The Net cost of D2’s choice schools are within 1K-2K (Net Cost) of each other which we can manage whichever school she selects however my main concern is that 1 school offered Big Grant $+ Workstudy while the others have 25K merit 6K grant 1K work study or 20k merit 7K Grant 3K WS, etc. I am afraid that this BIG Grant from her “Favorite School” will diminish significantly or will not be offered, as I understand that this is not guaranteed unlike Merit $$ is guaranteed 4 yrs . Should we not even consider this school anymore as it will be risky? I just read about the bait and switch stories and I am scared.
It would help to know the school names to see what the chances are of a bait and switch. Merit has its own issue with a min GPA requirement. Look at those for each of your merit options. A high GPA may be hard to pull off.
Need based grants are awarded annually at all schools and are based on the financial aid applications for that year. There is NO WAY for anyone here to predict future need based awards because we don’t know how your income and assets might change in future years.
The good news…next school year 2017-2018 will use the same tax year info as this year 2016-2017…tax year 2015 info.
Now…merit awards usually have the duration listed on the award (etc…renewable for four years of undergrad if a 3.0 GPA is maintained). If you are concerned about potential increases in income…and therefore reductions in need based aid…you should look at merit awards that do not consider need.
I was told a large part of that is we have Twins in College
btw… I was not aware of this; " The good news…next school year 2017-2018 will use the same tax year info as this year 2016-2017…tax year 2015 info." s o do I still re-file FAFSA?
Yes…you will do the financial aid applications again for the 2017-2018 school year. The FAFSA and Profile will both be available in October or so they say…for the 2017-2018 school year.
Your assets are reported as if the date of the new filing.
I would ask the financial aid office whether, if your financial situation remains the same, you can expect the same grant in future years. In many ways a need-based grant is a safer bet if you don’t expect changes in income/family size/kids in college,etc., because there’s no GPA requirement.
I am more worried with the Grant being cut significantly for no reason at all …like a 12K reduction is significant if it’s 2-3k …while not the best… we can live with. Is it Dollar of Dollar reduction if say we get a raise?
Yes, FAFSA will still need to be filed every year they want to be considered for federal/state grants and/or loans and work study. Every year they will indicate the year in college, how many students in college, people in household, and if they want work study. Parents and student will report the corresponding tax year income and the assets as of the day of filing.
One other thing to consider is yearly tuition increases. You may want to ask if you can expect the FA package to increase commensurate with any tuition increases.
^^^^ This. Some schools may keep either grant or merit awards at the same dollar amount but one or the other might not be expected to rise with tuition increases.
So say School A offers 20K grant and 5K merit, and tuition increases by 5%, from $40K to $42K. The next year they may offer $21K grant and keep the merit at 5K. It costs you an additional $1,000.
School B may also offer $20K grant and $6K merit, and tuition also increases 5% from $40K to $42K. But the next year they offer $22K grant and $5k merit. Your cost is the same each year.
School C may offer $5K grant and $20K merit, and tuition also increases 5% from $40K to $42K. They may offer you $7K in grants and $20K in merit, so your cost is the same each year.
School D may offer $5K grant and $20K merit, and tuition also increases 5% from $40K to $42K. They may offer you $5.2K in grants and $20K in merit, so it costs you an additional $800.
Similarly, other schools vary the merit awards each year to reflect the changing COA.
It is worth having these discussions with the FA office(s) before applying, but certainly before making a final decision.
If loans are a part of your package, so schools expect you to take the additional $1000 available in subsidized stafford loans to cover the increases in tuition each year.