<p>My S (and his parents) were very happy to receive tuition exchange from four schools. $30,500 a year for four years. $122,000 total. Am I being greedy to hope and wish we could receive additional grant money? Right now we would still have to pay 15-20,000 a year for extra tuition and room and board. None of the four schools offered anything in addition to the tuition grant. As a middle class parent, we are so grateful to receive this huge bounty, but we still may have to have 50-75,000 in loans. Anybody else going through this?</p>
<p>Sheesh, that’s a lot of money, both the amount that you’re getting and the amount that school apparently costs. What university is this anyways? Look up their financial aid policy in close detail, and see if your son is eligible for additional scholarships on top of this free money.</p>
<p>By your math, you’d be taking out loans to cover pretty much the entire rest of the cost of school, correct? There’s nothing wrong with having your child take some of that loan burden.</p>
<p>Shakespeare Dad – both of our sons are on Tuition Exchange scholarships (two different schools). Oldest son’s school gave him nothing extra – so he took his loans and we took some as well. He will graduate this may with about $20,000 in loans and we have about the same for him. Second son’s school costs more and so far they have given him a SMALL amount of money to bring the cost down to our efc, so we will end up in about the same boat for him. In both cases, the school was very clear that Tuition exchange would only go towards tuition, and at second son’s school he got enough extra to cover the cost of tuition, so we are paying for room/board and some miscellanous fees at both schools. Because the Tuition exchange is so generous most schools really don’t want to go much farther than that with their limited funds (as a college employee you know that no matter what it looks like, no school ever has enough money to give all the aid that every kid needs).</p>
<p>My S is a soph and will also be attending school on TE if all goes as planned. I wish I could add something to the conversation, but we are just starting the process. My admissions officer said to speak to each school’s HR department about the TE and the possibility of additional scholarship money on top of the TE.</p>
<p>I wonder, OP and lololu, would ya’ll mind sharing information with me? You can pm me if you would like. I’d love to know:
Where you or your spouse teach?
What your child(ren)'s stats were like?
What school(s) they were offered TE from?
What were the criteria for the TE at those schools (first come first serve, best appplicant, etc.)?
How reasonable did you find the process?
Any tips in using TE successfully?
Did your child apply EA or ED for any of the schools?</p>
<p>Thanks SOOOOO much! And best of luck in gaining the additional financial coverage.</p>
<p>Where you or your spouse teach? At small schools in PA.
What your child(ren)'s stats were like? 2180 SAT, 32 SAT, 3.8 GPA, bunch of AP classes, other activities avg.
What school(s) they were offered TE from? Syracuse, Lafayette, Allegheny, Delaware
What were the criteria for the TE at those schools (first come first serve, best appplicant, etc.)? I think it was best applicants, but I’m not sure. I know they were competitive. It’s strange -when you are hired, they lead you to believe that your child is “guaranteed TE”, and then you find out it is competitive. I’m worried about my second son - HS soph whose grades are nowhere near as strong.
How reasonable did you find the process? Pretty reasonable, the HR person at my school was helpful. I did feel that I did not recognize 75% of the schools on the TE list. I wish more of the top schools were on the list.
Any tips in using TE successfully? Just do it on time, and we made the mistake of not applying to schools where the TE would cover the entire tuition.
Did your child apply EA or ED for any of the schools? No he did not.</p>
<p>Thanks Shakespeare dad. That is very useful information. My son has yet to take the ACT or SAT. He is preparing and studying now. I plan to talk to the HR folks at my school and call around to the other schools in the fall. Many of the schools he is interested in are listed as <10 or 11-40% schools on the TE site. So, I am a bit concerned, but I figure he will at least get in at one of his safeties where the TE or CIC is virtually 100%.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you and your sons.</p>
<p>Our son has gotten TE scholarship offers from USC (which gives it to about 17% of accepted students who apply for it) and Tulane (which gives it to most every student who is accepted). We’re waiting to hear from Occidental (which gives only 1 or 2 TE scholarships a year). His uw GPA is about 3.8 (but is just barely in top 10% of class), ACT = 35, OK EC’s, and rigorous (but not most rigorous) courseload.</p>
<p>I know this thread is about scholarships and aid, but I wanted to pipe in that there was a thread a year or so ago where someone listed potential Tuition Exchange schools and a couple of us who were NOT eligible for Tuition Exchange suggested schools we would choose if we could. There are some gems - like CTCL, some colleges that are great but not widely known. Let me see if I can find it…</p>
<p>Here it is:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/971019-tuition-exchange-schools-look.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/971019-tuition-exchange-schools-look.html</a></p>
<p>Are you talking about The Tuition Exchange (name the specific organization) or tuition exchange, the generic term, through another coalition of schools? The name brand one is technically a scholarship and eligibility depends, in part, on things like seniority and number of imports your own institution has accepted. That one is complicated and we skipped it.</p>
<p>D1 applied for tuition exchange at two schools. She got it at one, but not the other. Eventually, however, she chose my employer. The way the benefit was applied differed. One school awarded “scholarships” and then covered the balance with exchange. My employer applies exchange for the full tuition and does not award scholarships. It’s all the institution’s money after all. But generally, when that benefit meets or exceeds “need” you won’t be offered any additional institutional money.</p>
<p>HR told me at the time we applied that each school awarded it as it saw fit. Some were competitive. Others were not, and there was no way to tell.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thread Midwest mom - that was helpful - and ordinarylives I am talking about tuition exchange- the consortium that has hundreds of schools to choose from.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>It has been my experience through Friends and Family- When tuition is covered, maybe books fee’s etc, but rarely Room and Board because it is felt that every family is responsible for a students place to live and the food they eat. Why all of a sudden is a school going to start feeding your child- he has too eat- that is not a unique college expense and either is shelter. When it was explained like this it made sense- if your kid has been living in a nice home(good school district) and has not been on the free lunch program K-12, why would that kind of support start in college? Of course if it is an athletic or true Academic scholly -than that is a prize won. Even with HYPSM, it is tuition that is covered at a % of parent income, not the 15,000-20,000 for Room and Board. Sometimes they throw in “fees” travel expense, Books, medical that can be avoided or reduce and the extra $$ may cover some of the R&B. But not R&B in most cases.</p>
<p>There are many of these organizations. My employer belongs to three, The Tuition Exchange, cic, and another for many of the schools affiliated with the same church. Cic offers 100% tuition coverage. The church one “depends”- might match whatever the home institution offers to the dependents of it’s own employees, might offer a percentage, might offer the full tuition. HR recommends trying for cic when possible because it’s always full tuition.</p>