<p>agree NEmom your thoughtfulness and careful financial planning are inspiring and your willingness to share very helpful.</p>
<p>That financial slight of hand was what we saw in that first FA package and the PLU amount was huge and scary!</p>
<p>CapeCodLady I was not reading critically or else I would have realized this wasn’t your first rodeo. Sorry the wind has been pulled from your sails. Best of luck with future packages!</p>
<p>LOL, all but cc can ruin your financial life! Heck, in NJ, our state 4 year colleges have COAs that are over 20,000 (guesstimating 22k). One truly needs to be an exceptional student to be offered merit aid. A B+ average and a 1200/1800 SAT score is not going to cut it for merit aid at most of these schools (ie: Rutgers, and Ramapo). You might get something at William Paterson, Rowan, or Stockton, but you’ll still end up spending more than if you were an student for NC, or VA (2 examples) after any of that merit aid. </p>
<p>My advice, cast a very wide net, and hope for the best!</p>
<p>historymom, I cross posted with you, thanks.</p>
<p>SLUMOM, actually has much more financial information to share than I do! Read her advice, it is valuable! </p>
<p>There is also plenty of good financial advice if you read old posts from years ago. Calmom, and Curmudgeon are two senior posters with lots of information!</p>
<p>I find it amazing to believe that even well-off families can somehow manage to save enough for four years of college for multiple children. For a private school and two kids, that would be saving $400,000. Even a family making over $150k per year (which means closer to $100k after taxes) would have a very hard time doing that, especially in the Northeast. </p>
<p>We are at an income level that will not qualify for aid. We’re not underwater in our house but there is no equity to tap. We could maybe manage a private school if we had just one kid, but we have several! I’m amazed at families that are full pay at private schools for multiple kids and have no idea how they do it, unless by “full pay” they mean “home equity loans”.</p>
<p>“Paying for College Without Going Broke” Princeton Review, Kalman Chany, that is all you need! It is my “bible” LOL… </p>
<p>2010 Edition he has a new page called: “12 tips For Paying For college In Tough Times”.<br>
Page # 274. One is very relevant: </p>
<h1>7 “Apply strategically to colleges. If you exceed the school’s admission criteria, you are much more likely to get a better aid package than a marginal applicant. Be sure to prep for the standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT, so that the student is more desirable.”</h1>
<p>Very good advice! “Reaches” may result in a not so stellar FA package, as the student falls into the bottom of the applicant pool. </p>
<p>Excellent book, it even has a website you can refer to for changes in FA, as the book is usually published in October every year.</p>
<p>ReadyToRoll, exactly. Now here are the arguments to counter that:</p>
<p>At very few school do you pay full sticker price. You can find 40,000 private schools and get 12k in merit aid as a B student and the COA is now 28k per year for the first year, then add the increases to that. Students will take out student loans and that will help with cost and tuition increases (you may borrow more money as a junior/senior than as a freshman). Your kid’s summer job should be able to pay for pocket money and maybe books.</p>
<p>Next argument: You are supposed to pay through savings, current income (in this economy, lol), and future earnings (can everyone count on a job these days). Not everyone is a spring chicken. Some people will be retiring at some point.</p>
<p>Many people were paying by borrowing on homes IMO. That money tree is now lost.</p>
<p>It is a condundrum. On one hand the private institutions wanted to diversify their entering class geographically, socio-economically and culturally so they went to tiered pricing by discounting some tuitions with merit/grants etc. to build the student body they want. On the other hand I think many parents wish that the whole thing would go away and costs would be stablized and be upfront so that you can say to the kids, we can afford this one but not that one and not say “we’ll see what it looks like 9 months from now”. My oldest only looked at publics which are far more transparent regarding costs but this time round with S2 we have a mix of schools. I’m really, really looking forward with interest to see how those finaid packages come in. Also interesting to see my son’s reaction to the cost component. I don’t think he can really understand what he would “get” at the more expensive schools which is good because sometimes I’m not sure what the added costs bring to the experience for the extra $20,000 or more per year.</p>
<p>Our 3rd package just rolled in. It was not pretty. Comparing only tuition and room and board (not counting book, fees etc.), the 3rd school is asking us to pay…drum roll…6400 MORE than another school has offered. I know that school is off the table now!!</p>
<p>Sorry to have turned this recently cheery thread into a discussion of finances. Money is not often fun to talk about! I had to chuckle [not] in the paperwork that came with the package, a brochure-like Guide to Paying for our great school [“named one of the most affordable colleges in the Northeast”, or something like that]. It clearly stated that Home Equity loans were an option that parents should consider.</p>
<p>A few years ago my husband and I were talking about exploding college costs and we both felt that the ceiling had been reached at that point, and that was before the financial downturn of the country. Now the costs do seem clearly out of proportion to affordability for most folks. I do feel that colleges are doing what they can, but even with that it is not enough for many families.</p>
