She goes to Florida Inst of Technology, just the kind of school your daughter isn’t looking for! It is an engineering school and while about half the students are not in engineering, the STEM courses really dominate. The non-engineering majors are still heavily STEM - biology (marine, medicine), math, construction, space.
I don’t know why they offered the ‘visit grant’, but maybe they found those who visit are more likely to stay? We found a lot of these little grants when looking around - Stetson offered a $1000/yr for filling out the FAFSA before 2/15, others for visiting or doing something the school wanted done. I’m pretty motivated by money, and if they wanted us to visit, we visited. If they wanted us to meet an alum, we met the alum. It was only 2 hours from our home, but getting $4000 over 4 years would more than pay for the cost of the visit from most places. Fl Tech has a bunch of grants that aren’t need based - for having a sibling attending the school, for being a legacy, for visiting, etc. The merit scholarships are available for Eagle scouts/Gold awards, robotics club, STEM high school, but many students do better qualifying for a higher award for grades/stats than the automatic ones.
It works for us for the school to offer grants and merit awards that aren’t based on need because my daughter is an athlete and can’t accept need based aid from the school.
@PrimeMeridian It makes a lot of sense to try to understand the CSS/Profile. But the only to apply for need-based aid is if the school requires them to file for financial aid to be considered for merit aid.
@mnparentof3 My guess is these grants are merit aid, given what you said about your EFC and your child’s stats.
“What in the world do poor kids do?? Yikes.”
There are multiple “fly in” free programs available to socioeconomically challenged kids and also diversity programs that fly kids in.
http://blog.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/blog/college-fly-diversity-programs-2016-2017/#sthash.3ypAp2mB.dpbs
A highly motivated kid who doesn’t have the financial resources but does have the ability to sit and google things could actually find themselves in a very very nice spot!
Yes, there is reason for this family to fill out the CSS Profile. If for example their EFC is say, 58k and the COA is 67k, they may be eligible for a small amount of “need” grants at a meets need school. It may or may not be the full 11k in the example above but it isn’t always zero.
It will be difficult to estimate ahead of time with NPC’s if business expenses have to be added back in but I think, worthwhile exploring.
OP we are in a similar boat with a similar budget (I will let S consider up to 36 but would really like to keep it under 30 tops). Not over 250 but from a FAFSA and most standpoint not sure it makes much of a difference lol. I am focusing on merit aid, any slight need adjustment will be gravy but I’ll be filling out all forms.
I’ve also found our EFC to vary at the profile schools, sometimes as much as 6k or so lower than FAFSA.
We will see at the end of the day how accurate it is but you’ve a great chance at lots of merit $ with those stats and a well thought out list.
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Why do CSS Profile - because several of the colleges on D17’s current list (including some good academic & financial matches, according to their NPCs) require it.
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No school, CSS or otherwise, REQUIRES an applicant to file CSS profile. Absolutely not. The person asked why file because your income appeared to be too high for aid…so why file was his question. But, now we’ve learned that you’ll have two in college, so maybe some schools might give aid. Or, some might want CSS for merit consideration (few schools would require for merit)
Do you think rich people file FAFSA or CSS Profile? No…and yet their kids go to colleges…really top colleges.
NO SCHOOL requires anyone to file CSS Profile to have their admissions application reviewed or accepted.
CSS profile is ONLY for those seeking FA (or merit if CSS is req’d for that…and that is rare). People who don’t qualify for FA don’t bother to submit.
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Another example: College of Wooster estimates $28,450 in combined grant & merit aid – is that likely to be mostly merit or a combo, and if a combo, will our CSS end up lowering that (albeit estimated) figure once we file?>>>
No…the NPC is assuming that you’re filing CSS Profile based on the info that you submitted on the NPC.
You’ve mentioned doing NPC’s and they’ve showed that you would have to pay too much. You’ve indicated that there will be TWO in school, right?
NOW…what happens once S1 graduates? Your DD’s EFC will raise and any grant money may disappear.
