<p>I am the very proud mother of a senior in high school. I have a few questions. First, we have decided not to complete the FAFSA form because our income for last year is $85,000 and we doubt seriously we would get any aid that way. Do we really need to apply for the FAFSA if our income is that?</p>
<p>Also, We are applying only for academic and merit based scholarships. Our son has maintained straight A's since grade school, had perfect attendance since grade school (missed only one day in entire school career), taken the maximum amount of AP classes, is currently number 1 our of his class of 260 students and has been involved in lots of outside volunteer activities and most recently became an Eagle Scout. His ACT was 30. </p>
<p>What is the likelihood that he will be awarded any academic scholarships with his stats. He has applied to approximately 30-40 academic based scholarships. Thank you.</p>
<p>His best shot is merit money divvied out by the schools he's applied to. How much (if any) he gets depends on the schools he's applied to (some give out none, some give out lots, some are in between). What's on his list?</p>
<p>Thanks weenie.....he has applied to OSU, Case Western and Cincinnati. He knows so far how much he is getting from OSU which is $2400 per year. He doesn't know on the others yet. We are now just applying for as much outside academic scholarships as possible and I wondered how likely it would be to receive any of these with his stats.</p>
<p>russpt2000, if merit aid is important to your son's choice of college, I think you may be doing yourself a disservice by just dismissing need based aid. $85,000 may not get you a lot of aid but it would probably get you some, especially at privates. Depending on your assets, age (affects amt of assets that are set aside, closer to retirement age, more they set aside), etc you could have an EFC between $18,000-$28,000. If a college costs of attendance (tuition, room, board, books, travel and personal expenses) is even a moderate $32,000, that is $4000 in aid you would qualify for. If your son received merit money, chances increase at some schools that the need offered would be towards grants rather than loans. Not always a guarantee but a possibility. </p>
<p>Go to finaid.org and complete the Fafsa estimator. If your EFC is even a few thousand below the colleges Cost of Attendance, may be worthwhile filling out FAFSA. You can always turn down loans and work study offers in your financial aid package and just keep the grants. Besides colleges themselves, the best chances for scholarship money tend to be local scholarships. Be sure the counselors know your son needs financial help and is looking for any opportunity to apply for scholarships that he is competitive for. At some schools, counselors decide who gets to apply. But hurry, many have deadlines starting in mid-Feb to mid-March. Best of Luck.</p>
<p>Has he gotten his acceptance from Case yet? They notify of awards in the same letter. Sometimes they can be quite generous.</p>
<p>Here is the info on Cincinnati (from US News):</p>
<p>Need-based aid (first figure is freshmen, second is all undergrads):</p>
<p>Students who applied for financial aid 77% 68%
Those determined to have financial need 61% 56%
Students whose need was fully met (excluding PLUS or other private loans) 6% 6%
Avg. financial aid package (% awarded aid) $7,327 (60%) $7,476 (54%)
Avg. need-based scholarships or grants (% awarded aid) $5,139 (29%) $4,449 (26%)
Avg. self-help aid, such as work study or loans (% awarded aid) $2,906 (19%) $3,098 (17%)
Avg. need-based loan (excluding PLUS or other private loans) $2,858 $3,888
% need met (of those awarded need-based aid) 66% 63%</p>
<p>Russ, from Ohio I'm presuming? Me too...
Our income is similar to yours but we definitely filled out the FASFA - while we were somewhat surprised at what "it" thought we should be able to afford, I think it will pay off eventually. According to the report, we will not receive any fin aid grants, but since the private school my D is interested in far outweighs our EFC, we think the school will kick in a good amount.</p>
<p>Filling out the FASFA is kind of like doing scholarship applications - it takes a bit of time, but if it pays off even $1000 somewhere that's a pretty good return for the investment of a few hours. And it's possible that you can receive much more $$$.</p>
<p>My D has statistics much the same is your senior - but you start to realize once you get out there that there are many, many students who are at least equal to your child in terms of acheivement - and if they are all going for outside scholarships, well, you get the picture. I'll be happy if we can land one or two of all the apps we're filling out...!</p>
<p>Russ, I think you should fill out the FAFSA anyway. We too have a high EFC, yet still managed to receive a small grant (better than nothing). Your sons stats are very good and I'd expect he most likely will receive more merit aid offers. It really does vary with the schools. I've heard many good stories about Case being liberal with their merit aid.</p>
<p>Russ, the assistant to the counselors in my children's school had what I thought was good advice on FAFSA for all income levels. She suggested that one never knows what disaster could hit any family.</p>
<p>Russpt - Our family income was $85K too last year, and our daughter is getting $23,550 in merit aid (note: we have little in assets or savings). Her university, by the way, is far more generous that the federal formula would suggest. By all means, go ahead and apply.</p>
<p>thanks to all of you who have applied. I really appreciate it. I am showing all the posts to my husband so he knows this about the FAFSA. Thanks again.</p>