<p>Now that another season of college apps have begun, many of us have furiously searched the web for advice and ways to "game the system". For college and high school students alike, what are the biggest lies colleges have told you about admissions? I know that whenever I get a very ambiguous or vague answer from an admissions counselor, I suspect that they're hiding something.</p>
<p>“I heard the orchestra is looking for an oboe player.”</p>
<p>For an art school: “all parts of the application process are weighted equally” …</p>
<p>How about the biggest lies that students tell themselves? Especially when they get those shiny brochures from big name schools and get captivated by the thought that without regard to simple examination of grades/test scores, and other qualifications, they simply must answer the call and submit an application?</p>
<p>I see this ALL the time…</p>
<p>We did the college search last year. I don’t recall any lies. But as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, we did feel misled by one school’s National Merit Finalist scholarship description. Some schools have a special award for finalists. Others “build” their award out of other scholarships, and they come right out and say that; University of New Mexico is especially clear about the way that works. The school I felt misled us is a lot less clear, and an email to financial aid was likewise misleading. It only became clear in hindsight, and then I felt, “Well, duh!”</p>
<p>@WasatchWriter: What school are you referring to?</p>
<p>@DiscipulusBonus OK, it’s Knox College. Here’s the [scholarship</a> page](<a href=“http://www.knox.edu/admission/scholarships/academic-scholarships.html"]scholarship”>http://www.knox.edu/admission/scholarships/academic-scholarships.html). I’m sure someone else would have read it correctly the first time, but let me take you through my own thought process without putting me or CC in danger of libel. The top part of the page contains this:</p>
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When I saw that, I thought maybe that’s $22K + “up to $20K” if DD qualifies for the Lincoln Scholarship. Further on the page, it gets a little more slippery than that, but I read it with my first interpretation coloring my thoughts</p>
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Anyway, I’m still thinking “up to $22K” + “up to $20K,” which is close to full tuition. A potential bonanza. An email to finaid confirmed that the National Merit Scholarship will stack with other scholarships.</p>
<p>What they don’t print anywhere is that “can receive Knox College scholarships up to $20,000” means the Lincoln Scholarship, not $20K in addition to the Lincoln. As I wrote before, it’s clear in hindsight, so technically there’s no misrepresentation. But I didn’t put it all together until we got the award letter, which clearly says that DD was awarded the Lincoln and another $2000 for NMF. If the web page had been as clear as the award letter, she never would have applied, never would have had to hold back the tears when I said, “Sweetie, we can’t afford that.”</p>
<p>Here is what I think the scholarship page should say:</p>
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You also have to put this in the context of what other schools say. Here, for example, is the way Kentucky does it:</p>
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Plain as day, right? The Patterson is a unique scholarship just for NMF. Here’s another. For out of state NMF, New Mexico also stacks scholarships. They word it like this:</p>
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Again, it’s plain as day what you get, and also quite clear that the full value of two separate scholarships is in fact stacking.</p>
<p>The bottom line is this: I believe that my misunderstanding was a consequence of careless phrasing on Knox’s part (especially in contrast to the way other schools phrase their own awards) and that my disappointment is at the very least understandable. YMMV</p>
<p>Actually, schools generally don’t lie and are fairly straightforward if you research them (like on CC). Being ambiguous or vague may simply because something applies in some cases but not all cases. What have you heard that is ambiguous or vague?</p>
<p>Harking back to 2011-
The only “lie” we encountered (after going through the process with two kids now) was back then, when Brandeis University assured they’d “meet full financial need” for accepted applicants if applications were submitted by mid February.</p>
<p>FAFSA said our need was X amount. Brandeis offered one tenth of that in grant, and one third in loans. The rest? They forgot about that. And this was after our incredulous appeal.</p>
<p>Point of this story? “Meeting needs” is a straight forward process at some universities, but not all. You don’t know until it’s on the table.</p>
<p>Water under the bridge, as DS opted for a much better choice all around. But at the time this stung.</p>
<p>I agree that NMF scholarship is often misleading. Multiple schools D2 applied to offered scholarships of $2,000/year to NMFs who qualify for need based aid, and $1,000/year for those who don’t qualify. But the $2,000 is just knocked off any need based grants, so realistically the most an NMF really is awarded that affects COA is $1,000/year. If you are eligible for pretty much any need based aid, NMF means nothing financially at those schools. But they still brag about how many they enroll…</p>
<p>OOS and in state students would be evaluated under the same criteria.</p>
<p>I don’t think schools outright “lie” very often but they can be ambiguous or vague or “subversive”.</p>
<p>For example, USC claims to meet 100% of need, however I have seen many cases and I do remember a thread being posted about it and how comparatively little financial aid USC gives. While of course they have their own formula for determining need, from what I have seen on CC, their formula must be pretty darn bad because people aren’t having any good proportion of their need met there.</p>
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<p>“Meet full need” is a rather vague promise, since colleges that promise that tend to have their own definition of “need” (as opposed to just using the FAFSA definition) and have varying ideas of what the student contribution should be. See the examples in the following linked thread, where two different “meet full need” schools may give net prices that differ by nearly $40,000 in one of the examples:</p>
<p><a href=“"Meet full need" schools can vary significantly in their net prices. - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1675058-meet-full-need-schools-can-vary-significantly-in-their-net-prices-p1.html</a></p>
<p>“we don’t consider student interest.”</p>
<p>When going through admissions, I think its’ the “lie through omission” that’s most common. For example, “OOS students have the same chance of admissions as In-state students”. This may be “true” in general principal, but it doesn’t take into account several other factors that could help in-state students, that are not available to OOS students. </p>
<p>^ I don’t think they even suggest that. If they feel any need to address that at all, it’s because they are required to keep a certain ration of IS:OOS students. Different applicant pools, different cutoffs to get admission offers, different yield rates. </p>
<p>I would be very surprised at any public school asserting that OOS and IS had the same chances.</p>
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<p>It is trivially true for open admission community colleges (although cost and financial aid may differ between OOS and IS students).</p>
<p>@jkeil911 :</p>
<p>LOL.</p>
<p>That could be true, though the schools that really value being a kid’s top choice tend to be fairly explicit about it, either through words or actions.</p>
<p>What schools have you heard say they don’t consider student interest?</p>
<p>Another thing that I noticed and I was told this by admissions officers on campus that one would have the same chance of getting in ED than RD. While I understand through ED often has a pool of almost automatically admitted athletic players and whatnot, that does not really make up the difference. Some schools have vastly differerent ED and RD admissions rate. at Univversity of Rochester I believe their admission rates are roughly the same.</p>
<p>I believe WashU had an ED rate of roughly 31% in 2012. When I visited campus my interviewer said the admittance rates were the same and you don’t really have an advantage, admissions-wise, by applying ED.</p>
<p>@Ctesiphon:</p>
<p>Hmm, yeah, at some schools, that’s blatantly not true. WashU doesn’t give preference to athletes either, from what I understand.</p>