<p>To quote, put [<em>quote] before the text and [</em>/quote] after it. Remove the asterisks.</p>
<p>Anyone want their kids to be qualified for financial aid, then figure out the level to which you should reduce your assets and income for the year prior to your kid’s first year of college. You’ll see how easy it is to get accepted to a school that will give your child enough financial aid so that he can attend on with family at that financial level. One can always reduce financial status. It’s increasing it that is difficult and most often not doable. Most folks are trying to do this jus as a matter of course.</p>
<p>There are very few kid, and this is a statistical fact, that get financial aid for full college cost with no strings attached. </p>
<p>Also, your parents’ education level, your address, are not taken into account for financial aid. It is purely those magic numbers that appear at the end of the financial calculators that make a student eligible for financial aid. I know kids who live in one of the most wealthy areas in the country…yeah, near me, NYC suburbs that are expensive as a rule, with parents who are well educated and these kids due to just the way the family finances turned out, are PELL eligible. </p>
<p>Also, there are many merit opportunities for those kids at any family financial income/asset level. My kids did not qualify for financial aid. My son who is currently in college got a nice merit scholarship from his school, a NM award his freshman year, and an outside scholarship. This year he got a departmental monetary award. So the possibilities exist. He also missed the boat on many scholarships that he tried to get. Just the way it worked. His college costs ranged from actually making money going to college to paying full freight of nearly $60K a year, though in the end that would have been offset by the NM and outside award that did not amount to a whole lot dollar wise. His close friend is going to Harvard, with a tab of less than $10K a year. That family lives less than 3 miles from us, the kid went to the same schools, private, that my son did. But his family financial situation is poor. Income low enough to qualify for Harvard’s excellent financial aid that covers even some upper middle class families and is loan free.</p>
<p>^^Thank you. Now if I can remember that next time I want to quote.</p>
<p>There are some college guides that say that if you are considered advantaged, that you are actually scrutinized more closely. That may well be the case for some schools, usually the most selective ones, that are truly completely need blind, that do not get that many qualified kids who are needy. Their applicant pool tends to be full of kids with every advantage in terms of money and nurturing. </p>
<p>However, most selective schools are not need blind in that they may not get enough students that can pay full freight or close to it, and that most schools cannot meet 100% of all of their students needs. The list of those schools that are need blind and guarantee to meet 100% of need is very short. Even some of those schools have caveats in the forms of their definition of need and their definition of meeting need (being self help heavy in their awards). Except in a very small category of kids, it’s much better to be able to afford college and not be dependent on the way your financial needs are met by the colleges.</p>
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<p>I didn’t mean that. I was referring to admissions and assumptions about kids’ resources based on location and family background. My kid, for example, went to CTY for four years. Every year he receive at least a 50% scholarship. The rest of the money came out of our home equity. Someone looking at his four years at CTY would probably assume that we had the money to fund it out of pocket. He had instrument lessons. I didn’t go to the dentist for 10 years. We’ve never had cable. We didn’t have cell phones. Those are choices we made. I’m not complaining: it is simply a fact.</p>
<p>Those privileges are taken into account by admissions as the advantages a given child has gotten regardless of the family income level. But then if the family is truly financially challenged in terms of assets, that is also taken into consideration as that fact becomes apparent.</p>
<p>My point is that that fact does not become apparent until AFTER the kid is admitted. Or at least it didn’t in our case. My kid wasn’t writing an essay about how his family faced financial stress.</p>
<p>Instead, he was probably evaluated with an assumption of far greater financial resources than he actually had.</p>
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<p>I don’t think it’s bragging at all - at least I don’t do it as bragging. It is well known that the Ivies cost over $50,000 a year. There’s no way we’re making that kind of money. I either tell people I got a full ride or mention it when they ask how the hell I can afford Stanford.</p>
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<p>QuestBridge aid comes from the school, not the organization. So if someone gets a full ride via QuestBridge, is it merit or need-based? Or both? Is it okay to say it’s a scholarship then?</p>
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<p>Who’s to say the classmate is “less qualified?” It’s just as likely that the applicant has more promising characteristics than the full pay in question.</p>
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<p>I’m not surprised. It’s just like the assumption that because I am African American, I must be “less qualified.” And since I am both African American and low-income, I surely must be quite inferior!</p>
<p>As I stated earlier, there are merit awards within financial aid. Some of those awards are quite prestigious and are truly scholarships. Some are only awarded to those who have need, some take need into consideration. There aren’t that many scholarships out there that are totally on a need basis. PELL grant is the only one I know that is given purely on a need basis. There are also some that students can get if they are PELL qualified, as well. But most kids who get grants have demonstrated merit of some sort. </p>
<p>The only reason I don’t like hearing these things is that they can give parents who don’t know the college merit/aid situation the wrong idea. I’ve heard so much inaccurate and downright wrong info. I heard of ever so many kids who got “athletic” scholarships only to discover that the particular school doesn’t give them for that sport or at all. My oldest was a college level athlete, and until we were immersed in the situation, we were given a lot of erroneous information. It looked like athletes were going to have money and admission offers waiting for them on a silver platter. It was not the case at all.</p>
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<p>See, here’s the difference. I say - let 'em wonder. You’re under no obligation to explain to some nosy nellie at the PTA meeting or the school open house “how” you can afford to send 2 kids to college. I say let the question as to how you can afford it drop right to the floor and let it lie there, unanswered.</p>
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<p>I agree with Consolation. This is very mean-spirited. Upper middle class people spending your time resenting poor kids.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I agree with you that there is no obligation to tell people that your kids got financial aid. The discussion does occur, however. In my circles, most of us are stretching to afford college. We are able, but we feel it. And it is something that is on the top of our minds and what is discussed. It is a very relevant issue to many of us whether our child should go to College A for $x or College B for $y. And people are truly interested not for idle curiousity but for useful information’s sake whether a college “puts out” or not in terms of financial/merit aid. The information is sought for good reason. </p>
<p>A few years ago, I was very actively reading CC, mainly because one of the problems I was facing was that financially we could not pay full freight for many of the private colleges that were on the lists and minds of most of my son’s peers. I was put in the situation where I was seeking info on those schools that would give money to someone in my son’s situation. Parents sharing info here and in the community were most helpful. In my case, I have to agree, that it was important for me to know whether the school was giving nice sized merit awards or if they tended to be within financial aid for which my son did not qualify. Sometimes that info is difficult to attain from the schools themselves or from their websites and other materials. However, we all need to take any info with a grain of salt. Maybe a few shakes when it comes to parent talk as many do take “poetic” license with the fact or outright lie. Then you get the whole wrong impression. Any info obtained really needs to be crosschecked. And yes, when I have done that, I’ve caught some real whoppers. If I were a fisherman, I’d have some big ones mounted on my walls!</p>
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I have little sympathy for such a person.
