joecollegedad

I am in the search part of the process now. I have not actually seen a real FA pkg yet. Another way of saying 'the search part' is -- the 'selling part'. The colleges are trying to sell themselves to us and we are trying to sell ourselves (my daughter, at least; that does not sound that good). So at this point we are at the higher level, but it is also when impressions are formed, discovery is done, and universes are made.

Again and again I have been advised by the colleges, by counselors, by guide books, and by others to ignore 'the sticker price'; after Financial Aid is applied, it will be a different story,they say. However, the misleading or confusing thing is that loans are included in financial aid; not only are they included, they include a goodly portion of the FA - and that is a long, long way to run!

For my list of potential colleges, copied below fyi, I have tracked avg indebtedness of grads from the given college in 2006. Incidently, when I start this search, 2005 data were only availble. So I refreshed the data for 2006. For the colleges on our radar, there was a range of 5 to a whopping 25 pct increase in avg indebtiness from 2005 to 2006. wow.

I sorted the state schools first in the list below. Note that very big avg indebtiness for the state school. Just think what those kids will be looking at in 4 years assuming the 5 to 25 pct increase yearly.

You're looking at Jason Yoder.

univ il - urbana,IL 15,413 s
western illinois 16,400 s
truman state, kirksville,MO 16,656 s
eastern illinois 16,890 s
illinois state,IL 17,015 s
univ iowa,IA 20,234 s
winona state, MN 20,889 s
indiana u,IN 21,251 s
university of michigan,MI 23,533 s
bradley university, peoria IL 15,079
earlham college, richmond, IN 15,088
millikin university, decatur IL 17,100
augustana,rock Island, IL 17,100
hiram, OH 17,125
grinnell,IA 17,975
Monmouth,IL 18,286
carroll collge, WI 19,267
carleton, northfield, MN 19,429
ripon,WI 19,468
university of dayton,OH 20,151
univ wi,WI 20,282
kenyon college, gambier, OH 20,627
illinois Wesleyan, normal, IL 21,794
beloit,WI 22,424
ohio wesleyan,OH 22,619
lawrence, appleton,wi 22,626
knox, galesburg, IL 22,860
hope college,MI 23,324
college of wooster,OH 23,527
st olaf, northfield,MN 23,993
cornell college, IA 24,622
st norbert, de pere, wi 24,808
kalamazoo college,MI 25,000
valparaiso,IN 25,524
drake, des moines, IA 26,482
coe, cedar rapids, IA 26,625
st mary's U, MN 28,500
st ambrose, davenport,IA 30,541


Beloit actually went from 14.7k to 22.4k for a 52% increase.