I now have two daughters accepted at MHC this year, and their net costs ended up being identical, even though they got different merit amounts.
I will add that while we believe the net cost is still reasonable considering the quality of the education, it will cost more than several other offers one of my daughters received. For example, Ohio Wesleyan & Goucher both offered more aid (merit & need combo) and had a lower starting cost by several thousand dollars. It was also a significantly BETTER package than Hobart & William Smith. Although my D received the maximum merit offered there the need-based offer was unimpressive, and it’s got a high starting cost – about $65k.
@klingon97 , what do you mean they expected you to take a large percentage of loans? Every package we have received (11 schools so far) has included the standard $5500 in Fed loans, but that’s the only loan ever mentioned.
At least one of my Ds will be attending MHC – she applied ED, I’d run the NPC, & we knew what we were getting into. It’s the right school for her so I have zero regrets. D2 still is waiting to hear on a decision from 1 school and for the FA packages from a few.
@Pheebers What I meant is that MHC offered $5500 in loans. Three of my colleges offered only grants, having a no loans policy. Smith only packaged $2500 in loans with the rest being grants.
Ah, thanks. All of ours were $5500 so it didn’t occur to me that you could have less than that in Fed loans, which to me are the “okay” type of student loan (if you have to have one at all, that is). Nice to hear that Smith is good that way. What did you end up choosing?
My daughter’s aid package is about 6K less than what the net price calculator had suggested it would be (and her package includes a 15K leadership award) I am unsure if we should appeal or not- we don’t have the money or equity, but there are always bigger loans than we had hoped to take as an option. If we did want to appeal, is there a how-to guide somewhere someone can recommend?
I suspect in our case what MAY be a factor is my 22 yr old son was not a dependent last year on our tax documents, but he moved home last Nov and is now a full time student and dependent. I’m not sure that was accurately reflected though considering he wasn’t a dependent student the previous year, this is all new for 2016.
@vavoom That can make a MAJOR difference, especially if you are paying tuition for him or other expenses. I would write to the college and advise them of this change. If you are paying tuition, advise them of how much.