I’ve heard this from others many, many times concerning college admissions, specifically with regard to financial aid. Many of my family members claim that colleges who offer little or no merit aid will find a way to bring exceptional students into the college if they want them that badly, even if they do not qualify for need-based aid but cannot afford the college otherwise. I, however, do not believe this. With so many extremly bright, accomplished, exceptional students applying for very selective colleges, I don’t see how any of these institutions would be willing to risk their reputation by bending or manipulating the rules for one student, especially when there are five other students in line more than willing to pay tuition.
So, I guess my question is: are my family members right? Or is my cynic warranted?
Depends, if you are good enough and the school is bad enough, your family is probably right. However, if it is even a decent state school the answer would be no, there are usually many students more qualified with the money.
If colleges had a fund to recruit the top students, why would the fund be secret? Seems like it would be a better recruitment strategy to make the existence of this merit money widely known to increase the number of applications from top students.
Financial Aid is heavily regulated; offices are audited annually to ensure they are consistent with how they administer aid. They must have policies and follow them. Yes, there can be appeals for need-based aid and the schools can respond accordingly using their professional judgement, but if there is favoritism and candidates are treated differently under the same policy, schools will be fined and they could lose their ability to administer federal aid (stafford loans, pell, etc).
Need based aid is extremely limited by income @halcyonheather . There are a number of reasons that would cause that situation other than parents not willing to pay including job loss , illness . Someone may miss the threshold for need based aid by mere dollars and simply be unable to afford it.
I believe the short answer is no. Most universities have merit scholarships (some are guaranteed others are competitive), and financial aid. There are some schools that have a merit component to some of their need based grants or scholarships but they will not be your most competitive universities. One could argue that competitive scholarships fall under this category but there are usually very few of them.
One danger of that type of reasoning is that if you don’t get that super secret scholarship then do they not want you enough? This that time of year where reality can really sink in for a number of very good students. They end up accepted to universities they simply can’t afford to attend. If they haven’t planned for a school that they know they can afford they up either going to a school they really don’t want to attend or taking a gap year and regrouping or the worst option, the family takes on huge debt to allow the student to follow their dream.
@halcyonheather LOTS of people do not qualify for need based aid and their parents would like nothing more to be able to pay to attend the school of their dreams but unfortunately, the real world prevents them from doing so. Wow.
For some schools that give merit, the aid is tied by the donor’s wishes and may be limited to a certain amount per grant. For an overly simplistic and made-up example, you may have cured cancer but the cured-cancer grant into Johns Hopkins may have a $10K limit because that’s how much income each year on average the fund’s principal generates. They may be delighted to finally find someone who cured cancer, and are delighted to be able to extend those funds and please the donor, but they only have $10K to give.
They could potentially go back to the donor and ask for more money or to rewrite the terms of the grant, but that would probably take time and would potentially disrupt the relationship of the donor to the school, if only temporarily.
And as others have pointed out, it’s rare, really rare to find someone who is that special.
Right, for the generous non-merit schools, they’ve got exceptional kids lined up around the block, down the street, and further. And plenty of kids who need aid and are in tough family circumstances, to begin with.
And so many non-merit schools just dont have the extra funds to give. They have enough trouble helping truly poor kids, sometimes, barely.
You’re learning not to go on hearsay. Good. Look for merit schools. Some of them are the ones that might work to get you.
I have gone back to admissions with some private colleges and have had slight success. They might find you a grant for a few thousand dollars or offer work study but nothing fantastic vs their first merit scholarship offer. Son has 1300 SAT and 4.6 weighted GPA good EC’s. Good luck
It depends on the school and the other applicants who are accepted. Take a look at some of the deferral and waitlisted threads on CC. High stats kids are being bridged and waitlisted . There are no guarantees. Embrace your cynicism @insertcleverpun. It will serve you well and may prevent you from experiencing major disappointment .
But we’re talking about the very top universities (because most other schools have merit aid), right? They are known for having great need-based aid even for high-income families. I was under the impression that HYPSM, etc. are affordable for almost everyone who gets in, and the difficulty is being admitted in the first place.
Lots of top schools have no merit. That’s what ‘meet full need is’ (I know you know, HH.) And great need aid is in the eye of the beholder. Just saying.
@halcyonheather Impressions and families’ individual financial circumstances are not equivalent. We cannot afford our EFC at top schools even if they are “generous.” It has nothing to do with our not wanting to pay, but our inability to do so. Our kids are far better off seeking large merit scholarships.
@halcyonheather Our federal EFC is absolutely a joke and in no way something we can actually afford to pay unless we want to stop saving for retirement and/or default on med school loans (hell no in both cases). Also, many private colleges (and I assume this is the case at the ‘tippy tops’) have their own secret institutional formulae for determining what THEY think our family contribution “should” be which may or may not have anything to do with what we could actually pay. Often there is a very large gap in what schools say we can pay and what we can ACTUALLY pay.
This is almost as bad as “if you’re low income, you’ll get a free ride.” At least with OP’s version there’s an assumption of a certain level of merit. I think low income students with good, but not stellar, stats are often led astray by well intentioned people. They hear above average stats for their area and think the kid’s a lock for a full ride somewhere. Sadly, I don’t think that’s true for most of them.
@austinmshauri I hear this one a lot. Lower income students without tippy top stats don’t have many options, but many people, including GCs, tell them otherwise. I’m working with several of them right now. One parent told me her child has a 3.2-3.3 GPA and that the school admins keep telling her that she shouldn’t worry because her daughter’s course rigor will make schools give her a full ride. Not so.