Are Colleges More Likely to Award Merit Scholarships to Rich Students?

Paying for College
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<p>Cptofthehouse, are most schools need blind when it comes to admissions? Other posters have indicated that for admissions purposes, full pay status would be a hook. Anyways, thank you for the analysis of what exactly average constitutes. Is it obvious that I’ve yet to start my AP Stats summer homework? :D</p>

<p>So when I submit my application to schools like Allegheny and Wooster, does that mean that the only people that will see it, and potentially award me merit, are the admissions officers and not the financial aid office, assuming I don’t indicate that I need aid on the application?</p>

<p>Also Sally305, my parents are not status conscious at all. Obviously they wished that I had worked hard enough to make me a serious contender for schools like Berkeley or UCLA, but they’re fine with paying for lesser institutions like Wooster or Allegheny College. What prompted my question was looking into some of the schools recommended to me on another thread I created. One of the schools recommended costs only $7,000 per year less than Harvard despite it being a vastly less selective LAC with far fewer resources. Because of that, I was surprised that colleges could get away with charging that much since I figured that most parents would balk at the price, but like at any sales event, they’d be more willing to consider the less selective school if it went “on sale”. On sale in this case means that the college discounted the price to near what it actually cost to deliver the education, not something that seems priced only to appear competitive with the best schools in the country. </p>

<p>As per the question “what defines rich”, in my case my parents can easily pay for the full four year cost of an education every year without it affecting their lifestyle, savings, etc. By almost all accounts, my parents are rich. However, I get the feeling that they’d encourage me to look more into a school if they thought I was being awarded for previously unrecognized academic ability, rather than the real reason of their ability to pay.</p>

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<p>I understand (and responded to your query on another thread).</p>

<p>You are obviously very bright, and a really good writer. If anything I would think colleges might wonder why there is such a discrepancy between your test scores and grades. I am sure you will write excellent essays that will help tell your story. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Kelsmom, I fully agree that schools should reserve the bulk of their aid to middle class and below students. It’s pathetic that a college like Drew would offer me merit at the expense of meeting another person’s need. No arguments there. Of course, maybe universities should just lower the base price, but that’s another rant for another thread.</p>

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<p>Actually, I don’t have an issue with schools awarding merit to rich students. In my opinion, merit is okay. I was just saying that I don’t believe schools actually reserve merit for any particular group of students (financially speaking), and that they are not more likely to award to a rich student than they are to any other student … but because there are more middle class students than rich/poor, and because the inability to pay will cause more of them to balk at committing to the school, I think that middle class students will likely receive more merit overall than rich. Just my guess, though, of course.</p>

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<p>I hope colleges would be more likely to award merit scholarships to kids like the one mentioned in the article below who grew up in the very same neighborhood as I did back in the 80s (have to love the hometown boy who makes good), and who has earned 9 full-rides, and is headed to Harvard:</p>

<p>[Elk</a> Grove teen goes 9 for 9 in elite college admissions - Education - The Sacramento Bee](<a href=“http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/30/5457373/elk-grove-teen-goes-9-for-9-in.html]Elk”>http://www.sacbee.com/2013/05/30/5457373/elk-grove-teen-goes-9-for-9-in.html)</p>

<p>In his case, no one should throw his ethnicity in his face as the sole reason he got into all those schools, and they shouldn’t claim he got in because he grew up poor. Fact is he worked harder than the majority of kids these days, and reached a level of success that is just all the more remarkable given the obstacles he faced. No doubt he qualified for plenty of need-based aid, and his financial aid award letter may describe it all as need-based, but it truly is merit. He earned it due to his easily recognizable and proven record of academic achievement. Harvard and all of the other schools who offered him full-rides recognized a pearl of a student, and that’s what merit aid is supposed to reward.</p>

<p>My son received a beautiful, almost coffee-table quality book from Princeton a couple months back. I am sure they send them to everyone. What I found most interesting was that the book boiled down Princeton’s approach to this essential question: did you, the student, make the most of the opportunities you were given regardless of your circumstances (whether privileged or not)?</p>

<p>That’s a question that all students, rich or poor, need to ask themselves, and here’s hoping they ask themselves that question as they enter into high school, not as they are graduating.</p>

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<p>To my knowledge, Harvard does not offer merit. The full ride was based on need. Not that this fact should diminish from the young man’s accomplishments. However, it’s important to realize what merit is and which schools give merit.</p>

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<p>Harvard and others like it only give need based aid. Although your son may have been accepted because of his great stats, he was offered free rides because of his large need. If he had had the most perfect stats on earth, but no need, he would have gotten zilch.</p>

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<p>Sally305 - I agree with you especially since most top 20 schools do not offer merit. However, the example I had above was a top 20 college, the kid was clearly qualified for merit, however was given a full tuition FA package even though the EFC did not reflect that amount of need. My guess is that the college used their merit awards to lure kids who may have been headed to an ivy-like college to pay full freight. Even if I were wealthy I would think twice before I would turn down a full tuition scholarship at a top school.</p>

