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<p>My response was following up the comment on merit aid that would bring down the cost. Indeed, merit aid is usually less available than need based aids while both have some criteria to meet. For UMich, about 70 percent of in state students and 50 percent of out-of-state students receive some form of financial aid. So around 30% in state student pay full price and 70% pay less than the CoA.</p>
<p>According to UM’s CDS, 29% (1784/1624) of freshmen received any need based grant aid. Loans don’t really count as aid. And kids can get jobs with or without workstudy. Grants are what really count. These numbers are not broken down by in-state/out-of-state, but it can’t be the case that 70% in-state and 50% out-of-state get grants. The math wouldn’t work. So must be a LOT of loans.</p>
<p>Also 18% of students get merit scholarships averaging $5,000.</p>
<p>For OOS, only very low income students may have their need met. So most of them would be with loan. With deeper study on the CDS, that 70% in state and 50% oos are actually out of students who applied for need based aids and were awarded with any aid, not total student (I was confused by the statement on their FA FAQ). Otherwise, 70% of total in state freshmen would be more than the number of students received any aids (2486 vs 2476). There are only 3749 (in 2013) students applied for financial aid including both in state and OOS. 1784 students receiving grant money out of 2476 that received financial aid means 72% students received financial aid has a grant in it and most of them would be from in state. Even if the grant is distributed proportionally among in state and out of state students, 29% of students paying less than CoA is still very significant. Last year, they replaced the loan and work study in my D’s financial aid with grant completely in the final package. As they have been raising the endowment since last year, it is likely to have more grant available in the future.</p>
<p>The amount of money for non-need merit scholarships at UM has been fairly stable over the past few years at around $50(range 48-56) million per year or so. The need based aid, which used to be roughly the same, has grown to double that amount over that time span. This is pretty typical, I think. What also seems to be happening in the past couple of years is that more of the non-need based aid is being shifted to FA packages for needy students.</p>
<p>The amount of non-need based merit given to non-needy freshmen in years 2008-2013 is (in millions of $) 17.5, 14.9, 13.4, 16.3, 8.5, 5.4. So a pretty significant drop in merit aid to non-needy students recently, though the total amount of non-need based aid has not changed and neither has the number of non-needy freshmen.</p>
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<p>For an individual student or his/her parents, what matters most here is the net price for that student and family, which is best found by using the net price calculator at each school. Promises to “meet full need” are not reliable, since the schools define “need” however they want; net prices can also vary depending on how much they expect students to contribute through work and student loans. Of course, different states and different public schools within each state can have different financial aid policies.</p>
<p>I agree that ultimately what matters most to any given individual is the net price for that student at a small number of specific schools. I agree that this is best found by using the NPC for each school. However, it is not practical to run NPC estimates on hundreds of colleges in the national market. It is helpful to be able to limit the search space to the kinds of colleges that are likely to pan out for someone with a given set of qualifications and financial circumstances. </p>
<p>Colleges are not completely arbitrary in how they define “need”. Their formulas differ, but they do use formulas. They use standard forms to gather financial information. They use standard formats (the common data set) to expose the results to public view. A set of peer colleges (due to market competition perhaps) tends to share common policies and practices with respect to work and student loans. For example, among state flagships, it would not be uncommon to see large numbers for the loan and work study portion of the estimated contribution for OOS students. Among the so-called “full-need” schools, those numbers generally would be rather low (for all students).</p>
<p>@tk21769:
???
Pretty much no one is equally interested in hundreds of colleges.
Narrowing down the list of colleges by criteria you set and then running NPCs for them and in-state schools seems like a workable strategy. What am I missing? It’s also a far better one that relying on general assumptions like you are advocating.</p>
<p>@celesteroberts Just want to point out that most of the departmental scholarships are merit based but only for students with need. They probably shift some of the purely merit based aid towards that too. I think that make sense.</p>
<p>Do most of these have a RESIDENCY requirement - requiring the freshmen to live on campus? We could save a ton if students commuted.</p>
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<p>If someone has a clear set of criteria to winnow the possibilities down to a manageable number, and if the last remaining factor under serious consideration is cost, then by all means, go straight to the NPCs.</p>
<p>re saving money if a college freshman commutes- post #128. There is a huge cost to not being on/near campus as a freshman. So much happens outside the classroom and in the evenings/nights. Limiting students to schools they can commute to from home severely limits their academic possibilities as well. There are plenty of students who have to forgo college experiences because of finances.</p>
<p>Not all flagships offer much merit aid. UW-Madison has no automatic aid for a gpa or test score. They don’t need to to attract top students. Dorms are optional all years but for freshmen a good idea. I am so thankful I could live on campus instead of commuting the hour or more by bus and living the 8 miles away. I would have missed so much after hours learning.</p>
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<p>I would be surprised if most state universities had live-in-the-dorm requirements for frosh who can live with parents or who are non-traditional students within reasonable commuting range.</p>
<p>The Common Data Set (section F1) shows the percent of freshmen, and the percent of all undergrads, who live off campus or commute. For example at Wisconsin, 8 percent of freshmen and 75% of all undergraduates live off campus or commute. </p>
<p>Most state flagships have don’t have enough dorms to meet the demand, so there is no need to make it a requirement. However, if a scholarship pays for room and board, it may require that the student resides in a dorm and purchase a meal plan.</p>
<p>A few of the state “directional” schools may have a freshman residency requirement. For example, the University of North Florida requires all incoming freshman to live in a dorm and purchase a meal plan. </p>
<p>UMich used to have the freshmen dorm requirement but they have dropped it some years ago as they no longer have sufficient dorm spaces. Nevertheless, still 97% of freshmen live in dorms including hundreds of them that can be commuted.</p>
<p>(not a flagship) San Jose State University has a frosh-live-in-the-dorm requirement, but it has exceptions, including for those who graduated from a high school within 30 miles (commuting considered doable) and various categories of non-traditional students. Actual percentage of frosh living in the dorms is 56%.
<a href=“University Housing Services”>University Housing Services;
<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=768”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=768</a></p>
<p>We live on the very edge of the commuter border for the regional state university from which S1 graduated and S2 is presently attending. I insisted they live on campus. S1, in particular, was in a major that involved a lot of out-of-class activities and there is no way he could have participated in them as a commuter. I was a commuter and feel like I missed out on a lot by not being on campus. I realize it’s not for everybody and some families honestly can’t afford it, but I think students should live on campus if at all possible. </p>