<p>Southwestern University in Texas (just outside of Austin) has an application deadline of February 1 and offers merit aid.</p>
<p>Alright–I heard from my mom who heard from my dad briefly that Swarthmore “basically told us that the NPC was wrong, and that we could put this in writing if we wanted to pursue this further.” </p>
<p>And that’s it, haha.</p>
<p>As far as the guidance counselor goes, just to give you an idea of what we’re working with, I once had to explain what an SAT Subject Test was to him. The counseling staff would be great if I was looking in-state or at local public university, but they’ve got very little experience working with anything else.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your input!! This has been a tremendous help so far.</p>
<p>And I found this on the Kenyon’s page:</p>
<p>“Academic Scholarship Deadlines
There is no deadline for academic scholarship consideration other than regular admission application deadlines with the exception of the Studio Art and Music Scholarships, for which the deadline is December 15.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Okay, then you’ll need to advocate for yourself. Draft a short, polite email explaining the delayed FA notification from Swarthmore and requesting an extension of School X’s application deadline.</p>
<p>As far as following up with Swarthmore, I think you should, even if it seems futile.</p>
<p>When you have your own business or have other situations not addressed in the NPC, it can be wrong. What is the OP’s EFC? That give one an idea of what other factors are being taken into consideration that FAFSA does not. Without getting an offer from a like school, it’s difficult to say whether this will be typical of other financial aid packages or not. Like it or not, for most families, Swarthmore’s financial aid packages are generous. It meets full need as it is defined by that school, and though, granated, they may ask for more information and take those things into accout that other full need met schools do not, there aren’t that many schools that do meet need at the level that Swarthmore does. Look at the rankings for net cost and you can see that. If Swarthmore does not come up with ANY need for the OP during ED, I would not feel confident that like schools are going to come up with a whole lot different in the analysis. Going the merit route is the best way to go or finding an affordable school. Even without the deadlines, I would not recommend the OP to fill his basket with schools similar to Swarthmore and take the chance that they will do better in financial aid awards.</p>
<p>Check out this page, which show the requirements for each merit scholarship. Several of the merit awards do have a 12/15 deadline (like the 1/2 and full tuition scholarships).</p>
<p>[Academic</a> Scholarships - Admissions & Aid - Kenyon College](<a href=“http://www.kenyon.edu/x10027.xml]Academic”>http://www.kenyon.edu/x10027.xml)</p>
<p>I also agree that you should email each college you want to apply to and explain the situation, and ask if you could please have a one week extension on the application date. But… I seem to remember that the Common App blocks applying after the due date in some cases (someone had trouble with this earlier this year, but I don’t know the details, it wasn’t actually my kid). So if this happens, you will need to ask the college for help on how to get your application submitted.</p>
<p>My mother just wrote up a draft for an email to send to Swarthmore. This should also give you a better explanation of my situation. Thoughts?</p>
<p>"Yesterday we received our Financial Aid information and to say we were shocked and disappointed would be a complete understatement. After months of searching for that just right college, our son, Isaiah, chose Swarthmore. It seemed like a good fit for him; based on all web sites, comments from present & past students and any college books we read. We were unsure about the cost, but after hearing Swarthmores financial aid package was excellent and after 3 attempts at doing the online estimator and each time receiving information that we would receive roughly $35,000.00 ~ we told him to go ahead and do the early decision.
He is an excellent student, did well on his ACTs & extremely self-motivated and driven, we thought he would have no trouble being accepted anywhere, but he kept saying No, no, I wont. It is tough out there. We were thrilled to learn he had been accepted. We had sent in our tax information on time, but because our business is on a fiscal year, we did not have the most current year documents until December 15. I immediately mailed them in, but the financial aid office was closed by then and would not reopen until January 2. Isaiah was extremely nervous about this because the deadline to apply for other schools was January 2. Yet, since he did early decision and was accepted, he was told he could not apply to others schools.
When we received news of absolutely no assistance, we were stunned. I am unclear how things could be so completely different. How could we go from receiving $35,000 to ZERO? I read the letters that he received and the questions from the FA office, but still do not understand. Just looking at the tax papers, I am unclear as well. I am hoping that you can clear it up for us.
Granted, 2012 was an excellent year for our business. Sadly (or fortunately) the best year we have ever had. Not so good for financial assistance, apparently. But even after saying that, and looking at our bottle line #16 on the Business Farm Supplement there is absolutely no way we could afford to send him to Swarthmore. </p>
<pre><code> I realize you have a formula which you use to calculate the need. Here is the formula that I have: $200,000.00
</code></pre>
<p>[here, my mom breaks down in brief categories where we’ve budgeted our money, to show how there’s no way to fit in $60,000 tuition]</p>
<p>And this is having our strongest year ever. Last year, as you can see was $180,000. The year before that was $160,000.00. We were finally able to start saving for the boys and help our oldest one with his schooling. We had told Isaiah we would be able to do $20,000, as long as the business continues doing well. He would then have to be responsible for the remaining balance. We thought that would roughly be $10,000 per year be it from work or loans. As you can clearly see, there is absolutely no way we could afford $60,000.00.
