I am a single father with fc of my three children, one of whom will be enrolling in college in fall of 2020. My AGI is very low and will be even lower next year. I have some RE assets but when debt load is considered, I will be okay for FAFSA. The calculators currently estimate the NFC to be zero and a full Pell Grant award.
We (my son and I) are looking for quality east coast universities that provide substantial need-based aid. Assuming the top schools are out of the mix (Ivies, Duke, JHopkins, Emory, etc) what next tier schools should he apply to, keeping in mind the need-based aid component? Schools ranking 50-120 in USNews are the expected range – but we will take a long look at any recommended school that we may have overlooked.
He will likely major in Economics and has a strong interest in music and psychology.
We reside in NC, but are considering the entire east coast. The midwest and even west coast are also options. The biggest deciding factors will be quality of school and need-based aid provided.
Welcome to the forum. You are in a state that has great college opportunities, so be sure to know what is available to you in terms of state schools and benefits. Your son’s school counselor’s will be excellent sources for that information.
Some important issues to take into account when you are embarking on looking for college dollars:
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Your FAFSA EFC is likely to be the least you will be expected to pay and is often just a theoretical number. The most generous schools in terms of giving financial aid tend to use their own fin aid calculators, usually requiring a CSS PROFILE to be completed. There are only a handful of schools that guarantee to meet need as defined by the FAFSA. PROFILE includes a lot of other things that are not on FAFSA. Schools that are the most generous in meeting financial need tend to define that need themselves.
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As a corollary to 1), if you have equity in your principle residence, a non custodial parent in existance , have your own business, your expected contribution from schools that use additional financial information, may be quite different
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As a very general rule, the more selective schools tend to be the most generous in giving financial aid. Those are the schools that guarantee to meet full need. Many of these schools tend to give very few if any merit money, and getting a sizeable piece of that is uber competitive
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Sometimes getting a full merit award, or close to it, is more likely than getting as much money through financial aid.The way schools define need have shocked many people. Getting those is highly competitive, however, and your student has to be in the upper echelons of the class they are taking, in order to be likely for these awards.
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A good way to get some quick appraisel of the likelihood at any given school is to look at the financial aid and merit info on the Common Data sets. You can see the % of need met for the % of students qualifying for aid, as well as average dollar amounts. You can also see the % of students getting merit money, the % getting what amounts. You can get some idea as to what % of the stats your student should be at a given school in order to be getting considerable merit. A school that is only giving out scholarships to 2% of the students at an average of $5K a scholarship is not a likely source of substantial money If it’s an average of $40K per award, you want to see if your kid falls close to that 2% upper threshold.
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Look at what awards are available to students at the various schools. If your student falls into a group that the school is actively seeking, whether its STEM women, URMs, first generation to college, this can give you an indicator how much of the big money is available to your particular student
The most important schools, IMO, to get onto your list are the ones that are very likely to take your son and that you are very likely to afford. Those are the soldiers to make sure that your son has safe place to go The ones to provide some security and solace if and when “dream” schools don’t work out. Many are dream school, in themselves. They are the most difficult to list in a college search for most people, because they are too often looking to cherry pick. The schools with high name recognition are easy to find. These schools often are not, and require the work and research.
Your son’s test scores, unweighted gpa, class rank, rigor of classes taken will be the important factors in getting into selective schools. If he has some features on his resume that make him particularly desirable to certain colleges, that also comes into play. Legacy, Athletic recruit, URM status, development, celebrity are some such “hooks”. Smaller things like geographical diversity, undersubscribed major, gender, can come into play too.
What are your son’s numbers, in terms of the above, so we can get some ideas as to what schools to target? Even as schools where your son’s stats place him at the top may give more money, there is also the issue of the fact that there are those schools who tend to give generous financial aid. Both issues should be addressed to come up with a complete list.
Without knowing your child’s SAT or ACT scores, and GPA, answering this question is a shot in the dark.
You mention you have full custody of your children…but where is the mom, and does she have income? Many generous schools that meet full need require the CSS Profile, and the non-custodial parent form. They will determine your family contribution using both parents financials.
I agree that you are fortunate to be in a state with excellent options instate. I’m hoping @katwkittens will reply to this thread. She actually relocated to NC because of the excellent college options for her kids. And they have done very well.
I am hoping you will consider instate options. UNC-CH meets full need for all accepted students.
Could you explain better what you mean by “quality of school”. There are plenty of wonderful colleges that are not in the top 100 where your kids can get an excellent education…but really, I’d start with UNC-CH and NC State…both terrific schools.
Remember, those Profile schools will use the info on the Profile to determine awarding of their need based aid…and the Profile delves much more in detail about your finances. For example…you mention that you have some real estate assets in addition to your primary residence. It’s very possible that these are being excluded on the FAFSA because you qualify for an auto $0 EFC or simplified needs test whereby your assets are not reported at all.
There is NO auto $0 or simplified needs test for Profile schools.
Once your student has their end of year GPA and their SAT or ACT scores, it will be much easier to make realistic suggestions to you.
