Application Strategy to increase fin aid offers?

Paying for College
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<p>I originally posted this on another forum and someone suggested I post here as I might get a better response.</p>

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<p>I'm curious if it's in my best interest to apply to multiple schools so that I can use offers from other another school to get a better offer from my school of choice. Meaning, could I sway my primary school to give me more financial aid (not loans, I'm trying to avoid loans at all cost).</p>

<p>I am planning on going to UMass Amherst next spring and I've already applied and I've verbally been told my two admissions counselors that I would be admitted directly into the CS program and probably into the Honors program if I wanted.</p>

<p>However, I wonder if I could potentially get a better offer in the way of scholarships from UMass Amherst if I had another school offer me a pretty sweet package.</p>

<p>Originally my plan was to apply to McGill, RPI and UMass Amherst. Ironically UMass was going to be my safety school. However, I've realized that CompSci at UMass is well regarded, probably better regarded than the other two schools. But more importantly it's an affordable school whereas the other two are not. Additionally UMass has a great Masters program for CS and if you meet certain criteria they will pay your way. Finally, I do love MA healthcare. It's the best healthcare I've ever had and I used to have pretty kickass and expensive insurance when I was a legal assistant in CA. But I'm getting sidetracked.</p>

<p>My background: Computer Sci major with 4.0 gpa at a MA community college after 58 credits. After this semester it might drop to a 3.98 after 73 credits.</p>

<p>I am 35 and I am a college dropout from years ago (1994 was my dropout date). Thankfully, the community college I attend used a handful of credits from back then, but not many. My scores were horrible.</p>

<p>So I am considering applying to RPI but only in hopes of getting a decent financial aid offer from them. I mean if RPI accepted me and gave me nearly a full ride I wouldn't turn it down, but more likely they wouldn't offer me a full ride, just some portion.</p>

<p>So can I use one offer from one school as a bargaining tool?</p>

<p>Any thoughts about application strategy?</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>Kevin</p>

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<p>Transfer students don’t usually get good aid packages. They also don’t usually get much merit.</p>

<p>What is RPI’s aid policy for transfer students? Do they meet need or do they gap?</p>

<p>What is your EFC?</p>

<p>Your aid packages will probably certainly contain loans.</p>

<p>Has any of these schools indicated what your FA packages will contain?</p>

<p>Frankly, transfer students don’t have the leverage that incoming freshmen have. There’s little to no incentive to be generous to transfer students.</p>

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<p>I see that you’re also considering applying to Berkeley. You would get NO aid from Berkeley and you’d be expected to pay $50k per year.</p>

<p>You also mention that you work full time, so does that mean that you have a highish EFC? What is your EFC.</p>

<p>I really doubt you’re going to get any free money at all. just loans.</p>

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<p>I do work nearly full time, 3/4 time would be more accurate, but at the moment, and since I’m new, I don’t get paid much because I only test the software rather than develop. I certainly get paid more than I got paid at my previous 3/4 time job. However since I just started this job, if it were to affect my financial aid, it wouldn’t affect me till next year.</p>

<p>My EFC is 2912 which is up slightly from the previous year and it got me the full Pell and full MassGrant amount both years. I haven’t had to take a loan yet and I’m hoping I can keep it that way. I also got 3 scholarships last year, nothing huge, but it all helps. But of course I had to apply for those scholarships.</p>

<p>I know RPI gives out a bit of money to transfer students. Transfer students can get the Medal which is $15,000 and then they give out other awards as well.</p>

<p>I really only have a strong GPA that I would be relying on to get good financial aid packages as I’m not one of those people who volunteers his time to organizations. I mean I would do that if I didn’t have to work. </p>

<p>Cal is mostly about “can I get in” and like I said before, could I use their acceptance as a bargaining chip towards another school. I highly doubt I would go as I have things that keep me in the northeast.</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>Kevin</p>

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<p>The transfer office at your current community college should be able to tell you about colleges/universities that offer good transfer scholarships. If you qualify for Phi Theta Kappa, you should join. Check out that organization’s website for information about colleges/universities that specifically have scholarships for PTK members. Here is a link to our local community college’s transfer information. Some might be useful to you: [MC</a> Transfer Scholarship Page](<a href=“http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/studev/schol.htm]MC”>http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/studev/schol.htm)</p>

<p>CollegeB would have to consider CollegeA to be a true academic peer/rival, before CollegeB would be likely to change a financial aid offer based on what CollegeA has awarded you. In your specific case, I don’t know whether any of the institutions on your list perceive each other that way.</p>

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<p>Ah that opens a whole NEW bag of worms. We do have a transfer counselor who supposedly knows all the agreements we have with unis in the area, like RPI and UMass. He also supposedly knows which ones give which scholarships etc. Sadly, he doesn’t know which programs qualify for the transfer incentive. </p>

