Reply to Did anyone get more than $30K in merit aid at private college?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We make more than 180K and our kids both got merit aid at decent LAC's.  There's some formula you can find on College confidential.com that has to do with the size of the school's endowment, and it involves looking up the school's tax records, rather than going by what's on their websites.  We're grateful that both of our children go to schools with really large endowment where there is extra money 'floating around' to finance summer internships in other cities, study abroad, etc.  in addition to the merit aid.

The poster above is incorrect when she says not to even bother.  There are some schools where something like 80 percent of the students receive some financial aid.  That includes people at the upper ends as well as the lower ends.  Particularly people with multiple kids in college at the same time.[/quote]

You are conflating merit and (not need-based) and financial aid (purely need-based).  If your HHI is >$180,000, then[b] at some schools, it doesn't matter how fabulous a student you are - you will not get any need-based aid. [/b] These are the schools at the top of the USNWR rankings.  Therefore the PP who says "don't even bother" is correct, because [b]these schools will not give you any aid[/b].  [u]None.  Zilch.  Zip.[/u]

If you go down those USNWR rankings, however, to lower-ranked schools that do give merit aid - [i]not need-based; merit-based[/i] - then yes, you should look closely at your options.  You could be a billionaire, but if your child is a high-performer who scored well on SATs/ACT, then those schools will give your child significant scholarship money.

By using the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for each of these schools, you can guesstimate what kind of merit aid your child is likely to get, and what the bottom line will be for you to pay for tuition, room and board.[/quote]

It is true some top tier schools (Ivy schools mostly) do not offer merit aids but most schools DO have merit aids. [/quote]

Please list top schools that give lots of merit. We all want our kids to apply there.[/quote]

This entire chain is misinformed.  Please look at the financial aid websites for the colleges that you are interested in.  The person who claims that a HHI of $180k will receive none, zip, zilch in aid is just flat out wrong!  At the end of the day, you don't care if it is need-based, merit aid, a partial athletic scholarship or prize money from the Miss America pageant; dollars are dollars.  And arguably need-based dollars are more durable in that they are not linked to continued athletic participation or maintenance of a particular GPA.  [b]See the FACTS from the Harvard FA website below. [/b] Under their arrangement, a student from a family making $180k would receive roughly $45k per year in aid.  This is not a typo and I know this to be the case, first hand.

[i]The Basics
•Close to 60% of our undergraduates receive Harvard Scholarship.
•20% of our parents have total incomes less than $65,000 and are not expected to contribute.
•Families with incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 will contribute from 0-10% of their income, and those with incomes above $150,000 will be asked to pay proportionately more than 10%, based on their individual circumstances. Families at all income levels who have significant assets will continue to pay more than those in less fortunate circumstances[/i]

The total annual cost is roughly $65k.  So, if the HHI is $180k then the family pays 10% on the first $150k ($15k) plus 15% of the next $30k ($4.5k), for a total family contribution of just less than $20k.  65-20=45.[/quote]

I think your post using Harvard as an example is misleading. People who follow colleges know Harvard is an unique case along with very few (and highly selective) need blind schools. Using Harvard (or one of the need blind schools) as an example will put families down the wrong path. My two cents.  [/quote]

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