@happydance22
What a dream! We applied to independents for my my eldest last year and despite vivid, horrifying dreams she was accepted to her first choice school with very generous aid.
Middle school decisions for BK2 will be released today. I am an anxious wreck. :-??
@bancqsy Good luck! I am sure your family will receive good results.
@bancqsy Thanks for the encouraging feedback. Best of luck to you! I understand how you must feel. For what it’s worth, I think you will receive good news. 
Please keep us posted!
We found that the amounts of FA offered varied greatly. I also believe that at some schools they might offer you less than you “need” if they suspect you might have other ways to pay tuition. Years ago, I remember comforting a friend who was offered less than half of what she needed for tuition for her son’s kindergarten. She was distraught and felt the admissions people were heartless. A few months later I ran into her and was surprised to hear her son was enrolled and thriving. I asked her how she managed to afford it. “Oh, my parents are paying the difference.”
I think this is a very common scenario, along with renting out the second home.
Interestingly enough the FA is what worries us the most. We completed the evaluation from PFS and the number it shoots out on what we can afford to pay for our family is unrealistic. We did the math 5 times and there is no way we can pay that much. Maybe we are wrong and our DS won’t be accepted anywhere but currently our worry is more the amount of FA we get as PFS has really soured us on the process and yes my wife has stayed awake at night as she is scared that our DS dream of attending BS will be crushed cause of the $.
@CaliMex renting out a second home?!?! Who needing FA has a second home??? How do I get in on this racket? I may have to start renting out my first home!
@buuzn03 we know a family whose home is worth 5 times the value of ours and it’s paid for and they got a lower PFS number than us.
Wow
We are actually writing an email to all of the Dean’s of FA for the school DS applied with details numbers explaining our financial situation. We will put all the cards on the table and see. We are willing to pay what we can afford and if it doesn’t work out, there is nothing we can do.
I just find it a bit unfair how some people who have their own business, pay fewer taxes then we do, can hide money and get more FA. We know one family at MX whose dad owns a construction company and is a multi-millionaire (house if more then 2.5M), who got a full ride. That isn’t right.
I’m so nervous for aid, too. Our EFC is 0, but my EFC was 0 when I applied to Culver and I still got 0 aid soo… very nervous.
@ReluctantDad just wondering if the student you are referring to ^^ received a full merit scholarship, rather than a need-based full ride. Some schools do offer merit scholarships that are given regardless of financial need - so they may end up going to kids who could be full pay.
Middlesex does not offer merit scholarships, but it is true some schools may give FP students merit scholarship and they pay nothing.
Honestly, we will see come March, but FA is our biggest fear. That said our DS might not get accepted anywhere so this might not matter.
@ReluctantDad we had no idea about the impact of needing FA our first time through. It makes me nervous for our upcoming process.
@buuzn03 First time through for me (applying to Culver) I thought needing FA would help me… because “diversity”.
Man was I wrong lol
The EFC for us ended up being around how much we were paying for siblings college, which is already putting our families expensive extremely thin. I did see that it said for ALL dependent children. So is the EFC the total for both me and my sibling tuition together, or is it just for how much my family would need to be for just me?
We called PFS and they told us it was the cumulative sum for all children not on a per child.
The EFC you are seeing right now won’t necessarily match the FA offers. One school thought we could afford $22K/year and another thought $4K was what we should pay. They were all working off of the same tax paperwork and SSS/PFC forms.
@CaliMex Thank you, this makes us fell much better.
Does anybody else go through stages of like “Oh yeah I’ve got a good chance at all of my schools” and then immediately go back into “I’m getting rejected everywhere” because I’ve been going through this lol
I’m so worried my C+ will ruin my chances even though there are reasons…