<p>Ok, had a discussion with a family friend who is a chemistry professor at U of M.</p>
<p>He said not to worry about tuition when I am picking colleges because for me it won't be a big problem?</p>
<p>We are a middle-class family. Income is around $100,000 I'm guessing. Parents own a local business, so profit wavers occasionally, but that's like..my estimation XD</p>
<p>He said that the top private universities such as the Ivies and Amherst/Williams and such have lots of money (although it declined heavily this year) and pretty much give most of its students financial aid. I know theres stats on this, but that was his generalization. </p>
<p>For example, for Yale, in the Financial Aid section, it states that a family with an income of $60,000-$120,000, Parental Contribution is approximately 10%. Yale is $50,000 a year counting Room/Tuition. If my inference is correct, my family will only have to pay about $5,000 a year if I attended Yale (if I got accepted is more like it hah). Is it really that simple? I asked him that, and his reply was: "(pause)....what's wrong with you".</p>
<p>So, is financial aid for middle-class as simple as he stated? At least to Yale/other private institutions.</p>
<p>With your family’s income you will get very little aid except at a very small handful of schools, like Stanford, Harvard & Yale. You can probably count the schools that will give you generous aid on one hand, and its pretty tough to get into any of them.</p>
<p>You need to do your own research into financial aid and don’t listen to well-meaning “friends” – its not their money and it easy for them to blow hot air. You can start by running your family numbers in the calculators at [FinAid</a> | Calculators](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators) – that will give you a sense of what most colleges will expect your family to pay, at a minimum. </p>
<p>The web site at [url=<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData%5B/url”>http://www.collegedata.com]CollegeData[/url</a>] is pretty good at giving you a ballpark estimate of what you can expect at particular colleges.</p>
<p>Also remember they look at assets, not just income. The 10% of income is if assets are below a certain amount, otherwise a % of assets comes into the equation.</p>
<p>Also, for Yale and some other Universities that determine financial aid the same way, I believe the 10% you will be required to pay is 10% of your family’s income, not 10% of the cost of tuition/board.</p>
<p>Tell your friend he needs a FA lesson before giving any more advice. Since your parents own a business, they may well be excluded from the 10% rule at HYPS, even if you’re among the very few who actually get in.</p>
<p>The fact is that most families making $100K, especially those who own a home and/or business, will not get much if any aid at most schools.</p>
<p>Tell your friend that only 10% or less of the students who apply to these very generous schools actually get accepted. There are no guarantees of acceptance even for the MOST qualified applicants. In the 90% or so of applicants who do NOT get accepted, most are also well qualified to attend. SO…the first hurdle is to be accepted. The terrific financial aid will do you no good unless you get accepted, and at these schools there are no guarantees.</p>
<p>After gaining acceptance to these highly selective schools, the 10% applies to your families income, assets, etc. and tuition will be 10% of that amount.</p>
<p>I know their acceptance ratings are extremely low, but if I can’t even afford the college to begin with, why even bother applying? I can save that $75 =P Hahaha</p>
<p>And Financial Aid information comes after acceptance right? But I guess at my family’s income level, should cost be an important factor in my decision? </p>
<p>I’m also applying like 10+ private scholarships which hopefully I’ll get 1 or 2, but I am also enrolled in the Intel Science Search, which my mentor’s son got 1st/2nd place nationally 2 years in a row, which was like 15 years ago. Hopefully, I might get some prize $$ from that.</p>
<p>I know, I’m being ridiculously hopeful, but I’m hoping that cost will not stand in the way for me if I can accepted to a top tier school. That’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.</p>
<p>Cost should be the most important factor for anyone who can’t pay in full.</p>
<p>There are many good calculators to help families get a good idea of what they’ll be expected to pay. Check the different college web sites and there’s one on this site.</p>
<p>Just about every middle class/upper middle class family I know has initially been shocked by how much they were expected to pay.</p>
<p>Hmmm … while I wouldn’t tell someone that they WILL get great aid at that income level, I certainly would not say they WON’T. We pay less for my D at Vanderbilt than we would at UM in state. Her aid is need based, but I suspect it may be possible that there is some component of merit mixed in with the need (don’t know, just suspect). She also got some excellent merit/need packages at other top notch schools that made the bottom line (tuition/room/board/fees minus gift aid) less than UM. Then again, one school often praised for excellent aid would have cost much more than UM … even with a great merit scholarship.</p>
