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<p>My theory on this is that college double counting on the students who would receive FA as well as merit aid. 5 of her friends out of 123 trustee scholarship recipients would have qualified for some kind of financial aid. I noticed this with several of D’s friends at her college and it’s confirmed by what some posters posted(eventhough some of them might not admit that).</p>
<p>ttparent, I don’t want to leave a false impression! We are not the Gates family–not even close! My spouse and I worked out the logistics of the scholarship program. We contribute to it every year, at a level that is significant for us. But it would not operate without other donors that we and the college recruited, too.</p>
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<p>That’s the basic underlying reality here.</p>
<p>I really think this was just a case of CWRU screwing up her application and not getting it done in time to award her the merit aid she would have likely received. Case historically gives out a lot of “merit” aid. A couple of years ago, they gave non-need-based aid to something like 75% of freshmen who did not receive need-based aid. Many of the kids with need also have the standard merit awards as part of their FA package. I think that they have a hard time attracting strong out-of-state students to Cleveland, and discount tuition accordingly in an effort to keep up the quality of their student body. I haven’t seen any evidence of “Tuft’s Syndrome” there, and they accept a large fraction of their applicants regardless of the interest level shown. </p>
<p>I think it is worth bringing it to their attention after the holidays, maybe with a nicely worded letter about the EA mixup, even if Case isn’t her first choice. It wasn’t my DS’s first choice at the beginning of the game, but it was at the end. It probably wouldn’t have been without the “merit aid” tuition discount, though.</p>
<p>In years past, they had a set formula for their aid levels spelled out in their General Bulletin, and I believe the OP’s D would have gotten the top non-full-ride award, on the order of $25K per year or so. They removed their SAT/class-rank thresholds from the latest Bulletin and may have modified their policies, but I’m guessing they haven’t changed drastically.</p>
<p>Case definitely does not require FAFSA for merit aid consideration. I know that some schools or particular “merit” scholarships require the FAFSA or CSS profile for consideration. Although that strikes me as disingeuous, it’s their money and they can give it to whomever they wish. I would prefer that they be upfront about it, though, and not waste my/my children’s time if applying for “merit” aid if it is truly need-based. Based on what I’ve seen over the last few years, though, Case doesn’t fall in that category.</p>
<p>I’m just wondering if the issue was that OP’s D’s school does not report rank. That’s why I think a polite inquiry could clarify, and if this is the issue, perhaps the GC could write a letter saying where she would rank.</p>
<p>(I agree with NSM that it is best if D does the inquiry, if there is not a clear response after the holidays, and only if she is still serious about attending Case.)</p>
<p>When I sent Son’s first semester transcript to his school last year, his favorite school came up with quite a bit more money on their own. Upon reviewing the transcript, the admissions officer admitted that he had originally missed two AP classes and a math class that added money to the award according to the school’s formula. When your student has narrowed the list down to just two or three schools, it might be worth the effort to ask for a second look at the transcript.</p>
<p>Just as an update and to finish what I started. Admissions counselor stated that all requests for reviews usually are handled in April after all apps. are in but since there appears to have been a problem, they would review and get back to DD within 2 weeks. We got notice today that her App. was reviewed and she was given a great Merit award. All is well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the update spring162, and congratulations to your D!</p>
<p>Thanks for the update - its nice to hear that these things can get straightened out.
Congrats to your daughter!</p>
<p>Congratulations. That’s great news.</p>
<p>If you wait until April, all of the merit aid may be given out to others. If their website states that merit aid is given with admissions, then it should be done now and addressed before the RD applicant’s are given their merit aid.</p>
<p>I think it is perfectly OK for a parent to speak to the financial aid office, not the student.</p>
<p>Great news, spring. Nice to see they corrected their mistake, as your D sounds like a great student. </p>
<p>I’d be interested in which level scholarship (presidents, provost, trustee) she got, but I understand if you’d rather not share that.</p>
<p>Best wishes for the remainder of the hunt!</p>
<p>Congrats! What did she get? :)</p>
<hr>
<p>*Quote:
Originally Posted by **QuantMech **
Really, the “merit” awards anywhere ought to be recognized as “recruiting” awards. </p>
<p>tokenadult Quote:: That’s the basic underlying reality here. *</p>
<p>From what I’m learning, in many cases generous FA packages are also often “recruiting” awards. Those with great stats are getting better FA packages; those with so/so stats sometimes get meager FA packages. The term is “admit/deny” - the student is admitted, but might as well be denied because the FA package has gaps and/or large loans.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that many colleges reserve their money for their own interests - getting the best qualified freshman class on campus.</p>
<p>That is great news! so glad to hear they fixed this oversight so promptly</p>
<p>Great news! It definitely pays to follow up on these things.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your daughter. This outcome makes sense! Glad you contacted Case. It really sounds like a paper-shuffling issue–or electronic filing issue.</p>
<p>Also, let me clarify (if needed): When I wrote that the “merit” awards are really “recruiting” awards, I meant that colleges offer these awards because they want the student to enroll with them–but that, of course, is based on the accomplishments of the student. </p>
<p>In agreement with mom2collegekids, I am also inclined to think that the FA awards from some colleges that are “need” based can be set at differential levels according to the college’s interest in enrolling particular students. Can anyone provide information to support/refute this?</p>
