<p>so if need based aid is not a hand out…then what exactly is it?</p>
<p>Wooster does offer merit aid to about 1/3 of applicants, but other private schools do that too. This is why I do not understand what is different about Wooster’s merit aid. Wooster’s sticker price is 44,000 which is on the expensive side for a midwestern private school, but is a lower sticker price than many private schools in the northeast, where many schools are at or over 50k. Is that 6,000+ difference in sticker price what you are finding attractive? There are lots of other schools in the midwest that have a sticker price equal to, or less than Wooster.</p>
<p>Oh, and many view merit awards as tuition discounting.</p>
<p>I calll it investment. As a FA receipient, my Alma mater has asked me to set up a FA fund in my name to help other students. What I would give is probably going to be more than what I received 30 years ago. It’s called paying forward.</p>
<p>When people like Berry say that “ethics” is why they advocate policies that would help people like them vs. poorer, but brighter, people, you have to question their own ethics. The real test of ethics is when you do something which does not benefit you.</p>
<p>Then, instead of explaining how it could be more ethical for MIT to turn away some of the most academically qualified applicants simply because they cannot afford tuition, he just doles out labels such as “left wing” or “income redistribution.” Colleges make it clear that they offer financial aid to help attract the best students and a diverse student body. Their ethics in turning away students who could pay more (and perhaps donate more in the future) seem more persuasive to me than Bberry’s ethics.</p>
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<p>Oh, I’m fine with calling it a handout, as long as we also call merit-based aid a handout.</p>
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<p>Need-based aid also discounts tuition. It might not be called that, but that’s the end result.</p>
<p>Berry - maybe you should not post so much on the internet. It’s very good at keeping history. For someone who works at a school you have absolutely no ethic or decency. You are lucky I am still sugar coating.</p>
<p>Ethics is not a concept to which berryberry61 subscribes. You can pretty much figure that out by the need to go on the attack, but people like that always trip up…tracks aren’t always covered.</p>
<p>(cross-posted with oldfort)</p>
<p>sure…but merit-based is earned, need-based is given because parents couldn’t, or didn’t save enough for their child’s college education. </p>
<p>I really don’t see why some are so sensitive about this…</p>
<p>Yes, I agree SlitheyTove, both discount tuition. In fact many merit awards require that the fafsa is completed, because some of those “merit awards” are tied to income as well. All of it is tuition discounting.</p>
<p>Geeps, merit is not always “earned”. Schools are giving money to certain students and not to others. A school in Texas might give the kiddo from PA 15k who has the same stats as the Texas native who is only going to get a 5k merit award, or nothing. That school is doing this to attract that kid from PA. They have plenty of kids from Texas applying, but perhaps just a handful of kids from PA. That kid from PA did not “earn” anything. They are being given a discount on their COA if they go to that school, and it is being offered because of they come from another part of the US.</p>
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As a grad of multiple schools that do NOT give merit-aid … their position is (my words) that any student who gains acceptance is earned the right to attend and should not be forced to look elsewhere because of finances and that is why they provide financial aid … and that ALL students at the schools have earned the right to attend and that they (the school) will NOT cull out a subset of students as more worthy (merit-aid).</p>
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<p>Here on CC we frequently see parents asking about schools that have good merit aid for their kid’s stats, because their EFC is higher than they can afford. These are also therefore parents who “couldn’t, or didn’t save enough for their child’s college education.” </p>
<p>I suppose colleges could award merit aid only to students who can show that their parents have sufficient resources to cover full-pay. That would get rid of all of those troublesome families that are just looking for a handout.</p>
<p>Some modern-day Jonathan Swift would have a field day with this.</p>
<p>Merit aid is no more earned than FA. If there are 2 students with equal qualification, full pay student will get the spot at a non need blind school. For a student to receive FA his stats must be oustanding, at least that’s what my school adcom told me this week.</p>
<p>northeastmom…bottom line is that to get merit aid, you need the stats…that is earned. Yes, 2 kids might have similar stats and one doesn’t get the merit aid…but that doesn’t mean the other kid didn’t earn the aid.</p>
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<p>that is simply not true…and I don’t understand why you want it to be so.</p>
<p>If need -based aid is a handout, what are legacy-based admissions? Certainly they are not anything earned by the kid.</p>
<p>Merit aid might be offered based upon GPA and/or standardized test scores at SOME schools. At other schools, you will never find out how one student is awarded 20,000, another 12,000, and another 7,000. Often, the student was GIVEN a discount labeled as merit aid as a lure to come to their campus.</p>
<p>I’ll leave yabe and others to argue for the logical part of it and I’ll try to romanticize this whole thing. </p>
<p>The other day, my Princeton interviewer told me she chose Princeton over other top unis in the UK (I’m intl) because of the American dream. The notion that working hard will enable you to rise to the top. Would you really rather live in a class-based society, where the movement of classes up is rare or even worse, undoable? </p>
<p>And think about it, geeps, for a low-income kid to be admitted to one of the few select institutions that promise to meet 100% need… that kid has earned it, trust me.</p>
<p>of course they earned it…by getting great scores…but they are still getting a hand out if they receive FA…and I’m not saying that is a negative, just calling it like it is. Again, I don’t see why this is such a sensitive matter for some. If your parents couldn’t afford to pay for college, it’s certainly not your fault.</p>
<p>dictionary.com defines handout as “anything given away for nothing”…I really don’t think need based aid fits this definition. Unless you want to define a 2300 SAT score and a 4.0 GPA “nothing”</p>