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Then by all means move there.</p>
<p>Sometimes the schools are as confused as we are. The FA office may be separate from the scholarship office, which is separate from the accounts receivable office which is separate from the admissions office. Getting these people to work in a coordinated fashion can be a daunting task in and of itself. Then there is the added confusion of the inside (school) scholarship money vs the outside scholarship money, where it gets sent, when it arrives, how and when it gets applied to the student’s AR account, etc. Don’t even get me started on that. We’ve continually had a credit on younger s’s account because AR demands payment by a certain date to avoid late fees, yet they haven’t applied one of the scholarship awards that they awarded my s. </p>
<p>At older s’s school one year, I’d paid our bill minus the amount due from the scholarship he was awarded (which was not a very big amount). They demanded I fedex a pmt overnight to the AR office to cover the $$ of the scholarship avoid my s’s registration being locked because the scholarship money was sitting in the scholarship office and hadn’t been sent over to them yet to post to his account. I asked if my s could walk over and hand carry it from one office to the next. No. They had to send it (send it?? its a few bldgs away) and we had to pay the bill to avoid s’s not being able to register, even though the $$ was CLEARLY on campus but sitting in the wrong office. This kind of nonsense really fries my cookies.</p>
<p>What also fries my cookies (kudos to whoever first used that expression here on cc-- I love it!) is this incredible sense of entitlement by some here. Need aid is NEED based, and merit awards (not aid- awards) are for ACADEMIC MERIT. They are separate, and used for different purposes. If a school wants to lure a bright student with good scores to their school, they have every right, and should be allowed to do it. This is especially true for private institutions. They have as much right to select their students and encourage enrollment. Its just as easy to work hard for the top grades and merit money as it is to stick your hand out and expect someone else to pay your way.</p>
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Nice, Fallen. The problem is that you don’t have the exclusive right to declare how we choose to govern this country. I get a vote too.</p>
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<p>Rl, you misread something. There is no application for merit awards at Smith. The awards are decided by the admission committee; not FA</p>
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Never a legitimate response. </p>
<p>I don’t want to live in Sweden. I want to live in my home, the United States of America, and make it a better place to live than it currently is. Some of us think that emulating certain aspects of European-style socialism might help to do that. If you disagree, explain why instead of avoiding the issue with the irrational suggestion that anyone who isn’t 100% satisfied with our society belongs somewhere else.</p>
<p>Took a break and I’m 150 posts behind 
So a few outdated comments:</p>
<p>S-trove: Not to tout my own profession, but you are looking for a fee based financial planner/advisor. The key is not filling out the forms but guiding clients to having better numbers to fill into the form. Usually junior year is too late to do any serious financial planning for EFC impact. Remember that the FAFSA and CSS are asking for info from LAST years tax forms. There are strategies that help parents position assets in investment choices that are not counted on in some FA calculations. There are also stratefies that can help reduce income for the years that FA officers are examining. Obviously there are a lot of limitations as to what can be done but every little bit can help. Contact a financial planning organization in your area or the CFP Board for referrals.</p>
<p>R6l - As one liberal to another, I would love to see you attend Colorado College with my son. I look at it as an opportunity for him to demonstrate his tolerance for the people of Colorado Springs :-)</p>
<p>A clarification on Colorado scholarship: there are 2 for Chemistry and 1-2 for the other sciences. Not necessarily restricted to neuroscience.</p>
<p>I applaud the desire to try and keep things civil. I believe this forum works best as a means of sharing factual info rather than snide comments.</p>
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<p>Could not agree more. It would also be nice if Smith posted on their website ~ 250-275 STRIDES are ‘awarded’ and not 50, as they make it appear…50 accept.</p>
<p>Back to the Smith example where it was stated that it is a school that requires you apply for financial aid before freshman year or you can’t get it until junior year. Not exactly true. I called them and asked, and you can believe me or not but the head of FA couldn’t tell me why they had that policy, other than it helped them be sure they stayed in budget for at least that 2nd year. But it only applies to Smith grants. Federal money or any other source is still available and can be applied for. So that makes sense. FWIW, because international students are a more complicated situation (apparently), if they don’t apply the first year they are ineligible for Smith grants the rest of their time there.</p>
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<p>Also because Smith, some years, is need-aware for the last 5% of admission decisions.</p>
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Skidmore mentioned that they take a similar approach, though they didn’t put a percentage on it. </p>
<p>I’m a bit curious about how this works, specifically about what “last” means. Do they start by ranking all the applications, or separating them into rough categories of admissibility? Or is it more first-come first-served?</p>
<p>There are many very wealthy kids receiving merit money…and I know two families that turned it down because they felt that the money could be used by others. I am clearly stating WEALTHY, so all of you get real. Should a family earning half a million to 1 million dollars a year receive merit money for their kids…NO. If people in this category feel justified to receive merit money than they are out of touch with reality. There are many people earning less than this but are sitting on large chunks of money for their retirement and day to day life while their are kids who struggle to get by in college with huge loans and jobs. As I said earlier, Should college only be for the wealthy? After reading all the post here I am a bit disgusted with the attitude that is peaking through so with this, I bid a farewell to this thread.</p>
<p>We (the Smith FA person and I) didn’t get into a long discussion about need-aware, but the officer just stated they were need-aware. No qualifications, but then again, that wasn’t what we were really talking about. I have to say the person was extremely nice also.</p>
