Smith is generous with financial aid? What?!

<p>According to FAFSA, my family has an EFC of 0. So I definitely expected more from Smith College (which people have been telling me is very generous). I'm expecting more financial aid awards this coming week, so I'm a bit worried that they're all going to be equally inadequate. </p>

<p>This is what they gave me:
$3500/year in federal loans
And another ~$44000/year in Pell Grant, Work/Study, and College Grant</p>

<p>That's around $47,500/year. </p>

<p>However, according to this link: <a href="http://www.smith.edu/sfs/accounts_tuition.php"&gt;http://www.smith.edu/sfs/accounts_tuition.php&lt;/a>, the total cost of attendance is at least $61,806 a year. </p>

<p>So basically, if I decide to attend Smith (which is practically impossible now), not only will I have more than $12k in loans to pay back by the end of my undergrad career, but my parents also have to pay ~$14k/year out of pocket?!</p>

<p>Is this the best that a college who claims to "meet full need" can do?</p>

<p>does your family have any assets or savings documented with the css profile that could have increased your EFC? the css profile takes way more into account. my financial aid at one school almost completely matched my fafsa efc, but that’s because my family has literally zero in savings and no assets. </p>

<p>I had to deal with the same thing, which is why I said no ED. My EFC at Carleton was HALF of what it was at Smith ($15,000 vs $7,500), and Tulane gave me a EFC of $360. Smith was not generous, and even when I contacted them, they said there was nothing they could do. </p>

<p>@koalathebear - They said there was nothing they could do?! Wow. When I went for the Women of Distinction program in November, the financial aid head told us that aid was always something that could be talked about. I guess they literally meant “talk” and nothing else. Yes, I did plan on calling them in the unlikely event that I’d still consider going (Smith was never a top choice for me). I’m just waiting on my other schools.</p>

<p>BTW, congrats on Carleton (and Tulane)! I would choose it over Smith in a heartbeat!</p>

<p>I understand your situation and empathize, but please understand that schools have but so much money. And, really, they are under no obligation to use your meaning generous. Attending a school is not a right, it is a privilege. They may have done the best they could given what they have. </p>

<p>It is not like you received nothing. Financing school is like buying a house; sometimes the finances work out, sometimes they do not. However, the bank is under no obligation to be generous to you in the way you think they should. </p>

<p>Again, I understand how you feel, and being upset about possibly not being able to go is natural. </p>

<p>On top of the tuition/fee charged by Smith, you need also add other charges such as books/supplies and transportation, which could be amount to several thousands.</p>

<p>@awcntdb
I understand what you’re saying, and I’m okay with crossing Smith off the list. But Smith is a college who claims to “meet full need.” And giving me such a big gap is not the DEFINITION of meeting full need. I guess I just wanted to get the message across to other prospective students that Smith is not generous, as many people make them out to be.</p>

<p>@absentions: yeah, my dad talked about his student loans and I commented on my mom’s chronic health issues, and even though my dad wrote on the noncustodial parent profile that he would only pay $5,000, they ignored that. I was able to get $2,000 more.</p>

<p>Meets full need does not mean free ride. Your federal loans would probably be close to $20,000 over 4 years as they are for my daughters. Something in your CSS makes the financial aid officers think that you and your parents can dig deep and come up with close to $14,000 in the first year between selling off assets, taking personal loans and your possibly working during the summer. I found that Smith was relatively generous but expected me to give up every penny I had and then some to send them. A generous financial aid which a package of over $47,000 is - does not mean that you and family can expect to experience no pain.</p>

<p>One of the big deficiencies in rating colleges as “generous” in financial aid is that we cannot compare what college give in aid with a standard measure in place. A school that meets 100% of need of all of it’s applicants looks really good, but that “NEED” is defined by the school itself and if that school defines need at half of what other schools do, that really isn’t so great. It would help if comparisons use the FAFSA EFC as the standard. That way one can see what a school gives relative to a very standard measure. It would still be off in cases where there is a huge disconnect between the Fafsa and PROFILE methodology results but we could then compare those PROFILE schools better among themselves. This measuring up to ones own standards can get ridiculous, and it 's disgraceful how far these schools go,taking advantage of things like this. </p>

<p>I found that Smith has given me the least amount of need based money of every other school that guarantees to meet 100% all need. My family could not even afford to keep our house without taking out money from taxes, and I was given much more from other schools. Additionally, Smith did not put costs such as books, travel, etc. in the total cost, unlike every other school, meaning all my work study would have gone to paying JUST my tuition/room and board. I would have had to have two jobs and gone over $40,000 in debt. I found that Smith was unhelpful and unwilling to really look at my need, whereas other schools such as Carleton and Tulane were more generous and more realistic. I was in love with Smith, but I was unwilling to be the poor student when I’ve already been the poor kid my entire life. Smith was completely unrealistic with their financial aid.</p>

<p>And as far as “no pain”, when your family literally cannot pay bills and is forced to take money out of retirement to have electricity (I would also like to note that I did not have heat at all this winter because our heater broke and we couldn’t afford to fix it) and your mother has to take anxiety medication to deal with money at all, $15,000 (a third of our income for 6) was not something we could even remotely afford.</p>

<p>The Smith financial aid that I saw online is the worst financial aid package I’ve received so far. I’m hoping they made a mistake or that there will be some surprise in the mail packet saying that they’ll actually give me more aid. My English teacher warned me that Smith is “for the rich” and now I understand why they have this reputation. I am incredibly in love with the Smith though so I’m going to call them and see if they will reconsider. I can’t imagine that they really found undiscovered ability for me to pay in my CSS profile. </p>

<p>Listening to NPR this morning, they said that the average gap between loans, grants etc in the financial aid package is $9000. Life isn’t fair and going to a top LAC like Smith is by definition for the few. That said, Smith gave my girls the best financial package not counting the local public college. The cost came to less than going to state college - not free but a good value. I think most of you will go college even if not to your first choice much luckier than those who can’t afford it all.</p>

<p>Koalathbear, was your non-custodial father required to a submit a CSS/ financial aid profile? I wouldn’t be at all surprised Smith determined he is able to pay more than $5,000.00.</p>

<p>Yes, but no other school determined that he could pay that much. My parents on that side are in horrible amounts of debt. When it came down to it, Smith expected me to pay double what other schools such as Carleton, Scripps, and Tulane were asking.</p>

<p>In the end you take the best offer because those are the schools that want you more. Grants are an entitlement and not a right - the schools are entitled to pick the students that meet their profile.</p>

<p>Someone else said it but it bears repeating: “Need” does not equal “free ride.” $20K in student loans for over four years is reasonable. Furthermore, families need to do one of two things: save money so that they can contribute or else borrow…Financial Aid looks at your family income and doesn’t reward you for not saving. I say this as someone who hadn’t saved…over four years, we had to borrow $75K. Best money ever spent with the possible exception of our home and there are days I look at where my D has gone after Smith and I’m not sure about that exception. (Our loan balance is now down to under $49K, calloo! callay!)</p>