Which private colleges have the best financial aid for donut hole families?

[Anonymous]

The one that is a notch or two below where your kid would get in if you had more money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard. Very hard to get into but dd did, our HHI was 200K and her total cost of attendance is 23K. That includes books, room, board and transportation. I have one other in college.

Wow - congrats! My child has great stats but i don’t see her to be Harvard bound. That’s very generous financial aid though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The one that is a notch or two below where your kid would get in if you had more money.

I don’t think ranking matters for financial aid. Possibly you’re thinking of merit aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one that is a notch or two below where your kid would get in if you had more money.

I don’t think ranking matters for financial aid. Possibly you’re thinking of merit aid?

IMO it doesn’t matter what you call it. Seek both. Merit aid or financial at the end of the day. Both get you a discount and lower the cost of attendance. For most merit scholarships you don’t need to do anything in addition to the regular application.

Merit aid is preferable because it is guaranteed for four years, assuming that the student maintains a minimum GPA.

If OP shared her kid’s stats, and if they want a small/large/university/liberal arts college they’d get more precise suggestions for generous FA schools and generous merit aid schools worth considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard. Very hard to get into but dd did, our HHI was 200K and her total cost of attendance is 23K. That includes books, room, board and transportation. I have one other in college.

Wow - congrats! My child has great stats but i don’t see her to be Harvard bound. That’s very generous financial aid though.

As said upthread, endowment size matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one that is a notch or two below where your kid would get in if you had more money.

I don’t think ranking matters for financial aid. Possibly you’re thinking of merit aid?

IMO it doesn’t matter what you call it. Seek both. Merit aid or financial at the end of the day. Both get you a discount and lower the cost of attendance. For most merit scholarships you don’t need to do anything in addition to the regular application.

Merit aid is preferable because it is guaranteed for four years, assuming that the student maintains a minimum GPA.

If OP shared her kid’s stats, and if they want a small/large/university/liberal arts college they’d get more precise suggestions for generous FA schools and generous merit aid schools worth considering.

Op. I already have a good understanding of which schools offer good merit so now I’m researching colleges that just offer really good financial aid (typically higher ranked schools that don’t need to give merit). Would prefer a liberal arts college or smaller university. 34 ACT, 3.9 UGPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one that is a notch or two below where your kid would get in if you had more money.

I don’t think ranking matters for financial aid. Possibly you’re thinking of merit aid?

IMO it doesn’t matter what you call it. Seek both. Merit aid or financial at the end of the day. Both get you a discount and lower the cost of attendance. For most merit scholarships you don’t need to do anything in addition to the regular application.

Merit aid is preferable because it is guaranteed for four years, assuming that the student maintains a minimum GPA.

If OP shared her kid’s stats, and if they want a small/large/university/liberal arts college they’d get more precise suggestions for generous FA schools and generous merit aid schools worth considering.

Op. I already have a good understanding of which schools offer good merit so now I’m researching colleges that just offer really good financial aid (typically higher ranked schools that don’t need to give merit). Would prefer a liberal arts college or smaller university. 34 ACT, 3.9 UGPA.

This helps. She’s a good student but let’s assume not applying to an Ivy, Stanford or MIT (all of which have great aid).

Try the NPC at (in no particular order) Pomona, Claremont-McKenna, Pitzer, Vassar, Bates, Rice, Colby, Kenyon, Oberlin, Hamilton, Grinnell, Carleton, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Emory, Duke, Davidson, Wake Forest, Lafayette, Pepperdine.

[Anonymous]

We found that liberal art schools beyond the top 40 with decent endowments gave excellent gave good merit aid/tuition discounting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one that is a notch or two below where your kid would get in if you had more money.

I don’t think ranking matters for financial aid. Possibly you’re thinking of merit aid?

IMO it doesn’t matter what you call it. Seek both. Merit aid or financial at the end of the day. Both get you a discount and lower the cost of attendance. For most merit scholarships you don’t need to do anything in addition to the regular application.

Merit aid is preferable because it is guaranteed for four years, assuming that the student maintains a minimum GPA.

If OP shared her kid’s stats, and if they want a small/large/university/liberal arts college they’d get more precise suggestions for generous FA schools and generous merit aid schools worth considering.

Op. I already have a good understanding of which schools offer good merit so now I’m researching colleges that just offer really good financial aid (typically higher ranked schools that don’t need to give merit). Would prefer a liberal arts college or smaller university. 34 ACT, 3.9 UGPA.

This helps. She’s a good student but let’s assume not applying to an Ivy, Stanford or MIT (all of which have great aid).

Try the NPC at (in no particular order) Pomona, Claremont-McKenna, Pitzer, Vassar, Bates, Rice, Colby, Kenyon, Oberlin, Hamilton, Grinnell, Carleton, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Emory, Duke, Davidson, Wake Forest, Lafayette, Pepperdine.

Thanks - I also should have clarified that I was particularly interested in schools like Rice and also Colby (which a PP pointed out in a previous post and you noted above) that are particularly generous to donut hole families. These schools actively promote their generous financial aid policies to families who earn $200k or so. I was interested if there were other top schools that have this policy. While I do know ivies may offer this, we are not targeting that level of school.

[Anonymous]

Look up schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need. If your EFC according to FAFSA is $35K or whatever, then you will pay $35K at a school that meets 100% of demonstrated need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look up schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need. If your EFC according to FAFSA is $35K or whatever, then you will pay $35K at a school that meets 100% of demonstrated need.

We've been through this many times on this forum -- "demonstrated need" is what the school says your need is and bears little, if any, relationship to reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one that is a notch or two below where your kid would get in if you had more money.

I don’t think ranking matters for financial aid. Possibly you’re thinking of merit aid?

We're talking about a donut hole family.

And we're talking about how to fund an education when the schools have discretion about who to give aid. The distinction between financial and merit is blurry.

So no, I am not thinking about merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look up schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need. If your EFC according to FAFSA is $35K or whatever, then you will pay $35K at a school that meets 100% of demonstrated need.

We've been through this many times on this forum -- "demonstrated need" is what the school says your need is and bears little, if any, relationship to reality.

The reality they says you should have saved more for costs that you had nearly two decades to save?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The one that is a notch or two below where your kid would get in if you had more money.

I don’t think ranking matters for financial aid. Possibly you’re thinking of merit aid?

We're talking about a donut hole family.

And we're talking about how to fund an education when the schools have discretion about who to give aid. The distinction between financial and merit is blurry.

So no, I am not thinking about merit aid.

. The ‘donut hole family’ is a myth promoted by people that did not make paying for their children’s college a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard. Very hard to get into but dd did, our HHI was 200K and her total cost of attendance is 23K. That includes books, room, board and transportation. I have one other in college.

That's absurd you got that much aid for an income of $200K when you easily could have saved 8-10K a year at least while kids were out of day care if you used day care.