<p>My daughter was accepted to both BU and American U., had a substantial financial need based on FAFSA but received not a penny in assistance from these schools (got the Stafford loan stuff only). She received FAFSA based aid from other schools she applied to.<br>
My question is: If these expensive schools accept you, say that you are smart enough to go there, don't they have some responsibility to do something to allow you to attend? </p>
<p>My issue is that they shouldn't accept you in the first place. Why advertise average rates of financial aid of $30-35,000, acceptance rates of 40% etc., to entice students to pay their $100 fee to apply, accept them, but offer ZILCH? Is this a money maker for them?</p>
<p>I believe colleges pad their statistics on those college search programs and entice students to apply knowing that only top tier will get "needs based" assistance. Why use the word financial aid or need? A solution would for these colleges to not accept as many candidates but then they would not reap in the application money.</p>
<p>I don’t think they’re making much money off of the application fees - it is expensive to hire employees to go through them, they have admissions offices, etc.</p>
<p>No, I don’t think it is their responsibility. They only have so much money. Places like BU and American have small endowments. I’m sure they’d love to offer kids more money, but they just don’t have it. The alternative is to turn kids down who need financial aid, and I think that would be even worse.</p>
<p>The short answer is no. They have no responsibility to do something that allows you to attend. A school, any school, has only X amount of endowment dollars in the budget for scholarships. Most schools do not meet full need to all admitted students because they just can’t. </p>
<p>The amount published for financial assistance are averages, meaning some kids get way above, and many get way below. Many also get the average. You have no way of knowing where you fall until the aid package arrives.</p>
<p>The admissions fees are not money-makers. Schools probably don’t collect enough in those to pay for all the admissions counselors who have to sort through them, read the essays, etc. If anything, those fees are probably enough to keep uninterested students from applying just for the helluvit. </p>
<p>THe advice here is always cast a wide net. Include some reaches to see what happens, but love your safety. It is good advice.</p>
<p>I think one of the reasons the process is so frustrating is because, after years of public education, we have a hard time getting our heads wrapped around the the notion that higher ed has costs. Private schools are businesses. They do not have to answer to shareholders, but they have to make payroll, fund the scholarships they do have, provide services, etc. They cannot stay in business without cash from tuition coming in. Even at the state schools, though heavily subsidized to keep the COA for in-state students relatively low, we’re past the notion that this is an entitlement, and if we want it, we have to pay something.</p>
<p>*My question is: If these expensive schools accept you, say that you are smart enough to go there, don’t they have some responsibility to do something to allow you to attend? *</p>
<p>NO.</p>
<p>and they could turn that around on you. They could say, “if a parent is going to let their child apply to pricey schools, shouldn’t the parents make sure that the school is affordable for them?”</p>
<p>My issue is that they shouldn’t accept you in the first place. Why advertise average rates of financial aid of $30-35,000, acceptance rates of 40% etc., to entice students to pay their $100 fee to apply, accept them, but offer ZILCH? Is this a money maker for them?</p>
<p>Most schools are “need blind”…which means that they don’t look at your ability to pay when they accept you. </p>
<p>And, if these CSS Profile schools determined that you have no need, then does that mean that you have lots of home equity, a business, or something else that didn’t get reported on FAFSA?</p>
<p>Oh, the sense of entitlement that we middle class people have. We think that because we have “smart” kids we should get free or subsidized education at elite schools, etc. Reality is otherwise. We have the means, we have to pay.</p>
<p>I believe that part of the problem is seeing the colleges advertise that X% of their students receive some form of financial aid. I believe it is because the schools count loans as financial aid.</p>
<p>I think the issue here is not necessarily large assets or business income, but the fact that BU (not sure about American U) offers preferential packaging, which results in students with the same need to have vastly different packages. </p>
<p>What BU was saying to OP, is that their D was good enough to attend, but only if parents are willing to pay the sticker price. </p>
<p>The issue with preferential packaging at BU and NYU (not sure about American U) was discussed at nausea here at CC (and there are article published about this). Since it is parent’s responsibility to pay for their children to attend college, parents should be aware about how aid works at each school prior to applying and should not be angry or surprised if their kids don’t get good aid at such schools.</p>
<p>Most schools are need blind for admissions. There are only a small number of schools that admit to looking at need and making that part of the admissions process. You can find that list by googling need aware colleges. Those colleges tend to meet most of the students’ needs if they are accepted, BUT most such school do not use FAFSA alone and define need themselves. Most all schools that are generous with need use PROFILE or their own supplemental application before dishing out the dough.</p>
<p>The thing is, until you are at this very end point of the admissions process, you don’t know how things are going to pan out for your specific situation. I’ve known folks who have gotten the best aid packages from what are reputed to be the stingiest schools. But anytime you are applying for financial aid, you have to understand that it is a second lottery you are entering; first to get accepted and the second to get the money.</p>
<p>First, neither of these schools guarantees to meet full demonstrated need, regardless of what the school’s “average” FA package might be.</p>
<p>Second, as for your statement that the schools would have done better simply to reject your daughter . . . well, that seems kind of cold. Kudos to her that she got accepted - it’s a feather in her cap! - even if, sadly, you are unable to afford for her to attend.</p>
<p>It seems that it would perhaps have been more appropriate for you to refuse to allow her to apply in the first place, given the uncertainty of funding at these two schools. Otherwise, at the very least, you should have informed yourself enough to know, going in, that affordability had yet to be determined.</p>
<p>And, although I’m assuming these are decisions you received and acted upon weeks ago, if not, and they are recent, have you contacted the schools to make sure that the offers of zero aid were not simply the result of error? It does happen, and it’s always worth asking.</p>
<p>m2ck, I wasn’t aware of the preferential packaging at BU. We visited there and were informed that the financial aid process was separate. Seems it is separate only until student is accepted, then need isn’t need but more merit.
