I want to knock my list of LACs for probables/financial safeties down to 2 or 3, but the following colleges, with the exception of the bottom 2, which offer no merit aid, all seem to have identical financial aid stats and similar learning environments. Which 2 of these would get me a great education at an affordable price?
-Clark University
-St. Lawrence University
-Union College
-Lehigh University
-Wheaton (MA)
-Hamilton
-Haverford
Forgot to add Brandeis, even though it’s not really an LAC
Lehigh should be grouped with the bottom two in terms of prestige whether its an LAC or not.
I would keep St. Lawrence and Clark.
Lehigh, Haverford, and Hamilton cannot be classified as probable or financial safety schools.
Your question is impossible to answer without more information about your financial circumstances and your qualifications.
Try plugging your family’s financial information into each school’s online net price calculator.
I don’t think it’s wise to pick a LAC as your financial safety unless 1) your family is very low-income and the LAC is need-blind + meets full need and you have run the net price calculator, 2) the school offers very large automatic merit scholarships that you definitely qualify for, or 3) the LAC is a public institution (e.g. W&M, St. Mary’s of Maryland) and you are in-state.
Family makes 80k, I have 2 brothers in college full time, and my parents won’t be giving me much for college. GPA is 3.8, I will (most likely) have 7 or 8 AP credits when I graduate. 2200 SAT and 33 ACT @tk21769 there is a lot on the financial forms I don’t know, but they all seem to be giving me the same amount… Surely there must be ones that are better/cheaper than others?
Are you a possible NMSF? Your scores a high enough for an automatic scholarship but you may have to broaden your search criteria.
Is the NPC generating an affordable COA? It sounds from your family’s information that you may need close to a full ride.
Do you have any Ivies, Colgate, Holy Cross or any other NESCAC schools on your list? Your flagship state school?
@txstella commended, not finalist/semifinalist though. COA is borderline affordable, hence why I’m asking to see if ones are better than others.
@2019Parent I’m nervous about applying to Ivies because if I don’t get it, that’s an application spot that could have been filled by a college that I could go to for real cheap. Holy Cross is more attractive to me than Colgate, and other than maybe Colby, the other NESCAC schools are either too selective or have worse financial aid. State school, UConn, has pretty awful aid it seems; seniors of around my caliber got less than 10k in grants
You should check section H2 of the Common Data Set for each of these schools. Section H2A gives info about the amount and numbers of merit awards. This will give you an idea if you can even get an award from the school. Then check the SAT/ACT info in section C to see where your stats fall. Maybe print off this info and then highlight the pertinent parts. You need to be toward the top of the applicant pool.
Look at St. Olaf.
When you ran the calculators did you have all the data from you parents tax returns?
I am very surprised Bowdoin. Bates and Middlebury aid was weak.
If I were you I would look again and also put Cornell on your list. You have good stats.
UCONN COA is about $26,000. Some of the scholarships are by nomination, (guidance counselor), and applications have a Nov. 1st or Dec. 1st deadline. You may be eligible for more than $10,000. That would bring the cost to $16,000. Are any of the LAC’s matching that COA?
Trinity Univ is a nice LAC with some good merit scholarships. You could qualify for 1/2 to full tuition.
Also if you are comfortable with a conservative vibe, Baylor Univ
Although, I am surprised that meet-needs schools are not affordable given your parents’ income and siblings in college. Did you go down the list of the schools that meet need and make a list of the ones that are of interest? There are only about 60.
If you’ve filled them out correctly, the NCPs should give you a good idea of the cost of attending Haverford or Hamilton.If your family’s financial situation is straightforward then the net price calculators will be reasonably accurate.
If you are missing financial information, you should get your parents involved in the process. You won’t see a significant variation in need-based aid among the top rated LACs unless your parents have some financial complication – such as owning their own business or irregular income from year to year.
@ECmotherx2 the LACs, except for Hamilton and Haverford, all seemed to be giving me 45k, so a COA of about 15k.
@momrath Hamilton and Haverford were actually giving me more than the others, even though they don’t give merit aid. I didn’t have all the forms though, so I’ll try again with them.
Thanks for the advice everyone
In general, the more selective colleges will tend to give better need-based aid, but worse merit aid (or none at all.)
Here is a list of colleges that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/09/15/colleges-and-universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
Notice that it contains many LACs, including Hamilton and Haverford. Notice that many of them are very selective (and ranked among the USNWR top ~40 National Liberal Arts Colleges). However, your stats appear to be competitive for most of those LACs.
A family earning $80K with two other kids in college might be eligible for ~$50K/year in n-b aid, or even more, from these schools. This is only a guess based on experience with the NPCs and on data such as this:
http://www.trincoll.edu/AboutTrinity/offices/InstitutionalResearchPlanning/Documents/financialAid.pdf
However, even among the so-called “full need” schools, offers might vary by thousands of dollars. So you need to run the NPCs with accurate, complete information if you want a fairly reliable estimate.
But let’s say you get $50K-$55K in need-based aid. This means you still might have to make up ~$10K - $15K with some combination of family contribution and “self help” (student loans or employment earnings). You can expect the EFC and self help amounts to increase once your brothers graduate.
The Kiplinger’s site can help you identify LACs that offer merit scholarships.
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts
A merit scholarship from one of the LACs in that table may or may not result in a net price that is lower than what you’d get from a top school that only offers need-based aid.
LACs that claim to cover 100% of demonstrated need, and also offer relatively generous merit aid, include Davidson, Washington & Lee, and the University of Richmond.
Typically, the schools give the greater of need based aid or merit, not both.
2019Parent, who said Bowdoin, Bates, and Middlebury aid was weak? I must have missed that.
@tk21769 thanks for the info