The truth about financial aid

Colleges and Universities A-Z Davidson College
1

<p>If you read my other post, you know that I discovered that financial aid at one of the most generous colleges in the country wasn't as ideal as I thought it would be. However, I also discovered that it wasn't that bad. I wanted to write a brief, frank notice about financial aid at schools like Davidson as somebody who FINALLY got through the process (Davidson 2015!)</p>

<p>In this VERY simple model, there are three types of families:</p>

<p>STABLE families have practically unlimited assets when it comes to education, which means that a member of the family could go through private undergrad as well as private graduate (masters and/or doctorate) with little difficulty.</p>

<p>SHAKEABLE families are the next lowest group. These are the people with REAL financial needs (need will be discussed later) of about 10k-45k worth of financial aid at schools like Davidson. Students in this family would receive none or barely any need-based aid at flagship state universities.</p>

<p>NEEDY families are the lowest group. They need just about all of price paid for them at davidson, and would receive hefty package at state universities as well.</p>

<p>Find what group you're in, then look below for a reasonable-<em>ish</em> guess about what will happen to you at Davidson Financial aid:</p>

<p>Stable families: No aid. Possibly merit scholarships, if lucky.</p>

<p>Shakeable families: Your financial aid package from Davidson (and other schools) won't quite meet your full need. You will appeal the financial aid office, most likely get a firm "no" back on any changes, and then realize that the only way to afford Davidson will be taking out private loans. You may be crestfallen at this revelation, until you realize that because of the way financial aid is calculated in this country, this will happen to you at most flagship state universities as well. This is a practice known as "gapping":</p>

<p>Gapping is when private colleges (or the federal government, unintentionally) gives you a too-high efc with the expectation that you will magically find the money to fill the "gap" in between your demonstrated need and actual need. At most private colleges, this would mean you would have to take out loans in additional to the loans already included in your financial aid package. At public universities and at Davidson, loans used to fill the <em>gap</em> will be the first loans you have, so both of these options will STILL BE CHEAPER, even with loans.</p>

<p>Needy families: Your problem basically solves itself. You get near a full package at Davidson, and a few extra hours of work/study will probably take care of you.</p>

<p>Conclusion:</p>

<p>"No-loan" schools are a myth unless they were already extraordinarily cheap to begin with. It is unlikely that we will see any type of expensive college or university (other than the 3 big ivies with their massive endowments) with a true no-loan system in the near future. However, it is still obviously true that LESS LOANS is better than MORE LOANS, so don't freak out when you realize you're going into debt, because it's the amount you'll get is entirely manageable and just about as much as the state university you have your eyes on a financial alternative.</p>

<p>I felt like honest statements like these were missing, so I decided to write one. Feel free to critique.</p>

2

<p>I have a daughter at Davidson who is a junior. I guess that we would be classified as “Shakeable” from your post. We are middle class and would have great difficulty paying the full price of a private college such as Davidson. I have to say that my daughter applied to many schools and recieved the best package from Davidson. When they say “no loans”, they mean that they offer grants, student employment, but no loans. We have been overwhelmingly pleased with our aid from Davidson. This is the first year that I have two in college and we are pleased with both aid packages, althought the private college that our other child is attending offered loans with their also generous aid package. I suppose that if we hadn’t saved anything for college, we would need to take out loans, but we feel we are getting the amazing education of Davidson college at a very reasonable cost. We have scrimped and saved for many years, knowing college was coming and were hoping that we would not need to take out loans. If my children were to attend our state universities, we would be paying more. I’m not sure if this information helps, but I wanted to stress Davidson’s amazing financial aid. My daughter will be very sad to graduate and leave Davidson next year.</p>

3

<p>I thought Davidson had incredible merit scholarships for a number of top students. Isn’t that true? It seems that some scholarships will cover tuition and some even cover room and board, as well. Am I correct in this understanding?</p>

4

<p>I’m the parent of a Davidson freshman, but by no means an expert. That said, I think Davidson has a relatively limited number of merit scholarships available. However, since it provides 100% need-based aid, I think that for many students fortunate enough to be accepted this means a better financial aid packege than from other schools that give out lots of “merit” aid. At least this was the case for my son.</p>

5

<p>Hi aagdad,</p>

<p>Did your son apply for some of the merit scholarships or was the f aid offer good enough without them? I think our family’s EFC is quite a bit more than we could come up with (something like 10-11K) and we don’t want debt, or very little debt, after college.</p>

6

<p>I’d rather not go into his specific situation. But I can say that while Davidson also uses the CSS Profile to determine aid, his need-based award was based on an expected contribution reasonably consistent with the FAFSA EFC, so I suppose you may find that if you can’t meet your EFC without loans you’ll need some sort of merit aid to graduate with little to no debt.</p>

<p>As I said before, while I don’t know for certain, I have the impression that merit aid is not widely awarded at Davidson. I would contrast it with a school like Northeastern, for example, where it seems like quite a few accepted students are offered some amount of merit aid (but, at least in our experience, where the net cost can still be much higher than at a school like Davidson).</p>

7

<p>Thanks, aagdad. I’ll look into Davidson’s merit aid some more.</p>