Divorced parent situations can complicate need-based financial aid matters:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2083835-faq-divorced-parents-financial-aid-and-net-price-calculators.html
In addition, real estate assets and income can also complicate matters, since some colleges disallow (add back) deductions that can increase income compared to what is calculated for tax purposes. They may believe that real estate investors have plenty of ways to appear much poorer for tax purposes than they actually are.
Hi!! @EconPop
Fellow NC resident waving at ya!!
The above posters are all correct in that without some more info (stats) it is hard to make up a list of possible schools. I do know that with my 5 kiddos we saw a lot of financial aid packages that differed by $15,000+ with same EFC.
Also with the income of the second parent and possible real estate assets those 2 factors can make assessing FA packages difficult, esp. without knowing the specifics.
Have you tried Princeton’s aid calculator? They do a pretty good job even for more complicated situation’s.
Is your son eligible for the Carolina Covenant?
https://carolinacovenant.unc.edu/
Or the Parks at NCSU?
https://park.ncsu.edu/
Duke does give some preference for in-state students.
As far as OOS as an econ major Univ of Penn has some wonderful programs at Wharton and p’ton also with both meeting full need.
If you can provide us with more info we can all help so much better. One of my son’s graduated with an econ degree so I do know what your search will be like.
Kat
Thanks for the responses everyone.
Kat, I was familiar with the CC and the Parks. He’ll apply to both, but we don’t expect he’ll get into UNC. NCSU is different because that’s my alma mater, so he’ll have a legacy boost there. Enough of a boost, we’ll apply and see.
He’s 3.4 GPA, 1220 SAT, 4 AP, 10 honors, varsity tennis, league basketball for 10 years (team captain for 2), guitar (12 years) and saxophones (6 years), three school clubs. Attending a summer business program this year, but choosing between the two that accepted him; of course it’s the same week.
Penn and Princeton would be a dreams, but he realizes his odds are virtually nil. But he’s tough willed and not afraid of a few denials, so he’ll apply anywhere he likes. A “no” or 10 won’t shatter him.
Currently, he’s looking across the board, from UNC-Charlotte, to Elon, to JMU, to Richmond, to George Mason, to Howard, to St Johns … really all over. We’ve visited a half-dozen and will spend the summer visiting at least a dozen more.
Is this his weighted GPA? Will he be retaking the SAT? Did he try the ACT?
Higher standardized test scores will definitely open up more acceptance options and potential aid.
^^^^Was typing while thumper was posting!!
Thanks @EconPop for some more info.
Is his 3.4 weighted or unweighted. Is his 4 APs so far or includes next year/senior year? If he is looking at Howard is he a URM? Has he taken the ACT?
Is the summer business program free? Did he apply to any Upward-Bound programs? Has he taken AP Micro or Macro? Where is he at math-wise? What else is he doing this summer? Tennis is for his high school?
He is thinking Econ does he have any career ideas? Mine was an econ major and pre-med. Music as a double major or minor or just wants it as a hobby/EC? Psych as a major/minor or career?
Read some of the posts on this forum to get an idea of how financial aid works. Versus how merit aid works. Federal aid is assessed by the FAFSA which will provide info regarding eligibility for Pell, subsidized loans, SEOG and work-study. Institutional aid is derived from the FAFSA info and the Profile. Some schools use their own financial aid forms in lieu of the Profile.
Also many schools will infer a student’s summer contribution in the aid package. Each school will have its own figure. Some school’s can waive this in the initial offer and other’s can do so after matriculation.
I am thinking others will read this and starting making suggestions!
Mine applied to many schools using the school’s waivers, NACAC app fee waivershttps://www.nacacnet.org/globalassets/college-fair–homepage/ncf-documents/applicationfeewaiverform.pdf , SAT college app fee waivers https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/college-application-fee-waiver-directory.pdf, and Ventures Scholars fee waivers http://www.venturescholar.org/portals/feewaiver.php.
Using these fee waivers lifted the heavy burden of app fees on our family. The children’s acceptances were varied as were the respective aid packages. They ended up at in-state public, OOS public, LAC, ivy and service academy. Some accessed our local community colleges and some had a combo of in-state and OOS and in-state and an ivy. So it wasn’t one size fits all.
I have opinions on some of the school’s you have mentioned, financial aid and what y’all are looking for, especially here in NC and on the west coast since that is where we moved from. I do have some favs…
Kat
He’s leaning toward Business Analyst or Marketing Analyst, with a minor in music.
I think the SAT score is more or less set where it is. No ACT. He’s taken some practice ACT tests and doesn’t do as well on those as the SAT. That’s his weighted GPA. UW is 3.3, not much difference. The summer programs this summer are one paid (but with scholarship awarded) and one on pure merit that does not carry any costs for any of the participants. Tennis is for the HS. He may take another AP class next year, but stands at 4 now. Hasn’t taken AP Micro/Macro. He is an URM.
No other plans yet for the summer. Maybe taking a math class at the community college to prep for next year.