<p>My son was accepted early action. But, we have not heard about financial aid yet. In a phone call the college said they would be sending out the letters about this week. Has anyone else heard?</p>
<p>No but we got an app for the Bronner Scholarship which has a march 15 deadline. It says if accepted it would be included in the financial aid pkg so I don’t see how they can offer packages until they know who has applied for that.</p>
<p>That sounds logical. Thanks.</p>
<p>They sent my D a letter awarding her a Presidential Scholarship, but the rest of the aid letter will be forthcoming. We were able to see the scholarship award online before the letter actually arrived; perhaps the regular aid packages will work the same way?</p>
<p>i contacted the admissions folks with regard to visiting campus and explained that i couldn’t afford the investment in a visit if we didn’t have the financial info in advance… if the school is out of reach, what’s the point in visiting so they forwarded my inquiry to the FA person in charge of our file who said she’d send my daughter an email with the info needed by the end of next week.</p>
<p>So I guess that means the rest of us won’t be hearing any earlier than that. I have already gotten two different stories from them. One person told us that the financial aid information was sent with the acceptance and if we didn’t get anything then, we weren’t getting any. Another told us we would hear the first week of March. Both were wrong. Hopefully, your person is better informed.</p>
<p>My S was accepted last year, but decided to take a gap year and defer enrollment until August 2011.</p>
<p>Looking back at our files, I see that his acceptance letter was dated January 27, 2010. We submitted the FAFSA on February 14, 2010, and the award was available online on March 8, 2010. The official financial aid letter was dated April 9, 2010. We were very happy with the award, which included a generous grant.</p>
<p>Because S chose to defer enrollment, we needed to re-submit FAFSA this year. We did that on February 28. On March 11, we received an email saying that financial aid information was available online, on The Heart portal. </p>
<p>I was worried that the financial aid award might not be as generous this year, because I assume that Earlham is experiencing the same financial stresses as other colleges, in this economy. In fact, the award was more generous. So, we are happy campers!</p>
<p>Wow - I’m shocked that you heard so quickly. Congrats. Does the award include merit aid? or need based aid or both?</p>
<p>@ rachelfran: It was all need-based. The award consisted of the following, in descending order of magnitude of the dollar amount: Earlham College Grant, Federal Direct Stafford Loan, Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan, and Federal College Work-Study. According to [Earlham’s</a> website](<a href=“http://www.earlham.edu/financial-aid/your-aid-award/grants]Earlham’s”>http://www.earlham.edu/financial-aid/your-aid-award/grants), “The Earlham College Grant is a need-based grant made possible by the generosity of Earlham’s friends and alumni.” A [grant</a> is defined as](<a href=“http://www.earlham.edu/financial-aid/glossary]grant”>http://www.earlham.edu/financial-aid/glossary) “[t]ypically need-based funding that you don’t have to pay back; grants can come from a variety of sources.”</p>
<p>The grant alone was only $770 less than the total aid package that we could have hoped for based on our FAFSA EFC. So if your experience is similar to ours and you are content with your FAFSA EFC, you should be happy with your Earlham need-based award.</p>
<p>I should mention that I think a significant factor in the size of our EFC, which we consider to be very reasonable, is the fact that we have another child in college.</p>
<p>thanks for your message – we just got our letter this morning which has a total disparity of almost 10K each year between the award letter (which includes 7K in loans, by the way) and the total cost of attendance. I don’t know that taking on 17K in debt each year is going to be workable for us. (this includes $2320 per year in work study which I think is not reliable, either) SodiumFree - was yours similar? Thanks!</p>
<p>Meant to add: I seem to recall reading that Earlham made a decision sometime in the last few years to move more toward need-based aid and to de-emphasize merit awards. I will try to find the link, which I think I first found on these boards. </p>
<p>. . . .</p>
<p>Okay, back from a quick google search. I’m not at all sure this is what I read before, but I did find [this</a> letter](<a href=“Opinion | We Made It Through the Financial Aid Process! - The New York Times”>Opinion | We Made It Through the Financial Aid Process! - The New York Times) that Doug Bennett wrote to the New York Times Editor two years ago, in which he advocates simplifying the FAFSA and for “more need-based aid and less merit aid.” (It is the second letter in the link.)</p>
