<p>My daughter seems to think that any private college she applies to will cover at least half of her expenses if she's accepted. I'm thinking that's the case for kids with ACT scores of 35 and GPA's of 4.0. What can a kid with 29 ACT and 3.4 GPA expect from most private schools?</p>
<p>Two factors here, your EFC or what you are willing to contribute and her being in the top 25% statistically or better of kids that attend. The kids we know at a nearby LAC can get 50% covered which happens because the kids have some need, the kids are in the top quartile of potential students and the college wants them. But remember 50% of $40,000 - $50,000 (or more in the NE) is still $20,000 - $25,000 that you will need to pay our of pocket if you have an EFC of $20,000 - $25,000. Having an EFC of say $10,000 and getting a college to pay $30,000 - $40,000 a year is a much harder feat… so take it with a grain of salt. </p>
<p>Another way of looking at this…if your EFC is around $25,000 you CAN find LACs that might cost you the same as a the more expensive state publics, something you hear on this forums. Research, research, research…</p>
<p>The colleges want to raise the academic statistics of incoming classes. They also have a limited institutional budget. Most will craft a class of super kids with great need, great kids with some need and full pay students and that is part of what admissions talks about when they talk about crafting a budget. The small number of private colleges that have giagantic endowments can afford to be more generous, but those are few and far between (think Princeton et. al). AND some of the privates use the institutional method to determine EFC and that number can be higher or lower or the nearly the same as the federal EFC so understanding YOUR financial situation and running the on-line calculators and understanding how you might be viewed (read how much they “think” you can pay) by the colleges is important.</p>
<p>Several dozen private colleges promise to meet the full demonstrated need of all students, and an ACT score of 29 would be competitive for many of them.</p>
<p>Do not confuse need and merit awards. Most top private schools promise to meet full demonstrated need, but they do NOT give merit money.</p>
<p>A lot of the colleges that meet full need don’t offer merit money, and a lot of the colleges that offer good merit money don’t meet full need. If your EFC is low, you’ll find top tier colleges are the cheapest. If your EFC is high, you’ll find lower tier public schools with lots of merit money to give are usually cheapest.</p>
<p>There are some colleges that both meet full need and offer merit money, but that merit money goes to kids at like the 90th percentile among the students at that school, which would mean insanely high stats. You need to do a bit of your own research and figure out what colleges are most affordable for your own situation, and whether you’re willing to pay a bit more for a better college if it comes to that.</p>