We offer the following explanation of the major factors that influence the financial aid decision in an effort to help parents and students understand how the College makes its decisions and to acquaint families with the principles and the ground rules of need analysis used by the Bowdoin College Student Aid Office. We hope this will help you understand what we do, and anticipate questions you may have. All Financial aid at Bowdoin College is need based with the exception of the Bowdoin Posse and National Merit Scholarship Program. Need based aid presumes that the parents and the student have primary responsibility for paying the cost of education to the extent they are able.
Financial aid is used only to supplement the effort of the family.
It also assumes that need can be calculated uniformly and with equity. This formula is used to determine a student s eligibility for all federal aid, including Stafford Loans, Pell Grants and most state scholarship aid. Institutional Methodology Bowdoin College, like many similar institutions, uses as its foundation the Institutional Methodology of the College Board to determine a family s need for College aid. The institutional need analysis formula more accurately and more equitably determines a family s ability to pay for education from family income and assets than FM because FM ignores some forms of income and expenses, and eliminates some assets from consideration. The need for Bowdoin aid is determined on the basis of Institutional Methodology.