<p>Title speaks for itself. Are you satisfied with your choice? Any regrets? I've seen so many people on CC turn down dream schools for schools offering merit aid, it makes me wonder if following your heart can be a mistake.</p>
<p>my daughter did. She received merit aid from her 2nd choice, long her 1st choice school. If she had attended- she would have recieved merit aid from the school and also a renewable merit/need based award from the state.</p>
<p>It is really up to each person. Her merit school was close but no cigar academically , she decided it was worth it to her to have larger loans.</p>
<p>My S turned down merit from many schools , one full ride,to go to his favorite first choice school and while it was an agonizing decision at the time, he now says he is very pleased with his decision and has never looked back. We too are thrilled with his excitment and happiness both academically and socially at his college of choice.</p>
<p>Same experience as Arizonamom here. My s. wouldn't even look at some of the full ride offers he got. He received lots of big merit offers, but fell in love with a school that offered him only a very modest merit award (covers books and not much more) but is extrememly happy at college and we are happy for him. He did apply for and win several small outside one-year scholarships, so we probably won't feel the full $$ pinch until next year, when we are writing bigger checks to his school. Even so, we have no regrets.</p>
<p>It depends what you mean by merit aid. So often merit aid, especially at relatively highly ranked schools, is for betwen $5,000 and $10,000, and given that tuition tops $30,000, it's not necessarily a major factor in the decision, simply because it doesn't cover a large percentage of the total costs. But to answer your question: My son turned down partial merit aid in the range I mentioned above in order to attend his top-choice school. The decision was a given from the moment his acceptance arrived. My daughter turned down a couple of merit awards in that range, too, to attend a shool that had been mid-list for her (she was not admitted to her top choice). That was a somewhat more complicated decision but one that made sense after visiting the school she ultimately chose. It just felt more exciting, challenging, and "right."</p>
<p>For those lucky enough to be offered merit aid that amounts to full or three-quarters of the costs, the decision may be harder, and I can't say to ignore finances. But there's a lot to be said for following your heart as long as it isn't goign to mean a totally unmanageable financial burden for you or your family.</p>
<p>I imagine that most students at Ivy-level colleges turned down significant merit aid at other schools--or would have had the option of doing so if they'd applied seriously for it. My daughter is one of those kids: We're broke, but as long as we're able to juggle the finances somehow, I can't imagine not giving her this incredible opportunity. No regrets here; we'll gladly move to a cheaper house if it comes to that.</p>
<p>But I certainly understand the struggles that many families are going through, and think it makes sense to evaluate the financial policies of the various schools (e.g., do they give merit aid? what is their needs-based aid likely to be?) when deciding where to apply. There are some great colleges that offer great merit aid; a thorough and enthusiastic search for them at the outset may increase the chances that a student will genuinely love the school that offers the best aid. It's heartbreaking to see some kids apply only to reach/dream schools that give no merit aid and lackluster safeties that do--and then face a wrenching choice when they get into one of the reaches.</p>
<p>Quote: "I imagine that most students at Ivy-level colleges turned down significant merit aid at other schools--or would have had the option of doing so if they'd applied seriously for it."</p>
<p>I completely agree.</p>
<p>While it is very noble that there are kids who give up their "dream schools" because they are lucky enough to be awarded aid at other schools, there are those kids who do not get (or pursue) aid at non-dream schools and still go to their dream schools. They may be just as happy about their decisions. In many cases, these kids will never regret such a decision either, even if it means financial sacrifices.</p>
<p>S was offered 15,000/yr from second choice school. It wasn't really a choice to turn it down, since it came after ED acceptance from dream school, but given the choice, he'd have picked the same way. We have no regrets; we're living pretty frugally, but we always have anyway,and he's thriving.</p>
<p>I'm referring here to a downside to both the applicant and the school. For the school merit aid should help them recruit some students who might not choose to look at the school otherwise and who don't qualify for a need scholarship. D was nominated by her GC for one at a school that her Dad and Granddad learned to love during the selection process. M and I would have actually paid the sticker price to send her there. But, and here is where we went wrong, we did not visit the school early in the year to get buy in from D. We thought that if she went to interview at the college for the scholarship she would see it and fall in love even if she didn't get the scholarship. If she was not invited for a scholarship interview we could send her later and still only pay for one ticket.
In the end she was not invited for the interview and now refuses to go see the college. What might have been a really neat college that almost gave her a scholarship became a college that gave her some bad news before she had a chance to even look at it.
End result: D eliminated the college form her list prematurely, the college lost a student who would have paid full tuition and would have done very well.</p>
<p>helicoptermom said:
"It's heartbreaking to see some kids apply only to reach/dream schools that give no merit aid and lackluster safeties that do--and then face a wrenching choice when they get into one of the reaches."</p>
<p>That is so true and it is the reason my son did not even bother applying to any "reaches." It was made clear to him from the beginning, that finances were going to be a part of this decision - just like they are in real life for most of us. I do not buy the idea of a "dream school" at all. For every kid there are many, many schools where he/she could get a great education and a great growth experience. For most families college costs are a shared pain - some pain for kids, some for parents. Move to a smaller house for their "dream school?" I don't think so. Live within your means is an important lesson for kids, and one that they rarely recieve.</p>
<p>For us, it was a non-issue. Our need was so large that we didn't particularly care whether it was "merit" aid or "need-based" aid - just LOTS of it, making the actual price low, and leaving d. without loans to the greatest degree possible.. As far as we were concerned, all of it was "merit aid" - if they wanted her, they'd have to pay, and we didn't particularly care if they attached the words "Presidential" or some long-dead alumni to it. Since at the better colleges and universities, ALL students receive "merit aid" - the cost of tuition not meeting the cost of the education - really the only question is how big the "merit aid" award is to be.</p>
<p>The "need-based" offers, all based on the same EFC and all claiming to meet "100% of need", were all over the map, with the difference in costs over four years varying by as much as $48k, and with loan amounts from $0 to $17.9k - and they did seem to compete with each (including the need-blind ones) by varying the sizes of the workstudy and loan obligations.</p>
<p>Only one school tried to compete on the basis of academic offerings, tailoring what they had to offer to meet her specific needs. That's the one she choose, and with good reason.</p>
<p>Our s turned down two so called reach schools and accepted a half tuition (worth 15 K for Freshman yr.-- but with costs going up we expect it to add up to about 75K over 4 yrs.) As middle class parents who saved for a private college eduaction we did not qualify for financial aide, however, a quarter million for two kids seems like a lot especially for those of us whol may have had our kids while in our 30s so retirement will come sooner. Anyway he chose a very good school, not lackluster but not top 10 either, and is very happy. The saving is allowing him to go abroad this summer for 7 wk educational experience and the school will likley pay for half of that as well because of his GPA. There are times I regret he isn't in the more "prestigious" school but that just my ego. Being in the top 10% of his college class allows him many opportunitirs such as special evenst, choices, an Honors Program, and selective interships. It was a touhgh decision but since he may want to pursue grad school in the future it was the right one.</p>