<p>My parents just used college boards’s EFC to get an idea of whether schools would give me any money. After filling it out, the answer was a no. It said that my parents were expected to pay the full price and my parents were shocked that it realistically thought that they could afford to pay $50,000 per year. Would it be a complete waste of time to fill out all of the financial aid paper work if this says I’ll get nothing? I do have a very cheap back up, BYU, where my parents desperately want me to go and where I don’t want to go at all. But I also wasn’t interested in any schools where I was guaranteed an academic scholarship. Any advice?</p>
<p>Edit: I don’t know if this is relevant, but I’m also applying to Georgetown, Barnard, Brown, Columbia, Wellesley, Smith, Williams, Wesleyan, and Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>It’s still a good idea to fill out the financial aid paperwork. Filing the FAFSA will allow you to get federal student loans, even with high income. Also, schools that offer merit aid might offer you something, but they are likely to require the forms to see how much (if any) need-based aid you qualify for. Of the non-BYU schools on your list, it looks like only Bryn Mawr and Smith offer non-need-based aid - Bryn Mawr’s in particular looks pretty good. To improve your odds, you might want to add a few more schools that (a) you like, and (b) are generous with merit aid.</p>
<p>I think the more important question that needs to be answered is “what are your parents willing to pay?”</p>
<p>This is the time to sit down and have a serious discussion with your parents – if they only plan to pay $15,000 a year then you need to strategize your college choices with that in mind.</p>
<p>Schools like Columbia, Brown and many other schools on your list only award need-based aid. That means that regardless of whether you fill out the FAFSA or Profile, if the estimate is correct you will be expected to pay the full fare. Yes, there are federal funds available for student loans – but I believe the maximum without qualifying for need is around ~$3000 and that isn’t going to make much of a dent in the cost of $45,000 school.</p>
<p>Make sure you don’t make the same mistake that many other kids have made – just applying and hoping it all works out.</p>
<p>If your parent’s aren’t willing or able to pay, look at schools where you might be eligible for merit aid – there are many excellent ones.</p>
<p>I’ve just had trouble finding schools I want to go to that offer substantial merit aid. I want to go to a good school in the north east (like so many others).</p>
<p>Calreader, where do you find on Bryn Mawr’s site that they offer non-need-based aid? I don’t see it anywhere. Thanks!</p>
<p>eta you should fill out the financial aid paperwork required by each school, anyway. If circumstances change in your family, some schools will give you aid after the freshman year only if you filed financial aid forms before freshman year.</p>
<p>My mom and I just did College Board’s EFC estimator and were also surprised. My parents make about $100k/year combined, my dad just retired and my mom is retiring once I finish my senior year. The thing expects us to be able to pay $40-50k a year! My parents do have money saved in the bank but it’s not enough to cover 4 years of private school tuition ($30k+). I was already planning to work part time in college but this was disheartening. Hopefully the official EFC will be lower. :-/</p>
<p>gub, I know you’re looking for finaid advice here, but I’d also like to offer some admissions advice. Your list of schools looks very top heavy to me. In other words, they are VERY competitive for admissions. Is there a chance you could add another school that is both affordable, and where admissions might not be quite as competitive? I certainly hope you receive acceptances from many on your list, but it would increase your odds of NOT “having to attend BYU” if you also had another school where you would pretty well be guaranteed acceptance on your list…oh, and is also financially a doable school. I guess what I’m saying is that if you have the statistics and resume for the schools on your list (besides BYU), there are schools where you might qualify for merit aid.</p>
<p>I think most people are shocked that the EFC calculator thinks they can pay half their pretax income for college! Do you have a good state school as another backup? I think BYU is a great school, amazing value, but also very competitive.</p>
<p>There are tons of good schools that offer merit aid that are not in the Northeast. There are even schools IN the northeast that offer merit aid. Are you a senior? In some cases the deadlines for the more competitive merit scholarships is earlier than the regular application deadlines. In other cases, it’s not. You would need to check. Are you applying to Boston University? It would seem that if you have the stats to get into Georgetown, Brown and Columbia, that you might be in line for merit aid at BU. What about U of Delaware? They give merit aid to OOS students and the school is terrific.</p>
<p>My reasoning for my list of colleges is that it would take a pretty good school to convince my parents to pay for it, since they desperately want me to go to BYU. I could go there for nothing, and it is a good school. It’s also really not that competitive, Muffy333. I know I’ll get in. I know people with stats lower than me who have BYU as their first choice and thats the only school they apply to.
I guess I could look more into BU, but it never really appealed to me. I visited the campus once for about an hour and didn’t get a very good vibe. I guess I’m in a bit of a dilemma with what to do. I don’t want to get into both Wellesley and BU and then have to go to BU because I can afford it. But today I’ll try to find more schools that I might like. Thanks for your advice.</p>
<p>Gub - Some schools you might want to look into (all over the place geographically): Scripps, Kenyon, Wooster, Willamette, Bard.</p>
<p>Hi More Cowbell - I didn’t find the merit aid info on Bryn Mawr’s site; it looks like they don’t allow access to their common data set from outside their own firewall. I was using the summary on the College Board site, which says that Bryn Mawr’s average non-need based award is $13,800. On the other hand, I just checked US News and it says only 1% of freshmen are actually awarded non-need based aid, so it doesn’t sound very promising after all. My bad.</p>
<p>I saw BYU’s tuition on its website and it’s very cheap. I’m almost tempted to ask my daughter to apply there and we’re not Mormons. My sister went to BYU in Hawaii. I think she got an excellent education.</p>
<p>Try running your figures through the fafsa forecaster [FAFSA4caster</a> - U.S. Department of Education](<a href=“http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov%5DFAFSA4caster”>http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov) to see what kind of an efc you come up with.</p>
<p>i just received a mailing from U of Richmond, they look like they offer a lot of merit aid.
i know people who go there and absolutely love it so it might be worth looking into!</p>
My sister went to BYU in Hawaii. I think she got an excellent education.</p>