<p>I didn't know that the DOE is now going to send students thet Freshman Retention rates and 4 year graduation rates for every college to which the student applies for FA (I assume, based on who they send the FAFSA to?) I think that's great, especially for people applying to some of the for-profit schools who may not realize how low those schools' graduation rates are.</p>
<p>The full-pay thing is no surprise. Not everyone has the deep pockets of the Tier 1 schools and their massive endowments (even after the market tanked). Most colleges need tuition dollars to function.</p>
<p>My son is beating expectations so far, then. Not rich here, but the acceptance letters are already in hand in greater quantity than he can take advantage of. Thanks for the link to the news article. The new FAFSA response policy is interesting. That will give colleges MUCH incentive to boost their graduation rates.</p>
<p>Our son has also had the same experience in admissions this year, and we are also not rich. Agreed about incentive to boost those graduation rates!! Every parent and applicant is looking at those graduation rates in black and white print as they apply for financial aid.</p>
<p>We noticed this year that S2 who has the same exact stats as his older brother got larger “merit awards” than his older brother did in the '07 cycle at some of the very same schools. They would still pay slightly more than the full in-state tuition but it does take the sting out of the out of state rates and give great options to in-state publics. I suspect that publics do like the out of state students even if they have to discount slightly.</p>
<p>all these threads make me worry
my family has had it’s worst financial year ever and i’m terrified it’s going to affect my chances…so much for need blind</p>
<p>R6L, from what I remember from the Class of 2010 thread I think most of your schools are of the deep-pocket variety, I wouldn’t worry too much. Most colleges in the USA don’t even come close to being “need-blind” and they can’t claim to be. Those that say they are need-blind are in a very different position financially from the average college.</p>
<p>I recently had a conversation with a prof at a top 30 LAC who indicated that given the hit that their endowment took in the stock market (along with everyone else’s of course), that given that they felt obligated (as they should) to meet the ongoing FA needs of the students already on campus, they decided that they would make more an effort to attract a full-pay class for the next year or two (that is, all else being equal, they might “tip” more towards the full-pay student). And that they were OK with that decision, because it was a “necessary evil” to continue their obligations towards current students.</p>
<p>Endowments shouldn’t have been too badly off if they were in the stock market as it made quite a nice recovery in 2009. The bigger problem was in schools that invested in exotic instruments, many which haven’t recovered.</p>
<p>Northeastmom- Do you mean the graduation rates per college, like X% graduate in 4, 5, or 6 years is now on the FAFSA? I think that’s wonderful. I don’t have to fill out the FAFSA, so I didn’t get to see that. I’d love a screen shot of that!</p>
<p>It literally pays to do well in HS. But is this really news? What I think is most unfortunate is that there might become the assumption that if you don’t qualify for financial need (which is MUCH different statement than saying you don’t need it), you aren’t a top student. The two are not mutually exclusive. And please be appreciative of those people who pay full ride but do so at a very real stretch. The truth is, at those schools that claim to be need blind, you have to be a top student regardless of ability to pay.</p>
<p>What I find most disconcerting in any of these discussions is that it is somewhat assumed that schools have a tree in their backyard that grows money to pay the bills. Simply not the case. The top schools are still giving lots of money in aid and even those who have slashed 10’s of millions from their budgets have no intention of cutting their FA budgets, and in some cases raised them. Those schools that are need aware are merely stating what should have been obvious to parents years ago… save for college if you plan on your child attending. At some point, people started believing that financial aid policies gave them permission to literally bank on getting a full ride, either thru traditional need-based plans and/or merit money.</p>
<p>As for grad rates… while I do agree there might be more of an incentive for colleges to actually support students thru graduation, I do not think the only road to this is going to be through grade inflation. There are a lot of schools that could use a lot more resources devoted to student support. Again, this is often where top schools excel and is why they have the high grad rates to begin with. It does Johnny no good to get great financial aid if he can find no help in writing his freshman comp essays.</p>
<p>Actually, it’s the mediocre schools that have raised their FA budgets. They have no choice, they won’t be able to fill a class without ‘discounting’ in the form of ‘merit’ aid to become more price competitive with state schools.</p>
<p>Top schools–the most generous 100% meet need schools–are making noises about tinkering with aid. Some are talking about the return of loans. Many are raising class size and will take more full pays. When the endowments were wildly growing and congress was pressuring them to spend more of those endowments, these colleges became insanely generous and now realize they need to cut there like they are cutting everywhere else.</p>
<p>“rich” is misleading IMO…most envision the extreme wealthy…how about the parents who planned ahead and saved for the kids college from birth? We will probably not need FA, but we are certainly not “rich”, just ordinary middle class who saved.</p>
<p>Some of the trends don’t sound all that good to me. They have been classified as “welcome trends” in the article. But is does seem inevitable given the financial calamity that hit so many universities and colleges.</p>
<p>Any school that couldn’t fill a class with full pays if they wanted to.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Colleges are looking for both, those who simply can pay in full and those who are very wealthy and can pay tuition plus. The ivies are hot on the trail of development kids–the development offices are under extreme pressure to bring in big cash.</p>
<p>Oh, please let this point to good news for Son. </p>
<p>Don’t misunderstand me; we’re not rich. But he does have a full-tuition external scholarship to his dream school. Here’s hoping that tips his admission favorably.</p>