Can't afford the matches

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My son's current college list has a sizeable gap where the match schools should be. We can identify the matches – places with strong programs in his area of interest, reasonable admission rates and student profiles similar to his own – but we don't expect to be able to afford any of them.</p>

<p>He's unlikely to get much merit aid from these schools, since his stats would not be head-and-shoulders above the crowd. Yet these schools typically do not promise to meet full need, and none of them is in-state to us.</p>

<p>For now, his application strategy looks like this: Choose a couple of in-state public safeties, and then apply to reaches that meet 100% of need. He's targeted quite a few of these (in the upper teens), some of which may be eliminated with more research. But he thinks his best option may be to apply to a large number of full-need schools, to increase his chances of getting an admission and a workable financial aid offer from the same school.</p>

<p>Has anyone else tried this strategy? How did it work for you?</p>

2

<p>That sound reasonable to me. We do not qualify for financial aid, so we could only go by sticker price and merit aid. We found that our least expensive options were in state publics each time we went through the process. I can tell you our results.</p>

<p>For S1, we had hopes for an athletic scholarship or merit money as his stats were good, and he was a national athlete. The problem became that all of the schools he liked including one of the state schools did not offer athletic scholarships or did not want to give them to him. Ivies have no merit or athletic money, nor do D-3 colleges which were what ended up on his list as favorites. The schools that wanted him, he did not want. He was rejected from his 4 most selective school after being waitlisted at 2 of them. He cleared the waitlist of the next most selective school. He was accepted everywhere else but did not get a dime in any money except at his safety that gave him a full ride. He probably would have gotten good merit money there even if he were not an athlete. I don’t even remember if all of the money was athletic money or a combination as he did not really consider going there. So all he got out of his athleticism and stats was entry to schools that were reaches. No money.</p>

<p>The second one had performing arts talents and went for scholarships for that. Again, the most selective schools in his field did not offer a dime and he could not even get into the programs despite an academic profile that got him into the schools themselves. He couldn’t get into the audition based programs though the schools would accept him for a BA, not for the BFA. Where he was accepted, he tended to get small merit and talent awards, none of them over $5000. His best deal which he accepted was to our state school which has a low sticker price, offered him a spot in their BFA Musical Theatre Program which was exactly what he wanted, and threw in a $3500 scholarship as well. His second choice was a school just a few hours away which was private that would have cost him more than $100K more over 4 years even with a $2500 a year award. </p>

<p>With S3, we had to go for money because we are running tight. Again, the state schools won with the lowest cost. One SUNY offered him full ride +. He had excellent test scores, but was a B student taking difficult courses at a rigorous high school. He did pretty well in the merit area by focusing on schools that were out of area, looking for males. He ended up with a wide range of choices. His most expensive alternative would have been an out of state public where he did not get one of the merit awards that he applied for. But he had a good array of choices all under the $40K range. He chose one of the pricier options but was able to negotiate a bit more merit money. </p>

<p>Had we qualified for any need, we would have included some schools that do guarantee to meet close to 100% of need. Do look at the breakdowns of what they give to meet aid. If most of the package is comprised of loans, you may not want your need met that way. Also, be aware that the numbers given are averages, There may be few if any student who gets that aid. There are schools that do not meet full need or that are need aware, but if your son meet some of their needs and wants, say they want more males, geographics, attractive major, interests, etc, he may do better there than at a full need met school. For example, NYU is notorious for their cheapness, but I do know a number of kids, mostly from the midwest, north west, southwest who got their best financial aid (sweetened with a bit of merit maybe) from NYU. They gap terribly, but if they really want someone, they will give out a great package. One young man I know was floored with the package that Stetson in Florida gave him. They do not get many kids from the NE and he had great scores, so they went all out in his merit within need package. </p>

<p>Good luck and keep us posted.</p>

3

<p>lgreen, I think we are on the exactly the same boat. DS is not the best student so the merit aid is a long shot. Based on DD’s experiences, we will not afford even so of those schools that meet 100% of the need. Because they use a large sum of loans to meet your need and their EFC is higher than FAFSA efc. </p>

<p>The good news for us is that we have a very good state school and DS may get some meirt $$ there.</p>

