Yes the annual increases can get you if you’re not careful. D20 accepted her offer with a merit awarded that put her almost $6k below her max budget amount.
Now going into her junior year, we are paying more than the original ‘max budget’, thankfully we knew that COA increases were like death & taxes (thank you CC community!) and made her max budget one that could handle the overage we knew was coming for junior and senior year.
Definitely call and talk to them. My oldest is at Whitman, and we’ve had great luck in communications with them.
I can only imagine room and board charges will be going up everywhere. The schools can’t get groceries for free, and we all know how our grocery bills have risen lately.
My D applied last cycle and received a pre-read of 20k in merit. Actual offer after acceptance was 25k.
Stats were 3.94 UW/34 ACT, so right in line with your son. She did have some unique ECs that may have bumped her up to the top merit award after they viewed her application, but I’m guessing that with your son’s stats, he’ll get at least the 20k.
Yes, definitely contact them. It helps to have a particular financial aid person to work with. Your son’s father won’t fill out a CSS Profile, will not pay, is not involved at all with his son.
You can pay with the 529 but your son needs to know if he can hope for a certain level of merit aid, in which case he would apply ED.
Good luck!
Again I say…what does the father not doing the Profile have to do with merit aid? Does Whitman require the Profile for merit aid consideration? If not…this is not something relevant.
Explaining the family’s financial situation (including the OP’s specific divorce-driven circumstances) can sway the needle a few thousand dollars in merit, in my experience. So it’s worth explaining. Normally I’d say after the initial merit offer is made and is deficient, but since the OP’s son wants to apply ED, having the discussion up front makes sense.
@thumper1 I was summing up the situation. The fact that the fatber will not fill out the CSS Profile and will not contribute is the reason they want to ask about merit aid. I was advocating contacting the FA office so the office is aware and can help in whatever way possible.
This seems to be mixing need and merit. If the student ends more, sh or she merits more?
I am not going to say this isn’t what is happening - I’ve seen weirder things happen at colleges (heck, I’ve seen weirder things happen at colleges today) but it makes sorting this all out very confusing.
Merit aid is 100% used to entice students to enroll. If this family has particular circumstances that affect their ability to enroll, they would be nuts not to let the school know. Here, the school’s interests and the student’s are likely aligned.
Some colleges do blur the line between need based aid and merit scholarships. An example is the use of “preferential packaging” of need based aid for a student the college is highly interested in, even though the school nominally does not offer merit scholarships. Since merit scholarships are generally opaque and used to entice admits to attend, a college which knows what net price a desirable student needs to attend may choose to ensure that its offer matches that (whether it would have been more or less than it would have offered otherwise).
Former financial aid professional here. Call & talk to them. Please be prepared to explain your situation, including the reason your child is not directly in touch with the father. The more that the aid office knows about your situation, the better. If they feel that it is in the best interest of your child to waive the noncustodial form, it might be possible within their policies to do so. Then again, they may not … but you will never know if you don’t try.
Thank you for your input everyone! Here is a small update:
My S23 had sent an email (concurrent to sending in the pre-read form to the FA office) to the regional AO that included notes about their curriculum for 12th grade and asked if they might pass on any details to the Financial Aid office that they felt were relevant, or to let him know if there were any further questions about the senior year schedule he could answer. (The pre-read form asks for your transcript, optional SAT/ACT scores, and your upcoming 12th grade list of classes).
After reading everyone’s input here at C/C, I was going to call the FA office today, but the AO officer wrote back to S23 this morning that they will be the ones doing the pre-read for merit.
While as a parent I feel comfortable talking to the business office, I don’t feel it’s right for me to contact his actual AO - communication needs to be between student and AO alone as the student’s the one applying.
So I’m going to sit tight and wait until the AO makes their pre-read decision so as not to insert myself into the admissions process. If the number feels low, I’ll call, otherwise without a wall between financial aid and admissions, it just feels inappropriate to reach out now.
Thanks @compmom! I wrote a small update below; lines blurred as AO is going to do the pre-read.
That’s so encouraging to hear! If they’re offering similar awards this year, we can make this work. Fingers crossed.
I have two friends with complicated ex-situations that negatively affect their ability to accurately represent finances…in similar ways to your situation.
One has a student at an Ivy, the other has a student at a large state school. In both cases, the FA office has been helpful and receptive to working with the parent. In the case of the state school, they found some additional “merit” that eases the financial burden slightly. This is not a student who was receiving merit otherwise, and they “found” some discretionary funds.
People often mistakenly believe that colleges line up students from the most to the least meritorious and award merit in that way. That’s not at all how most schools distribute it and there is a degree of discretion involved in the decisions.
There’s nothing complicated here. If you don’t fill out CSS, you haven’t applied for need based aid.
Merit is different and has zero to do with need.
You’ll get it or not get a merit award based on the student’s qualifications.
There’s no one to call or to explain anything to do.
Just make sure you know how merit is provided. Is there an app or consideration happens just by applying. In the case of Whitman, it’s simply by applying.
Btw. There’s a lot of affordable schools with those stats. But they are not the same type schools. In addition to the in state flagshipyiur son would score a great deal at Bama, Arizona, UAH, FSU and to smaller schools like UAH. Schools like Truman State or Miami Ohio would be reasonable. And there’s lower ranked LACS that might work. Hendrix and Oglethorpe both have programs to match your flagship tuition.
I personally don’t see how your need situation is relevant to merit. Perhaps I’m wrong. But separate buckets and separate decision makers.
Good luck.
But isn’t your son already admitted?
And if instead they organized it by having the AO’s temporarily transfer to the GinAid office during their busy period (and a less busy period for Admissions) would that be OK? I knew a very small college that had one office that handled both - was that OK?
It seems like you are making this more complicated than it has to be.
He is a rising senior and she is deciding whether to ED. She mentioned this up-thread. She clearly states in her initial post he is class of 2023, Whitman is his first choice, etc.
This simply is not true. As others have noted, including a former financial aid professional, colleges will and often do find additional merit money for students who ask after taking into account family finances so the student can afford to enroll.