<p>Do liberal arts colleges tend to vary greatly in the amount of financial aid they give? For example I've been looking into three relatively similar Pennsylvania liberal arts colleges: Lafayette, Dickinson, and Gettysburg and found that the first two with financial aid reduces my costs to less then 10,000 dollars while for Gettysburg I've got results ranging from 15k to 23k. Or is it I'm making mistakes with the information I add into the calculators?</p>
<p>No, there is variability. One reason you will want to apply to several schools is to compare the packages.</p>
<p>Gettysburg used to guarantee to meet the needs of accepted students 100%. This is, of course, after family contribution and student loans. I am not sure if they still do and I am also not sure about Dickinson and Lafayette… but in my experience the numbers can vary among similar LAC’s. One in our house was all set to attend Ursinus with a nice scholarship when Muhlenberg stepped in and made an even better offer. It might be worth the application fees and additional essays to find out what a few of them are offering. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>My kids both only applied to LACs and the financial packages were all over the map, from schools offering nothing but direct loans to a package including a $22k scholarship and lots of other offers in between. Suffice it to say it’s definitely worthwhile to apply to several schools, especially real “fit” schools, and see what they offer your child.</p>