^^^
Well that’s a touchy issue because the award was need based, and ivies don’t give merit based aid. Mentioning that someone will be attending an Ivy is usually accolade enough. To mention that she got a ton of aid would have just revealed that they’re low income, which may be a school violation.
My cousin’s son was Val of his class, going to Stanford, full pay. The Sal of his class was also going to Stanford, full aid. Imagine how weird it would have been if the school had announced something like:
Val John Doe will be attending Stanford.
Sal Jane Smith will be attending Stanford on a full scholarship
“And their other cousin from California got a full ride to MIT and his father is a billionaire, so it wasn’t need based, it was absolutely merit based. So it does happen all the time, right?”
Nobody with a dad who is a billionaire gets a free ride to MIT. Ok, maybe a free ride to MIT but not to attend. Maybe the student hitch hiked. But no, sounds like an urban legend. MIT is need blind and meets need. It does not give merit scholarships. It does not give athletic scholarships. So somebody has lied to you.
In the case of my friend’s daughter, I think the high school’s policy was to list “outside” merit scholarships and, for those students, the school the student would be attending. The daughter’s then-boyfriend received an outside merit scholarship that he is using at Harvard. My friend was quite annoyed that her daughter was not going to be listed as attending Columbia with a merit scholarship.
D2’s HS college counselor, one year out of college, asked her if we had filled out the FAFSA. She said no, my parents are full pay. Counselor told her we HAD to if we wanted to get any money for college. D told her she already had merit scholarships to both her schools, the only money she could get for filing FAFSA would be a loan, and her parents wouldn’t let her take loans. Counselor really didn’t believe her and suggested that every dollar helps, even if it is a loan. What??? D just smiled and walked away. She knows better.
^^ I can see that happening, that the Harvard student was awarded an outside merit scholarship and it was listed. There was a boy here who got a Boettcher scholarship and he went to Yale. Boettcher pays ‘last dollars’ so I’m not sure if Yale’s aid was applied first or last, but this student’s winning the Boettcher was definitely announced as a full merit scholarship, which it is, it just pays a different amount for different schools and might be based on the student’s financial situation.
It’s a slippery slope, but schools do announce major awards that have a need component like Gates, so people are going to complain that they should also announce need awards like merit awards. Someone is always going to be mad that someone else was listed first or Susie didn’t get recognized or Billy’s scholarship was for 4 years but they announced it as a one year award. The awards were so messed up at D’s school that by the end no one believed any of them were correct, nor did anyone have any idea who got how much. And really, was it any of our business? They got an award. Congratulations.
Ya Ya (about post 30) If they were talking about MIT and Yale, well then yes both make it work for all students they admit.
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@lostaccount THAT IS NOT TRUE. They do not “make it work for all students that they admit.”
There are many HYPSM students that are admitted who have to decline attending because they can’t afford the school. Maybe their parents own properties, or their retirement isn’t in protected accts, or there’s an NCP that won’t pay, or the parents are self-employed and a bunch of deductions got added back in.
I personally remember a very bitter Yale admit who didn’t get the aid they were expecting because of business deductions that were added back in. The family was expecting to pay about $25k per year, but learned that they’d be full pay…something they could not do. Luckily he was a NMF and he did go to Bama on practically a free ride. During the end of his school year and thru summer, he was bitter, (having to endure the “embarrassment” from telling everyone he was going to Yale, and then not going,) but things settled down and four years later, he’s a happy well-employed graduate.
I am thankful I found CC before I filled my son’s head with a fantasy list of schools.
Post after post state “money is no concern”. Then a few months later the same student declares an emergency! How can I afford my ED school! My parents will only pay $10,000 per year, can I borrow $200,000???
For those who are looking for significant merit aid, my advice is to treat all non-automatic merit scholarships as reach schools and to apply EA to schools that offer merit when possible.
Personally, I don’t think most kids stand a chance.