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What if that merit money (or the opportunities at the college that it provides) makes a family feel so wanted that they become big donors who make things easier for other kids for years to come? I think economic or social diversity works both ways. Maybe a kid from a wealthier family could be lured to a lower-ranked school and provide some diversity, as well. I just think sometimes colleges may want things for reasons that they are familiar with and should have that freedom to entice kids who don’t necessarily “need” the money.</p>
<p>CrewDad-just to be clear, my posts about Smith are pretty particular to my circumstances. Since I am going to have to appeal financial aid anyways(my dad got diagnosed with cancer and cannot work), the system is a bit different for me</p>
<p>Again, remember the basic concept of FA:</p>
<p>cost of attendance - EFC = demonstrated need.</p>
<p>Smith states that if a student receives an outside scholarhsip that they will first reduce the EFC to the lowest federally allowable amount (I would take this to be your FAFSA EFC). </p>
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<p>Keep in mind with approximately 675 students in the freshman class 10 student (1.48% of the incoming class) will receive an Zollman scholarship (7.55% of the incoming class not counting students who have received a Zollman) will receive a STRIDES Scholarship. The only overlap is that Zollman recipients are invited to participate in the STRIDE paid research program, which contains a $2100 stipend (for 2 years).</p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/aid_merit.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/aid_merit.php)</p>
<p>Remember Smith uses both the federal and the institutional methodolgies to determine nedd based FA. The use the federal methodology to determine a student’s eligibility for PELL, SEOG, State grants, stafford/perkins loans, federal work study, academic achievement grants . They use their institutional methodology to determine whod they are going to distribute their institutional funds.</p>
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<p>The cost of attendance at smith is $53,287 (tuition r/b = $50,380)</p>
<p>School meets 100% demonstrated need. FA package will have the following components :</p>
<p>grant aid
Student loan (~3500 freshman year)
Work study (~1900 freshman year)</p>
<p>Let’s say a family has an EFC of 20k, they will receive the fill receive the following FA package:</p>
<p>Student loan $3500
Work Study $1900
Grant aid $27,877</p>
<p>Family pays 20k</p>
<p>family has an EFC of 20k, d receives Zollman they will receive the fill receive the following FA package:</p>
<p>Student loan $3500
Work Study - will probably be replaced by the $2100 Strides reseach stipend
Grant aid $7,8777
Zollman $20,000</p>
<p>family will still pay 20K</p>
<p>Family has 60,000 EFC (not eligible for need based aid)</p>
<p>Student receives strides scholarship $15,000
Family pays $38,287
Student would have to get other outside scholarships to reduce this family’s EFC</p>
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<p>It’s not first-come, first-served. As I understand the policy, at many colleges that practice need-aware admissions, financial need is only considered for a small proportion of applicants, typically those who are at the bottom of the acceptable range. It sounds like Smith, which is need-sensitive for just 5% of applicants, is one example. So a student who, statistically, is in the upper portion of the applicant pool at a college will not be affected by the school’s need-aware admissions policy. </p>
<p>Also, certain categories of students are exempt from some colleges’ need-aware policies. At Macalester, for example (I hope my info is still current), students of color, recruited athletes, and ED applicants are excluded from the college’s need aware policy. </p>
<p>And some schools (again, Macalester is an example) that are need-aware in admissions still commit to meeting admitted students’ full financial need.</p>
<p>Momma-three, if you are still around I would love data showing that lots of wealthy families receive merit aid. (Not are offered merit aid, receive merit aid.) Forget lots of wealthy families-- even a small percentage of wealthy families. Using your definition of wealthy- 500K- 1 million in annual income.</p>
<p>I have never seen data or a study but my informal “study” indicates (small and not random sample, I know) that a wealthy family who gets a merit offer at Vanderbilt and a full pay offer at Penn or JHU goes to the higher ranked school (i.e JHU or Penn). A wealthy family deciding between merit at Villanova and full pay at Georgetown chooses Georgetown. etc. Why? because at the end of the day, a 5K or 10K discount at a school they believe is “lower” than the full pay option just isn’t worth it to them. If you’re earning 750K per year, are you really going to send your kid to Villanova for a 20K discount over 4 years? If the kid got into Georgetown?</p>
<p>Give me a break. Merit aid IS accepted by the families on the edge of full pay (i.e. who will struggle, take a second job, borrow against their life insurance, borrow against their already depleted 401K) because the difference between the full freight and the merit award is a meaningful change in their quality of life or financial security.</p>
<p>If you are a dual career couple in an expensive metro area (let’s call it Long Island or an “inside route 128” suburb of Boston) with high property taxes and expensive everything, who makes just over the cut-off for need based aid, the 5 or 10K award over 4 years is hugely meaningful.</p>
<p>But to someone earning a million $ per year? I would need data to believe it- it flies in the face of reality.</p>
<p>I agree with wjb, need aware usually occurs toward the end of the admissions cycle. When choosing between 2 similiary qualified candidates, the nod will go to the student who “needs” the least amount of the students resources.</p>
<p>I also believe that all schools to some extent do preferential packaging to attract the students that they want. Muhlenberg tells you striaght up that they use this pratice.</p>
<p>[The</a> Real Deal on Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.muhlenberg.edu/admissions/aid.html]The”>http://www.muhlenberg.edu/admissions/aid.html)</p>
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<p>I agree with you. D has quite a few friends who turned down merit $$ to be full payers at their school. One of my D’s very good friends and her sister both turned down substantial merit $$ to be full pay at their school (dad was an alum - family has major $$ we are talking about building named after the family , Major multimillion $ contribution to the school $$).</p>
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<p>Smith, as with all colleges, has, based on an assumed yield, a known number of students it needs to admit. After admissions reaches 95% of required admission offers, the FA office, using a complex formula and Voodoo, informs admissions how much, if any, FA money is available.The remaining admission decisions are decided accordingly. If no FA is available, the remaining admits will be full pay. This, of course, leads to a whole ‘nother’ discussion.</p>
<p>MHC is very similar.</p>
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<p>Most likely Mairin Brady. She’s a great resource, an extremely kind individual and a Bryn Mawr alumna Smith is fortunate to have her.</p>