Xwords59

My S is a rising senior and we are starting to look at schools. His academics are very good and he is a recruited athlete (no chance of athletic scholarship). A major factor in school choice will be aid. We want to narrow the list of schools he applies to. Can anyone comment on how generous (or not) the following schools are with FA?

Amherst
Tufts
Bowdoin
Trinity
Williams
Middlebury
Hamilton
Bates
Haverford
Colgate
Swarthmore
JHU
WUSTL
Emory

mom2collegekids

Of your list, Williams may be the most generous.


"Generous FA" is relative.

Would you QUALIFY for lots of FA?

Schools that give EXCELLENT FA will not give ONE CENT if they don't think you have "determined need."

Does your child have a non-custodial parent? If so, the NCP's income (and spouse's income) and assets will get considered as well.

Are any of the parents self-employed? Independent contractor? own a business?


Have you used any of the Net Price Calculators on these schools' websites? If not, do so.


A rough estimate of how much you'd be expected to pay could be....about 22% if your income is between 70k-100k....and about 30%-35% if your income (before taxes) is above $100k.

So, if you and your spouse have an income of - say $125k - then you could be expected to pay about $40k per year.

cptofthehouse

Most if not all of those schools meet full need. Even those that don't guarantee it tend to meet most of it for the students they most want. You can run your numbers through their calculators to see how you fare at each of them.

The problem with this list, assuming that the FAFSA/PROFILE definition of need meshes with yours, is getting accepted. None of these schools can be easy dos. They are all reach schools. Also some of them are not need blind in admissions. Being an athletic recruit gives your son an edge, but is not a certainty by any stretch. Plus he could get hurt and not be able to do his sport any time.

You and he need to find some schools that are certain to accept him and that you can afford with no "ifs' In the picture. The time to imagine picking Hamilton over Emory or debate the merits of Bates over Colgat can start when you have admissions and aid offers in hand. Until then, you need some sure things to comprise the base of your college list. Those tend to be the local state schools or those with guaranteed merit awards for which your son qualifies. THen maybe look at some schools less selective with merit and maybe athletic scholarships. If he's recruit material for those schools, there are lower level D1 and D2 school where scholarships might be possible like at Buffalo State, or St Bonaventure, Iona College, etc. Depending on the sport, some of these D3 school can kick some D1 tail.

Xwords59

Let me clarify a little bit: these are not the only schools he is applying to; we have a list of others. It's just that, it seems to me, the profile of these schools are fairly similar, and a major differentiating point will be the amount of aid a given school will offer. It does not make sense to me to apply to all of these schools.

I have looked into FA, and I think we would have an EFC of around $30K, so we should be eligible for some aid.

mom2collegekids

I have looked into FA, and I think we would have an EFC of around $30K, so we should be eligible for some aid.


What did you use?

These are CSS schools. They don't just use FAFSA. Try using their NPCs to see WHAT kind of aid you'd get and how much.

violao

I sent you a Pm

PAGRok

I would say Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Swarthmore, Middlebury will offer the most aid, but they are the most selective.

violao

WUSTL also offers merit aid and allows outside scholarships to count against the family obligation. They also offer $2,000 per year for NMF.

entomom

Doesn't Williams now have a loan component to their FA package, while Amherst and some of the others don't?

Emory also has merit aid, but it's very competitive, as are WUSTLs larger merit scholarships.

GTalum

D applied to several of the schools on the list and found Williams to be the most generous by far. She was the year before the loans where put in the package, but even with the loan, it would have been the most generous.

moneyp

Colgate is very generous in their FA. My ds goes there.