<p>Hi, people who are in the same boat as I am,</p>
<p>I’m not sure where I should introduce myself so forgive me if this is the wrong place. I’m not sure what Parent Cafe is as opposed to the other forum; can anyone explain?</p>
<p>I’m laurie and I have a D who will graduate from a fair public high school in upstate NY in 2011. We started the college process last winter and I’ve been a bit ocd about it. We’re visiting colleges within a 5 hour drive of home (this is for both financial and ‘not letting go’ reasons), and will be visiting 3 or 4 Canadian universities too. </p>
<p>We haven’t figured out our EFC yet but since we both work I fear it will be way more than we can REALLY afford. We’ll be looking for merit scholarships and hoping that she falls in love with an affordable school. So far she loves the madly expensive LACs</p>
<p>A little about my daughter, good grades, difficult classes and all, but she is not a social go-getter. She’s quite introverted, has never started her own non-profit, or been president of a club, or won an athletic MVP award. She has been more of an EC ‘dabbler’ than a long-term ‘committer.’ She tends to be vague as opposed to overtly enthusiastic, which I know is going to work against her in interviews. I will be looking for threads about students who are not leaders and how to get around that (or embrace it) in the college app. process.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I always tend to underestimate both of my kids (defense mechanism). </p>
<p>Looking forward to getting to know you.</p>
<p>new momber…I love it. This is the right forum. Parent Cafe is for just about anything (except politics which has a separate forum). Parents Forum is for more serious stuff.
Good for you for thinking about the money NOW. Read some of the other threads and you’ll see that those of us who have BTDT (been there done that) are always saying talk to your kid about the money.
You may not qualify for much financial aid and may not have enough saved. Merit aid can be the answer toward avoiding debt for an undergraduate degree but only if you and your child have talked about it ahead of time. You need to have a complete list of schools including some financial and academic safeties.
As for loving madly affordable LACS that’s nice. I love lots of things I can’t afford too! LOL.</p>
<p>laffter - Welcome to CC. You can learn a lot her, and I do suggest you look through old thread … just to get some background.</p>
<p>The immediate problem you face is that your D doesn’t appear to stand out in any one area. You don’t mention ACT/SAT test scores. If these are high a lot of issues will disappear … by high I mean 95th percentile scores. Not only will that help immensely with admissions, but it also opens doors regarding merit scholarships.</p>
<p>The other thing I’d suggest is choosing safety schools first … you know, schools your D likes that are nearly certain to accept her and which your family can afford.</p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>Thanks to you both. I am sure to get lost in these forums. In a good way, lol.</p>
<p>be sure you hit CC Main Site for Roger Dooley’s op eds and other professional contributor’s spiel. </p>
<p>Then go to the local well to mull what they said.</p>
<p>Welcome!!! 
</p>
<p>We haven’t figured out our EFC yet but since we both work I fear it will be way more than we can REALLY afford. We’ll be looking for merit scholarships and hoping that she falls in love with an affordable school. So far she loves the madly expensive LACs</p>
<p>Now is the time for honesty with your child. Tell her exactly how much you can pay each year for her education - whatever that number is.</p>
<p>Tell her that anything more than that will have to come from grants, scholarships, and small student loans (and that you will NOT be borrowing any money yourselves).</p>
<p>Be firm. Many families live in areas where housing/taxes/etc can make meeting an EFC impossible. </p>
<p>Find out your approx EFC. If your income is middle or upper-middle class, it’s probably about 20-25% of your income. It can be higher if you have assets. </p>
<p>I would not be visiting any more unaffordable schools (schools that won’t likely give needed merit scholarships and schools that will expect an unaffordable contribution from your family). There’s no point in causing your D to fall in love with any more unaffordable schools. </p>
<p>FA Calc<br>
[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid)</p>
<p>Do both the federal method and institutional. Many privates use the both methods. </p>
<p>BTW…an EFC is not the most you/your family will be expected to pay. Most schools do not meet need. Most schools “gap”. </p>
<p>What are your D’s stats?</p>
<p>AUTO SCHOLARSHIPS…$$$ CC Important links to Auto Scholarships… </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Keep in mind that scholarships do NOT reduce EFC unless the scholarships are big enough to exceed determined need. So, if EFC is $20k and the COA of the school is $25k, then “need” is $5k. A $15k/yr scholarship will effectively reduce the EFC to $10k.</p>
<p>Another mom here who sat daughter down with pen and paper and told her exactly how much we would contribute per year. She knew this amount before applying to schools. Luckily, she received a large scholarship from her college, which made it affordable for us. We already knew she would automatically receive a “provost’s” scholarship due to her grades and SAT score, but then she interviewed and earned a “president’s” scholarship. It was a very happy day.</p>
<p>Eddie -</p>
<p>Ditto with the sit down about finances. I know too many kids whose parents were vague about what they could or would contribute. I don’t think kids need to know the specifics of your finances, but they are entitled to know what you feel is reasonable for you to spend. </p>
<p>As for CC - the Parent Cafe is the lighthearted thread. We escape here to discuss Roomba’s, weight loss (or gain), how to dress, cell phone coverage in Europe, what to wear to graduation, etc. We do cover some serious personal topics as well - caring for elderly parents, bad health news, etc. We tease, we butt in, we encourage. Some of us spend waaaay too much time here. </p>
<p>Welcome!</p>
<p>Thanks. We’re just coming to the realization that we probably won’t be able to afford your typical LAC. I agree, we will take some reach schools off our list and replace them with safety schools. Thanks for the great links, I’ll check them all out.</p>
<p>You wrote: Do both the federal method and institutional. Many privates use the both methods. </p>
<p>What do you mean by the institutional method? Do individual schools request your financial info in a different way than the federal form?</p>
<p>As for stats, I’ll have a better idea when she gets her grades for this semester and her SAT scores. I’ll check back then.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The hard work of college research will be finding this affordable school that she likes.</p>
<p>Welcome. And if finances are an issue, your daughter is an introvert, and you are already considering Canadian schools, please do look at Mount Allison!
- Extremely highly rated (every year for several decades)
- Small school (2000ish, closest to a LAC you can find north of the border)
- Tuition is 14k a year for American students but they are very generous with merit money
- Strong endowment
- Strong academics- lots of Rhodes scholars, high percentage go on to graduate and professional schools
- Pretty campus and very cute town (in very down to earth part of the world)</p>
<p>Mount Allison website: [Future</a> Students - Mount Allison University](<a href=“http://www.mta.ca/apply/tours.htm]Future”>http://www.mta.ca/apply/tours.htm)</p>
<p>I love it! I want to get into Animal House.</p>
<p>Wait! This supposed to be for my daughter, right? Whew, I do forget sometimes. Anyway, the school really has it all. I’ll let you know if we can take a tour.</p>
<p>^:) Keep us posted! I would love to know how you find it!</p>
<p>momber, yes some schools use the federal (FAFSA) method but some privates use the Institutional method (in other words they take the FAFSA and then another form and combine.)<br>
There are differences. For instance FAFSA considers only the custodial parent in the case of divorce, institutional considers both parents.</p>
<p>I’ve been spending too much time researching colleges and WAY too little coming to a good understanding of the $$$ part. I guess everything in its own place. Glad I started it all relatively early. And that I found this little site. Thanks!</p>