<p>Of course, the key issue isn’t whether BU gave her more grants than UMiami did, because in the end the real answer is what will her family’s out of pocket expenses be at each school? UMiami with $13730 might well come out a lot better on the bottom line than the more than double that award at very, very expensive BU (located in very expensive Boston, upping the cost of everything not included in COA.)</p>
<p>OT: (Sort of)</p>
<p>Apples to apples (after equalizing books, transportation,incidentals/personal and computer) the FA award subtracted from COA (from their websites) leaves $24,390 at Miami and $6,700 at BU. </p>
<p>Very, very expensive BU is $51,100 and UMiami (equalized) is $49,620. 
I’ve been crunching numbers all night.</p>
<p>My point in posting was to show the variance that could be there, not so much to compare schools.</p>
<p>Oops. Cross-eyed from calculating. My last post was correct. My first post on this point should have said the UMiami grant was $16,730 as they divided the grant into an A $13,730 and a B $3,000. So the grant differential was $16,700 to $33,900. Time for coffee. Or maybe sleep.</p>
<p>IMO, it’s all about total COA (“all in” including travel) less scholarships/grants = self help – which is the only number that counts. </p>
<p>Just to add in another data point: neighbor kid earned one of those really nice scholarships from Miami, but zero additional need-based aid. George Washington, the most expensive school in the country, came up with more money in scholarships & grants (hard to tell how much of it is need-based on the Finaid award letter). As a result, GW is significantly cheaper than our state public flagship, while Miami is still more expensive.</p>
<p>Based on what I have seen, it is very simple; It all depends on how much a particular school wants a student.</p>
<p>Just adding to the last 2 posts. We had some financial aid offers that met more need for our older son coming from schools that meet on average 85% of need vs. a couple of schools that meet more than 90% of need on average. These are just averages, so of course this could happen. I also want to add that one school that meets on average 65% of need offered need was right on target. We learned to just scratch off schools that meet less than 80% of need if our younger son is not going to be in the running for a significant merit award. I know he could hit the wild card and get a good package from such a school, but it is not worth the application to us.</p>
<p>Curm, Congratulations to your niece on that package from BU!</p>
<p>BIG SURPRISE #1: Understanding what EFC actually means
Financial Aid is not intended to help you pay your EFC. It is assumed you will pay the EFC in full out of your pocket. The remainder you will owe, after you have paid your EFC, is called need. This is the target number the college uses to figure how much need-based financial aid you may qualify for. Doesn’t mean they will give you anywhere near that much, however, which creates the “gap”.</p>
<p>BIG SURPRISE #2: Loans and jobs are considered financial aid
Chances are, your college will include offers of loans as part of their financial aid package to help you pay your “need”. Work-study, where the student holds down a part-time job, is also considered financial aid, even though your student is working for and earning the money.</p>
<p>BIG SURPRISE #3: Outside scholarships may actually reduce your financial aid.
Say your kid is industrious and gets a number of small scholarships through your high school, home community, and your place of business. It is likely your college has a formula whereby all or a portion of those outside scholarship funds will be used to reduce the amount of money the college will give you. Look carefully on the financial aid section of the college website for the statement of how they deal with outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Fortunately for those who read & heed the sage advice on CC, the above won’t be surprises …</p>
<p>I’m only on page 2 of this thread, and I’m loving it!</p>
<p>jmmom, post #19, I couldn’t agree more! Very well said. THE dream school is much like having a crush on one of the Jonas brothers!</p>
<p>huguenot, post #22, I love your recommended approach with the kids. Someone advised me to do this very thing two years ago. It has worked well in our family this year.</p>
<p>One question though … why do people think it’s such a bad idea to apply to one financial/admissions safety and then 5 other private schools, or what have you?</p>
<p>If your kid knows the rules … that his safety has to be a realistic “match” and somewhere that has a good “fit” for him and where he will be ultimately happy to attend should the private colleges not work out, be it admissions or financials … then what’s the big deal?</p>
<p>Why isn’t it okay to reach for the other schools, whether they’re admissions-reaches or hoping-for-scholarships-reaches, as long as the kids knows that in the end, he may well end up at the safety, and he has to like it? I don’t see a problem with that approach.</p>
<p>I see no problem with it. As long as the kid is covered & knows the rules, it’s not a problem in my opinion.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with the one public financial safety approach–except that way too many kids tack on the financial safety without bothering with the “has to like it” part.</p>
<p>I just served on a committee to award some relatively sizeable private music scholarships and not one of the students had FAFSA info which was required on the app. They had applied and been accepted to some very good and pricey schools but none of them had applied for federal aid - effectively making our scholarship a drop in the proverbial bucket. </p>
