@lkim10 Wow! Congrats to you and your daughter! I hope she enjoys the rest of senior year!
@hs2020dad There are others here who are certainly more knowledgeable about FA than me, but Iāll throw in my 2 cents. First, if a college says they are āneed blindā, I would believe them. I think many colleges are need blind whether they say that or not, since AOās are probably not in the habit of looking at the FA aspect of an application, and FA is not in the habit of influencing admissions (just my way of looking at it, and thinking only of need blindish schools, or non-elites).
Second, many many many people submit a FAFSA because they want their child to have āskin in the gameā. That will be their childās debt to pay, even if the parents are billionaires. I donāt think you can read into too much when a FAFSA is filed. Again, this is my own feeling about it. In this case I assume people answer that they will be asking for FA.
This would really concern me, but maybe Iām not understanding. What are you āleavingā there for future years? FAFSA is filed each year, and schools are under real obligation to calculate need in the same way, as far as I know. For instance, they can raise tuition as much as they want, unless they specifically state they wonāt. Again, maybe Iām not understanding this last part.
Iām been reading the last 10 or so posts and have some comments.
The FAFSA-question- It seems to me the poster has money to pay full this year but not necessarily in the future based on the unpredictable income. I believe he/she would like to get as much aid now so things could be a little more predictable for future costs. For example in my case I could pay $20,000 a year for 4 years and I could pay $40,000 a year next year but not necessarily $40,000 for three years after that. And thatās based on no tuition increase.
The AP costs.-While I donāt like paying upfront so much(by November 1 in our case) especially since one of my daughters AP classes doesnāt start till January but I look at it like the old Fram oil filter commercial from the 70ās. You can pay me now for the $4 filter or pay me later when major work needs to be done on your car. I look at it as a majority of colleges take AP scores many with a minimum of 3. In our case itās over $1000 which is a lot. But isnāt that cheaper than a years tuition?
As was mentioned above, taking both AP Lit and AP Lang in some cases does not give credit for more than one GE class, if that. A student might get extra elective credit, but thatās not particularly useful. In our case, a couple of schools to which our dd is applying do this. She already has a 5 on AP Lit, so taking AP Lang may not be worth the money or the time. We still believe taking the class has value, though. Regardless, she will take the test because her school has been accommodating of finances for seniors. It may end up being time and money down the drain, or not. We wonāt know until spring.
@bigmacbeth - thanks for the info/comment.
This is what I was trying to confirm - if the schools evaluate the need every year or the student is bound by the initial eval. good to know.
@hs2020dad We are in the same (fortunate) boat in terms of having enough for this year, expecting no aid but finances are likely to change. My concern is whether the FAFSA needs to be completed to be considered for merit aid.
@Octagon check each schoolās website to see if the FAFSA is required for merit aid. IME they are quite clear about it.
My D18ās school (University of San Diego) made it clear on her initial financial aid award (which was a combination of merit and FA), that her freshman aid offer was the HIGHEST award she would ever receive in her four years. Merit aid was guaranteed, but FAFSA need aid would never go above initial award, and could go lower.
I donāt recall any of her other acceptances/awards spelling that out. USD is not a meets full need school, but still fairly generous. Sophomore aid was exactly the same, even though my salary went up a bit.
So read those offers carefully! I will be retiring before D18ās senior year, but, oh well! I was warned ahead of time!
@hs2020dad please confirm with the school. I was under the impression that if you donāt file FASFA freshman year (and apply for aid), then you arenāt eligible to do it during the following years unless there was a major change in your financial circumstances. I heard an adcom speak about this during a Q&A session. Butā¦ I canāt tell you how many adcoms have gotten facts wrong. I think the only way to confirm it is an email or call to the school.
If you file FASFA, they re-evaluate you every year based on whatās submitted. Just donāt assume that you can skip submitting one year and then submit the following year. Better safe than sorry.
Let us know what you learn.
Hi All,
Parent of two students applying (not twins) for colleges now and itās my first time exposure to US admission process. So much unknowns for me and learning as we go along. I have seen some ratings for letter of recommendations as 9/10 or 8/10; and wondering how they are determining that when they donāt see counselor or teacher recommendations that are sent out?
Second, how much time one has to see ED decision with Fin. Aid to evaluate and respond? And do EA admission decisions are typically around the same time as well?
Third, are typically Fin Aid is announced for all four years or just for first year and remaining airs will be determined afterwards based on subsequent year FAFSA / Profile submission?
Our applications are not straight forward (two applicants, new job, small declining business so fluctuating income, etc.) and we will depend on Fin Aid for us to decide on where to attend for each child. One child really wants to ED for her 1st choice school but am concerned that we will have to decide about their offer (if offered) early on and may end up not able to attend if not enough aid.
BTW, Iāve bookmarked this thread and it has been very helpful and wanted to say thank you to you all and wishing best for all out there in this journey.
