<p>If we paid the list price in the first year and the student is maintaining near 4.0 gpa, can we ask for a discount in the second year tuition? (note we won't be eligible for any financial aid). has there been any precedence for this in any of the top 20 institutions?</p>
<p>Can’t hurt to ask. Also, if your child has a declared major, it might be worth it to approach folks in that department to see if there are any departmental scholarships available.</p>
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<p>You can try but the answer will likely be no. first of all, there are a lot of near 4.0 students, the school may like that but it’s not worth any discount for the school. The school has no intention of giving discounts to a bunch of near 4.0 students. it isnt even giving discounts to the 4.0 students. </p>
<p>this is a top 20 school…it is loaded with ultra-bright high GPA students. In fact, these schools often have reps of giving A’s to a quarter to half (or more) of the class.</p>
<p>your child can look to his major dept for scholarship opps, but those arent likely much. </p>
<p>Anyone can always ask. Doesn’t usually happen. First of all, does the school even have merit money? If it has only need based aid, it’s not likely to make a difference what the student will get. Where some money might be, is in certain departments. Your student needs to search for any possible awards for good performance and usually other criteria for upperclassmen awards.</p>
<p>My one son did get a very nice award at the end of sophomore year which was a grant for research to be done over the summer. But it was a specific application for the grant,and open only in certain fields and had specifications to get it that had to be met. We were thrilled and so proud of him for getting that award. So, yes, schools do sometimes have these things, but one does have to seek them out. I don’t see the award even mentioned in his school’s website. </p>
<p>So your student should ask his/her advisor, dept heads, grad students as to what is available there at the school. Some of the awards are very small–my one other son got one for $100 and I believe current college kid got one for the same amount for some accomplishment–he didn’t give me much info. </p>
<p>I don’t know a school that offers discount through the bursar’s office for good achievement, certain GPA. Not to say there aren’t any, but that’s not the usual way it works.</p>
<p>Your child might be able to apply for a scholarship for continuing students. </p>
<p>I don’t think you will be granted a discount based on good grades in subsequent years.</p>
<p>If you can afford it up-front, you can ask if they will let you pre-pay four years of tuition and fees at the current rate. Some institutions will do that.</p>
<p>It seems to me this would be a bad precedent for a university to set (although it might quickly spell the end of grade inflation). Kids should be in college to learn and grow intellectually, not simply to “get good grades.” If this became a policy I would expect a lot of students to start planning their curricula around relatively easy courses in familiar subjects rather than pushing themselves outside their comfort zones.</p>
<p>I think there was some misunderstanding. It was never about good grades - that was just thrown in to support the question. If you mention the published price of any university, the immediate answer from everyone would be “of course no one pays those rates - everyone gets a break”. The fact is there are folks who don’t have any hooks, who have to shell out the list price. What percentage of students pay the published price? is this info even in public domain?Shouldn’t those that pay rack rates deserve a small break?</p>
<p>There was one good suggestion in this whole thread so far - i.e. offer to pay the full 4 year’s tuition at prevailing rates - this would save a good chunk as the tuition is going up 5-7% every year. I perhaps should have thought about this a year ago - the tuition has already gone up for the second year.</p>
<p>What you’re describing is the “donut hole” of aid to the middle class–not poor enough to get FA, not rich enough to not care.</p>
<p>But the thing is, there ARE hundreds of colleges that do discount off the “sticker price”–they’re just not the “top” schools, which have much less elastic demand. People can and will go to great lengths to pay for them, so they can parcel out aid to those who need it most (and whom they want most). If you were asking this question several years ago, before your kid got to college, we might suggest a number of great schools that would have offered merit aid. But they wouldn’t be in your “top 20” list.</p>
<p>There also are colleges that fix tuition based on what you pay freshman year. University of Kansas does this for sure. I think it’s great.</p>
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<p>Everyone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about might say that, but lots of students pay the published price.</p>
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<p>Someone who is offering to pay 4 years of tuition up front doesn’t sound too middle class to me! </p>
<p>If you have all the money in advance, what is the need for the discount? That’s what merit aid is for, isn’t it? Families get a cost break in exchange for being a student that a school wants and might otherwise not get. Once you’re there, what’s the incentive for the school?</p>
<p>I think the schools do have a big incentive to KEEP the students. I know many many students who leave after the first year because of money. The families thought they could keep the students there, either pay-as-you-go or taking out loans, but when they actually try to do that for 12 months or they start paying back the 1st year loan and they realize that payments will be 4x that much by senior year, they realize they just can’t make it.</p>
