<p>We are paying about 10K a year. DD will have a work study and she supposes to contribute $2K from her summer earnings. </p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>If your son gets into a school that meets full need like your D’s school, you will likely be paying little more than that as your institutional EFC would be halved.</p>
<p>^
My thoughts exactly, if schools are both full-need. How does a pretax $120,000 income equal a $10,000 EFC, though?</p>
<p>Our older daughter was offered full tuition at Trinity College. We didn’t have to apply, it was awarded after our daughter was accepted. It was our daughter’s safety and she would have been happy to attend even without the merit scholarship. At the end, she turned it down and is very happy at her current school (our pocket book not so happy).</p>
<p>I think there are many schools that use merit scholarship to attract students that would have otherwise not gone there. Duke offers full merit scholarship to tier students - I think you need to cure cancer or something like during your spare time.</p>
<p>Not all “meet full need” schools are the same, we learnt. Schools like WashU, Duke and Vandy do “meet full need” but they all use loan to meet the need. I don’t think DS will apply to any of these schools who are known to ask a little more than Im calculated EFC.</p>
<p>Our DD also got full tuition at OSU because of her NMF. She also won a state sponsered scholarship worth about $2500 a year. That made COA at OSU at about $10K/year too. However, we will have to pay all 4 years. At Stanford, we will only pay 50% for the last two years. This made S the lowest cost schools for DD.</p>
<p>“I am doing that, DD went to the lowest cost school rather than her dream school per se. DS is being encoraged to apply to elite schools too. However, the financial safety needs to go a lot lower in cost. Paying tuition has a significant impact to our checking account.”</p>
<p>?? Of the (all top notch) schools she got into, Stanford wasn’t her favorite? There was another one she liked better?</p>
<p>So, your D is getting a Stanford education for $30,000 total, you make $120,000/year, and you need your S to get a literal full ride to afford college? What are the extenuating circumstances here? (IU’m not being sarcastic–I truly do feel for thos with extenuating financial circumstances, as I know verry well that the “worst” can–and does–happen to people through no fault of tyheir own. I’m just trying to understand the situation here.)</p>
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<p>Vanderbilt has just changed this policy. Beginning this fall, financial aid packages will include no need-based loans.</p>
<p>[Vanderbilt’s</a> Expanded Aid Program](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/expanded-aid-program.php]Vanderbilt’s”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/expanded-aid-program.php)</p>
<p>I don’t think there are extenuating circumstances. DadII has a cost objective in terms of what he wants to pay for college. We do too, but we have not been as disciplined and successful in having it work out. We are capable of paying full freight for college, but it means depleting everything we have and putting us in a financially risky position. Not a good idea in light of some other more urgent needs and potential issues that our family faces. Before those came to light as more than just possibilities, we were willing to take more risks. Now, though our income is such that we can pay for any college, to do so is not a good financial decision.</p>
<p>Advice to Dad II: </p>
<p>Tell your son what you are willing/able to pay, maximum. </p>
<p>Let your son figure it out from there. </p>
<p>Really: there is no need for all this parental stress over the situation. Your son is a good student, he’ll have good affordable opportunities along the way. </p>
<p>If he comes to you with a college list that doesn’t seem to have any financial safeties… then tell him he has to come up with at least 2. Otherwise, let him take charge.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, DadII is not caucasion,
correct? S might be in great standing for the Gates scholarship (D is a Gates scholar) that will cover unmet need and a computer. It even covers work study up to the maximum federal limit.</p>
<p>cpt:</p>
<p>Surely there must be some kind of extenuating circumstances (no assests?) involved to take a $120,000 gross income and turn it into a $10k EFC! And if Dad II’s S gets a true full ride, then will his EFC for his D still be halved?</p>
<p>I have no doubt that any of the posters here are highly intelligent but don’t think there is any financial aid advice any mortal can give to someone making $120,000 who figured out how to send his kid to Stanford for $10,000/yr.</p>
