<p>Unfortunately our FAFSA was randomly assigned for Audit [Re-verification]. This has led to our having to re-submit documents and hold up the process at three schools. We’ve quickly decided to send the info to all the schools we haven’t heard from yet, to avoid the wait and possibly loss of FA, which I have read about in other cases. Has anyone else experienced this?? Not sure why we were chosen, but it’s been suggested it was because we had initially had to do an estimate [due to early FA deadline prior to tax returns], even though the information was 100% the same, we just did not have the paper W2s yet but accessed the information online through my husband’s company website. It certainly has added to the stress and uncertainty but hopefully all is well now. We’re happy to provide whatever they need!</p>
<p>I only send hard copy info to colleges that request specific hardcopy info. The first year my oldest applied our FAFSA had the verification * but none of the colleges requested info. One of the finaid officers that responds on the Finaid threads says to send only when requested so I follow that mantra.</p>
<p>We used estimates initially and completed the fafsa on 1/1. We were not chosen to be verified for this year. I have heard that it is random. I don’t know if certain responses additionally trigger a verification or not.</p>
<p>Thanks, mom3boys,
I actually called the FA office to ask, and they said yes, if you’ve been chosen, not only will they want the hard copies, but they also had their own verification sheets to fill out, which they emailed to me [not available on their website]. It’s a nuisance, but better to do now, then wait weeks for their letters saying that they need them.<br>
Our FAFSA was very uneventful otherwise! Only change is having two in college.</p>
<p>Thanks to yabeyabe for thinking of us jr parents!</p>
<p>Got our tickets for our NY/NJ trip spring break. Should be very educational. Mix of auditioned theater schools and non-auditioned schools with good theater majors. Then she comes back and takes ACT for the first (real) time. Soon we’ll be taking over the “it’s happening to us” role, and you parents of 2010 seniors can be telling us how it’s going for your kids their freshman year!</p>
<p>It goes quick, folks. D1 is finishing her jr year of college, and if you asked me, she just got there …</p>
<p>Also, I am reading the fin aid discussion with interest. Curious thing in our family is that 4.0 D1 is at a top school with NO merit aid (I mean NO), and our <3.5 D2 is very likely to get some merit money because the schools she likes are more generous that way AND like a lot of these kids she’ll probably end up at a match or safety where she’s a high achiever, or at a lesser-known school with a great theater program where she’ll be way above the pack. We’ve got 4 more years of FAFSAs, but at least this time they probably won’t go right in the wastebasket.</p>
<p>Hi Northeastmom,
North Carolina is very affordable but the sheer size of the schools (10,000-32,000 depending on the school) made them not good choices for our wallflower, not very proactive child. The one small state school S applied to and was accepted (UNC-A) has a 30% four year graduation rate and a 72% retention rate. The other two schools (App State and UNC-G) are too big for him and his stats are not good enough for their honors programs. Their graduation rates are better (60% and 52%, respectively) but not near the retention/grad rates of most of the privates he was accepted to. NC state schools also have fairly inflexible general education requirements for the first two years. If you don’t have a high SAT and AP credit, you can be stuck in huge classes (some with as many 300+ students depending on the school).</p>
<p>I’m doing the beg routine at the schools. We were willing to pay more than the cost of state schools and one of the privates is now in our range. Unfortunately our daughter’s school won’t be able to tell us about any grant money until June as she is a returning student. If her aid doesn’t increase, there is no way we can run both at private colleges at the same time. Hopefully, there might be some relief from D’s school. The school has a nice endowment and she is active in the college community and doing well academically. I hope they will send a little $$ her way.</p>
<p>We were chosen for the FAFSA reverification for our older child (already in college) but not on entering firstyear. My understanding from the FAFSA folks is that the colleges can ask for copies of your completed 1040 documents (including schedule C, etc) for the verification. It seemed like not a big deal since D’s school asks for this information anyway.</p>
<p>hornet, The big difference for you NC residents is that your public U’s are reasonably priced to begin with and your privates start at sometimes $10,000 less per year then our Northeastern colleges. For an example, Muhelenberg, a college close to me, has a sticker price of $46,000 inclusive and 69% received institutional aid for an avg of $14,000. Cost = $31,000 Guilford is $35,800 inclusive, 94% of the student get an average of $10,000 in institutional aid. cost = $25,800. [College</a> Navigator - Guilford College](<a href=“College Navigator - Search Results”>College Navigator - Guilford College) I think you’ve got some great prospects! :)</p>