<p>DD received a Presidents scholarship :)</p>
<p>*I am also inclined to think that the FA awards from some colleges that are “need” based can be set at differential levels according to the college’s interest in enrolling particular students. Can anyone provide information to support/refute this? *</p>
<p>Yes…the articles about Enrollment Management support that theory…here’s a blurb…</p>
<p>The Atlantic – College Monthly – November 2005 (online of Atlantic Monthly)</p>
<p>*
To decide how to parcel out financial aid, the enrollment manager puts admitted students onto a grid with need on one axis and academic ability on the other. This is called “segmenting the class” or “table analysis.” **The school then adjusts financial aid for students by group, with the goal of increasing the “yield rate” for the most desirable prospects—typically academic stars **and those willing to pay most or all of the tuition (“full-pays”). A school with a revenue problem puts its money toward rich students; a school that’s going after prestige pushes it toward students with high SAT scores. Where the school might be paying more than is necessary to attract a candidate (for a wealthy student with low grades, for instance, or an in-state student with few other options), aid is cut accordingly. Some schools are content to fine-tune their financial-aid packages for different groups by trial and error from year to year. But more-advanced enrollment managers, and all the major consulting companies, use a statistical method called logistical regression to determine how each group will respond to a different award, based on how students have behaved in the past. </p>
<p>One of the basic texts of enrollment management recommends a book about pricing techniques developed by the airlines: Revenue Management: Hard-Core Tactics for Market Domination. Using the logic of the Saturday-night stay and the fourteen-day advance purchase, advanced financial-aid leveraging goes beyond general categories to forecast how much each student is willing to pay, and guarantee the best class at the lowest price. Schools and consultants combine test scores, grades, and class rankings from the testing services and students’ high schools with demographic and financial data purchased from a credit-reporting agency such as Equifax. All this information is eventually reduced to the seven or eight variables that best predict a student’s responsiveness to price. </p>
<p>In the least desirable categories (usually poor students with lower test scores) accepted students are often “gapped”—given a fraction of what they would need to attend, even after the maximum possible contribution from their families. (A school interested mainly in revenue might even give more money to a wealthy student with lousy scores than to a better-qualified poor student.) Some schools leave gaps as high as $34,000 a year. From 1995 to 1999 the average unmet need for families earning over $60,000 either stayed constant or narrowed slightly; for families earning $40,000 to $60,000 it grew by three percent; and for families earning under $40,000 it grew by 27 percent. Some schools have no choice but to gap students once they’ve exhausted their aid budgets. Others will intentionally gap poor students so severely that they decide not to attend in the first place—or, if they enroll, the long hours of work-study and mounting debts eventually force them to drop out. Called “admit-deny,” this practice allows a college to keep poor students out while publicly claiming that it doesn’t consider a student’s finances when making admissions decisions.</p>
<p>“Admit-deny is when you give someone a financial-aid package that is so rotten that you hope they get the message: 'Don’t come,'” says Mark Heffron, a senior vice-president at Noel-Levitz, one of the largest enrollment-management consulting companies. (His financial-aid division currently has 140 clients.) Unfortunately, “they don’t always get the message.” When consulting for a school that gaps students to a point where they are likely to drop out, Heffron encourages schools to call students and tell them that unless they can find an additional source of money—such as a generous relative—they should decline the offer of admission.</p>
<p>However nasty, admit-deny allows schools to avoid the controversy associated with publicly abandoning need-blind admissions. That students are rejected on the basis of income is one of the most closely held secrets in admissions; enrollment managers say the practice is far more prevalent than most schools let on. </p>
<p>“Good luck getting any institution to tell you exactly how they handle ability to pay as a driver in their admit decision,” said one enrollment manager who requested anonymity. “What they will say is ‘We’re need-blind.’ That’s ********. They would never tell you exactly how they do it, but they do it all the time.” *</p>
<p>“Admit-deny is when you give someone a financial-aid package that is so rotten that you hope they get the message: ‘Don’t come,’” says Mark Heffron, a senior vice-president at Noel-Levitz, one of the largest enrollment-management consulting companies. (His financial-aid division currently has 140 clients.) Unfortunately, “they don’t always get the message.” When consulting for a school that gaps students to a point where they are likely to drop out, Heffron encourages schools to call students and tell them that unless they can find an additional source of money—such as a generous relative—they should decline the offer of admission.</p>
<p>I know this is off-topic, but we’ve seen this on CC. We’ve seen lowish-income families who’ve gotten lousy FA packages take out huge loans (Parent Plus, etc). Then after a year or two, the families realize that they can’t keep taking out these big loans. At that point, the students start looking for a transfer and often finishes their degrees by commuting to their local in-state publics. </p>
<p>Aside from the big debt accumulated from frosh/soph years at their “dream schools,” the students end up with diplomas from likely much lower ranked/lower prestigious schools. If the same students had done the reverse, gone locally for 2 years and then transfer, they’d have the diplomas from their chosen schools. Just a thought.</p>
<p>@spring162, post #77: That is exciting news! And I think your posting will be very helpful to anyone in similar circumstances in the future!</p>