My son goes to a small public high school in a well-educated “college-savvy” town. We have a terrific high school guidance counselor. Huge emphasis on research and planning; looking for the right “fit”, ensuring having a “safety”, etc. Even so, the “safety” is more for admissions, not financial, and the “fit” is all about the environment that the student will be happy and thrive in. I’ve had lots of conversations with my son’s friends about their college choices and am so impressed at the amount of thought and research they’ve put in. They’re taking ownership, balancing reach schools, with good fits, with safeties… just like they’re being told to.
It doesn’t help when you read the college websites and brochures and they read like a marketing ad. “70% of our students receive financial aid”… of course they don’t say how much but the message they sound out is that they help “most” students pay for college.
I have not heard a single college rep start their presentation with “can you afford our school?” Or a guidance counselor start a college meeting with “how much can your parents pay?”
I cannot bring myself to blame the kids for not understanding that their parents’ finances may matter most. I don’t blame them for being bitter when they’ve been doing all the “right” things for years, told to work hard and dream big, only to be told that their dream is too expensive.
Schools like Northeastern and Boston University do offer significant non-automatic merit aid to top applicants. Both schools enroll quite a few students who were cross admits at Ivies and other “better” schools that prove to be unaffordable to the family.
Visiting with parents during my 7th grade son’s basketball game today. They are both graduates of UC Davis and hoped their son would be interested in attending. We live in Hawaii. They thought 1) COA was currently around $35,000 (their financial adviser told them this), 2) their son could get in-state tuition after a year, 3) the school might offer merit aid. They aren’t dummies, they just haven’t done any research at this point, and I felt a little bad having to share the correct information. All’s fair in love and war and college aid.
@palm715 …did they listen or look at you like you were crazy and not to be believed? I’ve tried to tip people off sometimes but some of them do indeed look at me like I’m a little nuts!
I have a coworker whose daughter is smart and talented. During her junior and senior years of high school, I occasionally commented to him that financial aid is heavily need based. I don’t know his family income, but I’d guess that it’s in the low 100s. Coworker seemed to not disagree with me about the need-based nature of most FA, but he repeatedly said, “D has a way of getting what she wants.” I.e., she would somehow convince colleges to give her money no matter their merit aid policies or the family’s level of financial need. Guess what. It didn’t happen. She’s now at our very fine state flagship, and coworker is bragging about that, which is fine. But it was interesting that before then, he believed what he believed and he didn’t want the facts to get in the way.
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coworker seemed to not disagree with me about the need-based nature of most FA, but he repeatedly said, “D has a way of getting what she wants.”
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Wow.
There actually was a parent that posted here on CC that said something rather similar. He really thought that once they met his DD, she’d charm them so much they’d pay her to attend.
This thread has a slightly mean-spirited and holier-than-thou tone at times. College costs far too much in this country, and it’s not so much the “clueless parents” that are the problem - it’s the entire system that’s the problem.
As a foreign student who had to find everything I needed on my own, I am ALWAYS dumbstruck when I hear from AMERICANS who just assume their oh-so-precious kids will get some ambiguous aids, be it merit or need based. Really? Do they not even bother about how FA thing work?
I am also surprised that there are STILL people like this in CC forum even though FA has been discussed way more than thoroughly
I don’t think it’s meant to be mean spirited or holier than thou at all, but your other point is completely correct. This whole system of scam pricing where no one knows what the true cost is until AFTER your kid applies and gets their hopes up/ falls in love is entirely the cause of much of this fantasy thinking.
I know a large private university that started a culinary program and began marketing it to clearly poorer students. The cost? Same $70,000 per year " but don’t look at that we have aid and Co-ops!" How is any normal parent who loves their kid supposed to prepare for that kind of idiotic pricing? There’s NO WAY the ROI can make sense and yet that’s what they charge. I know of no other business ( except health care) that gets away with such ridiculous dynamic pricing.