<p>Hi Hornet. I did not realize that you are from NC, but now that you mention it, I do recall. I agree with you about grad rates at UNC-A. This is why it came off our list. Thanks for explaining class sizes at the other NC schools. We have a similar problem at many of our state schools, but not at all of them.</p>
<p>It is a shame that your D’s school cannot tell you until June what kind of package she might get. This puts you all in a awful position. Educating our youth is getting so much harder because of cost. I think it is just so sad. I wish you all the best with your packages! </p>
<p>Kathiep is correct about pricing of some of your private schools. That kind of pricing is getting tougher and tougher to find, but not impossible yet!</p>
<p>Kathieup,
I agree that the lesser known NC privates are a lot cheaper than the northeast or midwest for that matter. Interestingly, Guilford has offered less aid than Earlham, Wooster, Hendrix and of the packages coming in, is one of the more expensive options-even with a few round trip airline tickets home calculated in! I think Guilford may see the average instate kid as offering less of a diversity to their mix and, perhaps, is less inclined to offer the extra $$$$.</p>
<p>I just found this site and thread- My D is a junior has a 3.35 GPA (unweighted) she made a excellent score on ACT and plans to go to a smaller private school such as Rollins, Eckerd, High Point Un, Furman and possibly rhodes(if she can get in) any other suggestions of schools we could look at- we are in B’ham, Al and she wants to stay in southeast.</p>
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<p>You may well be correct. This is what we saw with a school in the northeast, but some students from other parts of the country think the package is good. I think much of this has to do with geographic diversity. That school was a low match for my son.</p>
<p>BTW, there are still some lesser known privates in the midweat that are in that price range too. Two that came to mind in OH are Hiram and Marietta College (I believe around 36-37k but have not checked recently). Hiram, btw, locks in the COA when you matriculate for 4 years IF you do not take a leave of absence. Anyone interested should read the specific requirements. Also, I think another OH school that might be in this price range is Otterbein College.</p>
<p>Welcome, hlsess. You have some good choices listed. I am not too familiar with schools in the southeast, but there are others who are.</p>
<p>EmmyBet, best of luck on the trip! I am sorry PA did not make the cut this time–if I recall correctly, after Warriorboy’s first, more Southern trip did not yield fruit, I predicted her PA trip would and it yielded his first choice and another acceptance.</p>
<p>“Guilford has offered less aid than Earlham, Wooster, Hendrix and of the packages coming in . . . . I think Guilford may see the average instate kid as offering less of a diversity to their mix and, perhaps, is less inclined to offer the extra $$$$.”</p>
<p>Is the Guilford endow as large as at the other schools? And even if the $$ amount of the Guilford award is less than that of other schools, what’s the COA after factoring in the awards (as an earlier post noted, Guilford starts out w/ a relatively low sticker price)?</p>
<p>I have found that a higher endowment (per student, because that matters too) does not necessarily correlate with a better financial aid package. Just our personal experience.</p>
<p>hlsess. You might want to check out Wofford College (SC) for your D.</p>
<p>My neice was recruited by Guilford for her sport last year. My brother repeatedly told Guilford that she could not consider the offer unless they made it comparable to an NC public. Guilford eventually came down but neice decided she’d rather go to the public instead. There are strings to be pulled if they want to pull them.</p>
<p>ACSin Ga, given that you and Rodney, EmmyBet and HollieSue have similar backgrounds, daughters and valuesyou will likely cross paths at a visit some day.</p>
<p>Hlsess, a friend from NJ was very excited by Highpoint and was accepted ED. The only small schools I know missing from your SE list were Hendrix and Guilford; if you venture a little further north, KY has Centre and Transylvania and VA and MD offer a trove of options, such as Roanoke; Mary Washington, Washington College, Goucher and McDaniel.</p>
<p>CapeCodLady we were also chosen for verification last year. Call the schools to which your child is accepted to verify this but in the case of all my kids’ schools no one needed the info until after 5/1 which meant I didn’t have to go through the whole hassle of sending the info to every school, just to the one they decided to attend.</p>
<p>Guilford has a much smaller endowment than the three schools mentioned (I think about have the size of the other schools) and yes, the amount I am reporting is cost of attendance, plus room and board minus grants and scholarships.</p>
<p>Northeast-I agree about the schools with bigger endowments being more generous. We have certainly found that to be true with the offerings both with child one and now with my son.</p>
<p>Packmom-you are right, schools will often give recruited athletes a bit more although this is not something they will readily acknowledge. </p>
<p>Hlsess- you may also want to consider Maryville in Tennesee and Berry College in Georgia. I’ve heard some talk of Berry having a “Christian” campus but I don’t know if that is current info. They are very affordable and the campus is a beautiful place.</p>