<p>I just received a "tentative" financial aid statement from Amherst. I'd heard/assumed that since it's a top liberal arts school, it would give good financial aid. FAFSA predicted my EFC to be around $15,000...Amherst's FA puts the family contribution at around $32,000. Was this to be expected? Now I'm very worried for my other schools...should I be expecting other schools' FA awards to be similar?</p>
<p>Odd though it may be, our EFC has basically been doubled by every school D got paperwork from. I don't understand it at all.</p>
<p>Apparently PROFILE indicated other assets/income that was available.</p>
<p>Do you have a non custodial parent who makes big bucks or a house that is worth $2million but is paid off?
That is a big difference in EFC.
<a href="http://www.amherst.edu/%7Efinaid/firstyear/faq.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.amherst.edu/~finaid/firstyear/faq.html</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
How are my full demonstrated need and my "family contribution" determined?</p>
<p>Amherst uses a "need analysis" formula, developed by the College Scholarship Service (CSS) of the College Board, to evaluate the information you submit and determine what you and your family can afford to pay. This amount is called your "family contribution." It consists of contributions from your parents' income and assets as well as your own income—usually from summer work—and assets (if any). Your family contribution subtracted from our "cost of attendance" equals your demonstrated financial need.</p>
<p>In determining the family contribution, Amherst considers your and your family's income, taxes, living costs, assets, debts, and in certain situations, personal or financial circumstances that may affect your ability to pay for college. The size of your family and the number of children in college are major factors as well. In the case of divorced or separated parents, we expect each parent to submit financial information. In some exceptional situations—usually related to your age, marital status or status as a parent - you may be considered independent of your parents.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is just anecdotal and may not apply, but I know a kid who was accepted at Amherst and Harvard. Harvard gave her 5K more per year than Amherst, and there was no negotiating from Amherst. Maybe they just don't give that much?
A. was her first choice, but she wound up at H.</p>
<p>Since Amherst uses the Profile in addition to the FAFSA, additional family assets (i.e. home equity) are considered as well as income and assets from non-custodial parents. This CAN and often does make a huge difference in what the EFC is as determined by the FAFSA alone which does NOT require income reporting from the non-custodial parent, or use home equity in the equation.</p>
<p>emeraldkity4 in our case, there is no non-custodial parent, just me, with a VERY modest income, I rent, have a very small 401k for my age, a small savings account, and drive an 8 year old car. I even have student loans that I'M still paying off.</p>
<p>Seriously I don't see how the EFC doubled. It is fortunate that there's a 10 month payment plan, or I'd be sunk.</p>
<p>Just a mom...do you own a home? Perhaps your home equity is kicking in.</p>
<p>uni</p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptance! You must be an exceptional student!</p>
<p>It is hard to generalize but I know that last year, my son received better FA packages from FAFSA only schools. According to the online EFC calculator, our EFC was approx $8k higher at schools that also used the Profile. I attribute that to home ownership and we also are self-employed (farm).</p>
<p>justamom, not trying to pry, but is your child's father alive? Because of he is, he would be expceted to contribute.</p>
<p>Some Profile schools also refigure the available income of self-employed parents, by disallowing some business deductions that the IRS allows, but that are sometimes abused. Schedule C travel expenses, meal expenses, and business mileage may be added back into income, increasing EFC.</p>
<p>"just"aMom, that is precisely what i'm most afraid of. if all of my schools send me similar FA packages as Amherst (give or take $5k), i really won't know what i'm going to do. i'm extremely stressed as FA packages start rolling in.</p>
<p>but thank you for your responses. the non-custodial income does not apply to my situation, but the home equity probably does.</p>
<p>but Amherst belongs to the list of schools that cap home equity- so I am wondering if they are missing a critical piece of information
<a href="http://568group.org/methodology/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://568group.org/methodology/index.html</a></p>
<p>Our EFC was about $13,000 from FAFSA and PROFILE didn't seem to change it-
however- I know that some schools, including Ds school also have their own forms, does Amherst have additional forms to fill out besides PROFILE?
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=303434%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=303434</a></p>
<p>Hearing difficulties with aid at so many schools is freaking me out.
