Dealing with buying something (college) where I don't know what the actual cost will be year to year

[ucbalumnus]

@Joe_Jones

But beyond calculating a student’s “need” based on the FAFSA and/or CSS, a school may be more likely to “pull” aid back from the first year package once the student has matriculated:

• Redistribution of need-based aid to loans from institutional need-based grants, and
• Pulling back merit aid (aka tuition coupons) once the kid has matriculated and boosted your yield and metrics.

It is likely that the issues are different for need versus merit based aid.

For need-based aid:

• The college may assume that the student will take the increasing amount of direct loans each year (i.e. $5,500 first year, $6,500 second year, $7,500 third and fourth years).
• The college may assume that the student can earn higher amounts of work earnings in later years.
• Obviously, if the family financial situation varies, financial aid could vary with it. Perhaps the worst situation is if the student’s parents have a nasty divorce and stop being cooperative on college financial aid while the student attends a college that requires both divorced parents’ finances.

For merit scholarships:

• A high college GPA to renew a merit scholarship could result in a high percentage of recipients losing the scholarship.
• Many scholarships are fixed amounts renewable for four years, but if costs increase, the net price after the fixed amount of scholarship still increases.
• A student who needs more than four years to graduate will face whatever cost there will be without the scholarship after the first four years.

@Joe_Jones

So where is it most difficult to see your gift award, need-based or merit, be renewed in full? I’ve heard stories of a few schools but for at least one the data they present doesn’t appear to support those claims.

Was it @taverngirl who mentioned University of Rochester financial aid getting worse after frosh year, making it unaffordable for some to continue?