I just read that D18’s #1 choice Belmont is increasing tuition 4.55% this year.
Have you seasoned vets found that your kids aid rises with inflation each year?
My D has a tuition scholarship that does increase with tuition increases, but mostly we have found that the state grant and subsidized loan amount increased with a decrease in FAFSA EFC and therefore higher need.
Of course not all schools will provide more need based aid if the EFC decreases.
This might depend upon whether you are talking about merit or need based aid. At least for one daughter who is in her fourth year, the merit aid that she got awarded with her original offer has stayed the same, the tuition has increased a bit. Summer classes have added a bit more expense (to cover additional requirements for a double major). We don’t have any experience with need based aid but I would expect that it is more likely to keep pace with inflation (assuming one’s ability to pay doesn’t change).
In general I think that it is a good idea to be a bit cautious with your initial predictions regarding what 4 years is going to cost, and to be very confident that you can afford four years before starting anywhere. Having a “non-catastrophic” plan for 5 years might not be a bad idea.
No.
My daughter’s merit aid was set as a freshmen for all 4 years. Tuition has increased by $2000 per year.
The maximum direct student loan amount hasn’t been increase in many years. It is $5500 for freshmen, then $6500/$7500/$7500. Pell grants have increase from about $5770 to $5920 in the last 4 years.
She does have a state grant that is based on the cost of tuition at the public schools, and that’s gone up $800, which means the public tuition has gone up.
My D’s need based aids are adjusted every year based on the CoA and EFC, while her primary scholarship from the school is fixed. However, the scholarship from the State government increased slightly over the years although it is a very small amount. In addition, my D also received additional departmental scholarships after freshmen year and the total amount increased every year. It is not directly related to the tuition increases (annual and upperclassmen) as we are actually paying less and less.
Nope grants and merit scholarships stay the same, subsidized loans go up each year regardless.
I made a spreadsheet forecasting the cost of 4 years of college with a 5% increase every year so we would be prepared to handle all 4 years. Luckily tuition hasn’t gone up that much each year, but we were prepared none the less.
Depends what you have, but generally no.
At my son’s college (Boston University 2003-2007)…no. There was no increase in his aid from year to year. Even when his sister became a college student, and his EFC went for full pay to $22,000…he only got an additional $250 a year.
DD’s college (Santa Clara University 2006-2010)…she had a small merit award that increased every year by the exact same %age as the tuition increases. It was a nice surprise. Her scholarship started at $6000…costs increased about 3% a year IIRC…so the additional amount wasn’t huge…but every penny counts!
FA will go up at a meets-full-need school. Because they, um, meet full need.
At other schools, YMMV.
I appreciate everyone’s response. This thread might help others doing their planning.
Moral of the story - A half tuition scholarship could on cover 1/3 of tuition by the time Little Johnny is a senior
If it said half tuition specifically, it may still be half.
Good Point @billcsho Prospective parents : Read the fine print
Aid will go up at schools that meet full need, and at schools where you receive half or full tuition scholarships ( rather than a specific amount of money).
But if a school meets need and uses CSS profile and considers home equity in the aid formula, then wouldn’t the aid go down as you pay down your mortgage and home equity increases? So an aid increase based on higher tuition might be offset by an aid reduction based on higher home equity.
Good point…I imagine every school is different.
For scholarships…the merit kind…usually the provisions of the scholarship are written IN the scholarship award. If you still have questions, call the college and ask.
For need based awards, if the school guarantees to meet full need for all, your award should increase if the cost of attendance rises AND your financial situation remains the same. BUT you apply for need based aid annually, so if you have an increase in income, your need based aid might go down.
As noted above, if a college says “full tuition scholarship” then if your kid meets the provisions for renewal, the scholarship should still be FULL tuition in subsequent years.
We have seen some schools move away from that wording in recent years.
For UMich and other schools that use CSS profile only in freshmen year, equity increase later on would not be factored in.
Yes…^… my daughter’s school meets full need and only asks for the profile the first year.
My son’s school meets full need but asks for the profile every year. Just curious - if the school does not ask for the profile every year, are subsequent year’s aid based on the FAFSA plus the info from year 1 profile or is it more a fixed aid package? For example, what if you have two kids in college year 1 but then in year 3 you drop to 1 kid in college. I would imagine even schools that use the profile just in year 1 would adjust the aid package.
D’s school had different types of scholarships - most were a fixed amount and remained fixed regardless of increases. Hers was a percentage, the $$ amount increased each year to stay at the same percentage of the new tuition amount, so increases were not as painful.
Some other factors to consider include:
- do housing costs increase (or if off campus sometimes decrease) in subsequent years? Some schools have better accommodations for upperclassmen, but they cost more
- will there possibly be increased lab or supplies costs once the student gets past the gen ed requirements and more deeply in to classes in their major?
- Are there charges if you go above a certain number of credit hours each semester?
It’s difficult to accurately forecast, but generally speaking nothing gets cheaper as time goes by :((