notrichenough

They might view it as a sign that you are unwilling to pay full price if they admit you with no financial aid, and therefore you would be less likely to accept. Or if you are close maybe they view it as meaning you had no way of knowing so you applied for FA just in case, in which case is probably wouldn't affect your chances of admission.

But no one really knows for sure, it is most likely different at every school.

daisychain

Or conversely, if a school really wanted the student maybe they'd be more likely to offer merit aid if the student is perceived as a full-pay unwilling to pay full price?

gloworm

Or they might simply view it as an applicant filing for FA in the first year in case things change.

momofthreeboys

^^which is why parents need to figure out how much they are willing to pay. In spring 2007 S1's packages were all tightly clumped. In spring of 2010 they were all over the place for S2. I have no idea how S3's will look this coming spring, but it doesn't matter because each kid had a budget to work with they we set. That's what's important. Also my advice, be conservative. My H is retired and I DID lose my job during the auto industry crisis for over a year...guess what...our aid didn't change substantially with the exception of a Perkins loan for two aid cycles and our taxes were horrendous due to lump sum severance.... What you can afford is more important than what you guess the colleges might cost so don't let your kiddo get too focused on one college and be honest with the kiddo about what you can afford.

cptofthehouse

Most need aware school do the admissions on a need blind basis, and then let the bean counters in financial aid decide who gets the money using some rating system that admissions uses for the kids. So applying for financial aid is not going to have an effect for 1) Top rated kids even with high need 2) Low rated kids with little or no need. The cuts are generally made to the low rated kids with a lot of need. So in most cases, just applying for aid does not affect admissions chances at all. It comes down to whether the school can give students most or close to most of their need as to whether or not they will accept them. A main reason a school is need aware is because it does not want to "waste" its acceptances on kids who can't afford to go there, so if the school can't give the close to what they need to go, they simply reject them rather than having the kid reject the school.

You can ask the admissions officers of school if admissions decisions are affected by applying for financial aid if the student ends up not qualifying--if the very act of seeing if one qualifies affect the admissions process in any way. Most colleges, even need aware ones encourage students to go on ahead and apply for financial aid even if they think they will not qualify.

If you are absolutely sure you don't qualify, you can just complete the FAFSA and qualify for federal loans and other such programs outside of the college itself. You can fill out "no " for appying of aid and still do the FAFSA for funds outside the school's such as federal loans.

Miafitte, did you not get some estimate of aid from Lawrence with your son's ED acceptance? Most every ED program does give an estimated package with ED and that is the failsafe escape valve for getting out of the ED commitment.

To answer you question, yes, there is a bit of consideration given to those who are close to retirement, in that your age gives you a certain protection allowance and the older you are the bigger than allowance is for your assets.

As to how any individual school gives aid packages, it's up to them and it can differ widely even at the same school depending on how much they want your kid and their policies. CMU, for instance, will give ED accepted students a full need met package but not so for all accepted RD. Most schools "rate" the students they accept and the ones rated the highest get the best packages such as full need met, more grants, less loans and work study. You can see the averages in the common data or in the financial aid seciton of the school in the US News and World Report blurb for it. It gives you the percentage of grants, loans etc. BUt they are averages only. A highly desired student will get more grants than one who is not considered as prize of a catch in many cases. Only at schools that guarantee to meet full need and give out grants only does this sort of hierarchy not exist.

mlaffitte

Answering your question about Lawrence's ED notification ... my son did receive a merit scholarship but there was no information about a potential aid package, we were simply told to file the FAFSA.

mlaffitte

following up on my earlier message...it turned out they forgot to enclose the paperwork with the acceptance letter! We've now filled out the forms and are awaiting the estimated aid package...fingers crossed!

linnylu

My concern was if we filed the FAFSA and the school saw our EFC that was over the COA, they would not offer as much merit aid. Merit at the private school my 1st child attends is based on gpa and ACT/SAT score, but it could be anywhere from $20,000-$26,000. I called the school to make sure that we did not have to file the FAFSA to qualify for merit aid or financial aid in future years, and then we decided not to file the FAFSA. Child1 was awarded the $26,000 even though their ACT score was a 32.

noname87

"Rules of thumb" are difficult when it comes to FA.