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<p>Roca, most schools are need blind in admissions and simply gap the vast majority of students that they accept. The whole idea that need comes into the picture arises on this forum a lot because so many of those who are here are focused on a small number of the most selective colleges. There is a very small group of colleges that tends to meet full need or close to it, for those students that they do accept, BUT are need aware for admissions. These tend to be selective schools like Wash U in StLouis, now Wesleyan University, Johns Hopkins seems to go back and forth. But a school like NYU, Fordham , to name a couple of them, they are need blind in admissions as well as the SUNYs all are and PACE and a number of other schools. </p>

<p>Now because a school is need blind in admissions does not mean it does not do a lot of what the call “enrollment managment” when it comes to giving financial need packages and merit money. Most schools have some way that they do offer more to the students most wanted, ususally the ones with the highest test scores. Some schools will code each accepted student, which means little or nothing for those who are not applying for financial aid, but for those who are, the 1s will get the best goodies, the 2s what’s left of the grants, or just a small grant and self help, and the 3s will get all self help, or gapped. Schools with limited funds are often faced with issues lie whether the $50K they have left to distribute should go to one high need applicant or be divvied up among 5 kids with about $10k in need apiece, So merit within need is often recognized. Yield is a big issue for some schools. </p>

<p>I don’t know if Allegheny and Wooster are need blind, and what any schools’ enrollment managment policies are. Things change very quickly these days, so any list of need blind schools, need aware schools are not reliable other than the very top HPYMS schools, IMO. </p>

<p>You can get get a nice aid package from a school, better than what the FAFSA EFC dictates if you are in that rare category where the school’s methodology gives you more than FAFSA does. Rare, but it happens. I know one family who gets consideration for private school tuition for other kids–they have a lot of kids (yeah, Catholic school, and yes, it’s a stereotype, but true in this case), and that gives them some need. They can’t get work study or any subsidized federal aid because their FAFSA EFC is too high, but, yes the school can give them aid and then throw in that unsubsidized direct loan as though it’s fin aid. Also in NY, CA and other states, the threshhold for state money is about $80K in parental income, which can also result in some funds coming from there. Also, there are often private stashes of money, financial aid funds that go for niches, that do not have the FAFSA EFC involved. Say, a company, an alum, wants to award someone in studying some field or from a single parent home or from a particular high school or anything, that has an income cut off, so it’s not pure merit, that a college can throw in there. There are all kinds of hybrid of need/merit out there. </p>

<p>Harvard has merit within need, as do a lot of colleges, some that give no pure merit money, in that those within the need category can get some name scholarship for merit. You have to have need to qualify. I got one of those when I went to college. Some schools that went to the need only model converted these awards which may have once been for all students, into the need pot, but retained the merit standards. So it’s merit within need.</p>

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<p>Kennedy, there have been parents on this board and students, whose kids turned down HPY due to full rides elsewhere. The UNC_CH Morehead (?) is a prestigious award that makes one pause. There was a dad who reported that his son took it over Yale. One oldtime CC student, EvilRobot (?) went to Vandy, when he did not qualify for aid at Yale due to his family’s holding in realestate, yet they were low income. Those with famly businesses can find themselves qualifying for little to no need at some of the most generous school but other schools assessing the business differently and giving them need. The procedures are not identical at each school though similar at some schools </p>

<p>There was a student who got zip from Swarthmore this year, and it meets full need. Family appealed it, but no go. Family business was assessed in such a way that it was a no go. But another LAC, can’t remember which one, Carlton, maybe or Macaletst, gave the student a great fin aid packge. </p>

<p>I know kids who couldn’t qualify for a dime of aid outside of federal entitlements due to NCPs. That is another very common situation, but a FAFSA only school might be generous. Also some school will give waivers and professional judgement on situations that another will not. So there is a lot of variance out there.</p>

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<p>Just wanted to make sure I clarified that the young man mentioned in that Sacramento link is not my son, but just a kid who went to schools in the same school district as I did way back when and grew up in the same neighborhoods. My family and friends still there in Sacramento are just very excited for him. Let’s just say that Ivy league tickets are few and far between from that community.</p>

<p>As far as what Harvard gives, yes, I know it is all “need-based” and not considered “merit”, and I understand that the kid did not get special treatment because it turns out he cannot afford $59K a year. Both Harvard and Stanford describe the financial aid as “need-based scholarships” which is a nice way to describe it. Both schools do whatever they can to ensure that the small number of students who are actually offered admission (an obvious acknowledgement of their merit) have a chance to attend and graduate as debt-free as possible.</p>

<p>He would not have had a chance at Harvard without his record of accomplishment - unless, of course, he had a way in via legacy or some well-known nouveau riche bank account, which brings this back to the original topic :)</p>

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<p>I know several families that could easily afford $60K and chose the lower ranked school that offered merit money. They simply didn’t think that the higher rated school was worth the money. Just because you can afford full freight at any school out there doesn’t mean you don’t do a cost benefit analysis and consider net price as one of the relevant factors.</p>