<p>We will find a balance some how, and did follow the financial suggestions when applying to schools though perhaps did not apply to enough schools. It is much harder however, when you have a B student who is not in the top of his/her class academically, and also in a highly competitive high school and area. For example, one large private of state university sees more than 60 applications from our high school, and even though upwards of 40 may be admitted, the 20 that are not would appear to be well within the range of academics of the college’s own website stats. Some admissions offices say they don’t pit one classmate against another from the same school, but how could they not? So getting back to a common theme on this thread, Student X who truly desires College A might not get in, because Student Y has applied to the same school as a safety, and they hope he/she will attend. Merit too gets sifted to the top of the tier that you are in.</p>
<p>It is a bit sad that the thread that was cheering about happy acceptances a few days ago is now muddling over the reality of how to pay for it! It will all come out in the wash and hopefully our kids will end up exactly where they were meant to be. That’s all I’m looking for in this process! :)</p>
<p>If some of this did not make sense, it’s because I’ve spent all week in the ICU with my father-in-law. I’m so tired I cannot think straight, so please don’t quote me! Adding to that I just learned that my son’s midyear grade report sent to his remaining colleges contained the dismal final exam grade he got in a class. The end grade was fine, a B-, but the final was a D+. You just don’t want to see things like that going to colleges when they are trying to decide whether or not to accept you. Ugh.</p>
<p>My son has received some (not all) decent FA/merit packages. Of the ones that are good, they are all at least several thousand less than our in state flagship.
I believe that someone said earlier that you need to cast a wide net and that really works. He didn’t apply to any schools in the northeast and as many of you know we visited every school that he was seriously interested in (and more!!). I believe a male from the northeast is a big plus when applying down south or to some schools in the midwest.</p>
<p>Unfortunately my son did not want to be too far from home base. We actually cancelled a long trip to the mid-Atlantic and PA because he felt it was too far. Great schools, just too far from home base. In the end that was a good decision, given his rough start to senior year in general which has since turned around. If that happens next year as a college freshman, he’s better off being closer to home where he can come home on a weekend to de-compress, rather than just have us find out at Fall break or Thanksgiving that things have fallen apart! Oh dear lord, let’s not go there!! 
</p>
<p>I will have to widen the net next time around. Third time’s a charm, right? Actually, I may pursue working at a great school nearby, and if my son gets in after high school, at least he’ll get reduced tuition!</p>
<p>What stands out to me is that, in states with high in state public tuition–NJ, CA and others–B+ students can easily go to private schools for less with merit aid alone as long as they aim below reaches or high matches without going hundreds of miles away. I find it infuriating that so many GCs seem not to know this, especially when dealing with the kind of kids who will get lost at big publics, which are fine schools, but not for fall between the cracks kids.</p>
<p>Yabyabe2- I second your suggestion to nemon- she has great information to share!</p>
<p>I would hazard that the vast majority of public school GCs are not versed in the financial aspects of college admission let along understanding the national landscape. I know that’s the case at our HS. Nice folks, but highly focused on the areas public colleges and admissions, not so much financial aid and they will be the first to admit this.</p>
<p>NEM, I love how we are supposed to pay through savings! If you have four kids and have the third & 4th to get through, but first two are done, there are no savings! We have already used it on the first two! Taxes go up, tuitions go up, gasoline goes up, home heating oil goes up, groceries go up, but does our income go up to handle all these increases? No, of course not! Last several years I don’t think I have talked to any parents who have complained about having too much money! Even the ones I thought were quite well off!</p>
<p>SLUMOM, didn’t you know that you were supposed to have an account in your name times 4 (one for each child), so each one would have savings for college, lol! Shame on you for not knowing better You said what I was thinking. I was going to say exactly what you just did, but then I thought someone would just say that this is why they only have 1 child, yada, yada. Oh, btw, folks, I have 2, so I can save you from typing that advice. In fact, if we all cut back more, we would have no children, and none to send to college in the first place! </p>
<p>Yabeyabe, I found it hard with my child’s very solid, but not exceptional stats to find private colleges that cost less than instate schools, and I am from NJ. What would make it easier are outstanding stats, something significant that the student can offer the school, and/or a low EFC. Keep in mind that plenty of schools will just gap a low efc applicant though, making the school unaffordable. In other words if an EFC is 6k, a school might still ask one to pay 25,000 for just one year. That is known as an admit/deny, because one would not be smart in borrowing that much money to begin an undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>I’d like to weigh in to this conversation by sharing info I found on the Muhlenberg College website. I have never seen the concept of preferential packaging spelled out so clearly.</p>
<p>"Enter preferential packaging
Preferential packaging means, simply, that the students a college would most like to enroll will receive the most advantageous financial aid packages. Financial aid packages are made up of:</p>
<pre><code>* Grants. These may come from the college, the state, or the national government. They are “gifts,” or “free money” and do not have to be paid back.
