<p>Was reading an article in Bottom Line written by Mark Kantrowitz about how colleges lure freshman to enroll by using bait and switch tactics on financial aid. The article said over half of all colleges do this. The site where you can check to see what a specfic college does is (nces.ed.gov/CollegeNavigator).</p>
<p>1) enter the name of the college
2)Click on its Financial aid tab</p>
<p>This will produce a pair of tables one labeled "Full-time Beginning Undergraduate Students"(Freshman), the other "all Undergraduate Students". Look for the lines labeled Grant or Scholarship aid. Compare the average amount for freshman to the average amount for all undergrads. The article said if the gap is greater tha $500 to $1000, there is a good chance aid could decrease after freshman year. The current data is for the 2011-2012 school year.</p>
<p>I checked the two schools my kids go to:</p>
<p>Vassar Freshman Grant aid 38,451 all undergrads 36,956- a difference of about 1,500
My son is a senior and I have found this to be true, howver Vassar's grant aid is so generous I would not call this a bait and switch school</p>
<p>Rochester Institute of Technology Freshman Grant Aid 17,644 all undergrads 16,493
My daughter is a freshman there and they look fairly steady with their grant aid.</p>
<p>Would advise all parents whom require financial aid to take a look at this site.</p>
<p>Hmmm, could it be that they are reducing the grant aid because they expect the student to take increasing amounts of Direct/Stafford loans (the allowed amounts increase as one gets to higher class standing)?</p>
<p>There could also be one year merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Could it be that students who get large amounts of financial aid as freshmen (and have the most challenging circumstances for graduating) leave school early?</p>
<p>Could it be that students who enroll in a fifth, or even sixth, year are awarded significantly less aid than they were as freshmen?</p>
<p>Yes, it is prudent to research all aspects of Financial Aid when making a four-year commitment. However, this seems to be a poorly reasoned approach.</p>
<p>My university increases expected student contribution. As students get older, they should be able to secure internships or be able to balance term-time jobs to support themselves. I put my academics above everything except eating and sleeping, so I participate in jobs/internships/research/whatever when school is not in session. My out of pocket costs did rise by <1000. We sent really notice seeing as though last year I had a one-time, 4k scholarship from my community, so this year we’re paying 4k more out of pocket anyway. </p>
<p>I don’t think a difference in $1000 is what is meant by “bait and switch”</p>
<p>I’d have to see a difference more on the order of $10K before I would suspect bait and switch. That would indicate that they might be giving out a lot of merit money and/or grants that are virtually impossible to keep because of GPA. I recall that there were some law schools that were routinely doing this.</p>
<p>Agree, the difference of $1000-$1500 is the difference in federal direct loans. As they increase grant need decreases. I’d be much more concerned as consolation says about differences that are many, many thousands.</p>
<p>Agree the expected student contribution and amount of fed loans both go up. For my kids, aid increased slightly each year and costs went up, as well. I did not consider this bait and switch.</p>
<p>When I was a newbie to all this, I learned so much from Kantrowitz and his site, finaid.org. I now see aspects that seem not updated or not worded quite per what we see today. Can’t explain it. Maybe it’s me.</p>