<p>I would like to get some help on each school's need-based loan policy for the income around 100K family. Below is what I have found so far (may not accurate though).</p>
<p>Stanford - no loans
Havard - no loans
Princeton - no loans
Yale - no loans
U of Chicago - $3,000 (for income less than $75,000), then how much is for 100K?
Washing U STL - $2000 (<$60,000), then how much is for 100K?
Dartmouth - $2,500 to $5,500 (<$100,000)
Columbia - no loans
Brown - $3,000
Vanderbilt - no loans
Pomona - no loans
Swarthmore - no loans
Northwestern - $5,000
Cornell - $3,000
U Penn - $5,000
Amherst - no loans
Williams - $5,000
Georgetown - $3,500
Johns Hopkins - $1,000 to $3,500
Duke - $5,000
Rice - $2,500
UC Berkeley - around $3,600 according to Middle Class Access Plan</p>
<p>I'm also wondering how much scholarship is given to a National Merit Finalist for the schools above:
U of Chicago - $2,000
Vanderbilt - $5,000
Johns Hopkins - ??
Northwestern - $2,000
Rice - $1,000
Pomona - ??
WashUSL - $2,000</p>
<p>I appreciate if you could update any wrong or missing information.</p>
<p>I can’t find anything about a cap on loans for Berkeley’s new MCAP (begins this coming academic year). It only talks about capping parent contribution at 15% of total income depending if the parent(s) have typical assets and gross income between $80k-$140k as well as a few other factors. The only mention of $3,600 I can find is a reference to the low end of the expected range of grants to be offered to families that qualify.</p>
<p>Unless I’m missing something, there is no loan cap for Berkeley so that is information that needs to be corrected on your list.</p>
<p>That information is useless unless you know the institution is a “full need” met school. If they are not, then most likely you will need loans to fill the gap between aid and total COA regardless of what amount of loans they include in the aid package. Although the information in the link below is two years old, it gives a better idea on what the “net cost of attendance” would be. Not sure if all your schools are on the list or not but check it out.</p>
<p>If you know the institutions’ policies today, you don’t necessarily know what they will be tomorrow. And even if those policies should not change in the future, the institutions that offer the best aid across the board, are also those institutions that are the most difficult to get into in the first place.</p>
<p>The only way to keep your sanity in all of this, is to get honest with yourself about just exactly how much your family can afford to pay out of pocket each year, how much your family can pay from savings, how much your family is willing to pay for with parent loans, and those same (earnings, savings, loans) for your kid. Then look around for places that won’t cost one cent more than that with a combination of federally determined (FAFSA) aid, guaranteed state aid, and guaranteed merit/talent-based aid. Once your kid has pinned down a couple of safeties, anything else is gravy.</p>
<p>Kodg044, I think from my list, only JHU and Berkeley are not “full need” met school. Isn’t it?</p>
<p>happymomof1, we have certain amount of EFC that we think we can pay, but we want to minimize a debt as much as possible since son wants to go to graduate school. We may get some merit-based aid from some schools in my list and then it will be our blessing.</p>
<p>AFAIK, the no loan qualifications don’t apply to the EFC for the family. That would be about $25-33K for $100K income. Harvard, the school generally considered to have the best FA, requires up to 10% of income above $65K. Most schools also expect a contribution from the student based on working over the summer.</p>
<p>if not, that Middle-class Access Plan doesn’t cover non-resident tuition. You’d still be on the hook for that. That’s about $23k per year that you’d have to pay above the 15%.</p>
<p>mom2collegkids, some schools take NMF scholarship as outside scholarship and take off loans, then work study obligation in equal amount. In this case, it would be a benefit I guess.</p>
<p>Yes, schools that put loans in their packages will do that. But for a school like Vandy that doesn’t, and they don’t give $5k of w-s, then grants would be reduced.</p>
<p>But, really, my point was that the scholarships wouldn’t get applied to EFC, which some families want. Personally, I would want my kid to still have the work-study and have the merit go to EFC, but I know that W-S is fed aid and must go towards “need” so that wouldn’t work. lol Without W-S, I’d want my kid to get a part-time job since that would be the “pocket money” and “pizza money” which many think kids should fund themselves. :)</p>
<p>It varies by school, but often outside scholarships go first towards loans and WS before grants.</p>
<p>Also, about your list, be aware that not all no loan schools are created equal. For your income level, HYPS are very likely to be much more generous than the other no loan schools. For instance, for D2 last year, COA for Y was about 8k and at Pomona it was about 30k (after a review based on better packages from peer schools).</p>
Any student who wants a job can get a job. The advantage of work study is usually that the jobs have convenient hours, they’re on campus, and they sometimes allow you to study.</p>
<p>Right now your son doesn’t want to stay in state, that is typical if HS students. However, you are the one likely to be paying. I suggest that you work out your budget, and then tell him what you will contribute. Ask that he choose a couple affordable back-ups that are either in state or guaranteed because of merit like Alabama. Then he can “cast a wide net” and see how the numbers work out.</p>
<p>That is essentally what we’ve done. The list is short, but Happykid likes them, and us fine with attending whichever works out to be affordable.</p>
<p>happymomof1, he is fine with staying in state, he just doesn’t like UC
BTW, that MCAP, if it is 15% of total income then it is similar amount (a little less) to the EFC I calculated. So then there’s not much benefit going to UCB in financial wise. </p>
<p>We have three safeties in our list including Alabama. Thanks!</p>
<p>From my too many years of seeing financial aid packages, I can tell you that there is often a wide spread even among the top schools that guarantee to meet full need and have a no loan policy. Even schools that belong to a groups that uses the same methods to establish need can come up with different numbers. So until you have the packages in hand, it’s really hard to say.</p>
<p>Colleges change policies all the time, sometimes they “grandfather” and sometimes not. Your best information is going to be from the individual college websites because that will be current. The best advice is to build from the bottom up. Find a couple schools you can afford with what you can determine: National Merit or automatic scholarships and unknown merit and once those are identified the rest. Remember most of the most generous colleges will determine your need and will factor more information than FAFSA so read the fine print carefully. 10% of a family’s income with typical assets…everyone thinks they are “typical” and if you are self-employed it is even MORE complex. So yes, do your research but build the college list form the bottom up.</p>
