<p>So, and I ask again, have you asked the schools how they came up with the figures they did?</p>
<p>It’s all well and good to come onto CC and rant and rave about how unfair it all is. Perhaps it is. But without a heck of a lot more financial information than you’ve provided, how are we to know? Yes, perhaps you have annual income of only $80k/annum and two kids in college . . . and assets that would make Donald Trump blush! How the heck can we know . . . and why should I take your word for it that you were horribly mistreated by these schools?</p>
<p>First of all, schools are in the business of admitting and educating students. They are not in the business of determining whether or not the student can afford to attend. That is left to the student and family, with the school’s financial aid staff assisting them in whatever way their internal policies permit. In other words, the aid is not the important thing to the school. If the school could not get enough students who were able to pay, aid would become a bit more important to the school … but really, it is not what the school is about. The school is about bringing qualified students into its classroom and providing an education. To deny students that opportunity because the school thinks maybe they can’t afford to attend … doesn’t sound quite like a good idea.</p>
<p>The school is under NO obligation whatsoever to give any student a dime. However, that said … regardless of anyone’s opinion on the subject, as of this moment in time, Stafford loans ARE financial aid. The school is not lying when they say that so many students get financial aid. Any student who is aid-eligible and does not have other aid exceeding cost of attendance can get a Stafford loan. </p>
<p>It’s nice that some schools can give more money. That doesn’t mean all must. AND … “they give ZERO of what FAFSA says student needs” … is incorrect. FAFSA does not say what a student needs. All FAFSA does is collect information that is used to compute an Expected Family Contribution. That is it. Period.</p>
<p>The disconnect is in leaping to the conclusion that when one gets admitted and completes a FAFSA, one can or should receive financial assistance. It simply does not work that way.</p>
<p>People really, really need to get a grip on the fact that colleges are not willing or able to give everyone what they want or need.</p>
<p>I do not understand why people think that colleges are somehow “obligated” to give them aid! It is totally up to the discretion of the institution how they spend their money, especially at a college/university that does not guarantee to “meet need” of their applicants like BU and AU. I also think it is silly to take the advertised stats about the amount of aid these places give as truly representative of what they really might give to “your” student. Generally I have found these numbers so all over the map as to make them useless.</p>
<p>Well, as the parent of a student who will need aid, I for one would like to know that I can rely on (1) the school’s online financial aid calculator and/or (2) its commitment to meet student need. The value of the calculators, I understand, remains to be seen and clearly varies widely from school to school. But if, as suggested up-thread, schools say they meet all or part of need . . . but in fact do so only when they want to, I’d like to know. Ahead of time. Before my child applies to that school.</p>
<p>If, in fact, it’s well known that School X only honors its commitment to meet need for its “preferred” students, then I’d like to know that. But one angry parent’s anecdotal report is not enough to convince me.</p>
<p>OP, your kid got into two fine schools, Ithaca and Emerson, with excellent financial aid, yet you are complaining. Is it any wonder that you are perceived as entitled and getting no sympathy here? For heavens sake, you won the lottery–enjoy it! And do re-read the very rational arguments made here against your FA positions. They make good sense.</p>
<p>I think what OP is expressing is surprise that the fin aid process is not objective or clear cut or the same at similar tier schools. I think there is a huge degree of subjectivity in how fin aid applications are handled. If you had 10 students with identical financial aid applications, I bet the same school would give each one a different package. Why? Because they want some of them more than others. To put it another way, they probably figure: we need to give Student “A” $20K to attend, but I bet Student “B” would still attend even if she only got $7K.</p>
<p>It’s the first year for Net Price Calculators, so the OP’s experience isn’t the only one where the number in the NPC doesn’t match the number in the actual FA package. I agree with the recommendation about contacting the FA office if the actual offer is way out of whack with the NPC.</p>