Now we are in panic mode as he missed the deadline of Jan. 2, and today is the other deadline for the rest of the schools. He has missed the deadline on any honors scholarships.
He is completely devastated and upset. How can the online estimator be so inaccurate? Would you be willing to plug our figures into this yourself and see what you come up with?
Our business is an S-corp one and as such we cannot individually withdraw monies we may need for our personal use. Each member of the s-corp would need to do this and take their percentage. If we did this to pay for the tuition, we would not have any monies in our business and as such would no longer be able to continue to HAVE a business.<br>
I realize this information is not new to you; we are just extremely frustrated and unsure of what to do next. If you have suggestions as to how we could get this unknown $30,000+ out of our budget, I would gladly love to learn how to save that money. And there is no way we would take out loans for the additional $120,000.00+ to send our child to school, after searching for the original $120,000.00 anticipating 4+ years, so this is not an option.
We hope that you will look at the documents once more, try the online estimator and reconfigure the amounts. If there are any discrepancies, please contact us immediately and we will try to clear them up. If you need additional documents; let us know.
Thank you for your time in this matter. We do appreciate it."</p>
<p>Last year, as you can see was $180,000. The year before that was $160,000.00.</p>
<p>With either income, the NPC never should have indicated a family contribution of only about $25k unless Swat gives aid like HYP, which I dont think it does.</p>
<p>For a regular “good aid” CSS school, the family contribution would be full pay or near full pay with that income.</p>
<p>What numbers did you put in that NPC, OP? Your family has two in college? I don’t see how you got the number you did, given your mother’s information. What is your brother’s college giving him in terms of financial aid?</p>
<p>[Short</a> Registration](<a href=“Colleges with Great Financial Aid | The Princeton Review”>Colleges with Great Financial Aid | The Princeton Review)</p>
<p>They were ranked #4 in financial aid!</p>
<p>My brother goes to the local state university. Probably not getting much financial aid off of the ~$20k sticker price, but I don’t think they even bothered to apply to any there.</p>
<p>This is why I hate ED. And ED2 makes it even more complicated. Each year dozens of kids I know get ED acceptances but there is some hitch with the fin aid estimates and the time just rolls on before they arrive with the holidays and most school offices closed during a crucial time in all of this. What students should be doing is being aggressive in pursuing other schools right until it is finalizied that the ED acceptance and terms are a go with the student and family. There are a handful of kids on this board at loose ends with no fin aid package and an ED acceptance in hand.</p>
<p>She can send it… but with this information, I doubt you are going to get any further with them. I’m sorry… but having strong income in an S-Corp (where the income passes through to your parents’ tax return) is a killer for need based aid at many schools. If your family genuinely can’t pay the Swat bill, then you need to put your focus on merit aid schools immediately, email those schools, and get going on the applications.</p>
<p>You might apply to U of Wisconsin-Madison, too (in state tuition for you due to reciprocity, and a very respectable academic school). I think their application is open until February 1.</p>
<p>OP,</p>
<p>I wanted to let you know that if you apply to UofMN now, even after December 1st deadline, you might still get some merit aid there.</p>
<p>I know someone who last year was dead-set on WI-Madison, while his parents really wanted him to stay in MN. So he did not apply until January to U of MN. He had comparable stats to yours. He did not receive any big scholarships, but he did receive a number of small ones - enough to cover the entire tuition. He is only responsible for room and board and books. </p>
<p>I realize that U of MN is not your first choice, but if your first choice does not work out and you don’t want to take a gap year, U of MN is an affordable option with potential merit (YMMV).</p>
<p>intparent, that’s very unfortunate to know. Thanks for the input. I have already applied to Wisconsin and have been accepted! That’s sitting on the backburner now just in case. It’s a great school but not exactly what I’m looking for.</p>
<p>lerkin, I just applied to UMN yesterday! That’s great to hear–maybe I’ll get some scholarships.</p>
<p>Isaiah, I have to say your mature attitude about this is really to be commended. I have a feeling you’ll do well wherever you end up. Good luck. :)</p>
<p>One strategy might be to find a school that would be OK for a year, with a plan to transfer next year.</p>
<p>IIRC, Whitman College and Oberlin have Jan 15 deadlines. Both VERY good schools, and I think both have merit aid.
Also Kenyon, which someone mentioned above.</p>
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<p>I would advise against this policy because transfers usually don’t receive good financial aid.</p>