Financial Aid in Future Years

illinoisdad
Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:35:53 +0000

We are looking to have D1 include merit schools on her “list,” as she is focusing primarily on need based only PROFILE schools. She has very strong stats (top 2% of class in most rigorous curriculum, 35 ACT/2190 SAT, will be NMF) and is strongly oriented at this point towards a LAC or possibly a small university with strong sciences (ie Carleton, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Wellesley, Haverford, WASHU, Chicago, Grinnell, Kenyon), only the latter four of which offer any merit aid, with the first two of those being a crapshoot. She very much is looking for an intellectual community for a fit since her high school has been very rough on her socially.

D2 (a rising junior) will have good (though less impressive academic stats), and is looking for a DIII LAC away from home where she can play her sport.

The other three will be in 9th, 7th and 4th grades, so who knows, but it adds up to a lot of college tuition over the next dozen or so years.

Where my wife and I struggle mightily is in trying to define a commitment we can make to the first that we can live by with all of the kids the current system does not make for great planning and as mom2collegekids notes, can be scary.

I will take on cptofthehouse suggestion of spending more time with the PROFILE calculator since it is likely to be more relevant at this time than FAFSA. I have run numbers on some individual school calculators and have been generally (positively) surprised, but the idea of a year 2-4 surprise terrifies me. I want to do for all what I do for one.

BTW, I don’t post much, but I have tried to do my homework on CC and elsewhere before asking for help, so thanks for all the help thus far and any additional thoughts, suggestions or resources are appreciated.