<p>BU has a nicely laid out matrix showing who is likely to get need-based scholarship aid based on family income and academic achievement: [Freshmen</a> Who Received BU Need-Based Scholarships Financial Assistance | Boston University](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/finaid/apply/incoming/freshman-receiving-scholarships/]Freshmen”>http://www.bu.edu/finaid/apply/incoming/freshman-receiving-scholarships/) TThey put on disclaimers at the bottom, stating that “the University does not have sufficient funds to offer need-based scholarship awards to every admitted student who has financial eligibility.” and “The chart cannot be used to predict a specific award amount for an individual.”</p>
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<p>Schools say that. They don’t say it loudly, but they do say it. BU, for instance, says “Unfortunately, were not able to offer aid to every eligible applicant.” They’re not a school that meets 100% of need (you can see a list like [Colleges</a> That Claim to Meet the Full Financial Needs of Students - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/02/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-the-full-financial-needs-of-students]Colleges”>'No-loan' Financial Aid Colleges: What to Know) to see which schools do meet need, at least as they define it). Any school that’s not meeting need is by definition going to meet all or part of need only when they “want” to.</p>
<p>See, silly me. I’d assumed that a school listed on Princeton Review as meeting, say, 87% of need, meets 87% of need for all students, all the time, insofar as possible given the school’s predictably individualized and/or arbitrary characterization of “need.” It never entered my mind that it might instead mean 0% for some students and 100% for others, based on factors having absolutely nothing to do with need!</p>
<p>If that’s the case and if that’s what happened to the OP here, then I’d agree . . . that sucks!</p>
<p>Well, really, yes it does “suck” and lots of things are like that. Kids who don’t test well find out that they can’t go to top schools, even with perfect GPA’s. Some kids don’t get to be on the athletic teams they want to be on, even in high school. Only one or two kids can be captain. Frequently the margin between val and sal is miniscule and a matter of one class somebody took with one less than stellar teacher. There are kids with LD’s, as well, and some kids are not good at math.</p>
<p>It is life. The very good news is that the OP has two excellent acceptances with doable financials.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this is why everyone gives the advice: find a financial safety first. Above all. Because with the exception of very few schools, these institutions cannot put your child through college. They simply cannot. And, other than us full pays, I’ve never heard one family say they got enough aid, ever. </p>
<p>So… yes… life, it does turn out, really is unfair. Just like they used to tell us before the “all have one and everyone must have prizes” craze.</p>
<p>Cavender, BU and AU are private, yes, and they can pretty much spend their money the way they please. So can the publics, for the most part. Again, congratulations to your DD. SHe has some good choices right there. My son chose Emerson over BU when looking at the two schools as to where to apply as did his classmate and good friend, who ended up at Emerson and has done well there as a graduate of that school. </p>
<p>If you want join the complaints, look at what people have to say about NYU. Whooee. That is a school that gaps big time. Accepts with no regard to need, but makes no attempt to meet it unless they really want the student. Then they can up that aid, sweeten the merit so that they are giving the kid the best package s/he’ll see. BU and AU do not have the corner in this at all.</p>
<p>It does hurt, doesn’t it? It’s been 34 years and I still remember (don’t feel, but remember) the sorrow when Franklin and Marshall offerred no financial aid after accepting me. Coincidentally, I ended up at Ithaca because I received a full tuition scholarship from them.</p>
<p>Truth is, we live in a capitalist nation. Colleges have to meet expenses and earn a profit to invest in new facilities, computers, etc. They can’t be giving free educations to everyone who wants one. It’s also true that admissions people must assume that the family has thought this through and would not apply unless they thought they could pay for it - you’ll never see me at a Lexus dealership; I only look at Hyundai’s! Sometimes miracles happen and you see kids (like one of mine) receiving incredible scholarships. But more often they don’t.</p>
<p>You did the right thing and had her apply to schools like IC and Emerson that offer great merit scholarships. For middle class students, it’s always wise to look for MERIT money.
