<p>Does anyone know from experience what a family's income has to look like to qualify for need based financial aid--particularly grants? I was browsing the financial aid section of Wellesley's website and it showed that for the class of 2014 16% of their grant recipients had parent income of $150,000 and up, and that that category of recipients received an average award of $17,608 (with a range of $0 - $41,920). I was a little surprised to see that one could receive "need based" grants at income of $150,000 and up. </p>
<p>Has anyone in such an income bracket received significant "need based" grants for your child at schools that don't give "merit" based grants?</p>
<p>Many schools use the CSS Profile which can be adapted to take a number of variables into consideration that aren’t included in the FAFSA. If you are interested in any particular school, it is OK to contact the financial aid office (in the off season, not right now for example) and have a little chat about how they determine need.</p>
<p>If you ask this question in the Financial Aid Forum, someone there may have specific insight into Wellesley’s financial aid process.</p>
<p>Need-based aid packages tend to have 3 component parts: loans (usually subsidized), work-study and grants. Most packages START with loans, if the student’s need - - as calculated apply the school’s indiv institutional method based on info provided in the CSS - - is greater than the standard loan amount ($4K? and increasing slightly every year), s/he will receive work-study (approx $3K) and IF the school guarnatees to meet full need, any need beyond the loan/work-study amount is awarded as a grant. If the school “gaps,” the grant award will not be enought to meet the calculated need and the student (or his/her family) will have to somehow come up with difference (the “gap”) - - most likely more loans w/ less favorable terms than offered as part of the finaid package.</p>
<p>A handful of top schools (Harvard for one) have “no loan” policies, so the award is work-study and grants only. A few other schools cap loans at around $15k (aggregate for all 4 years).</p>
<p>One thing that could skew the data about high income students and need based financial aid is Stafford loans. When I attended a private college, there were wealthy students who took out federal loans even though they didn’t need them. They invested the relatively low interest loan money and made a small profit, and then planned to pay them back to establish credit in their own names.</p>
<p>Foolishpleasure…the Stafford loans for freshmen are $5500, soph $6500, junior $7500 and senior $7500.</p>
<p>Some schools have very generous institutional need based financial aid awards. Some don’t. The most generous schools are also amongst the most competitive for admissions. These schools all use the FAFSA AND another form…either the Profile or a school financial aid application form. </p>
<p>The FAFSA really is used primarily for the awarding of federally funded need based aid, and in some states for state grants for lower income families as well. The federal aid is comprised of the Pell Grant, SEOG (at some schools), Stafford loans, work study, and sometimes Perkins loans. Really for these very expensive schools (the ones with the generous need are also amongst the most costly) the federal funding is a drop in the bucket.</p>
<p>What students who have significant need really want is institutional aid. The FAFSA EFC has little bearing on the awarding of institutional monies at the schools that use the Profile or school forms in addition to the FAFSA. These additional application forms look more closely at assets, and income than the FAFSA does. In addition, these schools consider certain assets (in varying amounts) such as equity in your primary residence which is not mentioned on the FAFSA at all. These schools can use your financial information ANY WAY THEY CHOOSE to compute a family contribution to their school and to determine your need based aid.</p>
<p>NOW…having said all of that…some of these very generous schools have no loan policies for low income students. Some award need based aid to families with Adjusted Gross Incomes up to $150,000 with typical assets (whatever that means). Some have students pay 10% of the AGI to attend their schools so, yes, someone could see a generous need based grant for a VERY generous school.</p>
<p>However the first hurdle is to get accepted as the MOST generous schools deny admission to 90% or so of applicants.</p>
<p>Colleges that cost a lot of money were finding that their student bodies were being skewed to both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum–you had the families who could afford to be full pay and the families who were on serious financial aid. There were relatively few in the middle. Many felt that they were missing good kids who weren’t even applying to their colleges because of financial reasons.</p>
<p>So colleges with big endowments (like Harvard and Wellesley) started offering more financial aid to those in the middle who may have income and assets but not enough to feel comfortable being full pay. It has made a difference at our high school where (if you can get admitted) a Harvard education can be cheaper than one from UC Berkeley for middle class parents.</p>
<p>My guess is that many of those $150,000+ families had several students in college at ones. For FAFSA colleges, 2 kids means approx EFC/2 for each. For CSS colleges, it varies.</p>
<p>Wellesley in particular has an enhanced tiered loan policy, with no loans, reduced loans, or a cap on loans, depending in income. Eligible students from families with higher incomes are packaged at a four-year student loan debt of $12,825.</p>