<p>kymomndad: We were in a similar position last year - our DD applied to non-acronym schools requiring almost 50% FA. What I learned is that the FA piece is somewhat flexible depending on how much they like/want your child. I would concentrate on finding a school that seems like a really good fit for your kid and where your kid has something to offer that school. We had 100% acceptances with FA offers from 0 to over 50%. The 3 schools that really wanted her understood the situation and the offers were made accordingly. When we sent regrets to one school that offered no FA they called back and offered to review if we sent copies of the other offers. We still declined.</p>