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We found out recently that D1 Ivy league schools are need based- so if the FAFSA says you as a parent can contribute 80%, your screwed. my daughter had her heart set on attending an IVY, after talking with a few people, we were advised to fill out the FAFSA (estimator) online...turns out that my $60k wage as a nurse and my husbands $45k wage as a teacher means that we should be able to afford 80% of the tuition :lmao: yeah, it doesn't matter that we have 3 kids, a mortgage, etc. OH WELL, better to learn this all now while she is a freshman.
Here is the link if any of you are interested: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/quickefc.phtml
Here is the link if any of you are interested: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/quickefc.phtml
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I've had two kids go through this process:
Oldest in non athlete, valedictorian and 32 ACT received almost a full ride to Akron. Some schools will not give any academic money and its purely need based I.e. Ivy League, ND and Northwestern University. So no matter what anybody says if they claim they received academic money, they are not telling the truth ( my child got accepted but couldn't afford these schools).
second child is a softball player, salutatorian and 32 ACT-- same as older but had more opportunities because she is an athlete. D3, IVY league an certain schools such as ND and Northwestern doesn't offer academic but most schools will give you quite a bit if they want your daughter. DD had offers for S occer, track and even basketball but she chose school she loved and is having time of her life playing softball. We are middle class and fafsa was ridiculous in what they expected.
Oldest in non athlete, valedictorian and 32 ACT received almost a full ride to Akron. Some schools will not give any academic money and its purely need based I.e. Ivy League, ND and Northwestern University. So no matter what anybody says if they claim they received academic money, they are not telling the truth ( my child got accepted but couldn't afford these schools).
second child is a softball player, salutatorian and 32 ACT-- same as older but had more opportunities because she is an athlete. D3, IVY league an certain schools such as ND and Northwestern doesn't offer academic but most schools will give you quite a bit if they want your daughter. DD had offers for S occer, track and even basketball but she chose school she loved and is having time of her life playing softball. We are middle class and fafsa was ridiculous in what they expected.
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For the schools my DD looked at (private D2 and D3), it seemed to me that the academic scholarhips were pretty well fixed ... i.e., everyone who was within a certain ACT/SAT score and/or GPA range, got the same amount regardless of financial need or whether they were an athlete or not. And it also seemed like need-based aid was pretty well set too based on FAFSA-calculated estimated contributions, though I may be wrong on that as we were not in a position at the time to receive any of that. Then at the D2 schools, athletic aid was a separate "pot" that the coach had to work with and divvy up as he/she saw fit.
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We ran into a similar problem with need based. Daughter loved Bucknell. The Patriot league just like the Ivy league is entirely need based, no athletic money. The school was awesome, the facilities were incredible, but what they determined we would have to pay was simply not a good choice for us. Basically the only thing athletics could offer her was guaranteed admittance. If I remember correctly the coach could get in 6 players per year.
Going back to the original question, I do not believe that most academic money is need based. Most schools we talked to could tell us what our daughter would receive for academics without knowing anything about our finances.
Need-based in my opinion simply means the school has their tuition fee and then based on your finances they determine how much they will lower it for you. At least that was my impression when looking at the situation described above.
Going back to the original question, I do not believe that most academic money is need based. Most schools we talked to could tell us what our daughter would receive for academics without knowing anything about our finances.
Need-based in my opinion simply means the school has their tuition fee and then based on your finances they determine how much they will lower it for you. At least that was my impression when looking at the situation described above.
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I know University of Findlay may not be on most people's radar but they actually publish aan academic matrix that everyone (athlete or not) are eligible for:
Merit Scholarship Matrix Chart
Merit Scholarship Matrix Chart
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Every college we've looked at for either daughter, (one athletic, one not - both have good grades - very much like Blue Ice), has had a page for academic scholarships on their website - where the criteria is spelled out very clearly. There are also scholarships available for kids who volunteer a lot - or are from another state etc........ Check out the websites - you'll find them, some are harder to find than others.
