<p>I've seen a couple places my son is interested in that give the option of filling out a form for an early estimate of financial aid including need-based, if any, and then scholarships, etc., that the student might be eligible for, to give a preliminary guess at how it might turn out.</p>
<p>Is this a good idea? Do you think it might influence the decision of whether to offer a scholarship based on merit, just because they see a student has assets and could afford to pay more than some others?</p>
<p>Here is the hypothetical situation: Let's say we filled this out for College A and tuition, room and board were $35,000/yr. Preliminary FAFSA estimates place the student's EFC at $42,000/yr so probably no need-based aid offered, right? Then the student's academic record qualifies him to compete for full-ride scholarship. Is he less likely to get the scholarship than another kid because the school sees it as being "he can afford to come, anyway" and let's give the scholarship to somebody else just to draw in a smart kid to make our numbers look better? That way this kid will come, paying his own way, PLUS we'll get the other kid here, too, by way of the scholarship. </p>
<p>Hope this makes sense and, if so, do you think colleges go by things like this? Is it better off to NOT fill these things out ahead of time to avoid getting a preconceived notion that the student will come anyway even if no scholarship is offered? Some of these have scholarship day interviews in Jan or Feb, and maybe before FAFSA would be filed, so the college might not know the financial situation at the time of the interview, which would probably be preferable from a candidate's point of view if the EFC was high.</p>
<p>Hoping some of you out there that have been through this have some advice.</p>
<p>That's a great question, orangepop (sorry I don't have an answer!). I think it's useful to think through the nuances of the financial aid process to maximize the best return/outcome..nothing wrong with that!</p>
<p>One has to maximize their potential FA and you should not be under any obligation to share that with a college. FAFSA is the right route> It is the standard and customary way colleges look at FA.</p>
<p>We spent the better part of this past year getting D ready for the college app process. She applied to 10 top schools and not one of them asked for early financial info. She was offered merit as well as other grants and scholarships. Soley based on the type of candidate she was and FAFSA.</p>
<p>In a perfect world, this would be the way to go, but I always hesitate about sharing this kind of info because the truth of the matter is that no one can definitively convince me that there is no possible way that there is no very slight consequence. Sitting back where I am now, I feel like it is no problem but when I was "in the game", so to speak, certain things gave me a sense of disquiet. </p>
<p>First of all, FAFSA is straightforward and universal. You can find on line calculators everywhere that you can privately input numbers and finnagle around to see what scenarios can affect your EFC, (such as paying off credit card debt with that savings account sitting there, letting your kid spend down his college account, opening up an IRA or putting more money from savings into your pension account, ) That is far more useful than a static figure from any college as it gives you possibilities on what to do. </p>
<p>However, the EFC generated by FAFSA only guarantees you government money, most of which are loans. I don't know of any school that guarantees to meet that EFC. Instead, colleges that tend to give the best financial aid have their own supplemental application or use PROFILE. PROFILE differs from college to college as there are different takes on the process. Again, you can find some on line calculators and see what you can get from PROFILE calculations in terms of what the definition of need according to the college. I then suggest you pay the $15 subscription fee that USN&WR charges to get access to the financial aid met by that college and the average composition of that aid. That will give you some information on what you may expect. If you see a given college tends to be very loan heavy even if they guarantee to meet 100% of need, you won't be shocked when you get such a package from them. Though it seems more personal to submit the material to the FA dept of the college, there really is no way they will be able to give you anything more than that anyways. They can't even tell you if your kid is even going to get into the school which is rather essential to get aid numbers. </p>
<p>Personally, out of curiosity, I might do a couple of these calculators just to see how the numbers compare to what I get doing the above process, and maybe apply to a school that looks like it is pretty generous and see what happens, but I would not want my kid to load up his basket with all of such schools. I can see where that estimate might help in negotiations if at the end of the process the school does not give as much as they said they might in the beginning. I kinda doubt that they will give specifics like merit awards or how much is going to be loan money in those estimates and may give several possible scenarios on how need might be met, but it would be interesting to see what kind of thing they give.</p>
<p>Some schools like BU are very upfront about how they give financial aid and include such matrices so that you can calculate your own. Be aware though, that they do not guarantee those amounts, which I thought they did. A lot of those gpa + SAT merit forumulas tell you what CAN happen or usually happens but carry no guarantee. Counselor at my son's school told us that this has been a disappointment a few times when the language was not clear.</p>
<p>I would do an "early read" if the student wants to apply ED but is not sure he/she could afford it. In that case, it makes it easier to decide whether to bind the student to that particular school.</p>
<p>However, if the student is applying for aid anyway, then the scenario posted by the OP (no need-based aid but qualifies for merit aid) will come out whether now or in March, and the scenario would play out the same either way. Either the full-pay student would get the aid or wouldn't, and whether it's early read or regular read wouldn't change the college's decision. If it'll make you feel better to get the read before the kid applies, so as to avoid the "I got in but I can't go" situation (and if the school reads too little aid, the kid doesn't apply), then do it. Otherwise, don't.</p>
<p>I concur with sunnybunny -- great question orangepop! In all my readings this has never been mentioned before. Fortunately (for your hypothetical at least) since you're confident the FAFSA/PROFILE FA will be minimal, there's very little to be gained by obtaining an early estimate.</p>
<p>orangepop - it might be helpful to check with the colleges that are of interest regarding their scholarships. remember that at some colleges merit aid awards are awarded based on need. some colleges may award their merit aid based on merit. some colleges may award both merit aid (by merit) and merit aid (based on need).</p>
<p>it takes some research on your part but you'll be glad you found these kinds of things out now rather than later. i know this all sounds confusing. someone else here on cc may be able to explain it better than me. </p>
<p>cptofthehouse - does the usn&wr show whether the scholarships (aid) are awarded based on need or based on merit? i didn't subscribe to this for d1 but i think for s2, it sounds worth it to be a subscriber. i've read other posts recommending the premium subscriptions as well. thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice. I think I'll skip doing an early estimate, just to be on the safe side so as not to influence anything one way or another. The schools I'm looking at for merit aid were academic-based instead of need. I maybe will check out the rankings when they come out to read up on all these things, though, as they sound interesting.</p>
<p>*I've seen a couple places my son is interested in that give the option of filling out a form for an early estimate of financial aid including need-based, if any, and then scholarships, etc., that the student might be eligible for, to give a preliminary guess at how it might turn out.
*</p>
<p>US News * is* good for specifying the numbers of students who apply to aid- numbers of students who qualify, & what is recieved.
If you compare those stats, with your sons & the academic stats of other attending students- you can probably get a general idea, along with aid calculators from CC or finaid.org.</p>
<p>Even though my older Ds school was one of the first to abstain from supplying info to US News, I have subscribed for a couple years as I find the online tables to be very helpful when advising other students at younger Ds school. ( and really cost effective for amount of info recieved- even though I don't pay attention to what school was ranked 28th 5 years ago- but is ranked OMG :rolleyes: 167 this year)</p>
<p>Condor, USN does break down the money in merit and financial aid categories. It is a very well invested $15. I also like the college guide that comes out each year as a hard copy reference.</p>