New poster, and I hope that even though we DID fill out the CSS and plan to complete the FAFSA our HHI will not affect merit.

We make about $350K per year (depending on my DH's year, he is self employed), but we have a child with a disability and significant medical expenses and tuition for special needs school as a result. We wanted to submit the CSS in hopes that we may get some needs-based aid. Our HHI is also relatively new so we could not save much for college over our child's lifetime.

I hope the fact that they see our high HHI won't affect any merit awards. We know the chances of aid are slim, we just thought there was nothing to lose.

Need based aid and scholarships are amazing to help students in need but a big percentage of donut hole kids wouldn't be able to attend good colleges without merit scholarships. Each of our kids had to decline their top choices because there were no merit scholarships there and we needed it to make it possible.

For our kids, colleges didn't require us to file FAFSA or CSS. Merit scholarships were offered for all 4 years. There were some smaller scholarships at each college which required income info and everyone knew those scholarships go to low income students so our kids didn't apply.

Anonymous wrote:I understand the basic difference between need-based aid and merit aid. So let's assume there are two families, neither of which qualifies for need-based aid. But one family's HHI is $250k, while the other's is $500k, would the kid from the family with $250k be a better candidate for merit aid (assuming the kids' stats, etc., were equivalent)? Does income truly play no role in merit aid, or will colleges still look at HHI because they make the assumption that a very high income family can attend without depending on merit?

No. After need based cut off for aid, they don't care if you earn $250K or $million.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I understand the basic difference between need-based aid and merit aid. So let's assume there are two families, neither of which qualifies for need-based aid. But one family's HHI is $250k, while the other's is $500k, would the kid from the family with $250k be a better candidate for merit aid (assuming the kids' stats, etc., were equivalent)? Does income truly play no role in merit aid, or will colleges still look at HHI because they make the assumption that a very high income family can attend without depending on merit?

It's merit. Why should the HHI matter?

Because this is why colleges jack up prices so it's unaffordable for many of us. They should dump the merit aid for rich and make it more affordable for the rest of us.

Anonymous wrote:I understand the basic difference between need-based aid and merit aid. So let's assume there are two families, neither of which qualifies for need-based aid. But one family's HHI is $250k, while the other's is $500k, would the kid from the family with $250k be a better candidate for merit aid (assuming the kids' stats, etc., were equivalent)? Does income truly play no role in merit aid, or will colleges still look at HHI because they make the assumption that a very high income family can attend without depending on merit?

It's merit. Why should the HHI matter?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It plays no role. Schools dont even have any financial info from most full pay families.

They literally ask if the applicant will be seeking financial aid and then request disclosure of the family taxable income in the application.

Do they discard that info without reviewing?

No application for admission requests disclosure of family taxable income. Perhaps you are thinking of the CSS or FAFSA application for need based financial aid?

Only a handful of schools require family financial info for merit aid consideration.

Two words, or is it one: zip code.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It plays no role. Schools dont even have any financial info from most full pay families.

They literally ask if the applicant will be seeking financial aid and then request disclosure of the family taxable income in the application.

Do they discard that info without reviewing?

No application for admission requests disclosure of family taxable income. Perhaps you are thinking of the CSS or FAFSA application for need based financial aid?

Only a handful of schools require family financial info for merit aid consideration.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be nice if it was mainly need based. It's absurd for a family who makes $400-900K or more who can afford it to get aid while other kids have to struggle and take out loans or cannot attend due to cost. Or reduce the cost for everyone and make things more affordable.

$400k in a high cost area with 3 kids in college (which gives you no discounts) is a big struggle to pay $80-90k/year for each kid which is the cost of private universities/ivies. It would be well over $1 million.

But, hey, if HHI were $150k (which is a lot of $ in low cost areas where SFHs aren’t 750k-1 million +) like the DMV, those 3 kids coins go for free and come out with zero loans.

You have to remember most people weren’t making that $400k when their college kids were babies/young. The salary rose slowly over time.

Are you in lala land. Three kids is a choice and on $200k you pay for state school like the rest of us and live in a $400k house not million in dollar house. You sound entitled. We live in a crappy little house, don’t take vacations and are very careful to save for college.

It’s a really broken system, especially as more and more students are subsidized and the cost skyrockets for the few who are actually paying for their education.

Higher SES is held against a student at the time of application, and then the actual cost of their education can also threaten to wipe out a significant portion of their family’s wealth, especially if there are multiple kids to provide for over a 5-10 year period.

Meanwhile, another student whose education was fully subsidized by others (at a better school, mind you, often leading to more lucrative career prospects) emerges with zero debt and no reduction of their family’s wealth.

Wealth redistribution. Just call it what it is.

Anonymous wrote:It would be nice if it was mainly need based. It's absurd for a family who makes $400-900K or more who can afford it to get aid while other kids have to struggle and take out loans or cannot attend due to cost. Or reduce the cost for everyone and make things more affordable.

$400k in a high cost area with 3 kids in college (which gives you no discounts) is a big struggle to pay $80-90k/year for each kid which is the cost of private universities/ivies. It would be well over $1 million.

But, hey, if HHI were $150k (which is a lot of $ in low cost areas where SFHs aren’t 750k-1 million +) like the DMV, those 3 kids coins go for free and come out with zero loans.

You have to remember most people weren’t making that $400k when their college kids were babies/young. The salary rose slowly over time.

It would be nice if it was mainly need based. It's absurd for a family who makes $400-900K or more who can afford it to get aid while other kids have to struggle and take out loans or cannot attend due to cost. Or reduce the cost for everyone and make things more affordable.

If LTE algorithms are not at least taking this into account (in their interaction effect with multiple other variables) then it’s malpractice.
And an address is all that’s needed for this…

Anonymous wrote:It plays no role. Schools dont even have any financial info from most full pay families.

They literally ask if the applicant will be seeking financial aid and then request disclosure of the family taxable income in the application.

Do they discard that info without reviewing?

It would be helpful to share if these merit aid offers are from schools in the top 50 if your student is an athlete etc.