I’m thrilled that my child was accepted to her first choice private school, and she received strong financial aid but no merit aid. Is this surprising? Looking at the CC thread on this school, it does seem that they offer merit $$. Is this something that is reasonable to try to appeal? She would love to attend, but her other serious option is our state’s flagship public university’s Honors College, where she’s been accepted/invited and tuition would be waived (family employment).
Obviously the two schools are not comparable (private/public), but that’s actually our family’s comparison. Can anyone offer advice about requesting merit aid if it wasn’t offered with acceptance? Her letter of acceptance was very personal and enthusiastic, so I was a little surprised that she wasn’t offered any merit. Do folks usually get one need-based) or the other (merit-based)? Thanks!
From reading your other threads, it appears you are taking about Brandeis. The school doesn’t have any guaranteed merit aid awards. They are all competitive awards, and are determined by the college. It appears your daughter didn’t get merit aid.
I will add…if she had gotten merit aid, this would have likely reduced her financial need…and her need based aid would likely have been reduced. I don’t believe Brandeis stacks merit and need based aid.
The school has decent need based aid. Is this an affordable option for your family given the aid she did receive.
Thanks @thumper1
I didn’t understand what “stacked” meant, but your response makes it perfectly clear. Yes, I do believe we can make it work financially, and we were very happy with the need-based $$ package that Brandeis offered. It’s just that her other option is so much less $$ and is still a terrific school. Our sensible child is heavily influenced by financial considerations. She’ll make the choice that’s right for her, but I wanted to understand the situation better.
Yes, of course @thumper1! Added to that is the fact that she would get a tuition & fee waiver at the public flagship bc her dad is staff there. The financials make it hard to say no (but I hope she will)!
Our daughter was in a similar position with her final two choices…except she didn’t have a great need based offer at the expensive school. First choice was full pay private. At her second choice, our costs to send her would have been about $10,000 a year.
BUT we had the money discussion before our kids applied. We never expected DD to get a huge scholarship anywhere…she wasn’t a particularly strong SAT scorer…but had a great GPA. When she got the award, we reminded her that we had made a commitment to pay for any school to which she got accepted…and the decision should be based on factors other than costs.
I will say…it was hard for me to see her walk away from such a great offer…but she did. She chose the more costly school. And really…it was the better choice for her as it fit all of her wish list criteria for college.
It sounds like your daughter is in a win win situation like ours was. The decision should be hers assuming you don’t have financial constraints.
Good luck to her! I’m sure she will thrive at either school.
Oh man! We just learned that her total cost to attend the honors college at UMass would be $4300 per year. No loans. It’s becoming harder to imagine she will choose Brandeis, which would cost $27,500 per year. That’s a great price for Brandeis, and yes we could swing it with income, loans, and her 529 and everything else. But why?
It’s her decision… I come here to obsess and keep from talking about the decision too much with her!
@Yaskwhy maybe it’s time to start offering the 529 as an enticement in her decision.
You can pass the 529 down to her(our state lets us reassign it easily). She can keep that as seed money for future kids or pay the taxes and cash it out for whatever.
That sounds like a no brainer to me! Especially if some loans were required for her to attend Brandeis. To be a college grad with no debt and a little nest egg would open all sorts of possibilities.
I would think so, too. But it seems important for her to be able to come to that conclusion herself. There’s still a month for her to deliberate, and I want her to fully appreciate and congratulate herself for her accomplishments related to college application and acceptance. This has been a really rough year, as for mist HS Seniors.
She attends HS in Amherst, and therefore attending UMass does not seem like a very big accomplishment. It’s a safety/default for most local kids. I want her to appreciate that she was accepted to a great private school in a wonderful location, with enough financial support to make it possible. That’s a big deal!
Then we’ll see if she recognizes that being able to attend a top school in its honors program without any debt is the bigger accomplishment. Time will tell.
Now you need to drill down. How are the professors in her intended major at each school. How are the internships. Look at the core curriculum. Where do kids go after graduating from each of these schools. $27500 for college is pretty good imo. But, you have to decide as a family if that is affordable. Btw, we are full pay and our D will graduate loan free. Only because we are really frugal, Every family needs to make a decision that works for them.
For anyone still following this thread, we checked out the UMass employment benefit, and they cover 60% of tuition and fees. There was talk of covering 100% but that benefit never actually came to fruition. So for our costs, we’re looking at roughly $12K/year at a great large public R1 university’s honors college, or $27K/year at a great smallish private R1 university. Housing and food are indubitably better at UMass. Both schools have terrific faculty and research opportunities in biology, and I know we’re very fortunate to have have such choices. Thanks all!