The operative clause is, “without major debt.” If the student does not qualify for need-based aid, then the parents can assume some debt…or not. The stipulation on “no major debt” reflects on the parents, not on the student. </p>
<p>It’s really very simple: you either save or you borrow. If your savings are insufficient and you don’t get enough merit-based aid, you borrow…big time if it’s one of the pricier schools. I don’t see where there’s anything intrinsically unfair about any of it. </p>
<p>D got merit-based aid. D got need-based aid. D worked. D got her own loans. We paid out of current income. We took substantial loans, enough for to have bought a high-end luxury SUV. All the piles of money together covered the cost. If we’re happy and D’s happy, who thinks they’re entitled to beef? Parents of a full-pay student who declined to accept the cost? Please.</p>
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<p>Why, Pizzagirl? I can see responding to a total stranger that way, but what’s wrong with giving a straight answer to someone you know?</p>
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<p>I couldn’t agree more, cptofthehouse. That information is so important for many parents. When I’ve broken down how I can afford to send D2 to an expensive LAC, inquiring parents understand that my out-of-pocket for her first two years is the same had she chosen to go to flagship state U. Without explaining the break down they don’t get it. By explaining it, you can help a previously clueless parent understand that it might be possible for them to do the same.</p>
<p>I admit I didn’t read through all the posts but some “full need” colleges do give scholarships or call it that. Mount Holyoke and Yale gave my daughter something called a scholarship in addition to need-based aid, so although I say “grant” most of the time, scholarships do exist. At Yale the scholarship came after the FA package, with M.Holyoke, it was called 21st Century Scholarship.</p>
<p>Mean spirited and self righteous ? 
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<p>Good Grief.</p>
<p>This from Random House Dictionary;</p>
<p>Scholarship 1…2. a sum of money or other aid granted to a student, because of merit, need, etc., to pursue his or her studies 3…</p>
<p>Shall we sue Random House for causing undescribable pain caused by usage of the word scholarship as defined in their venerable dictionary? We will first demand they edit their dictionary and pay everyone’s tuition.</p>
<p>This is beyond absurd. You don’t decide important matters by hearsay. Some people on this board or elsewhere say their kids got 2400 on SAT studying just the night before. Do you instruct your kid the way to score well on SAT’s is not to study until the night before? Why do we single out “scholarship” to insist on extreme accuracy as narrowly defined by a complainer?</p>
<p>TheDad said: “Parents of a full-pay student who declined to accept the cost? Please.”</p>
<p>The assumption that a family that makes enough money to not get financial aid should have no problem coming up with $50,000 a year to pay for a private university is crazy. My husband and I have lived within our means for all 28 years of our marriage. We don’t drive expensive cars, our house is nice, but certainly not a mansion, our kids go to private school, but I work at the school and get a tuition break, we put money into a college account for both our kids monthly, we still pay for my husband’s med school loans monthly (a loan payment that would have bought a house, not just a nice SUV), we are saving for retirement, and we have helped and are still helping some family members who are struggling with the current economy. We are fortunate, but it is something we have worked towards for years, it hasn’t been an entitlement. Dolling out another $50,000 (or 100,000 when both kids are in college) a year is not an automatic yes. </p>
<p>Every family has their own private story, we need to celebrate every child’s college acceptance. If they are able to pay for college with merit or financial aid, good for them.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>I think Iglooo settled it. All financial aid that you don’t have to pay back is scholarship.</p>
<p>“See, here’s the difference. I say - let 'em wonder. You’re under no obligation to explain to some nosy nellie at the PTA meeting or the school open house “how” you can afford to send 2 kids to college. I say let the question as to how you can afford it drop right to the floor and let it lie there, unanswered.”</p>
<p>In many if not most such situations, the questioner is trying to get info that will help them know how to send their own kids to college. Consequently, if one isn’t comfortable revealing that one’s kids got need-based aid, one could provide general information about how students can afford to go to college.</p>