What kind of aid to expect?

Paying for College
21

@1650mile I’d actually start by getting hard numbers on the money you will have available. Can your mother and father together come up with $5,000 per year? $10,000?

With strong stats it’s pretty easy to get $25k+ off at some good safety schools, but full rides where room & board are included are much, much rarer. It won’t do you much good to get $25k off of $65k if you can’t pay the rest. Look at the Colleges That Change Lives – they are a great bunch of schools of varying levels of competitiveness that do very well with both merit and need-based aid.

You can use net price calculators (and should!) but combine your parents’ incomes for most conservative results. This is not ideal, and if you’re really curious about a school you can contact the financial aid office and they’ll give you very accurate info, but it does give you a good picture.

Don’t be afraid that your father’s income ruins you for all schools. Lots of top schools do meet need, and you don’t have to have a negligible income to get money, but you do have to find the right school.

Look into the tuition exchange program specifically for your father’s university. Just as an example, here’s a blurb for how it works at Johns Hopkins (my sister works there so I’m vaguely familiar):

Keep asking questions, and congrats on starting this now rather than in your senior year!!!

22

You have received some good input above. It might already be obvious, but here is some more general guidelines. The very “top” 10 or so colleges simply do not offer merit aid, period. You can look at a college’s Common Dataset to find out how much financial aid they give to the incoming freshman class but the Net Price Calculator is a better tool given each individuals financial situation. What you will find is that out-of-state public universities will not be very generous with financial aid but private, highly selective colleges with large endowments will be very generous with financial aid. Given your family situation, you almost need to look at each potential college’s financial aid process/forms to know whether your father’s income will be factored in. As far as merit aid goes if you achieve the ACT you are targeting and if your grades stay on-track as you ramp up the difficulty, you will be positioned very well for merit aid. There are a very limited number of full ride (or at least full tuition) scholarships at places like Alabama or UVA. The amount of merit aid given by colleges varies widely based on whether the college is trying to move up the rankings or attract out-of-state students. The Common Dataset is probably the easiest place to see how much merit (or non-need based) aid is awarded. If you plan to compete for full-ride scholarships obviously you need to apply to colleges that offer them and you will probably need to apply when early decision / early action deadlines usually in November. My personal opinion is that when competing for full-ride scholarships it helps if the college actually gets the message that you want to attend by demonstrating interest and interacting with your admissions rep. I say this because my D was very strong academically but she was somewhat passive about applying to the schools with these scholarships and she did not receive any or even get past the first round of consideration.

You might want to consider “Questbridge” as you get closer to applying. Good luck!

23

Check out the Boettcher and Daniels scholarships. Make sure you meet the requirements and set yourself up to be in a good position for them. If they like community service, do community serice (and keep track of even the smallest volunteer jobs you do) . Leadership? Look for opportunities in the clubs you already belong to. Make friends with your GC as they can put your name in for smaller scholarships.

24

Also keep in mind that a tuition exchange/tuition reimbursement program for university employees and their dependents may be applied to meet your financial need, and it might not be stackable on top of need or merit based awards that you get, it may reduce those awards. You must check details for each college very carefully. As other posters have pointed out, you also need to evaluate each college’s financial aid/merit scholarship policies, since each school does things differently.

UNC CH is very difficult to get in OOS, since there is a state requirement for NC students to be awarded at least 82% of available spots. It also offers primarily need based aid(some merit, but very hard to win) and does require the CSS profile, which will consider your father’s income.

Ditto with William and Mary. While W&M does meet need for IS students, it only awards need based aid for high stats OOS students, and generally not more than 25% of need in grants, but it will offer more to very high stats students that they really want(my OOS daughter was admitted as a Monroe scholar and they met 100% of her need with a grant). With a 35 ACT and other high stats, good ECs, etc. my OOS daughter got into both UNC CH and W&M, they both met her need with substantial grants, but she received no merit aid from either. Since we had another younger child 2 years behind, they were still not affordable for us. She chose a different school which offered her a full tuition merit scholarship.

Try to keep mind that there are are a lot of great schools between your reaches and safeties which may award you significant merit aid. At my kids’ very competitive high school, I have seen many top students each year apply to lots of reaches(thinking surely they get into at least one), using our state flagship as their safety, and applying no schools in between. Many do not get into any of their reach schools and end up at the State U, which they did not really want to attend in the first place. Make sure you really would be happy to attend your safeties, and also add some less reachy schools to your list, too, where you could have a chance at getting some good merit aid. Don’t waste time and $$ applying to schools you really don’t want to attend or cannot afford.