<p>My nephew is apply to schools this year. My sister’s household income is close to half of mil. She called me up at work to ask me, “Should we check off the financial aid box?” There were so many answers I thought of giving her, but I said, “No.”</p>
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<p>LOL…you know…I think you have it right. WE should be asking DADII for advice and not the other way around! It is hard to undersstand a family that earns $120,000 with only ONE kid in college, has an EFC of $10,000 and the rest is not loans but all scholarship. My kids get good aid too but this one really takes the cake and so I think DadII should be explaining to us how to do this rather than members constantly spilling advice for him. DadII…do tell…</p>
<p>Good morning. Well, it is what it is. I have always using the words such as “about”, “around”, etc. It is you guys who came up with those 120,000 and 10,000 numbers. I have not comment about that.</p>
<p>May be it is just my personality- hate to spend one more penny if we don’t have to. </p>
<p>Overall, I got the answer I came to seek. How to make it work will be the difficult part. Thank you all for your kindness.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the original question was about merit awards. At least when it comes to private universities, anxiousmom in post #13 hit it right on the nose. It is about a lot more than stats. All your top merit candidates will have top stats at the top schools. For the ones that receive the awards it is about the intangibles that set them apart. So yes, Leadership, leadership, leadership is very important. These schools look for future campus and life leaders.</p>
<p>Ours applied to and was accepted at several the top 30 universities. All with full or almost full merit rides. Among these were schools that DADII’s D applied to. Was also accepted at several lower rated schools. The merit offers were all more or less the same. I believe the most important factor is choosing a school that is a good fit for the student. After that it is in choosing which merit awards to apply for.</p>
<p>DadII, I think in addition to grades, test scores, etc the other thing to do is to look to where the college stats are weak. For example, many slightly lower LACs have a lot of trouble attracting males or URMs. So if a college is skewing 60% female, they are more likely to cough up money for a male. My URM daughter received a big merit offers from colleges that are having trouble reaching 15% minority. Geographic draw may play a part as well. As you live in the midwest, check out the colleges in the Pacific northwest. All of this is time consuming so it is good you are getting a head start.</p>
<p>Everyone: I think it is none of our business to evaluate how he spends his income. Doubtless there are drains upon it that we don’t need to know.</p>
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<p>Actually Dad II…you posted that your monthly income was “not quite $10,000”. Those were your words. Now…what do you think that means? It certainly doesn’t mean your income is $5000 per month. It means that your income is approaching $10,000 per month but isn’t quite there. So…even if it’s $9000 per month, that is $108,000 per year…an adequate amount to be able to fund $10,000 per year (as you are doing for your daughter…stated by you above) and for your son. There will only be a two year overlap. Surely it’s worth some personal belt tightening to make it work. Skip the Carribean vacations altogether (we haven’t taken a family vacation since our older child enrolled in college), no replacement TV, don’t redo the kitchen right now, no new cars (not saying you were planning that…but you kwim), skip meals at restaurants, keep discretionary spending to a minimum. AND have both kids work. My kids have jobs during the school year 10 hours or so a week, and summer jobs that net them about $4000 per year…which they use for all of their personal spending and books, etc…part of the total cost of attendance at their schools. And my kids DID take the Stafford loans. It was THEIR investment in their college education, and personally I don’t see a problem with that since they will be the ones getting the degrees and jobs to support the repayment of those loans. PLUS when they are OUT of college and we don’t have college bills to pay each month, we can help them with the repayment…if we choose to.</p>
<p>There are many ways to skin the finances of attending college and each family needs to make their personal choices. AND the kids should be involved.</p>
<p>To the posters above speculating about the D’s package and the family’s EFC: it goes back to the Stanford policy, I think, that limits family contributions to a certain percentage of income. Harvard does this, too. It’s not based on a FAFSA EFC, I don’t think. Just another way that you really hit the jackpot when you get accepted at a truly elite school.</p>