Hooks and aid- how does it work?

[Anonymous]

How much can you afford, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have read everything there is to read about merit aid. I’ve looked at the common data set foe 100 schools. I’m not dumb but I can’t figure it out. How do I know where my kid will get merit aid?

You can't know for sure at schools where the merit scholarships are competitive. See what the website says about merit scholarships. Best to have high stats, at the 75th percentile for the school.

You can be reasonably certain at schools that offer automatic merit because their scholarship website tells you. University of Alabama is one example, though there are many others.

1. Which schools have automatic aid?
2. Other than automatic aid if there’s no wat to know how much aid is coming it would be possible for kid to not be able to pay for any school they got into.

If you can't afford the net price offered at schools that give need-based aid, then you need to rely on merit. Automatic merit is a sure thing and some of these auto merit schools should be on the list as financial safeties, assuming you find the remaining price after scholarship to be affordable. Look at your in-state options as well.

I literally can’t afford net price at any school. Any school.

To sum up some of the previous advice, your best bet are lower-ranked out of state public’s that have automatic aid for high stats students. Some of those may want high test scores, though, so look at that (it looks like Alabama does, for example — raising their stats is the whole point). If your student is in the top 25% for some of the privates that offer merit (usually not the super competitive ones, they don’t need to offer merit), it may bring your cost down to the cost of a public, but full rides at privates for kids that don’t need financial aid are rare.

[Anonymous]

OP, the advice I got from a college application counselor was that it was impossible to predict where our son would be offered merit aid. He advised to apply widely. For every six schools where he was accepted one might offer merit aid. These were schools that are considered mid tier. Our son had very high SAT scores.

[Anonymous]

Extra curricular probably don’t factor in to merit aid. Schools are looking for high test scores or high GPAs

[Anonymous]

Budget? Any other particular preferences will be secondary to affordability, but what is she looking for in terms of size and geographic location?

[Anonymous]

U of New Mexico

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, does the kid have test scores?

Schools are test optional, no?

But you also want merit aids ..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much can you afford, OP?

~$22000/year which seems like a lot but apparently isn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much can you afford, OP?

~$22000/year which seems like a lot but apparently isn’t.

It that the expected family contribution amount or what you are willing to pay?
For us, the EFC is 100k/yr but we are willing to pay up to 35k/yr

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much can you afford, OP?

~$22000/year which seems like a lot but apparently isn’t.

It that the expected family contribution amount or what you are willing to pay?
For us, the EFC is 100k/yr but we are willing to pay up to 35k/yr

Uhm. My etc is $3000, but the net price calculators always return $30-50k so obviously I’ll have to pay more than the etc. $20k isn’t what I’m “willing” to pay. It’s literally what there is to pay.

[Anonymous]

*efc

[Anonymous]

Well, my son is at UMD and tuition is $10,000 a year. Students do live at home and commute. It’s possible to get a college degree for less than $22,000 a year.

[Anonymous]

Look at some of the smaller private schools where your son’s stats are way above the average. He may have to take out the $5,500 annual loan. Two schools I can think of are Roanoake and Susquehanna. I’m sure there are others. Someone I know though their kid would get a lot of merit from in state public schools and it didn’t happen. The kid ended up at Alabama because the family needed merit to afford college - you are smart to look into this now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, my son is at UMD and tuition is $10,000 a year. Students do live at home and commute. It’s possible to get a college degree for less than $22,000 a year.

Where?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at some of the smaller private schools where your son’s stats are way above the average. He may have to take out the $5,500 annual loan. Two schools I can think of are Roanoake and Susquehanna. I’m sure there are others. Someone I know though their kid would get a lot of merit from in state public schools and it didn’t happen. The kid ended up at Alabama because the family needed merit to afford college - you are smart to look into this now.

What are some smaller privates?