<p>I think the only rule in the college process is: There Are No Rules. I, too, would have bet that showing no interest would not generate a major FA offer absent a major hook. And I was sure that applying ED,not asking for FA and not having a hook doomed my son’s chances for major major merit aid.</p>
<p>Although I think it is important to teach kids fiscal responsibility, I think you are wise in not making your child feel obligated to pick the lowest cost option if it is not a necessity. I think it is best for kids to get a nuanced sense of how to balance cost and value.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that so many schools release financial aid packages this early. We haven’t heard from any schools, although when we do, we expect that it will just be to say, “No, we’re not giving you anything…”…lol!!</p>
<p>RTR, it is amazing how quickly they can pull these together considering they don’t have the numbers until mid to late January for most people. I do remember with S1 that the sooner I have my FAFSA/CSS done the sooner the finaid letters come. March is the month…the finaid packages and by the end of the month hopefully the last notifications, then the big sigh and roll into the end of year senior “stuff.”</p>
<p>NEmom…yes, I do. Our EFC is higher than the cost of any school out there, though, so it makes little difference. S did apply to two private schools but we haven’t hear from them either, even to say “no”. I do realize that merit aid would have been more plentiful at lower tier schools, but they would not have been right for him…or should I say that our state flagship is a better choice for his needs and very reasonably priced, so there was no need to look at a lower tier. (S did get a decent amount of merit aid from UVM, but that school is pretty expensive and one would need about $11k in yearly aid for it to equal the price of other OOS publics, and of course double that to equal the price of in-state flagship.)</p>
<p>Okay, ReadytoRoll, so you do understand how FA works for OOS publics. In your case the public U route could make a lot sense. It doesn’t financially make sense, IMO, for those that will qualify for financial aid at most private schools. At some point there is probably a “six of one, half a dozen of the other scenario”.</p>
<p>I was aware that colleges “bought” kids with glowing stats and seeing the big differences between the aid offered for child one and two has been interesting (painful is probably a more accurate choice of word). Child one applied to “higher ranked” schools and got in with fairly decent merit/need packages as she had the scores and activities colleges like to purchase. We are not seeing the generous grant money appear with our B student. He has been offered various “merit” scholarships and with the grant packages coming in, his uncovered by scholarship/grant charges as much the total uncovered cost for when child one was our only child in college. The FAFSA suggested that our EFC should be about half of what is coming in as covered in grants/scholarships for him. We also noted that we have been offered “parent” loans and unsubsidized loans- something that did not show up at all in child one’s packages. </p>
<p>The reality is settling in. I’ve started the financial aid plea letters but child two may be going to the state U choice he has. I’ve been talking it up to him…</p>
<p>Hornet, that unsubsidized 2,000 in addition to the 3500 subsidized is a “new” thing (relatively new anyway). It is ridiculous IMO, but that is how many schools are now “meeting” need. As far as need aid, we have one school that offered more in grants than the next best package. Editing this to say that the same school also has the lowest sticker price, making the spread 6600 less out of pocket than our next best offer. We only have a few packages in so far. There is quite a range in how schools are determining our EFC, or some are chosing to gap!</p>
<p>Parents of Juniors (Hollie, Emmy, Rodney, etc) might want to read the well-written CampusVibe reports on Wooster and Dennison ACSinGA just submitted.</p>
<p>Why thank you, yabeyabe2! Yes, we just got back from three days in beautiful, flat, cold Ohio. Read my write-ups and anyone can feel free to PM me for further info.
Bottom line: didn’t love the grey skies, did love the “Midwest Nice”.</p>
<p>Hornet, we have high EFC, so the only hope we had was merit. S had one decent merit offer from his safety; that puts it 6-7K over an in state public.</p>
<p>The others so far offered token merit putting them far out of reach (we can in no way afford our EFC with 2 others to pay for down the road) and can’t be taking out big loans.</p>
<p>So yes, we are talking up state U to son also.</p>
<p>If we lived in a state like NC, where instate COA were 12k per year, we would not have even explored private schools. We chose private schools to see carefully. We did not pick brand name schools in cities, where COAs can run over 50k and our son might only see 12-15k off that bill in merit and/or financial aid…then a huge gap and loans only. We saw a few packages like that with our older son. We looked at mostly low match to match schools and safeties. One high match was in the mix.</p>
<p>I am also (generally) going with Northeastmom’s plan - looking at mostly match and safety schools and trying to focus on those that usually give at least 80% of the students a good chunk in institutional aid, and that needs to be merit, not finaid. I was very successful with this with my first two but it does seem harder with #3 since he would prefer a more techy school and LAC’s seem to be the ones to give out more merit aid. We will be looking at more of the state schools. Unlike NJ, PA does have many reasonably priced state U’s. We’ve told child #3 already that we will only pay so much and after that he will have to take out loans if he chooses a more expensive school. Not that we would allow him to take out a crazy amount either.</p>
<p>Kathiep, you and I are on the same page in our approach.</p>
<p>Also, editing this to say that I feel that sticker price matters. Years ago, some college material I read said not to consider sticker price because very few students pay that amount. That is not necessarily correct and I think that is a big mistake, and poor advice. I am finding so far that the lower the sticker price, the more affordable for our family. A school that costs 52,000 did not give my son enough money to bring the cost close to a school with a sticker price of 31-32,000 (harder to find that price range at private school too). You can see how 10,000 in merit aid from a school with a sticker price of 32,000 is less expensive than a 52k school who offers a merit award of 15,000! Even if a few financial aid dollars are added, that school is still much more expensive for us.</p>
<p>S2 aimed at a wide range of schools - good mix of safeties, matches, reaches. So far, he has received nice merit packages from the safeties and matches, and even one school we classified as a reach. He has 3 with a “net” COA less than the state flagship. (And, schools where he is more likely to actually graduate after 4 years!)</p>
<p>Our EFC is high, so merit money is important. I look at net COA after the merit “discount”, not sticker price. In some cases, the discounts make a higher sticker price school affordable. But you cannot predict the discounts, thus why he applied to so many schools. (Although, there is quite a striking correlation between net COA and average SAT…)</p>
<p>Funny how regional differences exist in terms of options. In this totally wretched state economy, WUE gives CA residents (as well as those in the other participating states) the opportunity to earn in state tuition + 50%. It opens up for our CA kids a whole slew of campuses; some of which are more affordable than what we have in state. For DS we will be looking at OOS publics that the WUE program makes attainable.</p>