Fact is, one applies to colleges based on their rate of financial aid etc.
I still maintain that these schools shouldn’t accept as many students as they do, then I couldn’t complain that they give ZERO of what FAFSA says student needs.</p>
<p>They accept the number of students they do based on history of what they need to accept to keep on even keel. BU and AMerican do not guarantee to meet need. If you wanted to have only schools that guarantee to meet 100% of need, your DD should have just applied to those and to schools you could afford without aid. Even then, it’s a lottery because those schools are even more selective and their definition of need and yours may not match up because almost all of them use PROFILE or other calculator as well as FAFSA. They also may meet need with loans and work study rather than with grants. It’s not an easy thing getting a lot of money from schools,</p>
<p>I think this situation is a kunundrum! Yes…schools post of fat financial aid packages offered to ?% of students. Yes…parents need to take a lot into consideration when applying to a school. And…Yes…we look at the percentage and the financail aid because it would allow our student to attend. However, it is not always the case that these two paths meet. I think it is important to include finanical reaches and if it works out great. ie: Dream School. But…it is not a guarantee. Then the heartbreak sets in. That is why it was a financial reach. For this reason, so many students apply to so many different schools. Reach, Financial Reach, Safety and financial safety. It definately is a puzzle, I will give you that.</p>
<p>“The amount published for financial assistance are averages, meaning some kids get way above, and many get way below. Many also get the average. You have no way of knowing where you fall until the aid package arrives.”</p>
<p>Aside from Stafford loan which the college does not provide but only makes the arrangement, my daughter got ZERO from Boston University, and had substantial unmet need. If ZERO counts as being in a range of financial aid then so be it.
The point is, these schools shouldn’t accept so many students.</p>
<p>Why? Why shouldn’t they accept so many students? It isn’t going to make your D’s package any better. You applied to schools that give good aid to those they want. Unfortunately your D didn’t got that criteria for one reason or another. But it’s their money to do with as they please.</p>
<p>Don’t be so stubborn about this situation. Both of those schools are CSS schools, if I recall correctly, which means that they could have easily met 100% of your need with the stafford loan. Also, how is the school to know when they accept you if you actually can or cannot afford the school? What if they deny an application that has a HUGE outside merit scholarship just because of /your/ theory. No. Stop being stubborn</p>
<p>cptofthehouse: “BU and AMerican do not guarantee to meet need.” Didn’t expect a guarantee but something towards costs would have helped, not even a Work Study offer. At each site visit not one college said, “oh, yeah, it’s possible we’re not going to give a single dime.” Other colleges also required a Profile and they came up with need based aid. Thinking again, they accept more students than they should, accept 40%, not give a penny to half of those accepted, and they’re down to 20% real acceptance rate as opposed to the feel good method they employ by over accepting.</p>
<p>Cavender, you keep saying they shouldn’t accept so many students. They have to do so to get the core they need. This is all a business, you know.</p>
<p>Also, many if not most schools do lay out the federal aid as their own. I don’t like it either and have made that point in a number of posts. Some even put down the PLUS (parent loans) for which you are not even guaranteed and work study, which again is a maybe in getting the funds, as their own aid when none of the money comes from the school itself. This is the way of doing business.</p>
<p>Schools decide how they are going to use their money, and when you see a school that does not guarantee to meet need and gives out merit money,it uses their funds to “buy” the students they want the most. Those who don’t get money, have to come up with it themselves through loans and family help, if possible. </p>
<p>Though I agree that all schools over hype the availability of funds, these two schools are no worse than most any of them. They do tend to give out more money and also are great for students looking for merit bucks beyond need. That your D did not get anything from them does not mean that there aren’t sufficient student who did not. </p>
<p>wmurphy126: “Both of those schools are CSS schools, if I recall correctly, which means that they could have easily met 100% of your need with the stafford loan.”</p>
<p>Stafford loans are limited to $3500 subsidized and $2000 for the freshman year so you are way off on your facts. I’m not being stubborn about this but it seems I have hit a lot of raw nerves. Boston University expected me to come up with $55,000 cash each year on top of the other daughter I have in school.
Let me be clear, other top schools did come up with unmet need for her. Boston University was just obscenely cheap!</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t like work study. My SIL’s niece got work study, and it just takes away from the time and money she could be using to meet her EFC. You only have so many hours that you can work and if that is put towards your need, you can’t work towards the EFC. That is where she is. SHe works two jobs and frankly, it’s too much. One is work study, and the other is where she makes a bit more actually. AT both schools, AU and BU, your DD is very likely to be able to find work on her own.</p>
<p>She does have the full Staffords, and some of it is probably subsidized, maybe all, and yes, schools that award this put it down as their aid. But that is about all she should borrow, and as a freshman, I even hesitate to suggest she work, and if she does, I would not suggest workig a lot.</p>
<p>So the schools are unaffordable. We had some like that with our son too. Off the table they went without another thought. Yes, I felt badly. I wish we could have considered them but I was fortunate in that my son didn’t even think about it. He was focused on the affordable choices. </p>
<p>Sometimes, however, one of those schools unexpectedly comes through and that is a sweet surprise. That’s really how we have to look at any aid or awards. I was surprised and grateful for any money my kids were awarded, and they wouldn’t have been awarded them if they had not applied and there was no telling who would give what or anything at all. THat is why we applied to a variety of schools.</p>
<p>You missed the point. The Profile could determine that you have ZERO or very little need and therefore could be met with a small loan. It has nothing to do with your EFC.</p>