We are just beginning to learn about colleges, and I don’t want to give my kids bad advice. They (twins who will be juniors) are excellent students and excellent standardized test takers. They go to a prep school with top-notch college counseling. They are likely to get into selective colleges…but we have substantial need. We live in a state whose flagship is unaffordable to us. So, the discussion about merit aid at elite colleges made me wonder what the best strategy is for students with financial need who might also qualify for merit aid. Should I steer the kids away from schools that don’t “meet full need” (a phrase which seems to have quite a range of meanings)? Or can we hope that schools that might offer them merit aid will meet need with a combination of merit- and need-based aid? Should they look at less selective colleges in the hopes of getting full or near-full rides? My assumptions about their prospects are speculative, of course; I’m just going by their past performance. But I’m hoping there is a way to weed out colleges that couldn’t possibly be affordable so that my kids don’t waste their time on or get too interested in those.
Is their prep school a private school? That may limit ability to get need based aid.
Pitt, Alabama give great aid to top students.
Northeastern meets need with both merit and need based aid.
NMF status would help.
A good starting point is to figure out what you can afford for each kid, and where that money is going to come from. Don’t fool yourself by looking at only one year. It’s a four year project. Any other kids going to college after the twins?
Run the NPCs (Net Price Calculators) for the colleges you are curious about. You can then go to the college forum here at CC and ask if other parents found the calculator to be accurate.
We cannot afford our EFC. No way. We don’t have savings for college, and our income is (very recently) high enough that the calculators are telling us we need to pay more than we can afford. So, we were on the hunt for big merit aid based on PSAT or ACT scores plus GPA. Our D also tried for one competitive full tuition scholarship, but did not get it.
You’ll need to remember that if you run the NPCs today with prices for 2016-17, it will be two more years until your twins are entering school. You’ll have to make an allowance for inflation.
Once you know junior year test scores, and direction of interest, people here at CC can help you hunt down the money to meet your budget. You never know whether a school will offer the same scholarship parameters in upcoming years, so shop early with that in mind.
We were biting our nails waiting to see if U Kentucky was still going to offer the Patterson Scholarship for the D’s freshman year. It wasn’t confirmed until August of application season (beginning of her senior year).
The high school is indeed private, and it provides financial aid that makes it possible for my children to attend. Would that affect college aid? Actually, although I certainly appreciate your input, I am not really looking for specific names of colleges but for advice on the best strategy for finding colleges that are likely to be affordable for excellent students with substantial financial need.
@midwest67, as far as I can tell, our EFC is quite low and we could probably do it…but do colleges really meet need down to the EFC? When I ran a few NPCs for a test, they varied from less than the EFC to much, much more. Very confusing.
Some colleges do meet the EFC but hat would likely include a loan component up to the federal max. I am assuming that your income is from wages and salaries. If you are self employed or own property the EFC can be misleading.
After junior year with GPA and test scores it would be easier to advise you.
I think you really need to do both–apply for 100% need met with NO LOANS lottery type schools and less selective schools with guaranteed merit based on their stats. My son is going to UChicago for less than our state flagship and we have a reasonably high income by most standards. He was offered some nice merit aid from OOS schools that would have made them less than our state flagship too. Applying to as many as possible EA and rolling admission really helped us get an idea of finances early on because most gave us financial info within a few weeks (merit) and the need based aid they let us know with the acceptances.
My D16 went to a private HS on scholarship. No, it does not affect college aid. What affects college aid is primarily your household’s current income and number of kids in college.
Try running a Estimated Family Contribution calculator to see what your EFC is, based on your current financial picture. There are some things that skew the calculators. Business owner. Divorce. I forget what else. So if you have an unusual financial or family situation, ask questions.
You can sign in at College Board, and save your info. So when you are running the Net Price Calculators for different schools, you don’t have to re-enter it over and over. Just pick some schools, include some that meet 100% need, and run the calculators.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com
Some people start with the above site, when hunting for big merit aid.