Does Wooster give merit? Did it ask for stats?
What is your FAFSA EFC currently for your son (with one in college?)
Did you fill out CSS Profile for your son? If so, what were the results? Or did your son get lots of merit?
@mom2collegekids What were the results of the Profile? What does that even mean? You don’t get anything like a an EFC report back from the College Board.
@AroundHere
I was asking what results did the family get when they filed (if they filed) CSS Profile for their older son. I didn’t say that they’d get something back from collegeboard. They would have gotten results from his school.
Unfortunately, what the son’s net price for college is might have no relationship at all to the colleges to which the daughter is applying. Schools have wildly varying formulas for computing need based aid. Plus,the costs of schools vary.
The brother might be attending a Profile school that does not meet full need…and the sister might be applying to schools that do. Or vices versa!
I’d be curious what the brother’s FAFSA EFC was.
@mom2collegekids, I’ll try to answer your questions:
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You've indicated that there will be TWO in school, right?
Yes, we've indicated two in college at once.
NOW…what happens once S1 graduates? Your DD’s EFC will raise and any grant money may disappear.
After S16 graduates, there will be one year when D17 and S20 are both in college (our 5th year of two-kids-at-once in college). THEN we’ll have another 3 years with only S20.
What is your FAFSA EFC currently for your son (with one in college?)
Our EFC is around $80k. We did not need to do a CSS, though. The school required the FAFSA since every admitted student gets a full-tuition scholarship for all 4 years (hence our tongue-in-cheek pressure to get our other two kids in too!). His non-tuition expenses (room/board/fees) are well under our EFC, of course.
Does Wooster give merit? Did it ask for stats?
Yes, it did ask for stats, I believe. Their estimate said it “includes both merit and need based grant and scholarship aid.” Interestingly, I just revisited their page and they now have an “Early Aid Estimator,” which I swear was not there several weeks ago when I ran the NPC. This is far more detailed and includes all her details in addition to just the GPA and test score stats. A human will individually review it and mail a “personalized projected aid award” within a few weeks. That should give much better info, I’d think. (The what-you-need worksheet is highly detailed.)
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Would this be what some people call a “pre-read,” by the way?
Thanks 
If your total EFC per FAFSA is $80,000 with one in college, it is possible that you could qualify for some need based aid at the few very generous colleges that meet full need for higher income families. Places like HYPSM. These schools might give your kiddo some need based aid while,there are two inc college.
I asked because our EFC was well above full freight cost, even for TWO kids in private colleges, so we didn’t bother filling out the forms.
@PrimeMeridian
Our EFC was well gove the cost of attendance at our kid’s college. But he received a sizable music merit award, and his school required both the FAFSA and Profile for incoming freshman in order to actually receive that merit award. The award was renewable for all four years…but the Profile only needed to be filed once.
Oh…and I should add that despite having a family contribution that exceeded the COA, and receiving NO Ned based aid…our kid was selected for verification by the college all four years!
It is not uncommon for some schools to require FAFSA or PROFILE to recieve merit awards. Not all but it’s not uncommon either. Generally the schools website will indicate up front. We are required to file FAFSA for a very small merit award at SD14’s OOS school and were required to do the same for small awards for SS11 when he was at his small LAC.
I would also say to run all of your NPC’s with one kid and with two. You need to be prepared for the off years and understand how big the delta is. I’ve found that the impact of the 2nd child varies quite a bit within the profile schools, they all have their own formula and in some cases it was a very small extra “discount” in some cases it is significant. We are planning our budget on the 1 kid scenario and will enjoy the 2 years of “savings” if S ends up at a school where it does in fact make a difference.
We nixed those schools from the list for that reason alone. We feared the schools would penalize the merit amount because of family income.
I just want to chime in on (and bump) this thread, as it is one of the most civil and helpful I have seen on CC. OP was very gracious about family income and has responded so well to all the great responses, many direct but none rude or snarky. I am impressed that so many CC members are willing to share their time and knowledge.