@gearmom
The only SAT number in Umass Lowell’s website is the 1540 that you need to be considered for the full ride.
For the half and full tuition you need to be in the 10% or the 5% of the applying pool.
Our guidance counselor told us that an SAT near 1400 and good grades puts you in the 10% and an SAT of 1450++ might put you in the 5%. For this year she was right. My kid and her friends all in the 1380-1450 range got the half tuition, no exception and all made honors. A lot of them also got the 4K research grand and the Abigail scholarship.
I know very few kids the last two years that got the full tuition however those were from a VERY small sample of high scorers that applied there. Again, those are estimates and not auto admit or automatic merit. I only brought it up as something worth considering. The number might work. @Skippy00
The most merit that I have seen from Umass Amherst is 2K and that it is rare. In the Umass Amherst forum here in CC there are a couple people that say they got more but that must be very unusual. Also admission to the honors college at Umass Amherst has a holistic element and is harder to predict.
Most students that choose where to apply or where to attend make some kind of compromise. Some times is the reputation, others the location and others the money. It is rather unusual that the best college in the best location will offer the best financial situation. It can happen but not that often. The point is to see which compromise works best for you and your child.
@DoinResearch thank you. You give me hope. Even though we are business owners we are in the low income bracket. Our business is small and just staying afloat in this economy. Feeling blessed we can at least pay the bills!
@skippy00 That describes us as well, we meet the basic needs. “Small business” definitions includes a wide range of sales…maybe I’m more of a micro business. :))
It would depend on which colleges @DoinResearch kid applied to. Maybe you should get that list. Some colleges will be tougher on small business owners than others.
@DoinResearch did you also own real estate in addition to your primary residence…because @Skippy00 does.
@Skippy00 Also, I’d suggest doing the FAFSA forecaster, to see the estimated family contribution. that may help with the decision to apply to FAFSA only schools or CCS Profile schools. What about Clark in Worcester?
@Skippy00 I have only my primary home, no other real estate. I’m sure there may be other variations as well, but I just wanted to offer my experience of being self employed and NPC being in the ballpark of the actual FA offers. NPC were the most important tool in creating a college list. I lost a lot of sleep of the creation of the college list, and our ability to fund college. I couldn’t afford a consultant. I spent may hours reading and learning. Still learning. Just keep reading, asking questions, and talking to colleges.
My older son didn’t like eng’g, so he changed to math. My younger son loved eng’g. Both were/are very strong students. So, you never know.
I wouldn’t choose AeroE since it’s the least marketable. Better to choose something like MechE and include some AeroE courses if that is the goal. All the AeroE jobs will also hire MechE…but not the reverse.
@thumper1 yes we do own the building where we conduct our business (technically the bank does) but we owe more than half of the worth of it. Would that make a difference?
@Skippy00 is the equity you have $50,000? $100,000? $500,000?
That you have paid half isn’t the issue…it’s how MUCH equity do you have in this property. It’s not even half of the mortgage…it’s the current value minus the mortgage remaining…so you could actually have equity that exceeds half the purchase price mortgage if your property has appreciated in value and/or you had a decent down payment on it.
No, they don’t require a recent appraisal. They colleges could ask for further documentation, however. $115K in equity property generally equates to +$6440 in EFC, assuming it is counted.
It’s good that you are familiarizing yourself with this process early on, but I think you need to keep in mind that no one is guaranteed need-based aid other than small federal PELL grants and federal loans. Everything else is discretionary by the college. The colleges that promise to meet “full need” (as they define it, not the FAFSA EFC) are all highly selective – and most other colleges don’t give enough financial aid to meet need of every student.
So you have to plan for college as if your son will no be getting any need-based aid at all - and that means starting first by finding financial safeties where he is sure to get admitted and that you definitely can afford. I’d recommend at least two of those, maybe 3 – so that you know in the end your son has choices.
After that you can build the rest of the college list. If your FAFSA EFC is too high, you can focus mostly on colleges where your son is likely to get merit aid based on his stats. If your FAFSA EFC is lower, then you can gamble on higly selective full-need colleges,knowing that aid may fall short – but you won’t know until your son gets in, and at many of those schools getting in is a long shot anyway. That is, the odds of getting decent aid at Harvard aren’t nearly as slim as the odds of getting into Harvard in the first place – so if your son ends up as contender for Ivy admissions and wants to reach for the stars – then there is no harm in having a couple of impossibly expensive colleges on the list, just as long as he very clearly understands your financial limitatations.
Years ago my son applied to a very pricey LAC that did not promise to meet full need of all students. He didn’t think he would end up going there – just like the particular program the LAC offered. Never visited and throughoug the entire college application process that $$$ LAC was the butt of contant jokes about how it was a college for spoiled rich kids and there was no way it would ever be affordable. And then my son got in, with a financial aid award that was far beyond what any other college offered. So off he went.
But the point is - if he hadn’t gotten into that college or they hadn’t offered good aid – it would have been dismissed without a second thought. He had other affordable options.
That is for FAFSA calculations @calmom . For Profile Schools, this second piece of real estate could be assessed any way the college chooses. It’s not their primary residence.
@Skippy00 you also have equity in your primary residence, right? That equity will be considered by some colleges that use the CSS Profile.
@thumper1 …can you explain to me how the equity will affect me? Do they think we can just sell our house and business to get the money to pay for college? Im sorry if I sound so niave but my husband has been taking care of the finances all these years and I am just finally now educating myself with it all. Thanks…