<p>I see a lot of people suggesting that merit aid is better because it is usually guaranteed for 4 years (if you keep up GPA). But if you are in a situation where you qualify for need-based, isn't that better since it will stay the same if your income is the same but can increase as the tuition rises each year? And if your income goes up, you'll get less aid but you have more money to afford it. </p>
<p>Need based aid is only going to increase at schools,that guarantee to meet your full need. And even with that…the student contribution often increases each year. </p>
<p>If your school doesn’t guarantee to meet full need, there is NO guarantee that you will see increases in need based aid…at all…ever…for any reason.</p>
<p>The best merit aid is the kind that guarantees to pay full tuition. When you get that, your aid will increase to meet the new tuition costs if they increase. </p>
<p>First of all, there are very few schools that guarantee to meet full need. And even those schools tend to expect the student to take on more of the cost each year, so the aid tends to either go down, turn more into self help or not keep up with the increases. Also upper class expenses can often be higher due to more suite/apt style housing for upperclassmen as opposed to double dorm rooms. </p>
<p>For those schools that do not guarantee to meet need, any new development may not result in more need, but you had better believe that anything that is reason to reduce will result in a decrease. Also if you end up with an unexpected financial windfall, the school is highly likely to want a nice piece of the action. If you got a nice package due to a sibling in college at the same time as you are, believe me, when that student is out, your aid will go down. </p>
<p>Also with financial aid, the composition of your package is not guaranteed. The school can run out of SEOG or Perkins money and replace it with something like work study. </p>
<p>This is a school that meets full need and has not given any loans as part of the fin aid package and has guaranteed not to include loans in subsequent years. Yes, we will have two in college for first two years which I realize is affecting aid package, but after that we won’t be paying for two anymore either, which will free up money. Am I wrong in feeling completely safe with this offer?</p>
<p>You are as safe as it gets, though most all schools, including Harvard, do expect the ug to take an increasing amount of the cost each year. That is built into the definition of need. Most such schools have a student contribution specified and that is what goes up each year. </p>
<p>If two colleges were offering you the exact same amount in grants, one for merit, the other for need, the merit amount will stay the same even when that second student graduates. So you would still get that grant, in addition to the extra money you’ll have when that older kid’s college costs are no longer in the picture. Not so with fin aid. You’ll owe more. You can get some idea how much more by running some numbers through the school’s NPC. </p>
<p>As long as you understand all of this, and are prepared for it, yes, you are safe. The merit award is no sure thing either–there is a risk of losing the award if gpa is not maintained. So it’s not like that it’s guaranteed.</p>
<p>Getting any aid is good. Renewable merit aid is good that you know the exact amount every year, as long as you fulfill the requirement but may restrict you to change the field of study (for instance a scholarship only for engineering student). Even renewable, some scholarships may still have a term limit (4 or 5 years). Need based aid does not have these requirement or restriction but the amount may be changed from year to year (in a good way or bad).
Whether your need is met or not is another story as both merit aid and need based aid will see the same problem.</p>
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The Federal Financial Aid has the SAP requirement.</p>
<p>^ Yes, but at a far lower level that most students can meet easily and certainly don’t have the restriction in field of study.</p>