<p>One school, we would have to pay $8500 and another $19,500 that to me is a HUGE difference. I expect some gap, but over $11,000 in gap? And this is from the school my daughter attends. I would love for them to attend the same school, but how can I pay the difference, when she already has a gap too.</p>
<p>it depends on the school. some schools are known for being stingy when it comes to fin. aid. and others are not.</p>
<p>OP, it's impossible to tell from your post if the difference in FA packages is due to different COAs, gapping, or even if these are FAFSA or Profile schools, all of which can contribute to a wide range in offers.</p>
<p>A classic case of admit-deny
'
The</a> Best Class Money Can Buy
Technically, you're accepted, says the college, but do not enroll here because you cannot afford it.</p>
<p>Quirk's discussion of the "admit-deny" phenomenon is one of the more useful sections of the Atlantic Monthly article linked above. "However nasty, admit-deny allows schools to avoid the controversy associated with publicly abandoning need-blind admissions." '</p>
<p>I just learned about the admit-deny policy. Without more details, this does sound like it might be the case.</p>
<p>Eek. That Atlantic article is intense. Helpful in understanding what happens to a lot of kids with need, though.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"However nasty, admit-deny allows schools to avoid the controversy associated with publicly abandoning need-blind admissions."
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This would effect yield though, wouldn't it? I know it happens, and it happened to my son at one school. </p>
<p>My son was accepted at a school, and not a dime in merit or financial aid grants was offered. I was convinced that my son received that lousy package because he showed too much interest in that college (2 visits (went to a student shadowing program the second time, where he sat in on 2 classes), submitted his application in early October, and participated in several online chats).</p>
<p>Hm.. I was thinking it might be an admit deny thing. Because my daughter goes there and maybe they did not outright want to deny him. It's not that there was a huge difference in the COA. Believe me, this is my second child and I am very well aware and educated about how financial aid packages work. The other thing is, it gives me very little hope that they will come up with more money for my daughter, who now has a significantly reduced EFC. I sent an email to the director, asking her if it was a mistake.</p>
<p>I still do not understand why colleges do "admit/denies" because it effects their yield. Why wouldn't it be better to just reject, if makes the college look more selective (lowering the % of those accepted)?</p>
<p>This school was not a reach for my son either. His SAT's were higher than their averages and he got into schools that were more selective. I just don't get it. Our EFC for him is $8600 and someone I know with an EFC of $21k, with lower scores and grades got almost the same package. I just am not even sure if the school is a good fit for him compared to the two that gave way better packages, so I am not planning to make a huge deal of it, but I honestly thought I was reading it incorrectly.</p>
<p>Well, the school that I was describing on post #7, was also a safety school for him. He would have gone there, if it had been affordable. They awarded only loans and w/s and we were not about to let him go into that kind of debt. This was the only school that offered him a Perkins Loan. All of the other private schools either offered merit aid, or FA grants, and limited the loans to Staffords (either subsidized or unsubsidized). That is another thing, I have never figured out how they determine who gets subsidized vs. unsubsidized, and why. For example, my son was had 2 public OOS schools. Neither offered merit aid or FA grants or w/s. The more expensive OOS public only offered the unsubsidized Stafford, and the less expensive OOS public (by 4k, so a significant difference in COA) offered a partial subsidized Stafford.</p>
<p>"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>Hmmm.. It says the enrollment managers combine info from credit agencies. Does that mean group info? I didn't think they could access individual info.</p>
<p>hmmm also, perhaps those zip code things that can check income levels. I remember doing some research for another topic and found a web site that gave down to the street level income levels/educational data. That is probably how they do it.</p>
<p>Now I am thinking that maybe he is getting a merit aid award, to make it more reasonable. The paperwork I have says merit awards will be given on April 1. Weird, you would think it would be all packaged all together. The other two schools he has packages for are very similar, even in a similar location to this school. I can not believe the packages would be so different, especially since my daughter goes there and I know what her package was like. One school did give him a Perkins Loan. The other two did not. If he is not getting a 10k merit award, this school will be completely off the list. They said the upper quarter of merit awards had SAT's of 1293 and the lower quarter had 1210. He had 1270.</p>
<p>Totally depressing article, even for those of us who have gotten merit scholarships. Maybe we're not that deserving and are being "bought" by some schools.</p>
<p>What is the solution then, look before applying if universities hv enrollment managers or not? I thought enrollment management was just a title for admission office. Now, I wish I read this article beforehand.</p>
<p>Not all enrollment managers are doing things in a questionable manner. Several examples of responsible enrollment management are cited in the article. I don't think there is any way to know for sure whether or not the enrollment practices would benefit a particular student (although one might be able to take an educated guess). As is often said on CC, just make sure to apply to a nice variety of schools in order to try to cover all your bases.</p>