No thanks, Harvard

<p>I'm ranked in the top 1% of my high school class, competitive SATs, all AP and Honors classes, massive amounts of community service, and multiple academic and athletic awards...turned down Boston College, Boston University and Northeastern (with scholarship) for the Honors Program at University of New Hampshire (UNH)...basically, I didn't want to spend all my money on undergrad and not have enough for law school. I loved all of those schools in Boston, but who knows...I can like UNH too...that's the thinking right now, I'll learn to like my school. I also have two really close friends there that will make it so much easier...glad to see that others turned down "dream schools" too!</p>

<p>turned down Penn, COrnell, and Emory for Wash U in St. Louis (full ride)...</p>

<p>wow... fullride to washu? impressive</p>

<p>*washu is definitely equal or > prestigous than cornel</p>

<p>I wouldn't say that...^</p>

<p>thanks XO...ive been catching hell from a couple of friends who chose Cornell for Engineering. That makes me feel a bit better...</p>

<p>i know us news isnt everything and its generally kind of shallow to base how good a school is by that, but still, u'd agree if i make the statement princeton is better than colorado state, right?</p>

<p>cornell is #14 and washu is #11, so they're basicly sort of =, cornell being an ivy and older so overtime gained more prestige, but washu is "newer" in terms of gaining the name</p>

<p>Ok, I guess I agree...You said it was equal or more prestigous than Cornell, which is what i disagreed with, b/c I'd say more people recognize Cornell than WashU...It's probably just as good as a school (or maybe better), though.</p>

<p>I think Wash U has done an amazing job in their use of merit aid. It is no different than Division 1 schools providing athletic scholarships. Because of financial reasons plus the aura of receiving an award, students will start to choose the school with the merit aid/scholarships and this will bring up the quality of their student body or athletic teams. Bucknell recently did this when they made an exception and started to give basketball scholarships, they appeared in the Big Dance for the first time this year. Right now Wash U is one of the few highly competitive schools that offers merit aid. But more and more schools have been going this route. Even at HYP, Princeton's 'recalculation' of their financial aid formula is forcing HY to 'recalculate' theirs so they won't lose their students to P. It's interesting that blanket lowering tution doesn't make a large difference in recruiting students (Rice is low and Northwestern tried to lower their tuition a decade ago but raised it back up). There seems to be this thinking that a quality education must come with a high price, the so-called 'Cadillac effect." So if your sticker price is high but you get a discount (scholarship), it is better than just having lower costs for everyone.</p>

<p>Wash U's recent dramatic rise in student body/reputation is almost entirely because of judicious use of merit aid. The better the student body becomes the better the perceived reputation will become. Other schools will eventually follow if they start losing too many students to competitors. Stanford for years tried to snag a higher yield amongst their top applicants (the ones they lose to Harvard) by offering them Presidential scholarships ($5000) to do research (they recently gave it up because they found it didn't make a difference in yield). They didn't call it merit aid but it still is financial enticement. If Northwestern started offering full rides to every kid that got into HYP, I guarantee the quality of their student body would start to rise. This is illustrated in the fact that when they began to pay for National Merit Scholarships ($2500/yr) regardless to whether the applicant needed financial aid (this is Northwestern's only exception to merit aid), in one year the number of National Merit scholars at Northwestern went from 96 to 152 ( <a href="http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/28/4222b175a46c6?in_archive=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/28/4222b175a46c6?in_archive=1&lt;/a> ). And this for only $2500 more a year.</p>

<p>For those who are curious, more on Stanford's recruiting attempts with Presidential scholars, their attempt at offering merit aid ($5000) under the guise of, or also with, depending on your interpretation, a "more favorable financial aid package' (to me a 'more favorable financial aid package' based on merit is merit aid) (from the February 9 2004 Faculty minutes):</p>

<p>"One issue that we didn't cover in the June meeting, but was an important part of our discussions in C-UAFA last year, had to do with the President's Scholars program. </p>

<p>It was started in 1995 as an admission strategy to enroll the top 200 admits, a way to bring in our best student applicants. Those named as President's Scholars received a research grant to help jumpstart their research at Stanford and they received a more favorable financial aid package...</p>

<p>We decided not to give Presidential Scholars awards to the incoming class of 2007, but, instead, to run a 'shadow program' to help us evaluate what the impact has been on the people that would have been Presidential Scholars in the 2007 class...</p>

<p>We found that for the frosh entering in 2003, 46 percent of those that we designated in our 'shadow program' as Presidential Scholars entered the class. In the real Presidents Scholars program in 2002, 45 percent of those so designated entered; for 2001, the yield was 45.5 percent. So it seems to make no difference at all in our overall yield. We then looked carefully, breaking apart the group by intended majors. And it appears that all areas did fine without the formal program, save social sciences. In the social sciences, our yield was down a bit in the 'shadow program'. </p>

<p><a href="http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/february25/minutes-225.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/february25/minutes-225.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>What's up w/ Dartmouth's financial aid?</p>

<p>I had 0 need, but in my package there was a $5000 "gift." No explanation whether it was merit aid or something else. I doubt it was merit aid because I didn't even receive a likely letter (and my stats aren't <em>that</em> impressive). However, through my interview, they knew that I was up for the Morehead at UNC (full-ride plus other perks). Maybe it was to entice me (didn't work), but my best guess is Dartmouth is doing what hormesis3 mentioned:</p>

<p>"It's interesting that blanket lowering tution doesn't make a large difference in recruiting students (Rice is low and Northwestern tried to lower their tuition a decade ago but raised it back up). There seems to be this thinking that a quality education must come with a high price, the so-called 'Cadillac effect." So if your sticker price is high but you get a discount (scholarship), it is better than just having lower costs for everyone."</p>

<p>hey mradio... im kind of curious what your "other perks" are :D</p>

<p>Turned down WashU at St. Louis and Boston College (both with really generous financial aid) for University of Missouri - Columbia. It really boiled down to money and saving for Graduate school.</p>

<p>xokandykyssesox,</p>

<p><a href="http://www.themorehead.org/about/whatisit/benefits.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.themorehead.org/about/whatisit/benefits.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>wow...those as some pretty convincing benefits, mradio...I'd do the same if i were you, too.</p>

<p>Yeah, I wasn't about to pass up a deal like that. Most Moreheads turn down HYPS; I only turned down some of the "lower" Ivies.</p>

<p>I find it kinda depressing how everything just boils down to money..why can't education be free??</p>

<p>Turned down Tufts (40k), NYU (32k), BU Honors (28k) for CUNY Hunter College Honors (free + stipend, laptop, dorming). It was a sad choice I made yesterday, because I really liked Tufts and its environment and such. I have 2 younger siblings and I want to go to med school. There's always transferring out for you all, so its all good :D</p>

<p>Education can't be free because Americans are afraid of the label "welfare state." I was listening to NPR a while back and there was report on how students in England were protesting because tuition to Oxford was raised to $5K or so. OXFORD! $5K!</p>

<p>The quality of european institutions is much lower as a result.</p>

<p>i wouldnt mind if i had to go to oxford... </p>

<p>mradio: those are some INCREDIBLE perks. i wish i knew more about the different kinds of scholarships available. a stipend!? wow. and the summer enrichment program is amazing. congrats</p>

<p>Federally-funded education greatly reduces the overall quality of education. There is a reason that the United States has, by far, the best system of higher education in the world.</p>