<p>Many schools have a joint admissions agreement and I was told by our transfer counselor that my program was a joint admissions program and we have at least 2 years of course catalogs that say my program is. Unfortunately when I spoke to the Sr Admissions counselor for MA community colleges at UMass she said that it doesn’t qualify, nor has it ever. So I took a bunch of extra core courses that I didn’t need to take because I’m not in a program that is accepted by UMass as a joint admissions program anyways.</p>

<p>I got kind of ****ed about it, but not much you can do. Colleges offer little recourse for counselors that give wrong advice.</p>

<p>My bigger point being as that our transfer counselor isn’t reliable so I have to learn all this on my own.</p>

<p>I actually am a PTK member and have been since last fall. I’ve never seen scholarships that I would qualify for but I’ll look again.</p>

<p>And your point about collegeA would have to consider collegeB a academic peer for them to change their offer makes sense.</p>

<p>Thanks for all your help! I feel like I am rambling about this a lot, sorry about that.</p>

<p>Kevin</p>

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<p>Go to the PTK website…they have a full listing of scholarships offered to their members.</p>

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<p>“Many schools have a joint admissions agreement and I was told by our transfer counselor that my program was a joint admissions program and we have at least 2 years of course catalogs that say my program is. Unfortunately when I spoke to the Sr Admissions counselor for MA community colleges at UMass she said that it doesn’t qualify, nor has it ever.”</p>

<p>It looks to me like it is time for your CC transfer counselor to get on the phone with the person at U Mass. This is something that needs to be worked out between the two institutions before anyone else ends up in your situation. </p>

<p>You also should be speaking directly with the department(s) that you are applying to. They may have more up-to-date information about which courses in your major field will transfer and as what. For the gen. eds. ask the registrar’s office. There is a formal list of all the course equivalencies for the Mass. community colleges somewhere, but it may not be publicly available. In Maryland, the Maryland Higher Education Commission has the transfer information right on its website.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>I know RPI gives out a bit of money to transfer students. Transfer students can get the Medal which is $15,000 and then they give out other awards as well.</p>

<p>Are you sure that RPI gives the medal to transfer students? Where does it say that on their website? I thought that that is awarded at the high school level.</p>

<p>If transfers can’t the medal, then the most you can get merit-wise is $10k since they won’t combine their scholarships. Do you know what % of need they meet for transfers?</p>

<p>RPI isn’t going to consider UMass a comparable school.</p>

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<p>This may be the part that takes you out of the running for scholarship $$. When you change schools and transfer, your only transfer credits and not your GPA. While you may have a gpa based on your current school, your next school may look at your overall college record in deciding whether or not you would be eligible for merit scholarship money.</p>

<p>Another thing that the OP needs to consider, while he may have 73 credits from his current school, some schools may feel that he has “too many” credits once they look at all of his transcripts.</p>

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<p>I think the answer to the original question is no, a state school like UMass Amherst is not going to compete for students using aid.</p>

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<p>Depends on the school. Some schools will discuss competing financial aid offers and others won’t. In our experience, he state universities did not consider other offers of aid and make changes.</p>

<p>Happymom and Sybbie have both given you good advice.</p>

<p>As a 35 year old, you would also be considered a “nontraditional student”. Some schools have scholarship money for students who are not in the traditional 18-23 age group. It’s worth checking.</p>

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<p>happymom - the transfer counselor at my community college immediately got a call from the UMass transfer admissions counselor asking why BCC (my comm college) was telling students that certain program were joint transfer eligible when they actually weren’t. Shortly after, he asked if I could meet with him to explore my options (none were good, in fact they all left me taking another year to graduate for an assoc.). He never actually admitted his wrong doing but he said that the course catalog was indeed incorrect. He also had the upcoming catalog flagged in many spots that I assume were programs that werent actually eligible for the joint transfer benefit.</p>

<p>I sent an email to the Dean of Student Affairs and she seemed sympathetic and we worked out some semblance of a work around but it only worked for me because of my existing circumstances. Any other student would have been holding bag and totally screwed. Hoepfully they figure out what is up because it’s a lousy situation for students who do get caught in the gap. Unfortunately students don’t have much recourse for bad counseling advice.</p>

<p>Mom2collegekids - I might have the wrong name for it, but it’s a substantial amount, I think $10k that they award to one or two students from my community college every year. My professor is encouraging me to apply to RPI because he said he wanted nominate me for it.</p>

<p>sybbie - UMass has already done a cursory evaluation of all my transcripts. UMass would actually give me more credits from my previous schools than BCC would. I think she said that they would most likely admit me with 65 credits and I would only one 3 credit social science course to complete my core education requirements.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input everyone, I appreciate it. </p>

<p>Now if I could only figure out *** is going on with the application process. Seriously, I’ve already applied and their status page makes little sense - it says I don’t have a complete application and it says that I need to submit things that I was told weren’t required (resume, app fee even though I was told I had my app fee waived).</p>

<p>Paying taxes is easier than figuring out what a school wants for their applications.</p>