Should merit award impact "need based" aid?

Parent Cafe
501

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<p>We did, but that was only because EFC > COA so we weren’t getting any need-based aid.</p>

502

<p>As I noted in Post #301 & #302 my interpretation of how Lafayette College works thier merit aid is as follows:

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<p>In the last case the EFC is certainly reduced.</p>

503

<p>So I now sum this up that merit awards will not reduce EFC unless the merit award is larger than than the family’s FA package would have been anyway.</p>

<p>A full-pay family gets dollar for dollar COA discounting.</p>

<p>A “light need” family with demonstrated need (say $10k) less than merit award (say $15k) essentially converts to dollar for dollar COA discounting.</p>

<p>Any “heavy need” family with FA higher than merit award gets more limited benefit of loans to grants etc., BUT no EFC reduction.</p>

<p>And the hope that merit awards will increase a college’s overall FA package is misguided: colleges will simply re-jigger the components of the FA package (more grant, less loan) in arriving at “blackbox” FA determinations.</p>

504

<p>WOW - after 7 days and 503 posts on this thread - Clueless finally gets it. Will wonders ever cease :)</p>

505

<p>Maybe congratulating him rather than insulting him might be a consideration?</p>

506

<p>^^That’s OK, I expected nothing different given Dingle’s impressive familiarity with *Glenn Beck’s *:eek: literary oeuvre.</p>

<p>Dingle’s real issue is that he doesn’t accept that colleges should do a better job DISCLOSING merit + FA interaction on the off chance other families are as clueless as I am. We disagree, although I apparently am not permitted to hold an opinion running contrary to Dingle’s veritas.</p>