<p>Our strategy will be " aim high, very high" for great need based FA with a couple of safeties. In other words, no matching schools because we will not afford them anyway.</p>

4

<br>

<br>

<p>lgreen - You’re really smart to be thinking about affordability now. Good for you. Standard CC advice is to build the college list from the bottom up. As ^^Cpt’s experience illustrates, having a safety isn’t very helpful if the student won’t really consider attending there.</p>

5

<p>lgreen, how do you and your child feel about the in-state safeties? If you agree that they are an excellent option that would meet his needs, then it sounds like a good plan to me.</p>

6

<p>We told each of our kids that they needed a “financial safety’” a school where they would attend (hopefully cheerfully) if they didn’t get any aid and we could afford. For D, it was the CC & flagship U; for S, it was an OOS public flagship U that offered full-rides to NMFs (which he was).
A safety isn’t a financial safety if the family & student can’t afford it, even if the student is accepted. Students & families need to find a financial safety that they can be happy & comfortable with, even if it’s not “LOVE.” There are many kids who are accepted into many wonderful schools that they & their families can’t afford who are hugely disappointed but figure it out too late that the gap in finances make the options unworkable. Find good financial safeties early instead of late – save a lot of heartache.</p>

7

<p>Depending on how much merit aid you need and where the match schools rank it may make sense to throw in an application or two. The non top private schools mostly upped their aid budgets this year. They know they need to ‘discount’–give most a ‘merit’ scholarship-- to fill their seats.</p>

<p>So if something in the area of $10K would make it doable, I’d apply.</p>

8

<p>Agree with the above. Merit aid at many private schools is “merit” in name only.
Often merit aid is given as part of a yield and budget management program. A match level student might be given aid if his or her family income is high enough. The help to the school’s yield is obvious, and the thinking is that an 80% payer is plenty desirable.</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>This is exactly what I’m hoping. It seems, on the surface, to be a safer business strategy for the colleges and it “levels” the cost structure of some of the interesting NE schools to be competitive with similar schools in the midwest that are priced lower. 80% gets you there cost-wise and it “gets” the school kids from different states. I hope you are correct in your supposition as that would make a couple of my S2 choices viable.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>He visited one of them and was really impressed by the professors, who treated him seriously and took time to talk to him and show him around. But he still likes the idea of aiming for the “dream” schools. I’ve told him that he needs to look for the best fit, not the most prestige. However, that can be tough when the best fits are unaffordable, and he has to pick between the reaches and the safeties.</p>

<p>I wonder how he’ll feel when the rejections start rolling in, which easily could happen if he applies to mostly reach schools. He says it won’t bother him, but I guess he won’t know until it happens. It would also be disheartening to get reach-school acceptances coupled with inadequate financial aid.</p>

<p>I know this happens to people all the time. Still, it gives me pause to realize that he’s deliberately pursuing a strategy that is likely to lead there.</p>

11

<p>My D is going to the school that gave her the best FA.</p>

<p>I apologize in advance for all of the labeling in the next paragraph. Before this year, I assumed my D would get lots of FA and so would all of her friends, because they are smart kids who took a lot of AP classes, did well, and joined clubs, were in sports, and so on. I could not have been more wrong. Yes, some of D’s friends got scholarships, but they happen to be the minority kids. Good, solid, middle-to-upper middle class kids, not good, solid kids from need-based situations. They were courted and offered tons of FA.</p>

<p>I have to say, most of the kids we know did not get any FA. Their parents made too much $$ for need based aid. The kids we know who got full rides were often minorities (U of Richmond) or a minority in the midwest (St Olaf’s offered D’s friend, who is Asian, a full ride). The only white person, come to think of it, who got a full ride was a boy who is going to the ROTC program at CMU (I think it is CMU, don’t quote me, but a school of that rigor and expense). None of her girl friends received any FA that I know of. </p>

<p>So, I would find an affordable safety and I would beware of all of the schools that enourage you to apply and imply that FA is available. What they mean is, loans are available. Maybe a small tuition award. But the kids who are receiving the 40K scholarships are not usually your basic good student, solid middle class Caucasian kid. </p>

<p>Is this right or fair? I cannot presume to know. All of the kids we know who got FA are solid, good students whom we have known for many years.</p>