I’ll message you! I’m not necessarily super secretive about things but I do try to be careful online during the app process 
Hooray, @Rivet2000 , great news!!
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I’m not totally clear on what sort of schools your kids are hoping for, or what level of cost is doable. I will say that our experience is that negotiation as far as merit is not generally successful, BUT, if you are talking about need based aid, an appeal can be worthwhile. Dartmouth did agree to match Princeton’s offer for my daughter a few years back, but that was need-based and not merit, of course.
We are putting in a lot of applications here too, looking for money for my 4.0 student. Best automatic merit packages for her so far are from Texas Tech and Colorado Mesa. Those are easy apps too, if you want to throw them into the mix 
I’d also encourage them to apply for all the competitive scholarships at their favorite schools.
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Wonderful! My older daughter is in grad school for BME and really liked JHU
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USF, my neck of the woods. Congrats to your son!
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DD had applied to 4 schools. She is in at 3 of them (all safeties) so far, 2 out of state with substantial scholarships, and one in state. She should hear by the 20th from the last one, her low reach. She fell in love with one of her safeties and luckily that was the first acceptance so the rest have just been confidence boosters and affirmations of her hard work.
She is our youngest of 3 and it will be so strange to be actually done with what feels like a 10 year process for our family.
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Hoping and praying that everyone’s friends and families are safe. Saw on news the damage of the devastating storm across multiple states.
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Not as dramatic for us, but S22 is the younger of our two and it will be strange to have him out of the house. The house, itself, will be a bit strange, since we’re moving to NYC from Boston right after he graduates and planning to rent an apartment with no bedroom for D19 and more of a guest room than a true bedroom for S22 (won’t be putting up his sports posters and so on). Will be the smallest place we’ve had since we moved out of our last Brooklyn apartment when D19 was a toddler. An exciting but somewhat mysterious new phase of life coming up.
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Before you talk with FA staff, make sure you have terminology straight. Merit/discounting is financial aid. Need-based aid is financial aid, as are the federal direct and parent plus loans. I agree negotiation is possible, updated awards are typically relatively small, and they will only consider offers from peer schools as someone else mentioned.
Then, there are meet full need schools (125 or so) and schools that don’t meet full need. Most schools that meet full need require the CSS Profile. Most FAFSA only schools won’t get close to meeting full need. Refresh my memory…is the FAFSA EFC for each of your students affordable? Are any NPCs looking affordable?
This is uncommon in my experience too. I’ve seen it happen with students who win highly competitive non-need based full tuition/full ride scholarships. The way a given school calculates a family’s contribution will rule the day for most other financial aid.
If it at some point you have recruiting questions, post them…many posters can help you navigate that process. D3 schools, as you know, don’t offer athletic scholarships, nor can they offer relatively more financial aid on average to athletes than non-athletes.
Is UCSD a possibility for your kids? The local CSU or CC?
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I’m sure I have the terms straight and my communications here on the forum, at least now at this point, are clear as to what I mean to say. Merit refers to merit, and FA I mean need-based aid, which takes more time to type out.
While our EFC seemed at first to be an unimaginably large number, by slogging through the weeks of this process I’ve come around to feel that we would be so, so lucky to be paying our EFC (according to FAFSA). When I say EFC that is just a way of communicating here does not mean that we don’t use CSS as of course we must and have for many of the 40+ colleges.
NPCs at elite and elitish-colleges will show a cost at or sometimes below our EFC, and we are looking at the ones that do no-loans for ED2 applications.
So the trick there is getting in to one of these. This seems like the only viable option.
We cannot afford UCs or CSUs, although they did apply to some UCs just because… I don’t really know why.
About half of the SLACs have with a combination of merit and “FA” bid at around UC level cost, which for us is 25k, and I’m sure that was intentional.
Community college is 100% acceptance and affordable so I’m not sure what there is to discuss or why we would be on CC or other forums for that.
My kids, and I, didn’t have the bandwidth to pursue recruitment, and are not chomping at the bit to commit to volleyball instead of studies, but here and there have made some efforts and got some bites. While I understand the D3 rules, you should understand that at a small college all kinds of strings can be pulled as long as the FA need is there and its done quietly and tastefully.
I’m confused. You can or cannot afford $25k? UCs are in state, no? And those schools are cost prohibitive?
yes exactly right, with need based grant according to UC npc s the cost is 25k.
I’m sorry if that seems like a pittance. I’m sure most people here are focused on “getting in” which is not a problem for us. We might not be the class of typical CC user here.
I am a resident and a UC professor and I cannot afford 25k x 2, not at all.
There a millions of CA residents who cannot afford state schools.
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Why can’t both students go to UC Davis and commute? That would be under $10k per year each…it might not be the dream of college but it would be highly affordable.
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UC Davis tuition alone is $14,646.
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I understand. Of course it’s a lot of money. I just don’t know if you’re being realistic about how FA works and I wonder if your kids are applying to schools where the price will never be what you need.
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Oops, I messed that up! - though if the choice is between CC and UC Davis, it still seems like UC Davis is a great deal if commuting and affordable to what this parent says they are willing to pay.
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There are many schools that will meet EFC, or have their own estimated contribution that is lower than FAFSA, at least according to NPCs.
There are also lots of anecdotal accounts of getting lower offers than NPCs, although admittedly I clung to those for hope and for the most part the discouraging comments on CC here have so far largely been correct.
It’s still early though since many schools have not come in on their need-based grant, and there are the elites still to apply to also.
I still am 50/50 on whether my daughter can go to school for around EFC without loans, and because of relations with some AOs, I believe my son has a shot at EFC with loans. That’s the realistic goal at this point.
It’s certainly not as dire as you think (I think!). The shotgunning approach in this case is rational as both are good writers and can possibly strike the fancy of someone, and their uw 4.0 and 3.8 don’t rule them out although they had no access to APs and Honors etc. which knocks them down a rung, but not a rung that is insurmountable in the rare instance they’ve struck a fancy.
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It’s not necessary to do the heaps of research or be on CC forums for the commute to Davis thing.
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How much lower do you need to be than your EFC? Honestly, the only people I’ve heard of paying less than their EFC have kids who are exceptional and they get full merit scholarships. Without rigor, that is unlikely to happen for a student. AOs aren’t going to read an essay and give big merit. I’m not trying to be mean but I hope the kids are being realistic. Do you have history from the kids’ high school on how kids do in admissions with their stats? Like you said, getting in is one part of the battle and then there’s the money.
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you would think Davis over CC would be an obvious choice, cost aside, but as an insider I can say I have my doubts about that!
I meant that comment for others considering UCs, not for my situation.