<p>If you have experience or knowledge about Williams and Amherst financial aid offices can you explain which gives out better financial aid packages?</p>
<p>Thank So much</p>
<p>They should be roughly equal.... Williams might give slightly better aid, but if you brought Williams' package to Amherst, I bet Amherst would match.</p>
<p>That question could only be answered for a particular student and family financial situation.</p>
<p>Amherst has a slightly higher percentage of students qualifying for need-based financial aid and a higher percentage of very low income students. But, the answer to your question depends on the financial forms your family files with the colleges.</p>
<p>Williams and Amherst really have no peers when it comes to financial aid awards. Their generosity is comparable to even Princeton although their policy on how they view home equity might differ.</p>
<p>Last year Amherst was actually slightly more affordable then Princeton's package with Williams a very close third.</p>
<p>Columbia on the other hand would have cost ten grand more!</p>
<p>U of Chicago 10 grand more, as well. Don't know about Williams, but our package from Amherst made it possible for D to go there. About 10K better than others. At orientation, it was explained that federal law binds the college to the FAFSA figures if the student receives even $1 from the feds. But Amherst thinks that FAFSA calculations, which have not been adjusted in 20 years are not an accurate measure of today's cost of living, so unless the student qualifies under FAFSA for the figure that Amherst works up, they don't go for federal funding for the student. They use "Amherst scholarships" and even some Amherst loans. My D didn't receive a single penny of federal funds. Their package was equivalent to the full 4 year tuition scholarship that she received from another school.</p>
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<p>evitajr1....That makes Amherst even more generous.</p>
<p>Too bad some of the lower tier LAC's don't have the funds to make their four years as affordable as schools such as Williams and Amherst.
It's not that some of the other schools don't put together packages that work for some students but rather Amherst and Williams are so very generous. Of course some of it come from their desire to woo kids away from HYP and other places but thats OK if they can afford it.</p>
<p>It's also great how programs like Questbridge are making more academically qualified low income students aware of the possibility of their attending elite schools. Great stuff!</p>
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<p>IF you are an internaional then definitely Williams is better in finaid -Williams, Yale Princeton Harvard and MIT are the only schools whicha re need blind for internationals.</p>
<p>You forgot Middlebury, noxiousnirvana. They are also need-blind. Now let me point out a not-so-obvious thing about internationals: every international looking for aid applies to the five need-blind schools, meaning that chances at HYPWM could actually decrease because of the competition. But let me reassure everyone that, once you got into Amherst, your financial aid package is going to be just as extraordinary as Middlebury's or Williams's.</p>
<p>oh.yeahh i forgot Midd..MIT is also need blind but they have an international quota..</p>