If the school is a Profile school, it is hard to determine how they treat the equity in your house. You can ask but you might not get a firm answer. Some schools will limit the amount of equity included as an asset to a multiplier of your income.

While income is the main driver for most, assets can have a heavy impact the EFC for the profile schools. After a small amount allowed for asset protection (based on the age of the oldest parent), they will want roughly 5.6% of all assets that are not in retirement accounts. If your retirement assets are not in IRA/401K/403b or similar retirements accounts then those assets are consider fair game.

cptofthehouse

I doubt that merit awards will be affected by financial need. I know a lot of kids who got merit money with zero financial need. The merit money is used as an incentive to "buy" the students a college most wants. At many colleges, the merit money is distributed by admissions, and the financial aid is distributed by the financial aid office, and the amounts are integrated if both awards are given so that no need is given for the amounts that the merit awards cover.

Also, there are schools that have merit within need awards where a student can get more money than need stipulates if they qualify for any need at all when there are scholarships in the financial aid pot. In other words if your kid needs $10K according to the fin aid calculations and also qualifies for a $20K award, he might get it whereas students with no need are not even in the running. This is when need is a factor to qualify, but is not the driving factor.

There are exceptions, of course, and you can ask an admissions office directly if applying for aid will affect merit awards or admissions.

For those schools where need is a factor in admissions, it's not just a matter of foregoing aid the first year. Most of those schools have procedures set up so that if you apply in future years, you have restrictions or do not get aid. They tend to make that very clear. They will want prior year data to make sure you are not playing that game. Schools that are need blind in admissions don't care. You just miss out that first year in aid, but if you are accepted at a school that is need aware on the basis that you will not need financial aid, and you apply for it later, there can be a sit out period or an outright denial.

Noname, FAFSA also hits the familes up for 5.6% of assets over the protection allowance that are not in those protected accounts. The difference is that primary home equity is absolutely not included in FAFSA calculations whereas most PROFILE schools do take at least some of it into consideration.

anothermom3

We are a middle class family; reasonable income, high COA area, limited savings and investments. Financial aid for one did not make a dent; two in college in a year of income below 150K and we got monies; suppose it helped that my income was down that year due to health issues and we had high out of pocket expenses. Overall, I think assuming you will have to pay about 38% of your gross income seems to be close to matching our figures hear over year.

anothermom3

And, I do think the student and how much he or she is desired factors into aid - I was extremely suprized for the positive at Chicago's package for my DS2 this year - no loans only grants. And, this was after a year prior that had little aid. I think they did not want to see him leave because we could not afford for him to stay given our changed circumstances - they made up the difference and I was extremely thankful. I do not know if they would have had he not had stellar grades as a first year - and been the kind of student they would not - imho - want to lose.

mlaffitte

Hi, I posted earlier in this thread... I am in the upper-middle class bracket and my son has just been admitted to Lawrence U in Wisconsin. He was accepted ED, and they asked us to submit some basic info on income and assets, in order to give us an estimate for our package. To my surprise and delight, he will get quite a nice package, including $12k in scholarships and grants. So I would definitely encourage upper-middle-income families to apply and see what they get.

kmls123

Yes - based on my own calculations, the estimates above are pretty accurate. If you're in the $100-150k range, then you can expect about 20-25% of your income to be counted for aid purposes. If you have assets outside of 401k and IRA accounts (savings, stocks, etc..) then a portion of those assets will be counted too (around 5-6% per year). Get the Princeton Review book mentioned before - Paying for College Without Going Broke. It has all of this information in it and more. If you have assets that will impact your kid's chances for aid, then you might want to talk with a qualified professional for help.