our search with two kids, looking at top 75 LACs and top 50 publics, we didn’t come across them.
It would be a valuable resource if people identified schools that use school merit, or outside merit, to reduce the EFC.
If you access the NPCs from the College Board site for participating schools (https://professionals.collegeboard.org/higher-ed/financial-aid/netprice/participating-schools)
you’ll wind up with a page that shows an “ESTIMATED NET PRICE” and an “ESTIMATED REMAINING COST”.
The ESTIMATED NET PRICE reflects the estimated total COA minus estimated grant/gift aid;
the ESTIMATED REMAINING COST reflects the ESTIMATED NET PRICE minus “self help”.
So the “NET PRICE”, as I’m using that term (which I believe is consistent with College Board/NPC terminology), would not reflect additional deduction of “self help” (loans, work study), if any.
Whether the OP is following my usage, @thumper1’s, or something else, I don’t know for sure. In any case, you’d want to consider all these numbers and compare them across colleges in a consistent apples-to-apples way.
However, the OP evidently is eligible for substantial amounts of need-based aid from some schools.
F&M’s sticker price is over $65K. If the NPC shows an EFC of $20K-$30K for that school, then the estimated need-based aid must be more than $25K.
The key question is which school, Hofstra or F&M, would be cheaper for the OP?
According to my NPC estimates
(assuming $100K income, $50K cash savings, $50K investments, $50K home equity, 1 kid, CT resident):
$23,696 F&M estimated net price (before self help is deducted)
$33,198 Hofstra estimated net price (before self help is deducted)
Hofstra’s “Estimated Need” in this scenario (total cost - EFC) is $42,993. Hofstra’s net price reflects the deduction of a $28K “Hofstra Merit Scholarship” and a $2K “Hofstra Need Based Award”. It appears that in this case, the “Hofstra Merit Scholarship” has offset/reduced the “need”. The combination of merit plus n-b aid is not sufficient to meet the demonstrated need. In running the Hofstra NPC, I specified that the student had a 4.0 GPA, ranked 1st of 300 students, and had perfect test scores. So I wouldn’t expect the OP’s kid to qualify for an even bigger merit award.
Someone above said that the student’s unweighted GPA is 3.0. Will colleges give that much financial aid based on that GPA? I agree that Susquehanna might be a good and generous choice. Worth looking into.
@citymama9 , I think merit would be linked to stats, but true FA would not. But the student will need to be admitted, so whether some of these schools are viable options is another question.
@gardenstategal I could be wrong, but I thought I heard that needing a lot of financial aid could hurt you in admissions if the school isn’t need blind and/or you don’t have something that they want (high stats, talent, etc). Again, I could be wrong.
Most colleges are need blind for admissions…but yes…those that are need aware do consider your ability to pay when they evaluate your application for admission to a greater or lesser degree.
@taverngirl, keep in mind that need based aid will decline over the years if you increase your hours and income.Merit can be worth more dollar for dollar if you expect your income to increase over the four years. My S started UR with equal amounts of need and merit based aid, but by the time he was a senior, all he received was merit (because I went back to work and our income increased substantially.)
@STF4717 have not heard good things about Hostra’s location; it was on our radar for a short time.
Is there an easy way to find out which schools might stack merit and financial? It seems unfair that that isn’t allowed. If you’re full ride you can get merit, but if you’re not you’re penalized and it counts as FA? To me that’s not merit. It’s FA with two different names because if there weren’t any merit, it would all be FA. Am I thinking about this incorrectly?
@tk21769 the estimates you used aren’t accurate; I’m hoping that doesn’t mean the EFCs I’m getting aren’t realistic. Also, we have a son going to college in 2 years.
@citymama9 still confused on the UW vs W for GPA. So the stats that colleges list as their median GPA is UW? If so, we are barking up the wrong tree with some of these schools. Many schools put rigor over GPA, but then don’t account for an A- in an AP class versus an A- in the lowest level class? It seems like it must come into play somewhere. I don’t know what her UW GPA is as the school doesn’t figure it, so I will have to sit down and do that myself. But if schools use UW when they report attending students’ GPAs, then we need to go back to the drawing board because we’ve been matching schools based on her weighted number.
@PNWedwonk if I went full time we’d be full pay; merit would be gravy but unnecessary. But that’s really interesting how they increased merit and didn’t penalize you by just removing the need based aid.
@taverngirl The reported gpa is tricky to navigate because many schools recalculate the gpa, so it is not clear what they are reporting. And many schools don’t report it at all. Because high school gpa scales vary wildly, the colleges need some way to standardize it, but each college may do it differently. Some schools may throw out the art grades, some may assign their own version of weighting based on class and overall school rigor.
That is necessary because while one high school may give a weight of one full point for an advanced class, other schools may only give .25 or none at all.
If there are schools that you are really interested in, you might be able to send an email to an admissions rep and ask them if they use UW or weighted gpa. That might help you decide whether to apply.
I agree with the above post – I’ve never heard of a small LAC that didn’t weigh grades, but they all have their own way of doing it. Some just look at core classes (i.e. not music or gym or health), and some only add points for APs but not honors, etc, etc. As Wisteria said above, they’re trying to standardize what they’re looking at.
Re the need-based vs merit financial aid, there are arguments both ways. If you only have merit, and tuition goes up, you bear the full load of the increase. On the other hand, if you only have need based and your income increased a bit and/or stock dividends came in, or a sibling is no longer in college, it can really affect your package, whereas merit is a guaranteed constant for 4 years.
You’re right that it doesn’t always seem “fair.” Both of my twins got into the same school that meets full-need, and one got more merit than the other… and the bottom line of their packages was the same. Aside from being pleased about the scholarship, there was a bit of “what’s the point?” But many schools DON’T meet full need, and merit really matters.
Oh – and if you want to get a great idea about how a particular college weighs things and treats your school system, look on Naviance, and compare the stats of people who got in to published stats from the common data set.
@Pheebers When you notice that on your school’s naviance the avg gpa for those accepted is higher than what’s on a school’s common data set what does that tell you about how colleges view your hs? I noticed that for some schools on our Naviance. Thanks.
@taverngirl , No, I WISH they had done that! S started with a total of something like $30K ($14K+$16K) in combined financial and merit aid and ended with just $16K in merit aid. With me working full time, as I ended up, we probably would have qualified for something like $10K in financial aid, so he came out ahead with just the merit, but merit counted towards need, so didn’t come out as well as he would have if they stacked.
Re merit being “gravy.” Gotta say, I’m really appreciating the merit my kids have been awarded. We are paying for college out of (my) current income and every dollar they earned through merit has been put to use for basics back home. It’s obviously always better to earn more (college and taxes don’t take ALL of it) but I am surprised at how not rich we feel given how much our income increased when I went back to work. Three.more.years…!
