What hurts BC’s financial aid reputation is the home equity used in financial need calculation: 1) unlike the much higher-ranked competition (e.g., Ivies and their ilk) which cap home equity in their needs calculation, BC does not, so BC appears to be less generous than such schools (but then every need-based college is less generous than Harvard and Yale and P’ton); 2) many of BC’s applicants originate from the coasts, where folks have a lot of home equity even though they may not have mega-salaries; 3) the colleges below BC tend to offer merit aid, so a school like BU or 'Nova or Tulane can be net less expensive to a middle class northeastern family with a lot of home equity.
But note, outside of the merit aid, such merit-aid schools generally do not meet full financial need. Thus, for a lower income family without much home equity, BC, which meets full financial need, is a much better deal than say, 'Nova or Tulane even with merit money.
But if I have a choice of paying down my home with 100k over 20 years or saving it for college or 529 what’s the difference. Same money different pots. If it is our system to assist children with college it’s only fair. You can dump a lot of money into your house instead of a 529. I agee with BC on this. Especially when many scrimp to save for school. Income based plus assets. If I have a low income but inherited 4mm from my grandparents. Income and assets. Most with lower income don’t have as much home equity. And yes here are always exceptions to the rule but as you stated there are other great options.
As it relates to the CSOM needing more girls comment…I agree, it’s a boy heavy college HOWEVER, my CSOM daughter told me she heard girls actually do not have an advantage getting in to CSOM because they need the boys to balance out the school (School of Ed, Nursing are almost all girls, and Morrissey is also a bit heavier on the girls). So I’m not sure if it gives you an advantage or not. With that said, my same CSOM daughter ended up getting in to Ross at Michigan which surprised me (maybe it shouldn’t have?) and I always thought it might have had something to do with her being female. She couldn’t be swayed though, BC was always her number one choice.
I agree they are peers. She had legacy at BC so I wasn’t sure if that made a difference. She had a great application, but it’s so hard to get in these schools, you never know. Her ACT was only a 32 super score and Michigan didn’t superscore ACT. But this was 2014. The bar has been raised…
I don’t disagree pb, but HYPSM et. al. have a different pov, which creates the perception that BC is stingy just bcos it includes home equity in the calculation of need and the so-called ‘higher ups’ do not.
Those down the food chain tend to rely on merit aid, and do not meet full need, so BC is penalized for being a meets-full-need school, but not as generous as the tippy tops. Every year there are posts on cc that say, 'we are just a [ahem] middle class family and my kid got a $xx scholarship [aka discount for high scores] from ‘Nova but BC expects us to pay $65k/yr…’
Attached is an article (behind paywall?) that indicates that Stanford joined the competition with HYP, so yes, one could pay down mortgage instead of funding a 529 and be better off, IFF one gets into HYPS:
I was worried about the financial aid at BC given what I had read here at CC. My husband and I both work and both each have a small side business, too. We have a modest home but it is about 85% paid off. (This worried me most!) BC offered us a very generous FA package (a little more than the NPC). Our costs will still be a stretch and a struggle for us for sure but something we feel confident we can make work. We are very appreciative of BC’s generous FA offer. I only post this to offer hope to future applicants.
I was admitted to BC EA and just finished Admitted Eagles Day. It seems as though BC has become more competitive this year than recently. They announced the average SAT for accepted EA students was 1480 and that out of 16,000 applicants, only 1200 were offered EA admission. As a whole, I feel as though the class of 2023 has been the most competitive yet. Looking at tendencies between my class (2019) and last year’s class at my high school, we have been sending far fewer students to schools that we typically send many students to.
Another accurate (apologies for the last one) from BC. Someone in the admissions office I was speaking too said that the applicant pool for 2023 increased 150% from 2022. The applicant pool for 2022 was 31,000 according to BC heights and thus the pool for 2023 rests around 46,500. BC only has the capacity to admit 8400 students (trend for the past few years). If this holds true we can assume that the acceptance rate for the class of 2023 will decrease from the typical 28% average to around 18%. This is also prompting BC to do away with EA and only offer ED or RD in years to come.
Please ignore the data quoted in post #470. The “applicant pool” did not increase by 150% to 46,500. The actual numbers quoted from BC are as follows: EA applications are up 54% from last year (10,350 to 15, 862), RD apps are down 5% from last year (20, 734 to 19,694) and overall apps are up 14% from last year (31,084 to 35,556).
The yield from EA admits will likely be down from previous years due to elimination of REA…which makes it harder to predict overall admit rate.
Does anyone happen to know how the change to ED I and ED II and elimination of EA will impact legacy admissions??
When Villanova added ED, I believe they put right on their website that legacies needed to apply ED if they wanted the full legacy benefit (they said that differently). Wondering if BC will address this at all.
This early decision approach is going to make it more complicated for applicants next year if you are a little on the fence. I guess if BC is your number one choice you are thrilled with this new development.