There are so many families I talk to that did not qualify for any "needs based" money - but most of their daughters have received some kind of money based on academics. Heck my DD at Wittenberg received not only money based on academics, bu also money for living in Summit County. Some wonderful alumnus put some money in at some point to give to kids from Summit County! All I can say to them is THANK YOU!
There are so many families I talk to that did not qualify for any "needs based" money - but most of their daughters have received some kind of money based on academics. Heck my DD at Wittenberg received not only money based on academics, bu also money for living in Summit County. Some wonderful alumnus put some money in at some point to give to kids from Summit County! All I can say to them is THANK YOU!
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FAFSA is a Federal calculation and is not what every school uses. Many of the Ivies are very generous with their financial aid due to their large endowments. According to the Harvard website (Fact Sheet), you would have to pay less than 10% (~$6k) and the net cost goes from 10% to 100% in the $150k-$200k range.
- Twenty percent of current families have total incomes less than $65,000 and under the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative are expected to pay nothing.
- Beginning with the Class of 2016, families with incomes between $65,000 and $150,000 will contribute from zero to ten percent of 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.
Note: Harvard does not include retirement accounts nor home equity in their asset calculations.
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Oldest went DII. After all her "regular" academic scholarship money was divvied up, the coach made an offer. Similar experience at the other DI and DII schools we looked at. She ended up at the school she felt the best at, not the one that gave the best offer. Good news for us, it was only about $1500.00 difference. She was a 3.98/29 ACT student. And we are definitely NOT wealthy.
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thank you for posting SoCal!
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The Patriot league went to Athletic Scholarships this academic school year. It is taking the coaches a while to figure out how to convert those paying their own way and those on academic and need over. Tons of fun for them!!!
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DD plays for a D3 school most of her tution is covered by academic scholarships, we knew how much before FASA. We still have a family contribution that is not to hard on the wallet even with it being a private school. She also recieved some outside scholarships that also helped out. DD was always focused on academics first and it payed off for her in the end.
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If being a great softball player helps get an admittance to Harvard, then I would consider that a scholarship in itself.
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That is good news, too bad for us it came a little too late. I bet it is a crazy situation to try and figure out.
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Our situation seems to mirror this post. After the interviews, the school helped with a mock FAFSA to get a handle on the money coming to her, then made an offer with money from the till for us to consider. This was carved in stone after the official FAFSA request that we did in January of her senior year. The school honored their part to the dollar. Remember, your FAFSA request happens every year and can change depending on the income level from the information you share with them------after filing your tax return. I do not know if there is a different scale for FAFSA money based on whether a school is private or public but the mainstay is the test score results. With 36 being a perfect score, a student applying with a 32 or above will get some serious help whether you believe it or not.
Every system will have flaws but the FAFSA system, while complicated, seems to be working as fair as it can considering the government is involved. It's simply a reality check when people find out the money isn't all coming from the Athletic Dept. as schools will package things to appear as if it is all an athletic scholarship. Good grades and a high ACT test score is worth much much more to most college athletes.
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Our experience with NCAA DI was like this, and each was distinctly separate:
1) FAFSA - a self-guided federal system for funds based on financial need (we didn't qualify)
2) Academic - if your daughter is serious about her grades, the schools that are serious about her will reward her
3) Athletic - Great athletes are ambassadors for the school - think of it as paid advertising of sorts
There are many more avenues for funds. Nearly every school has donors to private scholarships which supplement athlete's fees. These are essentially private scholarships which are awarded by differing criteria; sometimes need-based, sometimes academics, or any number of reasons. This is a good question to ask the coach when on a recruiting visit. Many kids never get access to these funds simply because they DON'T ASK!
1) FAFSA - a self-guided federal system for funds based on financial need (we didn't qualify)
2) Academic - if your daughter is serious about her grades, the schools that are serious about her will reward her
3) Athletic - Great athletes are ambassadors for the school - think of it as paid advertising of sorts
There are many more avenues for funds. Nearly every school has donors to private scholarships which supplement athlete's fees. These are essentially private scholarships which are awarded by differing criteria; sometimes need-based, sometimes academics, or any number of reasons. This is a good question to ask the coach when on a recruiting visit. Many kids never get access to these funds simply because they DON'T ASK!
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