<p>So sorry to hear that! I’m a nervous wreck. Where else is your D looking?</p>
<p>Hey, could you guys explain the basics of this Tuition Exchange? Who qualifies to at least apply, and how do they decide (or at least how do you think they decide) who gets it? Is it a fixed amount, or what exactly? Thanks.</p>
<p>It’s a consortium of Private schools (heres the link to the website <a href=“http://www.tuitionexchange.org/”>http://www.tuitionexchange.org/</a>
It is considered a scholarship for the student and it’s a benefit to employee. It basically gives you free or reduced tuition at any other member school as long as you meet the requirements and your school has a spot to send you. For example the U where I work, last year we were able to “send out” 12 students to other TE schools. But we didn’t take in as many from other schools. So this year we can only send out 5. There is a balance. Every October the Enrollment Managers get together and it’s determined how many spots they have available to take in/send out. The receiving school sets criteria for what they will cover. The min per the consortium is $32,000/year. for schools that charge over that amount for Tuition. But schools can choose to cover full tuition or full tuition plus fees and sometimes even room and board. Tulane covers 75% of tuition. A school my friends daughter applied to covers EVERYTHING- tuition, fees, room and board and books! Our school goes by seniority of the employee to decide who is eligible each year and you can only have one child in the program at a time. So this year we had 5 spots, I was 6th in seniority. But someone gave up their spot for whatever reason so I was moved up. (We had 15 people on the waiting list!). So if you are approved by the home school, you have to let the Enrollment Manager know where you are applying and they send your application to the schools where your child is applying. Once the student is accepted to the school, they are considered for the TE Scholarship. I’m pretty sure its based on merit on the receiving schools end. I can’t imagine any other way they would determine who is awarded the scholarship. So it is a long process and I know last year someone in the program didn’t hear they were accepted until May. Hope that helps a little.</p>
<p>ETA- If the student accepts a TE scholarship it can not be combined with any other merit scholarship. </p>
<p>Yes, dolphnlvr, that explained it. I had figured out part of it, but the balancing of receiving/sending I hadn’t thought about before, although of course it makes sense. Also interesting that there is that much flexibility as to what to cover instead of just saying up front that it is worth, for example, full tuition + fees, whatever tuition and fees happen to be at that school. Seems to me that would be preferable, but it is what it is.</p>
<p>received my financial aid today, very happy with it. But I’m confused, is this including the amount the FAFSA will give me or not?</p>
<p>FAFSA does not award money, schools use that information to determine aid eligibility</p>
<p>without looking at it, I would say that if you see any info in there about grants, work study, or loans, you’re looking at all you’re going to get. That is, the merit if any and the grant aid.</p>
<p>There is also the CIC Tuition Exchange program which I believe covers full tuition. Tulane is not part of that program however. </p>
<p>@dolphinlvr6 and @fallenchemist, apparently there were 42 Tuition Exchange applicants and they awarded 27. That is roughly the 60% that it shows on the TE website for Tulane. So the odds were good, but my daughter was on the lower end stats-wise for admitted students, and I assume that is why she didn’t get it. But like everything else in this process, it is probably also influenced by other factors. In any event it as a no.
Glad we held off on making our plan reservations!</p>
<p>My daughter got into Pitt, UDel, and Emerson (where hubby works). Got denied TE at the first two as well, but both are cheaper schools to begin with, and she did get $9k/annual merit for UDel. Still waiting on American and George Washington, both TE schools, and her reach, Barnard.
Tulane was her first choice by far, even without visiting, and sorry it didn’t work out for her sake, as I know she would have thrived there, but without TE it just isn’t possible. Haven’t received our financial aid info from Tulane but we know she didn’t get merit so can’t imagine the numbers will work. I’m sad for her but all her other schools are much closer to home and while I’d have let her go to NOLA in a heartbeat, I will enjoy having the chance to see her more often the next four years than I would have if she was at Tulane.
Oh well, as she said - Tulane for grad school in 2018!! :-)</p>
<p>We just got notification that our son received the Tuition Exchange Scholarship! Such a huge relief! The scholarship is valued at $33, 318 for this year. It will increase in proportion to any tuition increases as well. Still hoping for some need based aid as well, but this is a big help. </p>
<p>Yes, I would say that is pretty huge! Congrats. Good times at the dolphnlvr’s family aquarium this weekend!</p>
<p>congratulations to your S, dolphnlvr.</p>
<p>@dolphnlvr6… that must be a HUGE relief! Congratulations to your son!</p>
<p>Congrats dolphinlvr6- happy for you both. Just found out D got TE for American so all is not lost!</p>
<p>That’s great news! American was high on my sons list too. </p>
<p>Congrats dolphinlvr6 and myjanda. Sounds like both of you are set! Good news!</p>
<p>Still nervously waiting on D’s FA offer…anyone else still waiting?</p>
<p>Yep, no word on ay need based aid. I did contact the FA office and they said please be patient, they are still processing all the information. We had to send in additional info, it was on my sons Gibson that they needed specific items. We sent those are are patiently waiting. </p>
<p>Update to our concerns about the calculator: The financial aid office has been very responsive. We are still waiting to hear from admissions. D did everything she could to plead her case.</p>
<p>I hope sharing the following email from the financial aid office helps other hopefuls avoid the mistake of booking a visit based on information from the calculator. I would have no problem with the explanation if we talking about a small margin of error but in our case, the difference is a 100% change from what was quoted ($20k to zero). </p>
<p>I removed all names from the email: </p>
<p>"Thank you for your latest e-mail. Tulane University stands behind our Net Price Calculator (NPC), as we are one of the few universities in the country that offer a calculator that seeks to provide a total scholarship estimate of merit and/or need-based scholarship funding. That being said, our current calculator fully discloses the following:
-
That the “results are based on 2013-2014 need analysis methodology and 2013-2014 Tulane award packaging guidelines.” This includes guidelines associated with Tulane’s merit scholarships, as well as with our need-based scholarships; AND -
That the “calculator is for estimated use only and the actual award package will vary depending upon the time of year packaged, prevailing regulatory and institutional policy, availability of funds, actual test scores and academic information, and subjective admission analysis, as well as verifiable financial information.”<br>
Again, we are proud of our NPC and believe that it serves as a tool to provide approximate information to students considering to apply to Tulane, but alas it is not a crystal ball. We base the calculator on the best information we have available (last year’s guidelines), never knowing if the competition for merit scholarships from this year’s pool of applicants will be more lenient or tougher. We can see already, that the answer for this year is that D’s competition among Tulane’s applicant pool is tougher. You suggest that we redesign our NPC to offer more conservative results, but honestly it is a fine line between offering an unrealistic conservative result (which might discourage students from considering Tulane) and an unrealistic liberal result (which would lure students to Tulane for unrealistic expectations). We’ve opted to provide what we feel is an accurate result (based on the best information available) and fully disclose that the NPC strictly serves as an estimate. I regret if in your eyes we offer an unrealistic accurate result, yet we stand by the overall accuracy that our NPC provides.
Since the Financial Aid Office only determines need-based scholarship and all federal aid eligibility (and based on D’s financial aid application materials, she is not presently eligible for need-based aid consideration), it seems that your focus is on her non-receipt of a merit scholarship from Tulane. The Undergraduate Admission Office is solely responsible for all merit scholarship decisions, thus I encourage you to contact D’s admission counselor to discuss the merit appeal process." </p>
<p>My S’s financial aid package was nearly identical to the estimate received from the NPC. </p>