first offer

The money your son is offered from a D3 will either be academic or financial need. There's nothing to commit to at a D3. Once they put the academic and/or financial money on the table it's there until he accepts or doesn't meet the deposit deadline.

quote:

My son recieved his first scholarship offer the other day from an NAIA school which was pretty exciting.

That is very exciting news! Exciting indeed!
Congratulations!!!!

Most small colleges have institutional grants that oddly enough often end up going to athletes. This is in addition to academics and/or need.

I sure hope so, because for some of us there's a rather Grand Canyonesque difference between EFC and COA! Yikes!!

Krakatoa,

I guess you have done your fafsa? we did a mock one a few months ago and we were not elgible for anything, not even a subsidized loan . One thing they told us is to talk to the financial aide office if they arent offering enough, like PG said theyre is money available in other ways to help. you can also , once you get your financial aide package back (first of march) then you can write a letter if you have extenuating circumstances. anyways good luck for us it was going to be 25,000 a year with all the aide, my son was going to have to borrow some of that also and he decided he didnt want to go that in debt(but he wasnt totally sold on school either).I personally think its worth it for a private education and if its a good fit, but it would of put us in a bind. my husband was sick last year with cancer so he was off almost all year, no overime etc. so JC it is for now. but i talked to a dad at the stanford camp last year, he just lives in area, and his son goes to trinity and loves the school and the baseball coach etc. so good luck

Another issue is what if any other careers your son is interested. I put that out there because if your son chooses to attend graduate school, where he goes to undergrad may play a part. No, the name of the school does not matter. However, the grades he gets from the school does. A few years ago, US News and World Report featured a story about schools and grade inflation. Law Schools and Medical Schools in particular were affected because they were receving applications from students with really high GPAs but struggled in the respective grad schools. But in the end, any money you save is great for your entire family, especially with today's cost of tuition.

Did someone say that dreadful 5 letter word F-A-F-S-A ???

The happiest day of my life was the other day when I clicked on "send" to send this God-forsaken yet necessary form.

I need to sit down. I'm beginning to feel woozy again.

That brings up a good question what if the formula on the FAFSA says you aren't qualified yet your expenses in todays economy has eaten up your savings and income is down (realtor)how can you get that message acrossed or is it a mute point? I have filled ours out but haven't sent because of the formula.

RYNO I am sure they look at net income if you are a realtor. Unfortunately Realtors have very high expenses often over looked when they say how much they make.

its gross income,being self employed you can have business deductions they dont take into account personal deductions.basically unless you are really low income there is not much coming from fafsa but for those that are self employed it might be easier.

so filing is a waste of time....

ryno,

no its not a waste of time because even if the fed. gov. doesnt give you money youca write a letter of extenuating circumstances to the school your son migh be going to. as an example this past year we made too much, but the year before my husband was sick, so although we qualify for nothing through fafsa, the schools told us once we get back the financial aid package from the colleges then we could write a letter of extenuating circumstanes, then the school can sometimes offer money. the schools want everyone to fill out fafsa before they give their money away. at least thst how it has been explained to us.

Without a FAFSA form how does a school get an idea as to a families income and needs?

The FAFSA.............

is important to some

is a waste to lower thru mid upper middle class

and is a formula that doesn't work, like the RPI

The CSS is a better calculation, but doesn't apply to the majority

gee, they do give ya a $4K plus "pell grant" just for filling out the fafsa

gee---if you do not fill it our what do you get?

quote:

Originally posted by Bee>:
gee, they do give ya a $4K plus "pell grant" just for filling out the fafsa

not me, and I have two in college simultaneously..............lot of loan offers though

OS8,
Isn't two in college better for financial aid?

Also at some schools don't have to fill out the FAFSA form for merit based $$, just need based.

One very interesting thing about FAFSA is they don't take into account cost of living.

You need to make roughly 60% in my region to live at the same level of someone in NYC or LA.

Also when you have one already in college that helps, and as someone said if you own a business you can write a lot off.

Around here they have free tuition supplied by the state if you have the grades and meet FAFSA requirements, then the schools often have incentive "scholarships" to get your kid to choose their school over others.

Bottom line, you can be just an average student and walkon the baseball team and actually make money, if you go to the right school.