<p>"What I'm really afraid of is that we won't have one or two financial safety schools "</p>
<p>Why not? Why are there no state schools on your list?</p>
<p>As someone who also grew up poor, I can appreciate your jitters. We are now middle class, and I want my son to go to college so that he won't have the financial struggles that we went thru. But, I'm being pragmatic: expensive schools are simply not an option, even with financial aid. He's got a couple of reach schools that he plans to apply for, but he knows that the likelihood of them offering a nice enough package to make it doable is virtually nil. He knows that in all likelihood he will go to the state flagship school , which is quite an excellent school. I liken it to telling him that we'll buy him a Toyota or a Honda, but not a Lexus or BMW. We are willing to go into debt for his college education, but not as much as buying another house. Some of these schools would leave us with more debt than we incurred when we bought our (modest) house!</p>
<p>Sure, a BMW is nice. But there's nothing wrong with a Toyota. Sometimes you have to find the 'sweet spot' between the very 'best' and something that is quite good but not necessarily the best.</p>
<p>Some may say that I am denying my son a chance to dream big. No, not true - as I said, he is planning to apply for a couple of reach schools. If it works out, then great. But my point is that I question whether getting a BMW instead of a Toyota is really worth all that extra stress and debt. After all, Toyotas are quite good.</p>
<p>Could it be that you are stressing out over an attachment to a certain level school?</p>
<p>Good question Leal - it isn't a certain level of school, but a certain type - smaller, demanding curriculum available, and where kids stay on campus for fun without a ton of drinking. Where we live the state school is large, very left-leaning politically, and not very good academically (hugely underfunded) however there is an honors college there that he will apply to. he doesn't want to go to a college that is less academically demanding than his high school has been - and the regular program at the state school would fall in that category - in fact they would accept him as an automatic sophomore because of his HS curric.
We are actively looking for places that fit his "hopes" - the small, etc. part above, but that are affordable. There is one school that might come through, but it is in our same town, and of course he'd like to go away(at least more than 10 miles!). He's struggling with that concept now - a school I would like if it were anywhere else - do I still apply and live in a dorm five miles from home? (he could do this because of scholarships avail. there)
I will do more soul searching on your quesiton, though, as there is some truth to the "what will my friends think?" thinking.
Also - off my topic - but I noticed your son is looking into the Westminster offer - my S was quite interested in that school, but missed MNSF by 2 points, and isn't pursuing it as an expensive option. Good luck to your S - I think he will have TONS of wonderful options!</p>
<p>orjr: one thing that I have seen is that some schools allow the loans to be the first item in the package replaced with "other awards," but you have to watch them. My DD was awarded a merit scholarship by an outside organisation after the financial package had been given to us. Initially they reduced her grant aid, but when I questioned it (this award is said specifically NOT to reduce aid, they corrected the error) however, I would not have noticed it ifI had not saved a copy of the earlier aid letter. The total $ amount was fairly small and the financial aid can be confusing, so it would have been easy to lose track of that.</p>
<p>Also, you need to be on top of all the awards each year and make sure they are continued and awarded properly. There was a new one given this year for which my DD qualified, yet it was not given to her, it took several emails and a couple of phone calls, including one going over the qualification list line by line before they determined the error and gave her the award. So, don;t trust that mistakes won't happen, check your package each year, print the awards and compare them if changes occur. Our finaid office has been marvelous to deal with and corrects the errors quickly, but with thousands of kids, mistakes do happen!</p>
<p>Thanks for the explanation. Your key words were 'not very good academically." That explains it. My son is lucky that the state flagship school, UT Austin, is excellent academically (and he likes the left leaning, but there's plenty of everything at UT). </p>
<p>There is actually a good school here in our city and in some ways it would be better than UT, due to smaller classes. But, he would live at home - there is no way I could justify the costs of living in a dorm when it's in our own city, and he doesn't want to live in a dorm anyway (UT offers co-op housing). But, it will all depend on what financial aid comes thru.</p>
<p>Pardon my ignorance, but what is MNSF?</p>
<p>Westminster seems to be a good school, though not as 'cool' as UT. Still, free does count for a lot!</p>
<p>I'd be careful about assuming that the smaller/private schools don't have a 'ton of drinking' though - my son's best friend went to Rice - his parents were against UT because of its reputation as a party school - and he found the alcohol and drugs flowing ever so freely at Rice. (Maybe even moreso, according to one of my college books.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
he doesn't want to go to a college that is less academically demanding than his high school has been - and the regular program at the state school would fall in that category - in fact they would accept him as an automatic sophomore because of his HS curric.