<p>I could not counsel them financially or withhold funds based on the likelihood of their being able to attend the music school they listed on their application for lack of funds or to apply funds based on need - this was a merit scholarship, but I did remind them that they should have their parents fill out these forms.</p>
<p><em>I</em> however did not fill them out for my son. Every worksheet we used told me it would be futile. We are retired, with no income to speak of - but our assets are deemed to be saleable and enough to send our kid to college. They are, of course, but who knows if they <em>will</em> be, and we have lost about a 3rd of our worth in the past month, making paying for a college a bigger drain than we had expected it to be.</p>
<p>Luckily our son has school options and had cast a wide net with our encouragement. The 7 schools to which he is accepted range in cost from $12,000 (incl R&B) to $48,000. We don’t know, yet, where he will go - it will have to be a joint decision, though, in this age of financial insecurity for us.</p>
<p>I feel sorry for those who have not thought this through and sure do hope they researched some true financial safeties at which their child could be happy.</p>
<h1>theorymom - if your income is not high you may find that FAFSA does not take into account your assets at all. If your AGI is under $50k and you are eligible to file a 1040a or 1040ez return your assets will be ignored by the EFC formula.</h1>
<p>I was very clear with dd that, yes, she could apply to NYU, but they had a track record of gapping. This message was repeated after she got in and after they asked her to provide documentation on her national merit status and after they wrote to say they were giving her some merit money because of national merit. When we got the letter from them that claimed they were meeting full need, I had to point out that it was with significant loans - thus far higher costs to her and/or parents than other schools. She went to a wonderful institution with much better fa where she is happy and learning well.</p>
<p>To be more analytical, the process worked fine because a) we knew enough about fa in planning where to apply, and b) dd was prepared with regard to a school she liked a lot but which often does not give all that much toward coa except for loans that added up to a whole lot of money which would ultimately burden her and affect her future choices.</p>
<p>swimcat
thanks so much
but
no we can’t file those tax forms. Believe me I have looked into as many options as I know of. The fact that our savings/investments are not stable makes no difference with regard to FAFSA as far as I can determine. It is what it is and any other time we would be OK with paying our kid’s way - but times right now are uncertain - and when you have no income, you have to be cautious. We are in OK shape though and our son has quite a few schools to choose from, cost-wise as well. We will be able to get er done, one way or another, unlike some.</p>
<p>Another big surprise to many is that EFC may not mean a thing. Not one danged thing for your family if it does not qualify your child for the PELL or other low income government grants. The EFC is NOT the number that you end up paying in 99.999% of the cases. It’s just what FAFSA thinks you should be paying which may or may not have any relationship to what any particular college believes. Those colleges that go by FAFSA only, do not fund need up to EFC except in very rare cases. So EFC can be a useless, useless number.</p>
<p>Interesting for us was that our out-of-pocket costs at different schools ranged from either 10K less than our FAFSA EFC to $12-15K more. Only one school came in close to the EFC on a net basis. Coming up with the EFC as calculated by FAFSA is a challenge, adding $12-15K a year on top of that seems huge. It looks like home equity may have been the kicker for a number of the private schools – we worked hard to pay off all our mortgage debt before D went to college, so they see it as a huge resource pool. We’re not feeling too good about that.</p>
<p>I realize this thread is old…That said, the information is so helpful.
There are students of 2011/2015 who are wrestling with the fin aid issues now–in May…
Perhaps the 2012/2016 will benefit by reading this before the apps go in this summer/fall.</p>
<p>All I can say is, thank God for CC. I knew nothing about fin aid for D (college class of 2015 - hence my screen name). I told GC a year ago that I would need financial aid. She gave me a blank stare. No suggestions, no books to read, no websites to go. That’s when I found CC. I live in a very affluent town, and there is no one I could ask (talking about money “just isn’t done.”). </p>
<p>She ended up with: $12K in merit awards at one school; $26K from another school, and of course, virtually nothing from the school she really wanted to go. Decision mode.</p>
<p>With S (HS Class of 2014) I will be MUCH better prepared. Lining up “financial safeties” now.</p>
<p>To the new folks scrolling thru this thread - a basic but often overlooked point: It’s not how much aid you get. It’s how much the college ends up COSTING you, net of aid.</p>
<p>We know a family whose son got offered $4k at a $34k college. He also got offered $13k at a $49k university. They told us he was going to the $49k univ because “they gave him more money.” The fact that the university (net cost $36k) actually cost them $6k/year MORE than the college ($30k) didn’t really register with them - they were impressed with the “big” merit scholarship. </p>
<p>Now if there are other factors involve - location, size, reputation, particular academic program, reputation, etc - that’s fine. But keep in mind that less expensive colleges often give out less money in aid, and end up with the same cost of attendance. Its your cost of attendance you really need to watch.</p>