She can get a fine education at either one. And once she gets over the disappointment of not attending BU, she may well fall in love with her second choice. My youngest was devestated when she could not afford her first choice school; now she thanks God every day that she had to go to the school she now attends.</p>
<p>See, silly me. I’d assumed that a school listed on Princeton Review as meeting, say, 87% of need, meets 87% of need for all students, all the time, insofar as possible given the school’s predictably individualized and/or arbitrary characterization of “need.” It never entered my mind that it might instead mean 0% for some students and 100% for others, based on factors having absolutely nothing to do with need!</p>
<p>Dodgersmom…it’s even worse that that. Those “averages” only represent the students who ENROLLED. It doesn’t include the very large number of accepted students who got lousy aid and couldn’t enroll. </p>
<p>Think about it. All of those kids who applied with a lot of need (say EFCs of about $5,000). Their EFCs are too high for fed grants, but manay of these schools can’t give away $40k+ per year for these kids, so those kids get lousy pkgs and then don’t enroll.</p>
<p>And, those averages are further misleading because many students have very little need, therefore “need” can be met with a 5500 student loan. Those students get marked down as 100% need met, even though the school didn’t give them a dime.</p>
<p>The NetPrice Calculators are new as of November of '11 and they all state clearly,and repeatedly, that they offer estimates only, and in no way, shape or form, does this represent an actual offer to you, which could be way more or way less.</p>
<p>Cavender: my D was accepted at AU with an “average” FA package, which for us was pretty much the same amount at all of her accepted schools, although each school parsed it out differently. One of your rights" when evaluating an offer is to know how the school determined your need and how much of it they met. They won’t give you their methodology or the actual number they’ve calculated, but they are obligated to give you the percentage. AU filled 63% of our determined need. However, I discovered that our actual package, in dollars, was pretty average. The FA people explained that they have just so much money to go around and they try hard to offer as many people as possible close to the number that they publish as their “average” package. To do that, obviously, the met-need percentage needs to rise and fall.</p>
<p>If it weren’t all so important for the student and his family, this would make a great board game. Each player must garner at least one offer that covers full need, but, beyond that, whoever collects the largest number of completely different offers by the end of the game wins!</p>
<p>dodgersmom, that BU table that I linked to is pretty explicit about how academic high school performance impacts the amount of need offered. For instance, for families with income < $40k, 95% of students ranking in the top 6% of their high school class received scholarships, compared with only 39% of those ranked from 9-25%.</p>
<p>I agree entirely that if you just rely on what the schools say in their mailings and adcom visits, it’s incredibly deceptive. They’re going to make their school affordable for your family! Don’t look at the sticker price! I’m not the only CC denizen who’d like to see high schools take a more active role in giving families accurate information about the money side of college applications.</p>
<p>As a full pay parent who simply believes in the power of education to change lives, I have been, since finding this site, pretty shocked by what I consider to be the misleading practices of our institutions of higher learning, from the way they market application materials in order to up the number of apps to the opaque way they administer aid and loans…</p>
<p>I now see the “non-profits” as massive businesses and not as the educational institutions I once did. However, I remain convinced in the power of higher education to change lives, and I am happy to note that for the most part, with some exceptions, the process does seem to produce at least one good option, if not more, for most students. I wouldn’t say it works, exactly, but it’s not completely broken, yet.</p>
<p>Mainly, I just think the cost of higher education has gone up too much, based on administrative costs… but isn’t that true everywhere, these days?</p>
<p>It is a pretty big shock when your first kid applies to colleges and you find all this out. You and your daughter are fortunate that you have affordable options. My first child didn’t. I <em>thought</em> I knew about financial aid-- I had even just finished my own degree a few years before my first enrolled-- but I didn’t. My oldest almost didn’t go away to college because of $ and, when kiddo did, it was only for one year because grandparents put up the funds last-minute when they realized kiddo was out of options. </p>
<p>As far as whether or not the schools should have just denied your daughter… the truth is, this is hard either way. I’ll give you examples from 3 of my kids. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>One of my kids applied to a very competitive program (I think they accept about 10%) at a school that meets full need BUT considers need in determining whether or not they would accept. I told kiddo that, since we had soooooo much need and they have so many good applicants, kiddo had no chance. Kiddo was denied-- and heartbroken because would have at least wanted to know kiddo was “good enough” or as good as friends who were accepted. </p></li>
<li><p>Another of my kids was denied at a dream school that meets full need but considers need. Weeks after being denied, kiddo won a national scholarship that would give kiddo a free ride. Kiddo called back the school and they said they would reopen the file and reconsider kiddo. (School had a waitlist, by the way.) Kiddo was so upset that the school had slighted kiddo, they said forget it. And, you know what? Kiddo would have had a MUCH happier at that school than where kiddo enrolled. </p></li>
<li><p>Other kiddo applied to dream school as a transfer. School does NOT meet full need of transfers but does not look at need. Kiddo got in-- and went part-time, took breaks from college to work, etc-- so kiddo could get degree from dream school. Kiddo graduated a year ago and is gainfully employed, having LOVED the time there. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The truth is, it hurts either way. At least your daughter knows she is just as capable as the kids who attend AU and BU.</p>