[/quote]
. But, realistically, i suspect he COULD find academically challanging classes, and starting as a sophomore would save an entire years tuition/room/board. </p>
<p>I do know how you feel. At the time I graduated from college, neither of my folk's had a college degree. My dad had worked two jobs much of my life, and my family ended up contributing nothing towards my college and grad school education. They just didn;thave the money. I was the oldest, and I worked, tutored, worked more, took out loans, worked as a lab assistant and a research assistant and paid every bit of my educational expenses, pretty much every bit of every expense from the time I was 17. I finally paid off student loans (mine and hubbie's) by age 34ish, started a family at 35, and assumed that my 2 would have it easier. They would not have to work as hard as I, and would be able to go to a top tier school smaller private LAC. We have some savings, and participated in our states prepaid college program. But the first I learned of FAFSA and the profiles, and ran prelim figures I WAS SHOCKED. I certainly didn't have $200,000 per kid for 4 years. I live in an area where the cost of living is high, local real estate taxes have shot up, and homeowners insurance is nearly unaffordable after seeing multiple hurricanes in two years. Suddenly, using the prepaid plan and the Bright Futures plan we have in Florida to make the best of it at a state flagship U suddenly didn't look so bad. </p>
<p>And being at the TOP of the heap is not such a bad thing. He could stand out and have all sorts of opportunities that he might not have elsewhere.</p>
<p>Leal - I typed it wrong - meant to say NMSF - National Merit Semi-Finalist.
(huge scholarship at Westminster - like your S for national achievement)</p>
<p>scholarship stacking - i think you have to check with the individual school about their policy on scholarship stacking. if i remember right, stacking is ok at some colleges as long as the total does not exceed the school's Total COA. </p>
<p>does anyone know if there a standard policy on stacking or does it vary from school to school?</p>
<p>for example: ...............at our state flagship school, my d would have received 10 k per year for 4 years (for nmf ......and if she declared them her first choice nm school). the college's total coa was 15k. so..........my understanding was that she could have received up to 5 k in outside scholarships without impact to the 10k award. if i understood it correctly, had she received over the 5 k in outside awards..........the 10k award would have been reduced...........i'm rusty on all this now.........but i think that's what i recall.</p>
<p>The OP is addressing the fact †ha† those kids on financial aid who also get merit scholarships either from the college itself or from outside sources, will get their financial aid reduced by the scholarship money. However, someone who does not need aid, who has not applied for aid, is a Trump type kid, will get merit scholarship money as pure gravy, which they probably need far less than the financial aid kid. Yes, that is most often the situation. The reason for this is that the merit aid is independent of the financial aid in many schools, and vice versa for the financial aid. So your financial aid is awarded, taking in ALL sources of income and assets, including scholarship money. There are some schools that do permit some form of stacking, but most use the merit aid to first reduce the self help components of the aid package, and then the grants. I am not sure how the federal grants and subsidized loans view scholarship funds, but I do know that most colleges do not allow you to double dip.</p>
<p>It would be the same situation for a full pay kid who does not qualify for financial aid to take a job. The money in this case can be viewed as pure gravy. However, a kid who is "gapped" by financial aid, or who is on financial aid needs every cent of that money, and it is insult on top of injury when that income is taken into account to reduce the following year's package. It is a flawed system in this regard. </p>
<p>There are many schools with merit within aid packages, however, that do take income levels into account for most of their merit packages rewarding only the very top candidates who need no aid with scholarships, and usually with token amounts. </p>
<p>So what to do when you realize that your EFC is likely to be your EFC even if your student gets some merit aid? Well, unless your student is top drawer at the colleges where he is applying, and you can increase those odds by reading Momfromtexas's thread, "What I have learned about full-ride scholarships", you are going to have to look for some low cost alternatives, as some of the parents have advised. If you want to cover as many options as possible, the student could apply to some low cost local schools, some schools where a full ride is a possibility, and some lottery tickets where you just hope they are flexible in coming up with a package.</p>