Our Daughter submitted her applications yesterday. She’s looking at small, private liberal arts schools and has targeted many schools that offer merit based aid (Kenyon, Grinnell, Dickinson, etc). Almost all of these schools require a CSS Profile to be completed as well.
Do schools look at the CSS Profile and calculate a high EFC and thus are less likely to offer merit based aid thinking we can afford to pay for near full amount or do they still offer substantial merit aid to people who they feel might otherwise be able to afford it anyhow? In reality, how much of an impact does ability to pay get considered when awarding merit aid?
I figure we fall in the category where colleges think (based on the NPCs that I completed) that we are expected to pay near the full amount, yet $62K/year would absolutely impact our standard of living.
@lexluthor5 We are in a similar position with DD (high EFC, looking for merit). I am curious how you found out about the need to submit the CSS Profile for merit aid consideration? For example, my DD is also interested in Dickinson and I looked at their scholarship page. It doesn’t mention anything about the need to submit FAFSA or CSS Profile. Did you contact each college to ask?
I could potentially be wrong on that, but we submitted the CSS Profiles anyhow to all schools that required it for financial aid. Suppose there’s an outside change for some small amount of need based aid as well, so didn’t want to give that up entirely.
This thread seemed to indicate that CSS Profile is at least required at some schools in order to receive merit aid
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1804309-merit-scholarships-and-fafsa-and-css-profile-p1.html
Very curious on further input on my original question.
No, they don’t. Merit aid is just that - a lure to get high performing students to attend a college. Some colleges have a need component for aid. I know Kenyon does not from my own D’s app results. I don’t personally know if Grinnell or Dickinson use need as part of merit.
As it would for most families, but financial aid isn’t supposed to make a college education an impact-free financial event.
As far as your question goes, the answer is that merit aid is supposed to be just that… not related at all to ability to pay. If a school offers merit aid, they want the student to enroll and thereby improve the school’s stats, and they are willing to pay to make it happen.
I don’t think any of those schools would look at it that way. Even rich people want a deal. Assuming your kids has high stats for their school, the point of merit is to give her a reason to come to their school instead of someplace higher ranked where she might be accepted.
Historically Dickinson & Kenyon have not required FAFSA or CSS Profile when considering whether to offer merit aid (but I think I remember that Grinnell did). Could have changed in the last couple of years, though.
Figured that was the case. She’s put together a great application and we targeted schools where she had a good shot at merit aid, so I think we’ll wind up seeing that some of these schools will compete to get her. So seems like it made sense to submit the CSS Profiles in case somehow they want to give us need based aid or if they do require it for Merit based.
It depends on the school and what kind of merit aid they have. Many schools provide also merit aids with a need component in addition to pure merit based scholarships.
Will your child be near the top of the applicant pool for those schools she wants to earn merit scholarships from?
So mid 1400s+ on SAT m+cr or 33+ ACT, and top 5% of her class…
M+CR 1500, W 800. School doesn’t rank but 98 weighted GPA. Plenty of APs/Honors, multiple club leadership positions, multiple national science/research awards, summer anthropology research project at local university (professor is writing external rec), think she wrote a great essay, recs will be strong. Interviewed at all her top choices, went to any events any of these had near us, visited the top choices except grinnell and mac.
I think the CSS Profile comes into play mostly when a student earns merit and is also eligible for financial aid. We had a high EFC and did not qualify for any financial aid anywhere. My daughter did get a number of merit offers. The only reason we did the CSS Profile and FAFSA was so my daughter would have the unsubsidized loan as an option.
well, with a 1500 M+CR, she should get some merit from Grinnell and some others, but do you have an amount that you need? What do you want your net price to be?
If a school gives $15k per year, and your net cost is $45k, is that ok?
What is your goal net cost?
You mention impact to your way of living, and that’s a legit concern. One thing that gets some families into trouble is that they think they can pinch pennies and stretch the budget for 48 straight months and they sign up for the monthly tuition payment plan. But, as we all know, families tend to have “unexpected expenses” pop-up every few months (car repair, dental expense, home repair, appliance replacement), and suddenly those months’ tuition payments go “poof”.
Hoping for something north of $20k. If we had to make $15k work, we probably would do that over the state school option, but depends which school it is.
Some schools want CSS profile anyway disregarding you need aid or not. On financial aid stat, schools would report what percentage of students with or without needs received merit aids, for instance.