<p>Fireandrain, thank you, I will certainly read that. (Don’t worry, I remember my father all outraged because my freshman year cost a whopping $9,000 in 1980. “Are they out of their minds??” he bellowed.) </p>
<p>I have no proof that anything untoward happened here between the schools – but I’m a newbie at this whole process and wondered if I was just being really naive thinking it was just coincidental. Maybe posters would all tell me that this happens a lot, of course they talk to one another, get over it… </p>
<p>Yes. That is exactly how merit aid works. That is the whole point. Merit has nothing to do with financial need. In fact, since merit is often based on SAT scores, it often goes to students who “don’t need it” (affluent) as much as low-income students. </p>
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<p>It just doesn’t work that way. Colleges have very sophisticated financial analysis. They know what percentage of kids accept, and factor that in. And they don’t know that one phone call to school 2 means that school 1 is no longer your first choice. They also know that “first choice” for many kids translates into “who is giving me the most money.”</p>
<p>I agree with Hanna. What Pratt did was wrong – both what they did (revoking the merit) and how they did it (an email). That should be the main point of this story. I wish you had titled your thread differently, because the issue here is that a school took away a scholarship 3 months later, for no apparent reason, in a crappy, insensitive way.</p>
<p>Okay, guys – just got off the phone with Pratt.</p>
<p>Oh, and I guess I titled it this way because the first thought that came into my head was, “Is this something I should have assumed was happening, and I’m just a dimwit for not knowing that counselors talk to each other about prospects?” </p>
<p>But back to our story: Apparently, in December when the award letters went out, the “merit calculator” was still in development by Pratt’s IT Department. So Chris Paisley, the admissions officer who just called me, had to calculate the awards manually. He made mistakes. He “overvalued the portfolio”. So an award was given when none should have been given at all.</p>
<p>I asked: How many people were given miscalculations? He told me: 180. How many of those are like my child, and now have NO merit award? He said “Half”. That’s 90 kids, people! I was stunned. I said, “Is this going to be picked up by the press.” He said, “Probably.” Why did it take so long? “Because IT didn’t get it ready until this past week. We tried to see if we could honor the letters, but it was too large an amount.”</p>
<p>So that’s that. This is really quite amazing. He apologized profusely, and I told him that I was sure he had many other parents to get back to, so I’d let him off the phone…He sounded young and very upset to have to be delivering this message. As angry as I am about the whole thing, I actually felt badly for him. </p>
<p>I’m sure he’s upset; he might lose his job over this (I’ll let others debate whether he should). It should become a news story. 180 kids – that’s a lot of errors. I hope none of them committed to Pratt based on their merit awards, and that they all have backup schools that they can afford. </p>
<p>This is not just about disappointment. Three months is long enough for people to make serious plans, elect not to apply to other schools, etc. Pratt should just suck it up and honor the awards.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree, fireandrain. 180 is huge. I understand that these things happen, because they happen at my company all the time – calculation errors. If people have reasonably relied on it, we generally make it right by eating it. I’m sure nonprofit educational institutions are a whole 'nother kettle of fish. </p>
<p>And, yes, I feel badly for even thinking this might have been dastardly collusion between two schools, but the timing was just so strange. </p>
<p>@Hanna – I know – he sounded so young and earnest – not arrogant or giving me the brush off in any way. I was thinking, “This is somebody’s son, poor guy!” (I guess being a parent of an adolescent makes me think that way.) I’m not sure the other 179 parents will be as understanding, though. </p>
<p>But whoever does the school’s public relations should also perhaps be watching his or her back. Mistakes happen, but you don’t send a 2 sentence e-mail when you are dealing with financial aid for incoming students who are in the midst of making decisions. An explanation is owed in circumstances like these. One would think that once the error came to light, addressing it would be a collective effort of many administrators, not just the admissions or financial aid offices. I am sure other families have been left with the same negative impression of the school. So really 2 big errors have been made.</p>
<p>I think your daughter should go to Boston. Neither of these schools deserves your money. </p>
<p>If the IT program is not ready, DON’T send out the offers. He has a pot of money. He needs to divide it by the number of applicants who will get money. Not exactly a higher math problem.</p>
<p>Just to update you all --we received a hard copy letter in the mail today…and the text was exactly the same as the two sentence e-mail! Pretty cold! It doesn’t look like they took too much time crafting a considerate message – just basically: hey, sorry, maybe you’ll get some financial aid. </p>
<p>I will be interested to see if this does get picked up in the press. I agree that the awards should have waited until the calculator was ready. They did a lot of damage to their brand that they could have avoided had they just waited. OR hired better IT people. </p>
<p>I wonder if someone is in the unfortunate position of having put down a deposit and withdrawn all other offers…is Pratt going to honor those awards, at least? If my child was in that position, I think I might argue detrimental reliance. (But ugh, what a way to start off with a college…!) </p>
<p>harp, I’m so sorry this happened. I cannot imagine the emotional rollercoaster. But 180 miscalculations? Something just does not seem right here (I am not doubting you in the least- I’m just wondering if he’s taking the fall for something else). </p>
<p>The way he explained it, romanigypsyeyes (cool name!), is that he had to weight the portfolios with the SAT scores and GPA’s. He claims the value of 180 portfolios were not weighted correctly, which resulted in overstatements of awards. Maybe they ended up with too much total money awarded once the calculator was used on the regular admission candidates, and then the discrepancies between both methods were discovered. Like I said they should have just waited.</p>
<p>I’m not angry anymore, just feeling kind of sad. I remember how exciting it was when the award letter arrived in December. The high school art teacher said, “I bet you’re going to have the best Christmas ever!” Yes, well, now a not so nice Easter! </p>
<p>I think in the several years I’ve been on here, you’re the first person who’s complemented my name (at least randomly and not in a thread when we were talking about names) so I thank you for that </p>
<p>I really just have no words for this. I can’t remember- did your D have her heart set on this school? </p>
<p>Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise. It seems like a bit chaotic there and that can make for a terrible few years. </p>
<p>I don’t know, desie1. I hate to think he’d outright lie to me about the extent. And actually, why would Pratt want to admit to a large mass screw up rather than “a handful” if it really was a smaller number? A handful could happen to anyone, they could say. But 180 is a lot of kids! I don’t know why no one else is posting. Maybe people are embarrassed and don’t want to talk about it, here or elsewhere. It is kind of embarrassing. Maybe I’m not savvy enough to know I should just shut up about it. </p>
<p>Romani – I am of Hungarian descent, so maybe that’s why I noticed it! No, my kid was not completely set on Pratt, fortunately. I think maybe I was, but it wasn’t going to be my decision (even though I’m paying!) So it’s all right in the end, and there are other options on the table. We’ll all survive this.</p>
<p>But it still was a blow and I also hoped it wasn’t connected to something I had done (by talking to another school about it). I figured this forum was a place where I could get real world advice about how these things operate from experienced parents, and maybe this kind of a thing was not so strange or out of the ordinary…but it appears it is! </p>
<p>Ha! Me too. It’s my Hungarian grandfather that gave me the nickname that eventually led to my name. </p>
<p>Looking through their FA website, it says that 60% of students get merit scholarships. This equates to roughly 460 per year per class. With a number that relatively small, I can’t quite wrap my head around how he didn’t notice such a large number. If this was at a state school with thousands of students in each class, it would make more sense. </p>
<p>Did he mention there was any possibility of your D receiving a scholarship as others decline?</p>
<p>So it is about $8-9 mill mistake.
I am more cynical. I think too many people took them up on their offer, so now they are out of money. Since OP’s hasn’t accepted yet, they are rescinding the offer.</p>
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