<p>"The wretched economy has taught many of the nation's college-bound seniors a hard lesson: You can't always get what you want.</p>
<p>In a survey to be released Tuesday, 71 percent of high schools reported that more of their students are forgoing their "dream schools" this year than in previous years. And there is little doubt money is a big reason.</p>
<p>"With the exception of one or two students, it was THE determining factor in their decision," one high school official wrote. Said another: "Parents were willing to pay for prestige in the past. This year they wanted prestigious schools IF the financial aid packages would work for them."</p>
<p>The survey was conducted by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, made up of high school and college admissions and financial aid professionals. This is the first time the organization has done such a survey; it set out to study students' picks in light of the economic downturn. More</a> college-bound grads ruling out plan ?A? - Personal finance- msnbc.com</p>
<p>Well, sure, it is not surprising. Consumers had to tighten their purse strings, and college is a big ticket item! If one does not know how to put food on their table today, or how they are going to make their next mortgage payment, electric payment, etc., college is really on the back burner.</p>
<p>Queens that is a good question. I don’t see the economy suddenly taking off between now and when the next FA packages come out. Even if it did, how many people are going to feel secure enough to spend every last cent on college? Many people had their retirement accounts, college savings dwindle to half, and their home values plummeted.</p>
<p>Probably, it is balanced out by record number of applicants. And I believe I heard that more people are put on waiting list this year, probably colleges can pick out the ones that can afford to pay from the waiting list. If this was the case, then I imagine they’ll try to do the same thing next year. This is all speculation, of course, but I wonder how many need blind schools get the financial aid office involved in the waiting list sorting process.</p>
<p>Perhaps they really can’t be need blind anymore, then. An economically diverse student body may become obsolete & will be made up of full freight or almost full freight students. I agree with northeastmom, it is really going to take some time for the economy to bounce back & things are not going to change that much for Class of 2010.</p>
<p>I don’t think the economy is bouncing back anytime soon either and even after it does, it will take a while to loosen those purse strings. I figure that the mid-first tier privates (somewhere from rank #25-75) that gap will be a good admission value for a full pay or near full pay kid.</p>
<p>Parents have always had to make tough decision based on finances. The difference this year is the parents feel empowered to talk about it; previously they would shift the talk of choices to other factors, to save face. These days, poor is PC. </p>
<p>And I don’t think we will see any serious turn around for quite a while. The high flying economy was fueled by debt. Vast amounts of wealth were wiped out. And with the federal government racking up debt at a stupendous rate, remaining capital for business will be scarce, stunting business recover.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom: then the question remains: “If a full pay student has a better admission chance now in the #25-#75 school range, is it necessarily a good academic fit for them or too much of a reach”…Not sure if I’m making sense…if I’m not, let me know…</p>
<p>I agree with toadstool. I don’t think we will see any serious turn around for quite a while. The Midwest 2Kids_ are not eligible for need-based aid. We expect to be encouraging our second college kid even-more-strongly-than-the-first to look at in-state schools and schools with good merit aid. There are many wonderful colleges where tuition will be $7 to $17K per year (publics - and privates with, say, a $10K or half tuition merit scholarships), not tuition of $35K with no possibility of merit aid.</p>
<p>What does that mean for next year? I think next year might be a good year for the kids who do not need to worry about money at all to apply to schools like Georgetown or Tufts (good schools that don’t have any or much merit aid available); I think they are, in theory, need blind, but I think schools like this might end up having more spaces for full-pay kids because the applicants might be include more full-pay kids. </p>
<p>I understand, rodney, but I can’t answer your question. I guess that depends on the child and the college environment. Some small LACs are very proactive in helping students succeed, whereas a marginal admit in a large Uni may get into some trouble.</p>
<p>While it is unfortunate that a tough economy caused it, I think it is a great life-lesson now being learned by some parents and some students. College for most is a vocational school kind of investment. The key being investment. If 30k in college bills nets a job that pays 55k yr, then to many that is better than at 100k college bills for a job that pays 70 yr. The numbers are my own example merely to demonstrate that a greater debt(often from the dream school) reduces the quality of one’s lifestyle for years, and for most, the lifestyle is the primary reason for college.</p>
<p>Interesting, since I have sort of a counter-example from my (now-former) undergrad institution. </p>
<p>While the Honors program ended up with tons of students who turned down good private schools (like usual, but in greater numbers this year), at the very, very top of the applicant pool a surprisingly high number of students turned down the top scholarship for the top 5 schools instead. </p>
<p>Given the conventional wisdom that students would turn down more expensive private schools in exchange for a full ride at a state school, I was pretty surprised by this turn of events. Any guesses as to why that happened?</p>
<p>vig: is it possible that after the “top 5 schools” gapped 100% FA, these schools became more or as affordable as the honors program at the state U? Or possibly a minimal difference in cost led these students to the privates?</p>
<p>Another question: If student’s who can afford full-pay in this queasy economy find more room at highly ranked privates, does that mean we’ll see the average admissions stats (GPAs, SATs, etc) move downward? Or am I (as often is the case) confused?</p>
<p>^^I’m not sure the change will occur at the “highly ranked privates” in that they have more than their share of kids with high stats to choose from…with or without full pay…I think Queen’s Mom was referring to privates a little lower down on the food chain…I would imagine we will start to see the stats at these schools decline ever so slightly if this pattern of full pay preference continues…but not sure how significant that will end up being…</p>
<p>I have been waiting for a thread like this and if I could take it one step further, the middle class was hardest hit. Low income families receive significant need based financial aid where they can get in and wealthy and upper middle class families don’t need financial aid.</p>
<p>Rodney: The schools that are #25 - #75 get more qualified applicants than they can admit so I think the kids that get admitted will still be fine academically. It’s just that more of them will have parents who can pay the full price.</p>
<p>vig180: The answer to your question was alluded to, the top schools give incredible financial aid to the middle class, well Harvard, Princeton and Yale anyway.</p>
<p>And Queen’s Mom is right to take the group of schools beginning at #25 as no longer being need blind, I think the really top schools will continue to be so.</p>
<p>Judging by the other thread about Reed College, low income families are being hit because financial aid dollars aren’t enough at all but the top schools. Because this economic downturn has hit financial and other professionals so hard, the stock market and property values–even upper middle class families are reeling.</p>
<p>I think everyone is hit…except the mega rich.</p>