We still have a couple years to go with my junior d ( she is taking a year off), but we have had a lot of overtime lately, which is getting eaten up in taxes and in payments for services that we usually do ourselves ( at higher cost)
not to mention we lost our older D as a deduction :( :( :(</p>
<p>We did however just pay about $1,500 for my dogs * teeth*, I think that counts as a medical deduction. ;)</p>
<p>^^^ I don't mean for this to sound sarcastic, because it's not meant to be. But the truth is, if you can actually pay $1500 for your dog's teeth, your financial aid package is likely to depress you. I worked in financial aid years ago, and I was well-aware going in of how ridiculous the EFC is. But when I got to the point where MY EFC was put in front of ME, I was still amazed. It is just so hard to comprehend how anyone could really believe we could afford that! Prepare yourself to feel as I do. I think the middle/upper middle class really has a rough time, because we don't get the breaks given to lower-income students by many of the schools cc'ers want to attend --- and we do not have the disposable income that allows many higher wage earners to pay full fare. It is important to investigate a variety of schools and go into the process knowing as much as possible about financial aid. That is why cc is such a great thing!</p>
<p>A school such as Amherst may have decided that you will cough up the difference to send your child to a prestigious LAC. Unless they claim to meet full need, most schools leave some kind of gap. You are assuming they would meet full need.</p>
<p>Amherst does say they meet full need- they also say they cap home equity assumed to be available for expenses.</p>
<p>So that is what is confusing- to me anyway.</p>
<p>Our experience with Reed, which doesn't have quite as large of an endowment as Amherst, was that they met 100% of need, and EFC was similar to FAFSA EFC.
So unis1 experience, of Amherst doubling their EFC, sounds off.
However- I don't have experience with "tentative" offers.
When my D was accepted to Reed, her acceptance package came with the aid offer.
Im wondering if Amherst is trying to gauge interest? I don't know, the only person I have known who has attended, paid full price, probably because her parents were self employed.</p>
<p>$1,500 does sound like a lot doesn't it ( thats almost as much as what my H paid for his car) :confused:
It started out not that expensive, but once they got in there they found lots of problems. We just put it on the charge card- that isnt real money anyway.</p>
<p>reading the amherst FA website (<a href="http://www.amherst.edu/admission/afford_amherst/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.amherst.edu/admission/afford_amherst/index.html</a>) makes my FA package all the more disappointing and upsetting. I don't understand how Amherst can be ranked a "Best Value" college.</p>
<p>I think how they can determine that it is a best value college must be only considering how they meet need- even though they apparently "adjust" need.</p>
<p>So if FAFSA says need is $10,000, but PROFILE and the schools own forms indicate need is $20,000, as long as they give you an offer that meets whatever is after the $20,000- then they "meet" need.</p>
<p>Remember, need is met with grants, loans and workstudy.
Few schools meet need with 100% grants.
But I also don't consider PLUS loans to qualify as meeting need- which some schools apparently do. ( not Amherst I wouldn't think)</p>
<p>we went through this last year, and I have to admit, I was shocked at the differences between the calculated family contribution vs. fafsa efc in the 9 offers my d got. There was a 22K difference between the lowest and the highest family contribution used for the fin aid offers. Of course, the greatest difference was at a private school, they shall go nameless (you can pm me if you are curious), but yes, they doubled the fafsa efc. We called the univ. to see if it was a mistake and it wasn't. Their fin aid officer said it was about home equity, not about how much they wanted her. 2 other private colleges though were very near the fafsa efc-- so they don't all use it.</p>
<p>Looking at the data on US News, Amherst may in fact meet 100% need, but of the 59% who applied for aid (boy is that low - rich kids I guess) they only felt that 48% had need, and of those 2% were only given loans.</p>
<p>Need-based aid (first number is freshmen, second is all undergrads)
Students who applied for financial aid 59% 58%
Those determined to have financial need 48% 48%
Students whose need was fully met (excluding PLUS or other private loans) 100% 100%
Avg. financial aid package (% awarded aid) $32,333 (48%) $31,048 (48%)
Avg. need-based scholarships or grants (% awarded aid) $29,373 (46%) $28,713 (46%)
Avg. self-help aid, such as work study or loans (% awarded aid) $2,842 (48%) $3,564 (45%)
Avg. need-based loan (excluding PLUS or other private loans) $1,620 $2,935
% need met (of those awarded need-based aid) 100% 100%
Non-need-based aid
Avg. merit award (% awarded aid) $0 (0%) $0 (0%)
Avg. athletic scholarship (% awarded aid) $0 (0%) $0 (0%)</p>
<p>You definitely need to call or email them and find out where the discrepancy lies. Soon!</p>