<p>Hello. My third and final child has been accepted to a very nice LAC with a very generous need based package. I'm a little confused as I did not expect any need based aid. We are two very hard-working parents who earn a decent income. We are in that spot, like so many others, where $60,000/year is a huge amount of money, but our EFC is decent. The school retrieved all our tax returns, etc... via IDOC-so I don't think there was a mistake. </p>
<p>I want to contact FA, but I'm not sure how to approach them. Are FA awards generally the same for all four years? Is it possible a mistake was made? </p>
<p>She is a great student. One theory I have is that she did not qualify for a scholarship because their award was heavily based on community service. She did very little simply because no one was ever around to drive her anywhere and we live in a very rural area. Maybe this school really wants her to attend but couldn't justify a scholarship because she really didn't qualify? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Could be.</p>
<p>It is OK to give them a ring, express your appreciation for their generosity, and ask whether you can expect the same level of aid in future years provided that nothing changes significantly in your financial situation. You also could verify whether or not any of this package is merit-based, and if so, whether or not your daughter would need to maintain a certain GPA in order to continue to receive that share of the money.</p>
<p>You mentioned this is your third child. Are there others in school now - or are they done? If you have another in school now - part of the aid could be because of that since the the EFC is split equally between all children in college. If that is the case - EFC would go up when the other child is done with school and some or all of the aid could then go away. Not all schools do this - but some do. Son 2 was given good aid at one school this year - but when I asked about next year when my other is done - I was told we would probably get none, and if we did we would be lucky to get $1000. We had to take this school off our list, because while I can swing it this year - we wouldn’t be able to swing the extra $s the next 3 years. (The first son doesn’t cost us anything, so while the school for the second son assumes we will have money from son 1 to fund son 2 going forward -there is no money that we would be saving that we could redirect to son 2.)</p>
<p>NJmissy brought up so issues. Also, bear in mind that there are schools that have hybrid products that are “merit within need”. In such awards, if you qualify for a dollar of need, you can get the whole pot, since having need is the only condition to be eligible for such awards. Your DD may have gotten one of those awards.</p>
<p>Thank you for your responses. I will have no other children in college next year. My oldest daughter graduated two years ago and her employer is paying for her Masters degree. My son graduates this year. They do both/will live at home, but they’re old!</p>
<p>The more I read on this board, the more confused I am. There is no justification for this award. She received no other need-based money from any other schools although she did receive merit money from all. This school is a solid match for her. Maybe even a safety although, again, from reading these boards, I knew to take nothing for granted. </p>
<p>This is my first experience with a private school. I definitely have to talk to them. Now I just have to figure out how to approach it! I would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you again.</p>
<p>Does this school use PROFILE and the others use FAFSA? What is your EFC? What is the cost of the school? </p>
<p>You can ask the school if this is a need based award and if you have to file fin aid forms each year to be eligible for it. If it has even a smidgeon of need based critieria in it , the answer would be that you would. IF it’s purely merit, you likely will not have to do so. But there are a lot of hybrid awards cropping up these days. Some are scholarships that do take into consideration family financials but are not bound by fin ed rules as they are in the merit category, but the scholarships us some compenent of need or lower income in making the award. Like if you are rich beyond rich, you get a zero in the need category, if Pell eligible a zero, and people in between get rated accordingly. So need and income do have a bearing but do not exclude the Trump kids even entirely; they just get a zero in that category which will handicap them in the totals, whereas your DD could be given a 2 or 3 even though the family does not qualify for need purely from the virtue of being one of the lower income families applying for the award.</p>
<p>A question to ask while you are calling is what the conditions are for this award to be renewed each year. Are FAFSA filings, GPA minimums in the picture?</p>
<p>All the schools were profile schools and this school also got our financial information through IDOC. Our EFC is $56,000. The title of the award included the word “grant” which according to the definitions included in the packet is clearly need based.</p>
<p>As I said earlier, this is my first private school experience. I just don’t know what to think! Somehow I need to determine if this award will be available for the other three years. Honestly, even if they just give us a little more than 1/2 for the other three it will equal what the others schools offered in merit aid.</p>