Know your budget. What you think your need is may be very different from what the calculators determine your need to be. Our EFC is crazy high for us. We cannot afford it, not even a little bit.
Yes there are schools that come down to meet the EFC; some have loans as part of the package, and some do not. It will be easier to advise you once your twins have test scores. In the meantime I would make a list of schools that meet full need, and another list of schools that give substantial merit (Alabama, Pitt for example).
@twinsmama That’s right, schools don’t have to meet your need. And, some NPCs are more accurate than others. Are your twins hooked?
There can also be a student work contribution in addition to a federal direct loan.
Merit with need commonly replaces the student work and loan and unmet need first, but then reduces school financial aid grants before reducing family contribution.
@twinsmama I don’t want to assume you know this already, but are you aware of the PSAT test and National Merit Finalist connection? NMF status can translate into big dollars for college, and yet in the mainstream, you rarely hear anyone talking about prepping for the test.
Highly selective schools that have top financial aid can at least be on the list, as long as expectations are reasonable.
I would suggest looking at schools that meet 100% need (with or without small loans). These aren’t always top 10 type schools, but schools with a nice sized endowment. Your school counselor may be able to help you find a list of 100% need met schools. I would also start talking to your kids about the benefits of less selective schools that have wonderful merit scholarships. Kids who are high achievers often poo-poo the “lesser” schools. But, if they aren’t in search of prestige, they might find some nice scholarships. You’ll have 2 at a time and that will be difficult. Good luck.
Different schools handle “stacking” merit and need differently, and it is often not obvious from their websites. In general, you can’t count in getting need based aid and just knocking any merit aid awarded off your net price. Some schools will give allow some merit to offset loans and/or the student contribution, but not all. Some just reduce your need based aid by the merit amount. Some just don’t seem to give merit to students getting a lot of need based aid. You can only find out by sleuthing; college forums out here can help, scour their websites, or call the colleges.
I would be asking a few questions:
- How do your kids stack up stats wise for meets need schools?
- What do the NPCs for those schools show? Can you afford them?
- Do they have the stats needed for guaranteed merit that make some schools affordable (definitely look at Alabama)? You need a safety plan for both of them that you KNOW you can afford.
One problem you may have us that the GC at your kid’s school may not pay much attention to the finances. They often don’t… and they may suggest schools that are financially untenable for your family. GCs don’t always know a lot about financial aid – especially at expensive college prep schools. 
I’d focus on colleges with robust need based FA programs. There are plenty of them. With a “low enough” EFC, almost all colleges that promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need should fund you fully. To me, if you are qualified for a full ride based on merit, chances are you can get in a more selective school with substantial FA. And getting funded in the latter is more predictable in your case I think.
Colleges that do not meet full need for all students but offer substantial merit money to some students may very well provide generous financial aid packages, which meet need or go beyond, to students at the top of the applicant pools. When a college’s need-based-aid averages are reported as a percentage (for example, X college meets 85% of need) – that does not mean that the college comes up short for all students applying for aid.
Rather, those colleges generally leverage their aid; they meet full need for the students they perceive as most desirable, and might come up very, very short for students who are on the weaker end of their pool of admitted students. So you might see, hypothetically, 1/3 of admitted students getting full need package, and the other 2/3 getting packages that are very modest or have nothing but loans. The math works out to an average… but that average works in favor of many students.
So the answer to your question is that you should NOT deter your kids from applying to colleges that don’t meet full need, but choose those colleges wisely. They should be colleges which have reasons to entice your kids to attend. Those could be reasons other than academics – but the point is to do the research. The college that fits that definition is likely to be a match or safety, not a reach.
Thanks so much for all the responses!! I will have more time to digest them later in the day.
@TomSrOfBoston Why would it matter if a kiddo goes to a prep,school in terms of getting college need based aid.
The OP says the family has significant financial need. THAT is what will be used to determine need based aid in college, not the high school the kiddo attended.
@twinsmama read the links in this thread. You will need to check with colleges to be sure these awards still are in existence.
@thumper1 In the initial post it was not mentioned that they are on scholarship at the private school.