<p>I'm curious to know what Hofstra University in New York has been offering vis a vie scholarships? I've read from the College Board the average is $10,000 but what wonder if really a good student wouldn't get more.</p>
<p>3 years ago my son was offered 16k and admission into their honor program. They did require a climbing gpa, I believe, so that the 3rd semeter required a 3.2 to keep the merit aid (first semester was a 3.0, and 2nd semester a 3.1 was required). The last time I looked their average FA showed fairly big gaps, and that was one deciding factor for my son not to matriculate there. If he lost his scholarship, the FA would not pick up the amount of money we needed to make the school affordable for us, in our opinions.</p>
<p>I am thinking that “merit aid” at a private university should be called something else – like “scholar’s discount.” Many of the merit aid amounts that scroll by my screen are in amounts like 8 or 10K [Hofstra was generous!] on a college that charges $45-48K to attend.</p>
<p>A flat 10 or 20% DISCOUNT is a more honest way to describe these incentive amounts.
When I first hopped on CC and kept reading about parents pointing other parents to schools with “merit aid,” it took me awhile to do the math and realize that these folks are talking about, often, a discount, not a big chunk of the tuition.</p>
<p>The big question is…WHY are these schools sooooo freaking expensive???</p>