<p>I think that zagat gives very good advice. We have just finished the application process with our oldest child. He knew in advance that money would be part of college consideration process. He applied to public and private schools. He did need to rule some schools out b/c of finances. He was still able to choose between 3 private colleges and 2 public colleges. I felt very good that he had some choices after all the admissions decisions and financial packages were received. We gave our son the nuts and bolts about the cost and what we could afford from the start, and this avoided a big disappointment last April.</p>
<p>Zagat is right… but my daughter will be going to her dream school with a need-based financial aid package that is extremely reasonable, much better than the online calculators led us to believe was possible, and significantly better than other full-need private schools offered - though it is more expensive than attending our instate public, where my daughter was also offered merit aid. </p>
<p>The secret is simply that we set ourselves up with these options - my daughter DID apply to public universities that she hoped she woud not have to attend, understanding that finances could leave that as her only option. So once having laid a foundation with two good financial safeties, she was free to dream… but I don’t feel that it is my obligation to fund an impossible dream. I said “no” to a $300 prom dress without qualms, and I could just as readily say “no” to a $30,000 tuition bill. </p>
<p>Even with a $110K income, if you have no substantial assets, your FAFSA EFC may be about $21K – which is a lot less than the $48K or so the elite’s are charging these days. The private colleges will recalculate that, but if you are sending your daughter’s to private schools, you might come out ahead -as some colleges will consider that expense as a reduction in income, even though it can’t be taken off the FAFSA. </p>
<p>So don’t assume anything one way or another. Just make sure that your son understands your financial situation clearly at the outset, including a ballpark figure as to how much you feel you can contribute.</p>
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<p>This would be the situation at any school that only gives aid based on demonstrated need. I know that my D was accepted to every school that she applied to (only applied to one Ivy). All were need blind and all promised to meet 100% of demonstrated need.</p>
<p>The overall best package she got came from williams, followed by Bryn Mawr then Dartmouth, Overall there was about a 12,000 range from the “best” to the “worse” package. </p>
<p>Our EFC from Barnard, Amherst, Tufts and Mount Holyoke was much higher and the loan componet was much larger than it was at the other schools.</p>
<p>The good thing was that Dartmouth gave us a financial review based on the package from williams, and met the williams package. Just got the package from D yesterday for junior year package, and the package is still just as consistent as it was from the time that Dartmouth gave us an adjusted package (it still makes me shake my head that the cost of attendance for 2006-2007 is $48k).</p>
<p>There is approximately a ratio of 65/35 when it comes to the amount of public vs. private/parochial students at the ivies because there are more students that attend public school in this country. I think that it is harder to be admitted into an Ivy if you come from California, Ma. NYC and the surrounding area (long island and westchester county) not only because these states are not at a loss for students applying but because there are so many competitive public schools where students are literally knocking each other out of the box. </p>
<p>In hindsight, I think the best thing my daughter did was to turn down Stuyvesant to say at her small 6-12 public school. while they had a good track record for sending students to Columbia, Penn and Cornell, in her class she was the first student from her school to be admitted to dartmouth and williams and the first in over 10 years to be admitted to Amherst. One of her friends was one of the first students to be admitted to Stanford, while another was the first to be admitted to Brown in over 10 years. As far as LACs go, her GC knew the LACs like the back of her hand so students got accepted to Haverford, Swat, Conn College, wesleyan (in big numbers almost like a feeder), Barnard, etc.</p>
<p>I think that you have to go into this process informed, and especially set financial guidelines for your kid. I knew going into the process that we were going to have to pay something and had she gone to a SUNY school we would have been full payers as even the Honors program is really not that generous with money. I used this amount as our jumping off point as how much I was willing to pay out of pocket/borrow for her education (no more that it would cost to be a full payer at SUNY). She knew that she was going to have to be an active participant in the financing of her education. For us, it became less expensive and more affordable option for her to attend an Ivy than it would have been for her to attend the “financial safety”- our state university.</p>
<p>Sybbie, if I can ask, is your income range in the bracket we’ve been talking about here? How was the $12K difference explained?</p>
<p>sybbie & calmom should moonlight as college financial consultants. Both have a knack for clearly presenting the financial facts.</p>
<p>My name is stickerShock because viewing the cc forums & realizing how much $$$$ college costs & how little merit aid is available came as a complete shock to me. Very naive. So glad I was clued into this site while d is only a h.s. freshman. </p>
<p>sketchy doesn’t strike me as someone looking to coast along & burden others with his kids’ education expenses. He’s just trying to make sense out of a very unfair system & do what best serves his children.</p>
<p>Z,</p>
<p>My income is not as high as Op’s.</p>
<p>Colleges have more latitude based on the sizes or their endowments and often use their own institutional methodology in determining your EFC where the FAFSA, is pretty more straight forward and uses a federal methodology.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that different schools calculate or don’t factor different things in awarding financial aid and determining your EFC. Daughter got accepted to 7 schools last year, had 7 different EFCs and none was equal to the EFC on the FAFSA
Williams, Bryn Mawr and Tufts were approximately 2,000 to 3,000 LOWER than the FAFSA EFC</p>
<p>Barnard, Amherst, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke were HIGHER than the FAFSA EFC </p>
<p>There was a total of $12,256 between the Barnard package and the final offer we got from Dartmouth (we used the Williams offer to negotiate a better offer from Dartmouth where D is now attending). Williams gave more grant money, less loans, a less student contribution, less parent contribution. Dartmouth met Williams’ EFC, lowered the loans, and met the grant aid.</p>
<p>EFC 2221 lower than barnard
student contribution 585 higher than barnard)
Grant money 7720 higher than barnard
loans 2600 less than barnard
work study 300 less than barnar
total 12256</p>
<p>difference between Williams and Amherst</p>
<p>parent contrib 2251 higher at amherst
student contribution 975 higher at amherst
grant money 4906 lower at amherst
loans 3500 higher at amherst
Workstudy 100 higher at amherst</p>
<p>Zagat, I’ve got a $9000 difference in two 100% need-based awards from colleges this year, and I had the same range 5 years ago when my son applied to college. Every private college uses its own unique formula to calculate the “need” they plan to meet – they treat different types of income differently, weigh home equity differently, allow different allowances for expenses, etc. And they do NOT explain or provide a formula, although sometimes if you ask very specific questions they might provide an answer. </p>
<p>The concept of meeting 100% need is a total fiction: ‘need’ is whatever the college says it is. The only thing to do is to submit an application and see what they do with it.</p>
<p>If money is an issue, simply go to the least expensive school. A good example would be my friend who recently got into Brown and had to choose between Providence College (Kinda unknown college, but a nice place nonetheless) and a world-class Ivy league institution. Her parents make maybe 60,000 combined tops and she has 3 other siblings. She got a full ride to providence and decided it wasn’t worth the hassel to pay off loans for Brown for the next three decades. Undergrad. degrees are a dime a dozen with today’s struggling job market: why not try to ease the financial burden by trying a less expensive state school?</p>
<p>Brown, like all ivies, caps loans somewhere around $20K. Someone with a $60K income would get a great financial package if they had no other major assets. Your friend may have made a very bad decision.</p>