<p>I was accepted to Beloit and I was awarded the "Eaton" sholarship which grants $40,000 over the course of 4 years. Tuition is $36,444 not including room and board. This year, my family will make more than $50,000.....not sure how much more because my parents have been working more, because 50k is what they normally make. I know it's hard to answer, but is the merit aid even helping? Is the merit aid worth it, I mean? For the next scholarship bracket, which grants up to 80k, my test scores were not high enough.</p>
<p>Beloit is very generous with FA, I’m sure you will get more award than your scholarship. We pay out half of what we pay for S to attend state flagship as we pay for D to attend Beloit.</p>
<p>It is hard to wait to make the final decision but as FA is an issue make sure you have the financial awards for all the colleges you are accepted to before you make up your mind about whether you and your family can afford something. You will not know until you see these award letters about how much the colleges will give you in additional grants and scholarships and how much they expect you to take out in loans.</p>
<p>Do make sure the check what gpa will be needed to maintain a scholarship at a college when you are making your final decision.<br>
btw - congratulations on the scholarship!</p>
<p>Thanks! Did your D get a really generous scholarship then?</p>
<p>D is in a similar situation, and we have done several things. She has 2 EA offers so far, 1 with initial merit of 17k per year and one with 25k per year. She has 2 more apps due 1/15, and will apply to 2 state schools that give some merit aid. The total sticker price COA at all of these schools (except state) is around 46k-49k give or take travel, etc. Our income is variable, but it ranges between 60 -75k. The difficulty is, the cost of getting by in our area is about 65k, so we’re fluctuating around that break even number and it’s hard to know what will be possible. We don’t have a cushion of disposable income above normal bills and expenses.
When the first award came in, we sat down with the award vs tuition numbers, and financial aid policies of all list schools. We had that same discussion that you’re wondering about - is it enough? Will they fill enough of the gap with grant aid? What does she need to do with other apps to land in the highest scholarship category? Also, what does she need to do with her other apps and currently accepted schools to land in the better grant mix category? With an acceptance in hand, that could mean showing love with a more comprehensive admitted student visit if you haven’t done one. As Beloit might be a safety for some, and they will certainly lose some students who were initialy offered aid, if you really want to go there, they might be able to sweeten the pot later.</p>
<p>Many posters on cc have said “sit down with your parent and find out a hard number on what they’re willing to pay.” I understand that your situation is much like ours where we’ve had enough fluctuation that we have ballpark numbers but no hard number. When we get the final awards back it could be obviously doable, hard but possible, maybe negotiable, or totally impossible. I have let D know that. The problem is I’ll know it when I see it, but it’s tough to give a hard number now.</p>
<p>The other thing that we’re doing is trying to make sure that we are prepared to make a quick, sound decision on the value proposition at each of the schools when final packages do come. There isn’t much turnaroud time to decide once final offers arrive. That’s also where an early, very comprehensive accepted student visit can be handy. D is spending 2 days at one of her schools with multiple class visits, meeting with professor, overnight, etc. She has done that extended visit at one of the 1/15 schools as well. She will have much more information to compare cost vs value when the time comes. </p>
<p>Finally, as many others have said, do your best to have options, because each school will configure things a bit differently.</p>
<p>Hi rbouwens - yes, she did. The scholarship alone would not have made it easy to attend, though, - we have 2 in at the same time so the grant, additional scholarship and work study made Beloit’s the best of her many offers.
The advice from saintfan is excellent - you must continue to gather information, visit if you can, if you can’t do as much on-line research as you can - ask questions on cc, etc., really scrutinize the award letters when they all come in. If FA is an issue then it is not as simple a decision as ‘okay I’ll buy that one’ - you have to do some serious comparison shopping. Best of luck - we think Beloit is absolutely fantastic but there are lots of great schools out there!</p>
<p>What do you mean by “scrutinizing” the award letters?</p>
<p>My mom seems to think that if I play “hard to get” or something like that, then they might give me more $ as opposed to saying “YES, I want to go here!” Is this true?</p>
<p>Does negotiating/bargaining work?</p>
<p>I have a metting with FA/Admissions this week</p>
<p>Playing hard to get won’t net you anything but some colleges will try to match offers from PEER institutions. I don’t know if Beloit is one that does.</p>
<p>what is a peer institution? What would be some? I’m fairly certain they do because I heard an admissions officer talking about it.</p>
<p>For Beloit, peer institutions would be Lawrence, Kenyon, Dennison (?). And bargaining for need-based aid can be difficult and not particularly productive, but negotiation re: merit money (increase the required gpa in exchange for larger award or vice versa) is not uncommon.</p>
<p>In order to get more aid I’d have to increase my ACT score by 5 points.</p>
<p>By scrutinizing, I mean scrutinizing.
College #! costs 28k total - the award letter says 28k will be covered but when you look at it you see: $1K in subsidized loans, 2k in unsubsidized, and $25K in Parent Plus loan.
College #2 costs 45k total - the award 30K - yikes - a 15k gap! But when you look closer you see: 15k in scholarship, 10k in grant, 3k in stafford loans and 2k in work study.
College #1 will cost 25K above and beyond the stafford loans but the second college, though not appearing to cover the gap, will be 15K difference.</p>
<p>This is super simplified - there are some amazing regulars on cc who can help much better than I can but some things to consider when ‘scrutinizing’ the award are factor in increase in costs each year mostly for private (our state public locks in the year you enter) - if you get work study - how hard is it to actually land a job? Is the work study included in the award or is it separate - if you use it for personal expenses will this increase the amount owed to the school?</p>
<p>In my experience no school will offer more $ if you play hard to get - perhaps this is a myth unless you have a major hook? You must provide documentation if there is a change in your financial status - Beloit gives such a fair upfront offer that I just don’t know what basis your negotiation would be on other than that.</p>
<p>I like this award letter comparison tool from FinAid.org: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid) You can compare three institutions side-by-side at one time.</p>