I’d like to start a discussion about schools that stack merit and need-based aid, allowing merit to cut into the EFC. Also interested in schools that have generous policies about letting outside scholarships cut into EFC.
We will have a problem meeting our EFC at many schools.
Thanks!
It does not work at my D’s school. After it offsets all loan and workstudy at a need met school without gap, we just lost the extra scholarship money (by decreasing grant). Obviously, when the scholarship(s) are sufficient to replace also all grant money, then it will decrease our EFC.
We have been very lucky at DS’s school. We can stack everything!
Usually merit stacks with merit, but a decrease in need-based grants is common.
This is very likely to be about cherry picking the kind of schools that have no reach aspects, schools that will buy those stats and be affordable will be the sort of auto tuition schools that come up again and again. Privates that offer merit are unlikely to top up to give you what you consider a platable figure. You have probably had the auto tuition schools listed for you already.
@Sybylla is correct. We have 2 kids attending on full scholarship (or close to it). They each have multiple scholarships that are allowed to stack. You typically have to go down in ranking to find schools that allow parental contribution to be reduced. Both of my kids received their scholarships from state flagship ranked around 100. They were both also awarded large $! scholarships at higher ranked schools, but the difference in costs was too large for us.
I think @mom2twogirls is looking for specific suggestions for schools that allow stacking of different forms of financial aid from different sources.
The rub is…schools don’t usually GIVE need based aid for the family contribution. They expect the family to cover that.
So…if the student receives need based aid…outside scholarships usllynreduce financial need…and therefore need based aid is reduced.
The best bet for a family who cannot pay their EFC…look for colleges where their student will get merit aid. Then take the Direct Loans to help cover the family contribution.
When you say you can’t cover the EFC, are you talking about a $70,000 college…or an instate public university…or a community college?
The Direct Loans would cover the cost of tuition at many community colleges and if they student could commute…there wouldn’t be room and board costs.
I think the only way to do it is to stack merit on merit, not on need based aid.
If the school determines your EFC is $20k, the school is going to expect you to contribute that $20k. It’s going to knock out all its aid before it touches that $20k. Knocking out loans and work study does benefit you, but that $20k is still going to be the number the school thinks you can contribute. If the COA is $40k, the school is going to think you can send in $20k. If the COA is $70k, the school is still going to think you can contribute $20k.
It’s a different @Momto2girls but I had to check myself when I saw the screen name @thumper1
(Tagged her in case she misses your great reply)
specific suggestions<<<<<<
In the context of the family having 120K income and unknown actual stats, the OP is like many of us, looking for the chupacabra of college. AFAICR OP can offer to pay just R&B type costs (10K a year). and would appear to have an EFC of several times that amount. The specific suggestion are the schools that offer auto merit to merit worthy students that are not reaches or affordable in state options. OP is looking for a unicorn. If there is one out there, I am looking for 2.
You got some good advice on your other thread…about seeking merit aid, for example.
In that thread, you said you could pay $10,000 a year. For freshman year, your daughter would be eligible for a $5500 student loan. So…you have about $15,000.
If she can find a full tuition scholarship, her costs will be covered.
I think your best bet is to spend some time looking for places where a full tuition scholarship is guaranteed. I know you said the south is not possible, but I would suggest you think about that if finances are a significant consideration.
In addition, it will be a LOT easier to know what’s a possibility for merit aid once your daughter has a real SAT or ACT score.
Thank you to the above poster for correcting my tag! Screennames were sure close!
The OP is looking, and I hope gathering information that may show she needs to change some of the requirements on her list to ‘hopes’ or ‘desires’. There are a lot of those ‘Unicorns’ out west - South Dakota School of Mines, U of Utah, Wyoming, Montana, so if the location can change, there are more options. There are some small schools trying to recover or grow that want high stats kids like Sweet Briar or Converse and will offer high merit awards to attract them.
I think a mistake some people make is not looking at their instate schools, public or private. Sometimes there are awards that can only be used instate. Going instate saves on travel costs and may save on room and board. ‘Sleep away college’ is a luxury that not everyone can afford.
The problem is this: unless your child is given an entitlement need based grant (like Pell), there probably won’t be stacking of NEED and merit and this is why…
Merit is applied first, then the school looks to see if there is still “need”. If there is no need, then there won’t be need based aid.
here are some exceptions:
Student EFC 1000…qualifies for some Pell…Student gets several merit awards that are allowed to be stacked and they meet COA…Pell will still be given on top…and it will cover that EFC.
Student EFC 4000…qualifies for some Pell, …student gets several merit awards that when totaled, meet need, then about 3000 Pell is stacked on top, cutting into EFC and leaving only 1000 to pay
These scenarios only exist because Pell is an entitlement. Students get it whether there is need or not.
You seem to be looking for a school that will give need based aid, and then will allow you to add merit to it and reduce your EFC. Schools don’t let you do that because they view that merit as reducing your need.
When people have unaffordable EFCs then they really only have about 3 options
get into a school that gives super aid, because those schools will typically determine the family contribution to be lower than FAFSA EFC
attend a school whose COA is lower than your EFC
attend a school where you receive HUGE merit (stacked or not), and when subtracted from COA, the remaining costs are less than EFC. When this happens, the student can also take an unsub 5500 loan to further reduce what parents have to pay
This family can afford $10,000 a year…they say. The student can take the Direct Loan…and work.
That should cover room/board/personal expenses.
The student needs a full tuition award to make it work.
Can the family set aside 10k each year for two years while the kiddo pays their own way through community college? Then there would be 20k available from the parents for each of the last two years (20k would go a long way at many public Us in-state). That’s pretty much how we handled it.
@Momto2girls Reading the rest of the replies you have received here and rereading your other thread, I realize now that I misunderstood your actual question. You are obviously becoming well-versed in how things work and are recognizing that what you are actually asking for, institutional grant aid that remains fixed and allows merit to stack on top of it in order to reduce parental contribution, doesn’t exist. That is the reason for the magical unicorn comment.
The only way merit will cut into the parental contribution is if it is large enough that it exceeds your need. @Mom2Collegekids is 100% correct. She laid it out clearly.
Some schools will allow merit to stack on top of merit but they are not the type of schools you are asking about. No financial expert will be able to find that bc it doesn’t exist.
Fwiw, the suggestion of Ole Miss and Croft in your other thread is a good one in terms of meeting financial and academic major goals. A Chinese flagship at an affordable price is huge! I wish we could have found an affordable Russian critical language flagship.
Merit is the only way your contribution is going to be reduced. Forget the idea that outside scholarships or institutional scholarships will stack AFTER institutional grants. Not happening.
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Can the family set aside 10k each year for two years while the kiddo pays their own way through community college? Then there would be 20k available from the parents for each of the last two years (20k would go a long way at many public Us in-state). That’s pretty much how we handled it.
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I think this family’s kids have the stats for substantial merit, so going to a CC first would ruin that. They need to find schools that will give at least free tuition for merit.
The kid is a soph/rising jr. we actually have no idea of her stats other than a 3.85 GPA. no APs. small private school which doesn’t even have them sit PSAT as a soph . If the kid’s projected SAT starts with a 14 the bun fight for merit is guaranteeing nothing. Mum projects her GPA will go up to 3.9. in normal schools the rigour of jr and sr year often means the opposite. Really, it is all abstract for the minute. This fall’s PSAT should shine some light.
I didn’t read the linked thread but UChicago stacks need with merit. Good luck with that though. Basically they gave my D her package which covered her FAFSA EFC and then some (approx $5K more) and then they twice gave her merit that added without taking away the University Grants already awarded to the tune of another $10K plus summer funding.