<p>Okay, my D got the likely letter so now I have to get serious about how we will be paying for this thing. So here's the hypothetical (with easy round numbers, all per year):</p>
<p>If the cost is $15k tuition/room/board</p>
<p>And our EFC is $6k</p>
<p>And her burden is $4k (workstudy / loans)</p>
<p>Then the family total outlay is $10k
The need based scholarship (to meet 100%) is $5k
Which covers the total of $15k</p>
<p>If she receives a merit scholarship from UNC for $10k/yr, does that in effect cover her total costs? ($10k merit + $5k need = $15k total)?</p>
<p>It seems like that should do the trick. So that means if she gets invited to Scholarship Day then she'd need to be aiming for the Carolina Scholars or the Davie. It seemed to me that getting to go to Scholarship Day is the hard part (which you don't really have control over) but once she gets there it's not necessarily unattainable, especially if she's a confident and thoughtful speaker.</p>
<p>If she isn't invited to Scholarship Day then that's not the end of the story. Some family friends of ours had two kids go to UNC who were initially not offered any merit aid. They marched their selves into the office of Financial Aid/Scholarships and applied for a variety of different smaller scholarships. I don't know the exact amount it worked out to in the end, but they made their education very affordable.</p>
<p>Feels like it should work like that but it usually doesn't. Any merit you receive reduces your NEED first. Anything left after that goes to your EFC. Colleges all react differently as to which need is reduced first. Some 1st reduce need based loans, then work study, then grants. Others reduce grants 1st. </p>
<p>In your scenario, your need is 5000 + her 4000 loan and work study = 9000 total need.</p>
<p>First to go would be 4000 loan and work, remaining 6000 would wipe out the 5000 need based grant, Left over 1000 would wipe out 1000 of your EFC. Total family outlay would be 5000. </p>
<p>Go over to financial aid forum and check a few of the threads there where this is discussed.</p>