Boston Globe-Article About Merit Aid

standrews
Sun, 11 Mar 2007 19:25:27 +0000

curmudgeon, weenie:
Thanks for the reply. Some of those I was aware of and others not. I did get the FAFSA formula and put it into spreadsheet form to do some what iffing. I can gauge the impact of changes in assets and income from that. It has been helpful. But of course, the FAFSA could change some things in the out years and it seems that FAFSA alone is rarely used. The private schools always want some kind of supplemental info. I’ve come to like the schools that meet 100% of aid, limit loans, and use merit scholarships and outside scholarships/aid to offset loan and work-study first. It makes no sense to replace grant with grant. Loans aren’t aid in my book; they just allow you to kick the can down the road … at a price though.

We have saved what we could, more than most, but I expect an EFC in the 17-20K range next year. Basically no assistance fromin-state publics, so private schools with good aid should only be slightly more expensive, unless S opts for a school with good merit aid. NM finalist is not out of the question for S. No SAT scores yet. He took it for the first time yesterday.