Does anyone know when the full financial awards offers will be made to EA applicants? My son was accepted and applied in January for honors, fellows, awards, etc. Last week he got an email saying he did not receive any aid from the Elon University scholarship and pathways programs. Does this encompass all awards or is this just a specific portion of scholarships? This is all very confusing and every school does it differently. I very much prefer those who provide the financial award with the acceptance.
For academic/merit scholarships they are typically included in the acceptance letter, though I have seen some people post that their child received one closer to admission, my guess is after previous recipients declined their spot at the school. The maximum awarded for this is $6K.
For Fellows and Scholars programs that also have scholarships attached (including the honors that you mentioned) they have invited finalists for interviews (the invitations were sent out Feb 2), If your child was not contacted by this point, unfortunately I would assume that they are no longer in the running. Competition this year has been very, very competitive.
From my understanding that is the extent of academic/merit based scholarships.
For any financial aid, I’m not sure when that is released
Thank you @dracarys2020 ! Good explanation. I guess he just got a big donut, which is disappointing, as he really liked it. I’ll have him reach out to admissions/financial aid just in case, but it sounds like he may have to pursue a more affordable option. I was surprised that higher scoring schools offered a fair amount more than Elon, but I guess that the size of endowments make the primary difference. It’s a beautiful campus though.
Elon was a “safety” school for my DD. We were so sure she would get merit $ from them. She is in contention for a fellowship, but wasn’t awarded any scholarship money with her EA acceptance. Several more competitive schools she was accepted to offered her substantial merit scholarship money. Though she is still waiting to hear from another school, right now Elon is her first choice. Would love to try and sway her towards one of the other schools that would save us a lot of money, but I was really blown away by Elon when we visited and think she will love it there (bummer, lol).
I think it is a sticker price thing. Elon’s sticker price is lower than its peer institutions, so its merit aid offers are, too. When my son’s merit offer came in (2017), it was, percentage wise, in line with his offers from other higher priced schools.
I don’t know. I will say that from this thread, it looks like less is being awarded with EA than my son’s year (2017). He got his merit aid package with his EA acceptance. Even last year, it looked from here as if merit was tighter than it had been. I think Elon U is really focusing on raising their status so each year, as a long term strategic plan that has been in place for a while, and I speculate that each year, admissions might get tighter and merit aid have a higher bar, possibly. It could also have to do with diversity initiatives. Their diversity numbers are very low and I believe an updated plan was set in place in early fall. These are just my speculations as a parent.
Thank you @TS0104. That would have been my expectation as well, but the one thing that surprised me is that admitting kids without providing any aid (other than $5500 in unsubsidized loans) makes the likelihood of that student accepting the offer much lower. I do see that they are starting at a lower total costs at Elon ($54k v. $70-75k at other private schools), but I know in my son’s case he got accepted at other higher ranked/scored schools that offered $25-30k in merit scholarships (taking the average down to $45k/year). Just optically it is just viewed differently by the applicant. With all of the focus on yield I’m just surprised they’d admit a student without any aid, as it decreases the chances they accept, therefore reducing yield.
The campus is beautiful and everyone is very friendly and I’d love for my son to attend, but without any scholarships it’s a hard sell to him.
I’ve always liked Elon ever since touring it with my older daughter. D21 was admitted EA (on the higher side of their stats, no merit offer but invites to compete for various fellows programs, each with a $5k award). I was aware of their typical merit range based on what my other daughter received, but thought I’d throw it in the mix since D21 had no private colleges on her list and her stats were higher than other daughter. No harm either way since she was leaning toward a big school with an attached functional college town/city.
They either sent a letter or an email explaining that their low merit awards are in line with their “lower than average” cost of attendance when compared to peer schools. I’m just wondering who they consider their peer schools to be? $50K+ is still pretty robust. They are cheaper than High Point, Furman & Wofford (possible peer schools) and Wake (not really a peer school) and Duke (definitely not a peer school). Just wondering who they are comparing themselves to?
They also sent a letter directly to my husband last week (I assume they’ve tagged him as “head of household/person who writes the check”) touting all of Elon’s many virtues. Thought that was kind of odd and very 1950’s (clearly they don’t know who really makes the decisions )
@CollegeNerd67, that is odd on the email… Perhaps she just had his email address on her application or it is in your junk folder? I know my spouse and I both get their emails.
@CollegeNerd67, I think they must be referring to the schools that they aspire to be considered peers in the future. At the end of the day, $220k for four years is still not horrible when you compare it to the gross cost of attendance of like $320k for schools like UChicago, Columbia and NYU, but it’s still difficult to fund, especially for families with multiple kids.
I think my son would even be happy with a $5-10k scholarship. Maybe it’s more his perception of getting no merit aid, but it does impact his decision.
Acceptance rates and Presidential Scholarship (15%ish of incoming class get $6000) have been very hard to predict in last couple of years. The fact that testing scores were made optional and Elon joined the Common App made application numbers rise quickly. Given three different application due dates (ED, EA and regular), I can’t imagine how they estimate the “top 15% of applicants” now. I also wanted to add … yes, Elon’s tuition remains lower than many “peer” schools. It is also the case that their yearly increase in price is a lower % than others, at least in the last 5-8 years. For example, this year, Elon will raise tuition 2.15% for 21-22 school year; Wofford will be raising it 4.24%. Over time, this is significant, and since most scholarships do not increase with tuition hikes. Our daughter was given WAY more from Wofford, but over four years, the difference was insignificant. Just food for thought. Good luck to you all! We are grateful on a daily basis that Elon became “the one.”
I am really interested in your post comparing Wofford to Elon. Those are two of the my top choices with NC State. Can you comment quickly and specifically on the financial, difference (for instance how much more or less per year? Also, any other comparison on academics and social?
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