<p>This is my first post here, and I'm new to this college researching! My DS will be a senior next year in high school so I want to start narrowing some things down. I see a lot of good comments about Grinnell. On their page about scholarships, it looks like their best one is $15,000. If he were to qualify for that and also received the $2000 for NMF (he is in the running so far, waiting to hear more in September), it still is far, far below the tuition and pretty out of reach.</p>
<p>Is this as good as the scholarships there get or am I missing something? I don't want to rule it out yet in case their is more to the scholarship picture, but I can't seem to find it.</p>
<p>I see that their highest scholarship is highly competetive, as well, so there is no guarantee he'd even get one of those but his ACT was great and has a good GPA.</p>
<p>The merit scholarships at Grinnell do not preclude financial aid for need. The letter awarding my d's scholarship said exactly that--that even with the scholarship she was eligible for need based aid. And unlike some other schools, at Grinnell the National Merit award is added to the Grinnell scholarship, and so are any outside scholarships the student gets.</p>
<p>As far as I know, $15K per year is the largest merit scholarship they award. As Wellspring notes, you might also get need-based aid. My son got the $15K scholarship and they said they would increase it if tuition increased.</p>
<p>Grinnell’s tuition was way out of our price range, but my son’s financial aid package--a combination of scholarship, grant, loans and work-study—made it possible for him to attend. It wasn’t easy—we were left with the FAFSA-determined EFC, which can be a challenge—but it was worth it. From what I read on the Grinnell website, new students will have the benefit of the school’s $2,000 annual cap on need-based loans, a program that was (unfortunately) not in place when my son enrolled.</p>
<p>Need based aid can be generous depending on your EFC, as Grinnell meets 100% of demonstrated need. According to the website almost 90% of Grinnell students get aid of some kind.</p>
<p>D got the scholarship, work study and small need-based grant. It will be financially tight. We were told that the scholarship would adjust up to accommodate tuition increases. Grinnell did as well as the other LAC's (those on the same academic/admissions level) D was accepted to in terms of meeting the EFC. What we have noticed is that the more competitive the school is, the lower the scholarship caps (most schools like Grinnell seemed to cap at around 15K). This was just our experience and we may be unusual. Less competitive schools may offer more scholarship $$ to attract top performing students. D has a friend that elected to take a much larger scholarship at a solid, less well known LAC in order to pay less than she would have at Grinnell. She seems very happy with her choice. D chose Grinnell over having a car at our state flagship and knowing that we will not be able to fund her summer music festivals any more. She will have to come home and work unless she finds something free for the summer.</p>
<p>Don't forget - Grinnell has a new loan cap at $1,000 in loans each semester plus work study!</p>
<p>It certainly simplifies the financial aid package - only three main sections (per semester)</p>
<p>Grinnell Grant/inside and outside scholarships
$1,000 loan
$1,100 work-study (not sure about this amount)</p>
<p>I am not sure how outside scholarships affect parental contribution and Grinnell gift aid, but know that you will not get a large amount of loans no matter how much outside scholarship money you recieve.</p>