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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a conversation you need to have with the financial aid office of the ED school.

If you don’t qualify for need based aid (you’ve run the NPC calculator) and you need merit aid to afford the ED school, then DO NOT apply for ED.

Ya’ll are confusing merit (non-need based aid) with need based aid. Colleges award merit according to their own rules, and it has nothing to do with your financial picture. [/quote]

We will probably call the school but I’m curious why you think it matters where the money comes from (FA/merit aid/other scholarships/family help/rotc). Bottom line is we need some assistance to pay. No guarantee we will get the money but it’s possible.
[/quote]

[b]Because the schools categorize it differently.
[/b]
Run the calculator and it will say what the school has determined your need is (most of us disagree with those figures btw). Colleges that guarantee to meet 100% of need, mean that they will provide that number to anyone they admit ED or RD.

If you are confident in your ability to pay the net price out of funds you have at the time of the application, then apply ED. It is unlikely you will get more from the college.

If you are not, for whatever reason (including waiting on a relative to die, applying for outside scholarships, whatever) you cannot apply ED. Period.  [/quote]

Quite true and what PP^ is saying is correct.  Merit aid is decided by the school and it is usually awarded when they want a particular student for something.  The more elite the school the less like there will be any merit aid at all.  For example, DS got awarded $26K from two small LACs you've never heard of only because they wanted his ACT score for reporting purposes to USN&WR.  However, his ACT was about the high norm for state flagship an even with the 26K, it was still cheaper for him to go to the more prestigious flagship.  No other institution, including ivies offered any merit whatsoever because they can get whatever stats they want from their normal applicant pools of 35,000.  Financial aid, however, is determined by the FAFSA, which you file with the U.S. Department of Education.  Their computers tell you what THEY (feds) think is your family contribution should be - and usually, as in our case or of donut hole families - that amount is full pay.  The EFC (expected family contributiion) figure goes to the colleges.  The colleges then look at the EFC - if your EFC is zero, then yes they will try to find some package of loans, pell grants, grants, workstudent, merit money to come up with an affordable package.  But if your EFC is like most people in the D.C. area, you may get nothing.  However if you file the FAFSA you can have your child obtain the standard $5500 federal unsubsidized loan, which our children do every year.  That amount jumps about $1000 each year so your student will come out owing rougly $25K in total student debt but the rate of interest is low and the payout period is long.  The different is going to fall on you, the family.  That's why in-state options have become so desireable.  Most of us can't afford $70-$85K a year in after-tax dollars, especially when [b]we have more than one child in college at the same time. [/b] Do you have a good college counselor to talk to? They can explain all of this to you and give you direction[/quote]

[b]That’s one of the main things they grant aid for![/quote][/b]

Who?  What?  You are confusing the programs.  Even when you repeat FAFSA in subsequent years and indicated you now have two or three in college, if their calculator determines you make too much money, you're not going to get another cent (we didn't) - except the min. $5500 loan per child.  The FAFSA computer doesn't care that we are sandwich generation families taking care of 3 elderly grandparents, putting nothing away into retirement, getting old, burying family and trying to keep our kids in college at the same time.  If you are talking about merit aid, the elite schools don't give a damn how many kids you have in college.  All they care about is does your child have a unique characteristic the univ. needs for reporting such as a 36 ACT, Samsung scholar. the only applicant from Idaho with perfect test scores, etc.    You need to learn the basics about MERIT AID (not available at the SLACs and Ivies and top flagships because they don't need to give it) and FINANCIAL AID which is run through FAFSA at the department of ED.  We received no merit except for the two offers unsolicited from expensive SLACs you've never heard of.  We received no merit aid from the other 9 universities.  FAFSA says our EFC is to pay everything.  Meanwhile, I am spending at least $100K a year to take care of parents and MIL on top of this. And nothing is being put away for retirement.  Yes, we are frugal. Driving two 15 year old cars.[/quote]

Again- private colleges use the CSS profile, not the FAFSA. FAFSA is for federal aid, the CSS profile is for the private school aid package. The CSS profile takes into account things like home mortgage and insurance expenses and having multiple kids in college. I don’t understand how you could have multiple kids in college and not know this - unless they are all in state school but you keep talking about private colleges.

https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org[/quote]

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