Does anyone know if all schools award the same FAFSA? We received the whole financial package from one of the schools S24 applied and he was awarded some subsidized loans. I’m wondering if it will be the same for all the schools as we probably won’t get financial packages until March.
In my past experience, no they do not.
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That’s not what I wanted to hear but thank you. Keeping my fingers crossed we have the same FAFSA offering at his first choice.
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I mean most do offer subsidized or unsubsidized loans but it can vary widely for the rest of the financial aid package.
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When you say the “same FAFSA,” do you mean a financial aid package large enough to ensure that your student’s overall cost isn’t more than your FAFSA EFC (now called SAI)? If so, the answer is definitely No - most schools don’t guarantee that they will meet your full need, and that’s even with “need” often being defined by them in a school-friendly way.
So to give a simplified example, if the total sticker price is 50k and your EFC is 20k, a “meets-full-need” school might agree that your “need” is 30k (50k - 20k = 30k) and offer a 30k aid package (usually including loans); another “meets-full-need” school might define your “need” based on their internal methodology as only 22k but still meet that need with a 22k aid package, leaving your cost at 28k; and another may be unable to meet full “need” under any definition and only offer a 10k aid package, leaving your cost at 40k.
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Thank you for your response, which will be helpful for many readers. What I meant was we received an offer of 3,500 subsidized loans and 2,000 unsubsidized loans, and I was wondering if we should expect that from the other schools also. We did receive grants from one school, and 0 grants from another so I know each package is different. The school that offered grants hasn’t given a final financial package, only an estimate of the $5,500.
The Stafford loan portion of your financial aid offers won’t change. The most you can get unsubsidized 1st year is 3,500 and the remainder of the 1st year loan (2,000) is unsubsidized.
https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized-unsubsidized
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When my son was going through the application process (HS Class of 2021), he had 2 schools that offered about $900 subsidized and $4600 unsub, 2 schools that said $3500 subsidized and $2000 unsub, and the rest offered no subsidized and $5500 unsubsidized.
For my daughter who went through the admission cycle last year, she similarly had a variety of packages for loans - some schools did no loans at all (they had a policy of not packaging loans to meet need), one did only subsidized ($3000 in that case), and some maxed out subsidized at $3500 and then added another $1000-$2000 in unsubsidized.
In general, those that were better at meeting need through grants offered less in subsidized loans (I presume because they had done better at meeting need before the calculation of subsidized loans), though there were a few schools where I’m still not sure why their loan breakdown was the way it was, but I didn’t dig into it too much at the time because they weren’t the schools we were really focused on.
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Thank you for the real life experience. We will have to wait and see what all the offers are, although he has verbally committed to his first choice. We had a life change that affected our circumstances for the upcoming year but are in a different place now. Even with that event I was shocked at the amount of subsidized offered. I wish I knew behind what is offered and why.
ETA, it will be a different experience with child two where we will have weigh all the options. The school S27 will be attending meets our budget with his merit offer anything added is a bonus!
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Thank you for sharing!
Of course I don’t know what the subject was for you, but just as a general comment for anyone who experiences a drastic change in their family’s finances between FA application and matriculation: Some FA offices will consider increasing their aid amount, whether that shows up as a written policy or not. Bottom line: It can’t hurt to ask.
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DD is IN at JMU EA!
But then deferred today from W&M. Not a big surprise as it was certainly a reach… and she will continue to pursue with LOCI, mid year grades (which are higher than her overall so should help a bit).
Had a heart to heart with her tonight and managed to rule out 2 of the 6 she has been accepted to, which is a big step for her. So, we’re getting somewhere!
This whole process really brings out the tension between the P’s (Perceiving, likes to keep all options open as long as humanly possible) and the J’s (Judging, likes to make decisions ASAP) on that last letter of the Myers Briggs. Guess which one each of us is??? 
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That’s awesome news! Congrats to your kiddo!!
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S24 was also deferred from W&M (ED1). We were not surprised either, as it is a high reach. He submitted a LOCI and an extra LOR, and we’ll see what happens🙏🏼. Fingers crossed for your daughter, and congrats on JMU!! Virginians have a wealth of great state schools.
S24 and I are both P’s on the Meyers Briggs, so I had to laugh at your comment! His original list of schools was a mile long, and he applied to 15 
. Granted, we had a hard time figuring out his chances due to applying test optional and disclosing his dyslexia. Plus, he wasn’t sure what he wanted other than a certain vibe, so he covered all the bases.
In retrospect, it was too many. But it’s so hard to close the door on any of them…
So far, S24 has two deferrals and a lot great acceptances (with unexpectedly good merit money). I do love seeing how well our kids are doing on this thread!
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S24 is a P and I am a J. I feel your pain.
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2 P’s together on this process… wow! You are lucky you only ended up with 15! 
Yes, for her it was painfully hard to close the door on the 2 we talked about last night, and she probably thinks it was actually only 1, not 2, that she took totally off the list, while I think it was more like 3 that are actually off now. I found the question of whether she wants to register for admitted student day very revealing. Like, she may like the idea, but does she want to commit a Saturday to them yet?
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I just wanted to thank the posters on this thread for being thoughtful, open-minded, and supportive of everyone’s kids. Although there are many interesting threads on CC, the 3.0-3.4 threads are often my favorites because of the positivity and down-to-earth posts. All that to say…
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I agree, 100%. This is a group of parents I would love to be surrounded with, in my “real” life, and the kids described on this thread are the kinds of people I hope my D24 ends up surrounded with wherever she lands at school.
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Totally! I have a special place in my heart for the parents of the 2019 3.0-3-4, where my kid “belonged.” We did great work getting some great insights for our kids, and I really enjoyed those conversations!
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totally agree!
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