<p>A preferential financial aid package includes a far greater percentage of grant aid than self-help (loans and work). Because they have discretion over how much grant aid they choose to award a student, a college can award a bigger grant to a student they would really like to enroll. In some cases, the total of grant from the college and the loans the student is entitled to may exceed the student’s financial need. (“Need” is the cost of attendancetuition, room, board, books, travel and expensesminus what a family is able to pay.) In addition, students at the top of the applicant pool may receive Merit Scholarships designed to reward their outstanding high school record and further entice them to the college."</p>
<p>They make it clear that colleges have the discretion to recruit the stronger students through great FA pkgs and that students who are accepted, but are at the lower range of the admissions pool will not be offered as good a pkg. Call me naive, but I was really shocked when I first came across this. I had assumed that 2 students with identical financial situations would get the same pkgs - now I see that is not the case.</p>
<p>rockvillemom, thanks for posting. I have seen some online college calculators that ask students to plug in their GPA and SAT/ACT score in addition to income and assets before a school gives a rough estimate as to how much FA one could expect. In fact one school asked for GPA and test scores, but did not ask if any siblings would also be in college at the same time (should cut the EFC in half)!</p>
<p>I also found it hard to find privates to apply to that would offer enough merit to bring it within the range of a public.</p>
<p>S did not want to go far from home, and his major is not offered at many lower tiered privates.</p>
<p>Since we don’t want to borrow $100 - 120K after paying $60K out of pocket, we are most likely looking at am in state public. Or starting at his safety, not in his major, then transferring.</p>
<p>I still get sad when I hear parents or kids complain on some of the college threads about the measly $16K merit scholarships at schools that S would love to attend.</p>
<p>I was never surprised as Rockvillemom posts. College was and is about being a student… all that has happened is that more and more kids are heading off as college becomes an assumed next step. I was looking at some info from our small public school and in the seventies only about 30% of the kids went to 4-year colleges and they didn’t have statistics about community college. That number now is over 60% to four year and over 85% go to college including community colleges in the year after graduation. Colleges will always want the best and the brightest and they’ve discovered that a great way to get those kids is to make college affordable. I guess I instinctively knew this even before I found CC. Even public colleges reward the best and the brightest of the available pool of in-state students so while there may be fewer barriers to entry the in-states even compete among themselves for students rewarding the best students by “rewarding” the financial end. It’s often said that the money is where your student is in the top tier of entering students otherwise you “buy your entry” by paying a higher percentage of tuition. It’s an odd system no doubt and I’m not entirely sure how this evolved over the past thirty years. My “little” freshman 4.0 grade grubber already “gets that” after two rounds of family dinner table discussion about colleges, about GPA, about finances. He had a planning session for next year’s scheduling and the GC asked him if he was going to go to college where his brothers were and he said “oh no, I can go to a much better college.” He will be a joy to work with in a couple years after working with two B/B+ kids. I don’t worry about his brothers, they will be just fine and we found financial feasible options that they are very happy with.</p>
<p>Do a google search on “Enrollment Managers” for colleges. That will really open your eyes!
Colleges are a business after all & let’s see how little we can offer a student to get him/her to enroll! If the Enrollment Manager has your child way up on the list as a desirable enrollee, your FA package may be rather enticing, how can you say “No”? But if the applicant is way down on the list & doesn’t have anything spectacular to offer (“HOOKS”) then you certainly will not get that preferential packaging. </p>
<p>With this kind of stuff going on, you can see that it is best not to “fall in love” with a school and show gobs of interest! After all, perhaps the applicant would take that mediocre FA that was offered. I have always viewed ED as very risky because you have already played your hand! None of my children could ever go ED because of FA. Fortunately, none of them ever asked to go ED, we would have said “No way.”</p>