<p>I also note that our S received financial aid packages last year from two other colleges that offered him admission. For both of those colleges, the largest part of the award by far was a merit-based scholarship. The need-based portion of both awards was small, and the total award (merit- and need-based) from each of those schools was less than the need-based-only Earlham award.</p>
<p>rachelfran, I did not see your last post before the one I just posted. I will check the numbers in a minute.</p>
<p>Okay, we got $5500 in loans and $1750 in work study. I know that they give a total cost of attendance that includes things like books and travel, but because I consider those amounts so variable, and also somewhat in our control, I only really look at their tuition and room and board costs. Looking at those costs, the gap for us is almost $15K a year. Although it is a painful stretch, I think we can manage that, between current income and savings.</p>
<p>I just want to emphasize, though, that we are in better shape than I would have predicted based on the EFC on our FAFSA SAR.</p>
<p>Our EFC was extremely low – I think about $1800 – so the disparity between the COA and the award is troubling. I’ve sent them an email thanking them and asking if there are any other options…</p>
<p>rachelfran, not sure if this advice will be of much help – or be anything you are not already aware of – but you might want to focus more on the gap between the total award and the costs of tuition, room and board, and required fees. The other costs (books, travel, personal expenses) are just estimates, and you might be able to save a lot there, especially if you do not live too far away. </p>
<p>I’m thinking that the difference between the financial aid award and the tuition, room & board, and required fees would be about $3000 more than your EFC. Might there be other ways to come up with that amount – for example, your D’s summer earnings and a small Parent Plus loan?</p>
<p>this is true – however, the award includes 7000 a year in loans - that’s 28K by graduation… not to mention - i don’t know if she’ll really be able to come up with $2320 in work study $$. I don’t know … it’s a lot to consider. On top of all this - I think I’d want her to go to Earlham more than she wants to so there’s that.</p>
<p>rachelfran, what’s the description/breakdown of the loans? The federal Stafford loans should be no more than $5500; what is the other $1500?</p>
<p>As for the work study, your D does not need to come up with $2320; in fact, work study is good news, IMO. This is money that she can earn at an on-campus job over the course of the school year. It’s money she won’t have to borrow and you won’t have to pay. Once she gets on campus, she’d look at all the work study job listings, pick one or more that look appealing, and apply. Work study jobs are great for students; they are typically very easy jobs, the scheduling is flexible, and they’re on-campus. There’s no pounding the pavement for work, no need to slave over a resume, and the bosses understand about Finals week.</p>
<p>As SodiumFree says, the COA includes more than tuition. The college will only bill you for tuition and for room and board (and a few other minor items), and will then apply grants, scholarships, and federal loans. This will leave a bottom line due to the college. The other things that make up COA – books, transportation, personal expenses – are obviously items which you pay for directly. They don’t flow through the college’s accounting office at all. But these are the items which might be quite a bit less than the COA estimates, so there might be some savings there for you.</p>
<p>the other 1500 is a federal perkins loan… work study is great but the tuition, room, board & fees comes to 45854; if the work study $$ goes towards personal, books & transportation costs – that puts my award package at $31550 in grants, 7k in loans and $7300 unaccounted for… so even if my husband and I can somehow come up with $7300 --(our EFC was $1800), that puts my daughter at $28K in debt, after graduating from a liberal arts college. I don’t think that’s in the cards for us as much as I’d love for her to attend a small liberal arts school like Earlham.</p>
<p>What is your daughter planning on majoring in? If Earlham was her best fit, it would be worth it. It sounds like a hefty price at the moment, but you really can’t quantify the feeling of being at your “fit”, which basically means you can’t quantify happiness. If Earlham was her best fit, it would be best she go there as she would definitely thrive at the college. She could consider becoming a residential assistant later on to subsidy the costs of living and she should be fine.</p>
<p>Well, I guess a decision has been made by now, but alas I tried. :)</p>