<p>My advice is to cast a wide net. Have some financial safeties & then look for schools known for great aid for students <em>like</em> your child.</p>
<p>Yea I guess it depends if I’m lucky or not?</p>
<p>Thanks, I will check out those calculators. My parents want me to attend a school in-state, preferably U of Michigan, which is a great college, but I was just thinking about the possibilities outside of my state. </p>
<p>As for private/random little scholarships, how many in general did you guys apply for/did your sons and daughters apply for? I know you can’t “rely” on being like a Coke Scholar or something, but have you guys ever gotten any nice outside scholarships?</p>
<p>Here’s how I will put it. You can expect to receive the best need based aid at the top schools. They will include loans and work-study, but the best you can expect from a college is from a top college. Now, you might get generous merit aid from lesser schools. Some schools are relatively cheap to begin with that even small merit aid coupled with decent need based aid will cover much of the costs. Besides, to be honest, 100k for a family is decently well off, so you should be able to go to college.</p>
<p>Most colleges that are providing need-based aid will deduct the value of of any outside scholarship you get from your overall award. They may allow you to use that money to replace loans or work-study before reducing your grant, but overall – for need-based aid – it doesn’t help all that much to get outside scholarships. If you have a merit award its a different story – so there’s no harm in applying.</p>
<p>And if you aren’t getting any need based aid other than loans, the outside scholarships aren’t going to reduce anything! Okay, they may reduce the subsidized portion of your Stafford loan, but you can still get the unsubsidized portion & keep that $5500 total.</p>
<p>Best have a good talk with your parents! How much do they think they can afford to pay? Then, make sure you have a financial AND admittance safety that you would be happy to attend in the mix of schools you apply to. As long as you have one good financial safety, you can cast your net widely in terms of other schools to apply to; think several that you might qualify for good merit aid, and several reaches that have good needbased financial aid packages. You really can’t know how much aid you will get until after you have been accepted and see the F A packages. Having a family business complicates the FA picture, and allows more discretion on the part of the college FA departments -so you just need to apply and see…</p>
<p>My D was in a similar situation, she only applied for a couple of “higher” probability scholarships such as NM and the Byrd. She might have applied to a couple more local scholarships, but they would have been non-renewable and for 1k or less; she decided to concentrate on institutional scholarships instead. The merit money counts against her WS allotment before grants, so it has been helpful in a minor way.</p>
<p>So outside scholarships pretty much do nothing for you if you receive financial/merit aid? Is that correct? Or is that too broad of an assumption?</p>
<p>So like, lets say for instance you are a Coke Scholar. You get $10,000 or something like that. If you are going to receive $20,000 in financial aid from lets say, Yale, then they will only give you $10,000? This is all extremely hypothetical. </p>
<p>If that’s the case, what’s the point of the outside scholarships? Are they for people who need $0 financial aid but just want some $$ to help pay for college?</p>
<p>Also for people who go to schools that do not meet full need (there are many) or to schools that meet need but include a bunch of loans (also many).</p>
<p>While in many cases it’s true, it is too broad a statement. For instance, for your example of Yale, outside scholarships replace the student effort (about 4-5k) and, depending on the scholarship, could also pay for student health plan or a computer; after that it would take away from grant aid:</p>
<p>And as scm notes, Y is one of the most generous schools as they do not include loans in their FA packages, while most schools do.</p>
<p>If you are receiving institutional merit aid and get outside scholarships, some schools will cut you a check for any extra amount above the COA.</p>
<p>Also, I know for schools like Carnegie Mellon - I believe that they allow you to use the first $7,000 scholarships as you see fit without reducing their aid to you and then additional scholarships would be split half and half. So that is not a bad deal.</p>
<p>From their website:</p>
<p>If you receive an annual total of $7,000 or less in outside scholarships (other than state or federal grants), Carnegie Mellon will NOT reduce your need-based Carnegie Mellon undergraduate grant/scholarship funds. If you receive more than $7,000 annually in outside scholarships (other than state or federal grants), your need-based Carnegie Mellon undergraduate grant/scholarship will be reduced by one-half the value that exceeds $7,000.</p>