<p>hey.. if anyone can clarify I'd appreciate it a lot.
swarthmore says that, due to whatever, some people may receive financial aid with incomes over 100,000 and some may not with incomes under 60,000.
can someone tell me what this means? my parents are inclined to believe that they don't give aid if your "too poor," but I don't want to assume that, since i'm sure I read somewhere that they give 100% help with demonstrated need.
please help me.</p>
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<p>Seems to me that Swarthmore left themselves wiggle room to get out of giving to much aid, I don’t have proof of that but their statement would lead me to believe that. don’t forget college is a business and they want to make money, the less they give, the more they make. But you should still try to get something from them.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is a full-need school. They have a large endowment and are extremely generous. If you are accepted (that’s the hardest part!) and your family has financial need they will meet it. </p>
<p>Where did you see that a family with an income under 60,000$ might not qualify for aid? It seems unlikely to me that a family with that income wouldn’t qualify, unless they have millions of dollars in assets.</p>
<p>This sounds strange to me…every thing I have ever seen from Swarthmore encourages high-achieving low-income students to apply.</p>
<p>What Swat means is that while income is the main factor considered when developing FA packages, it is not the only one. Assets also are counted, as can be other factors such as the number of children in college, tuition for private HS, etc. And if a student’s parents have a business, that can really complicate FA calculations and make them difficult to predict. </p>
<p>This is not unique to Swat, all Profile schools function this way and what each college counts and how they calculate need varies and can result in a wide range of FA packages, both in the total amount and the balance between loans, WS and grants.</p>
<p>Colleges often give examples of FA packages for various income levels on their website, but these are only samples and do not take into consideration many financial factors that will be used when a school calculates FA for you.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure where your parents got this idea, usually families don’t get need based FA because they are too rich. The poorer you are, the more need you have and the more FA you should receive. However, you need to be very careful because many colleges leave a ‘gap’ between your need and the FA they give you. And even those schools that provide 100% of need may give you a large amount of FA in the form of loans.</p>
<p>Whenever possible, use the FA calculator provided by the school, or use the generic ones on the CB or other sites to get some idea of where you stand.</p>
<p>x-posted w/50itn40</p>
<p>drinksuited, are you aware of the Questbridge scholarship program?</p>