It happened. My kid, who was adamant about applying to schools in-state, has decided to add two schools on the other coast to her list. Iām happy sheās feeling more comfortable with the application process. Her list includes 12 schools now and sheās probably 50% done with applications. It sure is a different experience with her in the driverās seat.
DD20 has submitted her last two applications. Those application fees sure seem higher than they were for DS16! My guess is that these schools want only truly interested students to apply. I feel for those applying to lots of schools with high fees.
@sibpuri welcome to the US college process!
Students are purely guessing at the quality of a LOR.
ED time to respond will vary by school and is binding. If you wish to compare offers (EA, RD, or rolling) your DD should not apply ED.
Fin Aid offers are only for 1 year. Read them closely when comparing as they can be presented differently by each school. Also, years 2-4 may be the same but very likely will not be. Also some schools give no aid at all to OOS applicants so research carefully before they apply.
Good luck to you DC!
to all of you who are applying to lots of schools: are your kids applying to schools that you can afford?
with our S20, I just canāt figure out if we let him apply, and then say NO; or if we let him go for it just to see if he can get in (like we probably will with 2 reaches).
There are several schools my son would love to apply to that arenāt necessarily reaches; but rather just unaffordable. (eg: Colorado/boulder or school of mines). Feeling slightly frustrated here. :neutral: Interested on how you all are handling this.
@bgbg4us DD20 is only applying to schools that fall within her budget. One is both a financial and academic reach but meets full need. She understands that the need the school determines and what we are willing to pay could have a gap between them which would result in a financial rejection. Once all the offers are in, we will discuss as a family and she will decide among those schools that fall within her budget. That budget allows for the federal loans as a max (27k, I believe is still the amount) but some will not require loans even if no scholarships are received. We have already said no to the truly unaffordable schools. In hind sight, she is glad she did not allocate time and effort to those applications.
@bgbg4us Our D loved LMU when we visited this summer and they have a fantastic program for her degree choice. However, there is no way we can afford $70,000 per year and while her stats are a bit above average they are not high enough to receive merit aid to help out. So, we had to say no to even applying there since it would just be really sad if she did get accepted and then we had to say no.
With that in mind, she did not look any further at the expensive private schools in our state. I know it stinks, but it sure has taken a weight off with those completely off the list.
@bgbg4us We did not let D20 apply to any school that we could not afford, based on the best information we had at hand. Basically, this was the NPC and prior yearās CC threads containing stats plus merit. I donāt want to tell my kid she canāt go somewhere.
As for needing to submit the FAFSA in order to receive merit scholarships? Unless there is a need component required for the scholarship, this is very rare. Between D17 (applied to 11 schools, researched 50+) and D20 (applied to 9) I never saw this. Some people INSIST that their childās school required the FAFSA to be filed, and itās hard to dispute this. The proverbial wisdom is that schools āwantā this information for reporting purposes, and hold their merit hostage.
@bgbg4us I know you are merit hunting, and we are too. We let our kids apply to any college that has a chanceāeven a very slim chanceā that it could be affordable. They know that they need a particular merit scholarship for it to be feasible, though. We do not let them apply to a school if there is no possible way it fits in budget.
Just my opinion, but I would not let my kid apply to a college unless we are ready and willing to pay for it and frankly seems a little cruel to have them apply and tell them they canāt go. For D20ās list, there are 2 privates that we are willing to full pay for (but she would be required to take out the 27K loan to help us subsidize the COA). For others (e.g. Tulane) she knows (and we have managed her expectations that) if she doesnāt get significant merit aid we are not willinig to pay full freight for her to attend. Luckily for us, she is applying mostly to state colleges (UCs, CSUs and OOS flagship publics) that are a lot more affordable than private colleges.
Hi All, I havenāt been around for some time, but I have been reading and researching here a bit. I spent a lot of time a few years ago with my oldest. Now working on DS. We are one of those families caught in the gap between no demonstrated financial need and yet not enough budgeted for many of these schools.
Our state flagships (California) would run us around 35k with no merit likely despite good stats. CSUās would be low 20ās. With my DS maxing his government student loans we could swing that. Also working on some merit aspects at some others. He has currently applied to Baylor, William Jessup, George Fox, and the University of Alabama (where his sister goes on the presidential scholarship which he would also get). Univ of Oregon looks doable between merit and lower out of state tuition than most. He plans to apply to Chico State and Cal Poly.
DS has mostly said he wants to go to a large public but also that he wants to be able to graduate in four years which could be challenging at a CSU (or UC). Many students that we know of have found the small privates with merit to be much more affordable than CAās public universities for instate students ā even those who qualifiy for need based aid. The other option is to take the two free years at CA community college and then transfer to a UC. He doesnāt want to do that.
Open to suggestions of universities we may not of thought of. DD loves the University of Alabama, but DS doesnāt care much for Tuscaloosa. He thinks itās too small and wants to be in or near a big city. Itās possible he will change his mind on this due to the large scholarship.