If your father’s finances (and any step parents) are going to be considered, because the CSS profile is required, you will need all that info to get accurate numbers when running the net price calculators. Some net price calculators will estimate merit aid, but some do not. If a school offers large competitive merit scholarships, you would likely need to be in the top 5% of applicants for that school to have a chance of winning it. Cast a wide net so you end up with good choices that you like and can afford.

25

The school my father is a professor at has 13k instate tuition and has a very good honors program. Many students that have come up through the honors program went on to grad school at ivies. That school also gives out a lot of merit and need based aid. In addition, I’ve taken classes through their programs and students that have done so have a 90% admittance rate. So therefore I am not too considered about admissions / tuition at this school.

26

If you would be happy going there then that’s a great choice.

27

[QUOTE=""]
The school my father is a professor at has 13k instate tuition and has a very good honors program. Many students that have come up through the honors program went on to grad school at ivies. That school also gives out a lot of merit and need based aid. In addition, I've taken classes through their programs and students that have done so have a 90% admittance rate. So therefore I am not too considered about admissions / tuition at this school. <<<

[/QUOTE]

Good, that school can be one of your safeties. Do you live in that state? If not, will the school consider you to be instate because your dad lives there?

That said, that it’s a good idea to have more than one financial safety.

Have you asked your dad how much he’ll pay?

28

UNC CH and W&M are both state schools, so it really depends what state you are from. As noted elsewhere in this thread, W&M gives very little merit aid; they just don’t spend their endowment that way, especially not for OOS students. You might get a Monroe scholar grant for $3K but that doesn’t count against tuition.
Rochester’s not a bad bet here - look through the RD response threads this year to get a feel for the money they offered as merit aid. But remember to weigh that against the NPC - if a school offers 15K merit but your base cost is 65K, you still need 200K over 4 years and you can probably find a really good alternative that would give you a much better price in a slightly lower prestige tier.

29

Have you looked into Questbridge? I’m not sure how they look at the non-custodial parent issue but my son met a number of Questbridge Scholars at UChicago and they get everything covered. It’s a match type system where you apply and give them a ranked list of colleges and if you match with a school you get a full scholarship They start with your top choice and work down but it’s like ED where you are committed to going to one of the schools on your list.

30

[QUOTE=""]
With strong stats it's pretty easy to get $25k+ off at some good safety schools, but full rides where room & board are included are much, much rarer. I

[/QUOTE]

The key word is “SOME” safety schools. So, the list must be carefully chosen. AND…that merit is applied FIRST, so it it’s a $60k school, that could mean that parents still will have a $35k bill. If dad isn’t prepared/willing to pay that, those schools won’t be affordable.

31

OP will most likely not be financially eligible for Questbridge because they look at the income and assets of both parents.

32

Exactly. That’s why I tend to recommend CTCL schools, especially for a good combo of financial & academic safety – frequently they do a great job meeting need. They don’t guarantee to meet 100% of need, but if they want you badly enough they can put together terrific packages.

Obviously your mileage may vary, but our experience was great, and we met a TON of people at honors events who were shocked and thrilled by their FA packages. I imagine this is much less true when it’s not a safety.

33

Until this student hears from her dad the amount that he can contribute each year, we have no idea if a “meet need” school will even work. He may have another family, or he may be trying to save for retirement. He may think that once child support is done, he’s done. He’s a prof at a state school. He may not be aware that schools that give the best aid typically use CSS Profile and will require both incomes. The student thought that only her mom’s income would be used, so obviously her dad had not educated her about that…maybe because he didn’t know that himself.

again, I strongly suggest that this student not assume anything, even if the info is coming from PhD parents. So much has changed in recent years.

34

Figuring out the custodial situation with Dad is key. If the parents were never married, he never lived with the child, and may or may not have paid support (court ordered?) he may or may not be a factor. I know Questbridge is more flexible in this regard but the OP needs to figure all of the legalities out.

35

post # 24, OP states the following

Highly unlikely she will be Questbridge eligible. Remember, quest bridge is a vetting process, OP will still have to file for financial aid with the college(s_