[alum]

The top LACs and national universities don't supply merit-based scholarships because they don't need to attract candidates. They are already getting 10 applications for every spot. Duke is a notable exception with the generous Robertson Scholarship.

What these top schools do however, is to make sure much of the financial aid package for need-based candidates is in the form of a grant. So if a kid has an EFC of $30,000 and he's going to HYP that has a COA of $48K, the majority if not all of his financial aid package will be grant. A school with a smaller endowment may be able only able to provide 5K in grant and give out guaranteed loans and w/s to cover the rest. Some schools don't promise to entirely cover need and there may be a gap between their FA package of grant/GSL/ws and the net amount of COA minus the EFC.

The problem arises when a family's Estimated Family Contribution as calculated by FAFSA and the CSS Profile may be different than what the family thinks it can afford or is willing to pay: especially if there is future education planned immediately after the BS/BA degree.

Every year my friends and I laugh together (and probably cry in secret) about the official EFC number. My friend with 5 kids who is a SAHM and her H works for the gov't has an EFC of $40K. A military officer down the street whose W is a substitute teacher has an EFC of $50K. These are ordinary, middle-class people. We were stunned in disbelief at our FAFSA figure.

If you want merit-aid, you have to look at schools where 1. your class rank, GPA and SAT/ACT scores are MUCH higher than the 75% ranking, 2. they actually have merit-aid listed on their FA or admissions webpage.

And yes, when you have an outside scholarship from a local source, it is subtracted from your FA package. Again, unfair in my eyes, but that's the way it is.

----

Every family has to decide what's important to them. Quite frankly, going to the big flagship school in many states is a better way to have professional connections than going to an Ivy.