What Kind of Student Aid is Available for Families Making $100,000 or More?

Despite what you may have heard, there’s all kinds of student aid available - even if you make a healthy six-figure income. You can qualify for both government financial aid, and college merit aid, even if you make more than $100,000 a year. How much financial aid depends on how much you make, how much you have in savings and investments, how your savings are positioned, and how many kids you have in college, and what schools your kids attend.

Many families make the mistake of believing that they can’t get college financial aid, but college merit aid, is wealth agnostic. Even if you make a million dollars a year, your family can still access this aid. Now this money is in addition to any private scholarship that you can qualify for, so don’t fall into the trap that many families do, thinking they make too much money to get substantial student aid.

What’s the Difference between Financial Aid and Merit Aid?

Why is this so important? It’s because these two components make up most of the college aid money available. They represent the two biggest buckets. I’ll discuss three main differences.

Firstly, financial aid comes from the federal and state government. Merit aid comes from the colleges’ own funds.

Secondly, financial aid for college is based on how much money you make, and how much you have saved. Now, merit aid doesn’t consider this, in fact even Bill Gates’ kid could theoretically get merit money.

The third thing: while most people overpay because they don’t know the best way to get both financial aid, and merit aid. To get financial aid basically you just have to submit the government paperwork, and qualify. To get merit aid, you need to know what schools value in a student, and which colleges are willing to pay your student to go there.

Can ‘B’ Students Still Get College Aid?

I’ve heard parents tell their high school students that unless they score over 2,000 on their SAT’s and have a 3.5 grade point average, they’re not getting into any college, period – never mind receiving a scholarship.

This is silly, of course! These parents forget two things: one, students mature and bloom at different ages; and two, there are over 3,000 colleges out there. There’s a fit for every kind of student. In fact, there are a number of colleges that specialize in late bloomers.

The interesting thing is that these schools accept 70% or more of their applicants, and still their graduates manage to get top jobs, and get into prestigious graduate schools, at nearly the identical rate as Ivy League institutions! The key to getting aid at these schools, and any other colleges for that matter is to match your son or daughter to the mission of the college. If your student is a good fit at that college -- in other words, is the kind of student they want--then there’s a good possibility of getting merit aid for your family.

It’s important to remember these schools are competing for students with other similar schools. Also keep in mind that grades have nothing to do with federal and state aid, and that’s the biggest source of college aid. Whether or not you qualify for need aid is based on your income and your assets, and other financial criteria. So you either will, or will not, get need aid based on your family circumstances, regardless of your child’s grades.