<p>I think there is money for upper classmen either through the school/department or outside scholarships in that field. My friend’s son started getting an extra $5k per year from the accounting dept his sophomore year. Another friend’s son received more money from his engineering dept. There are other ways to get money from the school too - become an RA or directly employed in a specific capacity (athletic trainer, EMT if you are certified, lifeguard). A favorite teacher might have an idea. A high achieving student may be the perfect tutor (if not for a fellow student, for a high school student).</p>
<p>I don’t think it ever hurts to ask, but if you have a specific idea, that can help too.</p>
<p>You can look at the common data and see what % of the students are getting financial aid and what percentage are getting merit awards that are not getting financial aid. THat will give you some idea as to who is paying full freight. At some schools, yes, there % might be small. I’ve seen some colleges where 90% of the students qualify for fin aid and some places where most of the kids get some merit money, maybe everyone. Not so with a lot of the selective schools, however. I see about half listed. Now there are “discounts” not accounted for in the data such as employee discounts, state merit, outside awards etc. </p>
<p>But unless a school has some program or something that offers “discounts”, in the schools that I know, asking for one like the OP has, isn’t likely to garner anything. You can look for some programs the school might offer, such as prepaying the tuition and stopping the increases. Some schools might offer this, but many do not. You can ask, but as a rule, the bursar’s office is not in the position to “discount” other than what is already established. </p>
<p>Students should keep their eyes and ears open for award possibilities because, yes, there are sometimes awards available at some schools. My one son just missed out–too late to get some earmarked funds. Will try again in the fall. As mentioned before, my one son did win a nice grant for a project. But I don’t know any school that will negotiate discounts for future costs. THey either have a provision there or they don’t .</p>
<p>College dad…your OP to this thread clearly states you are not eligible for financial aid, and wonder if you could ask for a discount if your kiddo had a 4.0. In my opinion, the answer to that is no. </p>
<p>That “discount” you are talking about either comes in the form of need based financial aid, or in the form of merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Some schools do offer awards to returning students, and some offer departmental awards for upperclass students. You student could apply for one of those if the school has these types of awards.</p>
<p>Ask if there are any merit scholarships that are awarded for returning students. My daughter received one from the private college that she attended.</p>
<p>If there are none, they are not going to simply reduce her bill. Financial aid is for people who need the assistance, not people who can afford to pay but would prefer not to pay. If you can afford to pay three years worth of bills at one time to avoid the annual cost increases, then you are not exactly in need. There is no incentive to bribe your daughter to stay, because there are plenty of other high GPA students at the upper tier school your daughter attends. Now, the private school I attended back in the day needed us poor bright students to offset the low GPA’s of the wealthy party-hearty students, so they did up the financial aid every year…</p>
<p>according to past posts, it appears that this is JHU and your child applied ED, so there were no pkgs to compare with. I dont know why people go that route, agree to attend at full-pay, if after one year paying full price no longer looks so good. </p>
<p>Yes, JHU does offer some merit to incoming frosh (that boat has sailed) but it appears that those awards are targeted using a strategy to get the students they need to help with their needs (diversity of region, ethnicity, etc).</p>
<p>Maybe your child’s dept offers some merit for the tippy top students in the dept.</p>
<p>There are enough people (lined up few times around the campus) who would kill to be at one of those top 20 schools. They would LOL for you to ask for a discount. The time to get a discount was before your kid matriculated - admission from Yale vs Robertson Scholarship (full ride) at Duke. Once your kid is there, if they don’t give a discount what would your kid do? Transfer to another school? What’s the chance of your kid getting a merit scholarship as a transfer, especially if your kid is not going to trade down? As someone mentioned before, the only discount you could get is by prepaying the tuition and ask for no tuition increase.</p>
<p>To add to my previous post, if you were eligible for FA but didn’t apply for it the first year, it is unlikely you’ll be able to get FA 2-4th year unless your family’s financial situation has changed.</p>
<p>As I stated earlier, it is possible that there are departmental awards for returning students,and grants out there as well. I am unaware of JHU offering any other kind of discount for returning students. However, if the OP or spouse becomes an employee, after 120 days or so, I believe there is a tuition remission benefit.</p>
<p>Hopkins does have merit awards, so the possibilty is there. Not likely there is any systematic discount out there,nor is bargaining likely to work. Don’t know who’ you’d even discuss the matter with. Gotta be eligible for fin aid to get any awards there, and merit is given out through Admissions and they don’t deal with returning students.</p>
<p>Departmental awards are by far the best chance you have for this. For top 20 schools, when they say nobody pays full price, they are usually talking about need based aid, which it sounds like you did not apply for. At top 20 schools you usually get need based aid or you pay full price.</p>