<p>Have been doing net price calculators for about 20 schools. S's stats make him a candidate for competitive schools with need-based aid, or merit-based aid at a less- impossible-to-get-into school. (Am not addressing the latter category here since the merit based issue is a separate one.)</p>
<p>Priorities are strong Studio Art and Math depts. He prefers a small LAC but a larger school with an honors program or residential colleges would also be wonderful. We see him going on to do a PhD but not sure in what, so keeping options open with a strong liberal arts base is the idea for now.</p>
<p>My question is, how have others found Wesleyan's financial aid? Is it lower than that of comparable schools? On net price calculators I find that Wesleyan's EFC is the highest among all the schools on our list. It is in the match category for his admissions chances.</p>
<p>Just wondering because fin aid is a big part of our decision. We visited and liked the school but are not sure if it should stay on the list. However match and safety schools are extremely important and Wes has both great Studio Art and Math so I am not sure what to think. Comments from anyone with experience with Wes' fin aid would be very welcome.</p>
<p>You can check the financial aid of a college in the common data set. Weslyain shows a 100% aid meet with an average of 14% loans. Those are excelent stats, but you can check them against the other schools you are interested in.</p>
<p>Bottom line though is that the results from the NPCs are much more relevant to your individual situation than average stats or anyone elses experience. If either parent is self-employed or you own a business, have rental properties etc., the NPC will be less accurate of an estimate. But if all income is wages/salaries/interest/dividends and all info is entered accurately, the NPC is about as good as it’s going to get until you get actual aid awards.</p>
<p>Thanks mitchklong and annoying dad. Both of your comments are very well taken. </p>
<p>Regarding the common data set, I also noticed in a guidebook that Wesleyan got high marks for fin aid (95% out of 100%). So even if their aid is not quite as good as say, Williams, it is obviously pretty good. We really need a solid number of match schools which would have at least decent fin aid. After all, he may not get into Williams! And the figure on the net price calculator would be tough but doable. Of his middle selectivity category (Vassar, Wes, Hamilton and Haverford) it is the lowest in terms of aid but hey, like the other three, it is a great school. I mean, their Studio Art and Math are both strong and S liked the campus. He would be happy to be accepted at any of those four. So I guess it stays on the list.</p>
<p>I think much depends on your individual situation. I mentored a young man who went to Wes, and his financial aid package was excellent. However, he is from a low income family (several children and less than $40k annual household income).</p>
<p>I agree with Kelsmom. We received an excellent financial aid package from Wesleyan about 5 years ago but our income was not very high. I do remember reading that Wesleyan subsequently dropped their need blind admissions for some students so it may have cut back on some aid. </p>
<p>My kid applied to several of the same schools (again, 5 years ago when aid at many schools was more generous). At the time, Vassar gave us the best package, Wesleyan gave us an excellent package, Amherst’s was also very good (which I assume is comparable to Williams’ package) and Hamilton was the only one that had loans in it. They were all affordable.</p>
<p>A school’s being need-blind or need-aware should be irrelevant to applicants; it doesn’t affect the desirability or quality of a school, but rather just the chance of admission.</p>
<p>We found Wes and Haverford to be about the same for financial aid, but both twice what Williams was in our specific situation. D loved Wes when she toured but couldn’t turn down the excellent financial aid at Williams.</p>
<p>“A school’s being need-blind or need-aware should be irrelevant to applicants; it doesn’t affect the desirability or quality of a school, but rather just the chance of admission.”</p>
<p>Not true. Schools that drop need-blind policies do so because they don’t have the money to be need-blind. In Wesleyan’s case, it is competing with many need-blind schools and it has clearly said that it doesn’t have the endowment that some of its competitors have. Plus, its endowment (somewhere around $605m) is stretched a bit further than many liberal arts colleges: it has an enrollment of almost 2,900. Compare to Williams that has an endowment of $1.8billion. Vassar has an endowment of over $800m for just under 2,400 students. Hamilton has an endowment of $721m but, with 1,900 students, it’s a significantly smaller school. None of my kids applied to Haverford which has an endowment of $388m for 1,200 students. </p>
<p>With 18% of students on Pell Grant at Wesleyan, it is entirely realistic to think that Wesleyan may have to estimate a bit more self-help per student or estimate aid a bit less generously than, for example, Williams. </p>
<p>When money is an issue and a family is trying to construct a list of safeties, matches and reaches, non-need blind schools may be dropped in favor of need blind schools to keep the list at a reasonable number. The best use of app fees and time need to be considered though with common app schools the time isn’t as big a factor.</p>
<p>Vonlost, the quality may still be there, but it may or may not be a suitable choice for a specific family. And people may need to limit their application list for a number of reasons, from conserving resources to attending a high school that limits applications. </p>
<p>In this case, we don’t know whether the NPC estimates from Wesleyan would be unaffordable for this family or would cause them to turn the school down and affect the school’s yield If the estimate is affordable or close to it, it may be worth putting in an application because I found every school gave us at least what was on the NPC. Frankly, we really liked Wesleyan and, in retrospect, I wish it had been where my kid attended, instead of the more-highly-ranked lac my kid did attend. I didn’t mean to imply the school’s quality was suffering.</p>
<p>^ I agree except to say that since there are so many other more important issues to consider, being need-aware or need-blind should not enter into the choice of applications to send. Why would anyone want to eliminate their favorite school because it’s need-aware or need-blind? The same goes for your second favorite, etc. The issue affects few students anyway (just those on the cusp at need-aware schools). Meeting full need is a big issue.</p>