<p>zobroward said: “other then oberlin I love your list.”</p>
<p>what dont you like about oberlin?</p>
<p>OP, excuse me if you have already said this, but what does he want to study? The alignment of a college’s program strengths with an students desires, talents, and goals is a good way to decide on a correct college.</p>
<p>OP, Carleton, Williams, and Swarthmore offer no merit aid. If you need it, don’t apply there… Also, per a post above, while U of Chicago does offer merit aid, it is pretty slim except for the tippy top students. My D got $5,000 a year in merit in her offer last year there, but I really think your son would not be likely to get much more (if he gets in). So on a $60K/year pricetag, it probably isn’t going to work for you. </p>
<p>And the net price calculators will probably not be very accurate, given the financial situation you described. Although… usually when taking the assets of a business into account they will also take the liabilities into account, so if you have a “giant business loan”, colleges will take that into account. You might be able to get a more accurate read from the calculators by just treating the net business assets (assuming income is flowing thru already to your personal returns?) as your own assets and see how it looks. </p>
<p>I am also going go say (at the risk of annoying some other posters) that Knox probably isn’t the place for your kid. My D visited and didn’t get that “engaged” vibe that he is looking for. Students at Knox she met and went to class with were nice and enthusiastic – but the level of classroom discussion wasn’t up to what she was looking for. </p>
<p>He might like Dickinson… while it has a Greek presence, it is not dominant. My D1 attended there and found an engaged student body. She had a great experience, got good merit aid, graduated near the top of her class, had wonderful internship and study abroad experiences, and got a very good job when she was done. :)</p>
<p>My D got okay merit from Kenyon last year ($15K), and I think Oberlin does give merit aid. Doesn’t hurt for him to apply, since decent merit is possible there. Merit from Lawrence was great, and there are good opportunities for him to participate in music there even if he is not a music major. Note that at Oberlin this can be more difficult if he is not enrolled in the conservatory (at least that is what we were told when touring Oberlin, especially if he is an instrumental musician).</p>
<p>Thank you everyone again. We do need merit aid. The loan to buy our business doesn’t count as a business expense, so for income tax purposes (and it looks like from the financial aid calculators I have done) it is not an expense. </p>
<p>Schools that I’m calling “reaches,” he may have a chance of getting in, but with no merit aid, it would be too expensive anyway. (Swarthmore, Carleton, etc.) The only reason we’re considering Oberlin is my son loved it so much and there is at least some chance of merit aid.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Is it a liability? Because then it affects the net worth of the company, so still could help you. But as you have probably figured out, your income is weighted much more heavily in the need based FA calculations than your assets. So even if it is a liability that reduces the asset value of your company, a high income will still knock you out of the FA game. I would assume loan payment by the company would reduce the net income for the company, right? And… if you have some special circumstances with the loan, you can always write a letter of explanation to the colleges to let them know. I was surprised that my D2 got some need based aid from some of her schools last year; not a ton, but enough to make it worth applying. And we had a small business, divorced parents, AND a trust involved.</p>
<p>Thank you, Intparent. I will certainly try writing an explanation letter. It makes an enormous difference in what our real income versus our money-in-hands income is. It doubles it. (It’s counted as a personal loan.)</p>
<p>OP, yes, in addition to admissibility, the other aspect or ‘reach’ is affordability.</p>
<p>I wd think that a school is a reach if the applicants stats fall below one or more of the published stats of the previous yr’s accepted class profile,
OR if the school has a low admit rate
OR if the final price is unaffordable to the student and family.</p>
<p>We can attest that Lawrence has an engaged student body as what you described. my d went there and loved it and was looking for similar things as what you described.</p>
<p>Exactly. Those schools were somewhat of an academic reach and a definite financial reach.</p>
<p>Check out Whitman. You would definitely get some merit aid (up to $12k or so). And although there are frats, it is not too “Greek”. It is a great school with extremely engaged students and professors.</p>
<p>For anybody ever reading this in the future, my son decided on Oberlin. They were actually pretty generous with merit (Still expensive, though, for sure.We wrote a letter about the business loan, but that didn’t change anything.) He’s only been there a month, but so far he likes it. Thank you all for all your help! </p>
<p>If you do go visit Eckerd, be sure to see New College of Florida. Be sure to read up on it first though. Both of those schools have their own personalities, neither of them typical.</p>