Did anyone here get honours?
My son did not. I too am curious about that. I would be interested in the cutoff scores for the honors program. It must have been very high based on some of the scholarship numbers.
For those admitted approximately how long after acceptance did your child receive financial aid notification? My son will be attending a local meet/greet event next week and it would be really beneficial to have financial aid awareness before he attends to help guide him in some questions he may want to ask and questions I may have with respect to the financial behind the scenes.
Hoping someone in the forum can give an estimate as to their timelines of materials.
I cannot speak to Bentley directly but based on all the other approvals he has gotten, the schools follow up within 2 weeks. He might find out before the event.
Is this the accepted student day or another event?
The accepted students day at Bentley is April 8th.
@MassDaD68 Thank you… they have a local event with alumni and accepted students in his area (Hartford, CT) next week. He has 3 schools with accepted students day the same day and both he is getting in state tuition rates. I wasn’t able to tour Bentley with him so I am hoping we will be @ Bentley on 4/8 as Bentley holds a higher tier for him over the other schools. But as many of us know, affordability will take precedence. All schools my son applied to are great institutions and expectations were set early on that affordability will trump one school over another.
@NEBlue lol. Same here. Every school he got accepted to is on “national acceptance day” - April 8th. Conspiracy.
Financai Aid was posted, or at least mine is up @NEBlue
@MassDaD68 Have your son check his financial aid notification. My son just pulled it up and even though there wasn’t any need based except for the Stafford loan, there was a Dean’s award listed. This wasn’t included in his package. Its not nearly enough, but I felt better that he at least got something. Either way, he’s chosen to go to a different school. Somehow it was still bothering me that this was the only school that hadn’t offered merit and it was one if his top picks. He had already moved on, it was me asking him to check. Hoping your son finds something similar.
Actually just looked up the dean award. It is basically given to “low need” students and it says he wouldn’t need to apply for financial aid in the future. There isn’t even a minimum gpa requirement. I wish I was as wealthy as Bentley thinks I am!
@VirginiaDare So I can click on the FIN AID tab? How much is it? 5K is not really going to make a huge difference. Bentley is a very expensive school even by Northeast standards.
I too was very sad for my son. Every other school he applied to gave him a good merit aid package and the honors program. Bentley gave him nothing. It really knocked him down a peg. But it does show the extreme quantity of high stat kids out there. Personally, I think this is a safety for the very high reaches and they just knock good candidates like our kids out. I really wish they had a way to convey to the school that this is your first choice and you would commit if you got a decent package. The way the scholarships are tiered, they cannot really offer them ED because they don’t know what the pool is going to be. They ditched EA so you can’t do that. They have a very low yield of around 20%. Eight out of ten kids tell them to go jump in the lake. My kid might just be one of them. We are not a full pay family. To me this was a polite reject which is a bit shocking given the love he received from other schools.
My son is being quiet about it but I know it is bothering him. Boys tend to internalize these things and he is no different. It hurts as a parent to see your child in emotional pain but it is a part of life. He needs to accept it when he comes up short. He did not have what it took to get the Merit Aid. You have 1,000’s of kids out there with a 4.5GPA and 1600 SAT scores who cured cancer when they were 14 years old. Welcome to the real world. The same is going to happen in the workforce with promotions, Sometimes you just come up short.
Time to move onto a school that would welcome him.
From what I understand, the Bentley minimum for merit money is closely tied to the SAT. I believe their minimum score is in the 1350 range. I also know that they tend to strip the grades out of a student’s gpa and look at the quality of the courses taken, CP vs Honors vs AP and within those courses, AP Calc and AP Stats mean more than AP Psychology. What courses a student selects and how well they test on the SAT and or ACT affect the merit money.
@NEBlue @VirginiaDare @MassDaD68 I spoke with the financial aid office last week and they said that if all the information had been submitted awhile back, then financial aid notifications would probably be coming this week for that first wave. I am planning on going to the Hartford meet and greet on Wednesday and would like to know our status by then. We are also planning on going to Bentley on the 8th. Some of you have mentioned viewing financial aid on the portal, where are you seeing that.
Accepted
31 ACT
96/100 GPA top 20% of class
EC: Debate
Got 1/3 of tuition in a scholarship like 15K per year
Checked the portal tonight and under the Financial Aid tab my S now has an updated window where you can go in and review the award along with a downloadable Financial Aid brochure.
@MassDaD68 Colleges use some crazy formula to decide financial aid package. I have heard from school counselors and others that everyone should apply for AID/FASA etc. But one of my colleague at work told me, don’t even waste time filling up FAFSA form.
When combined family income (Husband + Wife) cross certain level, then forget about financial aid. STD living cost for folks in the Northeast area - NYC, NJ, MA, CT is very high but colleges don’t care whether someone is from the Northeast or Midwest, they apply the same formula…
Please check out this Forbes article and refer to the chart.
Bentley and other private colleges ask for financial information beyond just the Pay check/W2. They would like to know savings, investments and everything. They expect parents to withdraw money from everywhere to fund their kids education.
@iluvnaples my son had 1480 SAT. 2 APs jr year 5 on both tests and only 2 APs this year, AP Stat and AP Calculus he’s averaging an A in Stat and A- in calculus. He’s also played 3 seasons of varsity sports each year, worked, volunteered, nhs, team captain, etc. net price calculator predicted 1/2 tuition. I don’t mean to cry sour grapes but I was really disappointed that there was no scholarship. The good news is that my son is fine with it, he has other great options. He would roll his eyes at me if he knew I was still commenting on this thread. I guess I just have to accept that it is what it is. I still place the university in high regard and congratulate all who received scholarships. @MassDaD68 the Deans award was 10k per year, not nearly enough.
@iluvnaples Wow, you son’s stats certainly make him stand out compared to other Bentley applicants who posted their similar stats. Did you visit Bentley and make other contacts…I am trying to see why your son may not have rec’d a scholarship. What other schools (options) are available to him?
He attended their open house but did not interview. He has decided on UCONN. He actually really likes it there and I think would have chosen it even if he had received the 1/2 tuition even though he held out. UCONN offered him merit, and that’s on in-state tuition so it just makes sense. He’ll be able to graduate debt free. Up until his latest visit to UCONN, Bentley had been his top choice. They’re both great schools.
@watermelon4life My son was invited into Honors. He has a 91 GPA and a 35 ACT. He received the presidential scholarship.
We are unable to go to accepted students day so we went up this past Friday for the accepted student panel session and tour. I definitely would recommend this option for students. Current students took questions from the 12 prospective students and their families and then we were given a one on one tour of the campus. Except for the cold, snow and snow/rain, it was a great day to learn more about what the university has to offer. My son had done the general tour and information session as a junior.
We also attended Northeastern accepted student day yesterday. Such a large event, rather repetitive at times, and the tour was primarily outside of the buildings. I would investigate if other schools offer more personal accepted student options for visiting.
He does not have any notification of money on the financial aid tab. Hope that comes soon.