katydid2010

D who is a junior wants to consider NESCAC schools. The limited info that I've been able to find indicates that awards are almost nothing for those in the $150-200k income level.(We have no big investments - just an average house in an average suburban town and some money saved for her education but not $200k!) Seems as if those awards for incomes under $100k are generous, and many students of greater means are full pay. Should we even look at these schools or just cross them off her list? Any school more generous than others?

cptofthehouse

Run your numbers through a PROFILE calculator and see what you are expected to pay. With just one student in college, income at your level, it's going to be tough to qualify for aid anywhere but at the most generous schools and they are the most difficult for acceptance. You can call various fin aid departments once this admissions season crush is over and have them do a pre read for you. If you tell them you are considered ED if offered by the school, they are usually very quick to give you some sort of estimate. .

If it looks like it is a total no go for any aid, and you are sure that other than hitting the mega lottery, that there is no way you are going to a pay full freight for a given school, no generous outside scholarships in the stream, then you need to consider whether you should even look at those schools. We did apply to some schools for which we knew that the likelihood that any merit money was very small, but there was a bit of a chance, and my son did actually a merit award at one of them that made it barely doable. But my son had no trouble just pitching all of the unaffordable acceptances. If your child or you are going to get sick and moon over unaffordable options, you need to take that into consideration. The boards are filled with distraught students and parents who can' t pay for the dream school that gave out an acceptance but no money. I'm one of those who would have been upset if my son fell in love with one of those schools we could not afford, but he wanted to give them a go, and he was a better person that I am, in how he could take the results.

latichever

NESCAC schools tend not to give merit aid, but are mostly "full need" schools, which can hurt if you're EFC is beyond what you feel you can afford. Their net price calculators seem quite accurate. My daughter was accepted to Connecticut College and their calculator was dead on with their actual aid offer. Their aid was a very significant chunk of the sticker price, still leaving a large out of pocket expense--and we have two in college.

Even if you have a nice income, but are not wealthy, to be practical, you have to live somewhat below your means--either to pay out of income or save in advance.

GTalum

I agree with Latichever. Run the number on the college site. You might be surprised. Williams was dead-on for us. The most generous schools in that conference are Williams and Amherst and are, of course, the most difficult to get into.

wavylays94

I know that my aid from Middlebury is good.

Just get the best CPA you can find, and make sure that they write off tons of income.
My mom's income went from 74k to 40k because of her awesome CPA.

tk21769

In that income bracket with no other kids in college, you probably will get little if any aid from the NESCAC schools. You can either search for less expensive colleges (starting with in-state public universities), or aim for merit scholarships. If your D is competitive for the NESCAC schools, she may be competitive for merit aid from some LACs outside New England (but probably not enough to bring costs down to state university levels).

Best Values in Private LACs, 2011-12
(see the "Avg non-need-based aid" and "% of non-need-based aid" columns)

Check out Davidson, Rhodes, Centre College, and the College of Wooster.

Small public colleges and universities with OOS costs < $40K include Truman State, SUNY Geneseo, UNC Asheville, St. Mary's College of Md, and New College of Florida.

Waverly

Even the very best aid schools like Harvard ont give aid to those over $180K without unusual circumstances. You will be full pay at the vast majority over $150K. And keep in mind that even with slightly less, most schools will first meet your need with Stafford loans and work study.

So, yes, it's a good idea to devide what you can afford and steer your DD towards those schools.

pathways

Having just been through this with my 2012 D, we found that the NESCAC schools were out of our price range and we are in your salary range. When she considered ED back in the fall we received 2 FA pre-reads from 2 NESCAC schools and learned that an FA award would be 0-5K. The IVYs and Wellesley came in better on the calculators (but not by much ~10K grant). It was made very clear to us that ED would be crucial to her being accepted to the NESCAC colleges (as a recruited athlete with good grades). In the end she didn't apply ED anywhere due to our concerns about price.

She did apply to and get accepted to a range of schools that vary in out-of pocket costs (8K-47K) and fit her needs. Not sure where she will go yet, but some have a "NESCAC" feel (Geneseo & Holy Cross). Since this process began she is now leaning towards the Universities on her list, so we will see what happens very soon.

Good Luck on your search...do look broadly so there are many affordable options on the table, as well at the pricey ones.

From my perspective, "getting in" and "being able to pay for it" are inversely related. As the most selective schools, offer little or no merit money.

p.s. she was waitlisted as an RD applicant to both NESCAC schools on her list, so we never did see the what the final FA result would be. There was no harm in applying.

cptofthehouse

Holy Cross, IMO, awards aid similarly to the NESCAC schools, I thought. Did your D get good financial aid for them, or did she get any of those hard to get merit awards there? My son applied there and was accepted but, as expected, did not get any merit money from them, and we did not qualify for financial aid. His brother did get an award from them some years ago, but it was not a top choice of his.

pathways

^ same experience, Holy Cross was the most pricey on her accepted list (47K), some FA/ no merit. I think there are only 3-4 students per class that get merit $ (a couple of classics majors and graduates from Worcester Public schools). Where did your 2 sons matriculate?

Not surprising, for D the best deals came from in-state publics with merit grants that cover tuition and fees (Umass Lowell, Westfield State) and OOS w/some merit (Geneseo & McGill).

For a year she dreamed of going to a NESCAC school, but was opened to other types of experiences once we expanded the search last fall to include more affordable options. Glad we did!