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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP: forgive the rookie question (parent of a middle schooler) but how do you start to figure out which schools are likely to give your child merit aid? We are around $150K HHI right now and expect to have around $80K in a 529 by the time DC1 reaches college age. Obviously not enough to pay full freight and probably too much income to qualify for much (if any) need based aid. So how we begin to figure out which schools might give our kid some merit aid? Do college counselors help with this? Thanks.[/quote]

One way to do it is to look at this list of Kiplinger's Value Colleges: http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php

You can sort this list by column 9 - % of students receiving non-need based aid - also known as merit aid.  It gives this percentage for liberal arts colleges, public colleges and private universities.  I'm using this list to help my DD identify safety schools and get a grip on how this shakes out for the top schools she is interested in.  We are allowing her to apply where she wants but that she has to have 2-3 safeties where she is at the top of the applicant poll and where we can afford.  We live in DC so no instate option for us - so she has to look further down the rankings list at schools that will want her for her stats and great personality.

The financial piece is a hard pill to swallow.  Now I just did the calculator for Amherst our HHI is in the donut hole and it came back that our EFC would be half of the cost.  Does anyone know if the calculators on college websites are accurate?  It seems like every schools has its own scale they are using to determine need-based aid. Best advice is to complete the FAFSA form even if you don't think you will qualify.[/quote]

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