"Nobody pays the sticker price"???? True or false

Parents Forum
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<p>Our kids HS had a list at the convocation dinner (the night before graduation) that listed all kids who got over a certain amount of merit scholarship $$ for college. It wasn't tacky-- people were proud to be on that list. Now if it had included need based scholarships $, that might have been weird.</p>

<p>We paid <em>almost</em> full freight for s#1 (he got a bunch of small 1 yr outside scholarships and then some small departmental scholarships during his remaining college years, as well as a very small merit scholarship from NMF each year) So, for the first yr we paid about 78% of costs, and for those last 3 years we were paying about 95%. Thats essentially full freight in my book. We took a different approach with the second son, and aren't writing such big checks, thank heavens.</p>

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There is still a surprising amount of wealth at these schools for all of the aid initiatives.

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<p>At $180,001 per year income, one would not qualify for any aid at Harvard (other than the unsubsidized Stafford loan, which anyone can get). In certain areas of the U.S., this amount of income minus $50K off the net, may or may not equal a tremendous amount of wealth, rather it could still be a painful stretch or even impossible for some.</p>

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<p>I know of people with $300,000 plus annual incomes who have to borrow heavily to send their kids to college. Some areas of the country are extremely expensive in which to live.</p>

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<p>Watching kids at Dartmouth, Amherst and MIT, anecdotaly, there are a lot of very wealthy kids. My kids go to their homes, see their cars, meet their parents. There are many, many kids coming from homes that are clearly not the $180K ones.</p>

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<p>I agree that asking scholarship recipients to stand was tacky, but I think it's worse to put dollar figures next to names. Many of the private schools in our area are that blatant. I believe the high schools see it as some type of marketing tool.</p>

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<p>I, too, believe that the statement is false. I also believe that admissions officers can detect whether students' can pay full fare--too many questions are asked on the apps, too much info to indicate whether a student/family can pay. I have believed this for years and still do, esp in this economy. There isn't a college in the world, no matter how large the endowment, that can afford to accept a class full of people w/o some of them being full pays. Call it discrimination if you want--but it takes money to run colleges and if there are two kids, equally qualified and one kid offers up an app that <em>indicates</em> financial ability (father's profession, mother's profession, degrees awarded/colleges attended, kid attended private school), then you can't convince me that the possibly financially qualified kid won't get a second look. No, the apps do not provide all info about a family's wealth and I am sure that there are many surprises (just because a app provides these clues, doesn't mean they are true in terms of finances). One does have to wonder if now, in this economy just what will go on in admissions offices--even tho many profess to be need-blind.</p>

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Harvard counts outside scholarships when calculationg "students receiving financial aid". Thus if student was awarded a small local scholarship ($500._, but parents are paying the other $49,500.) the he/she is counted as FA student.

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I wonder how many Harvard students have the $1000 National Merit scholarship.</p>

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<p>I agree Notre dame. Really, how do the come up with the same percentage on aid year after year at need blind schools?</p>

<p>They have a ton of info--everything from professions to zip code.</p>

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<p>It's funny hmom-just a couple of years ago when our economy was flourishing, I brought this issue up! It was mentioned by several that this just doesn't happen--well, I think it might be happening now, for sure, esp with endowments taking quite the hit! I have long thought that there was too much info asked about parents that could be misleading to admissions officers. Parents are not attending those colleges and that info should only be available to financial aid office-not admissions officers.</p>

70

<p>Some friends of mine thought they were being clever by not sending in fafsa/profile forms. They clearly do not qualify for need based aid. They thought that by not providing financial info XYZ school might award some merit aid. They did not. Their son was a good student, but not a top student for the school. Parents are asked about what they do for a living, and I think that along with zip code was sufficient information for the school. Actually, in that zip code there is a range from extremely wealthy to middle class, but the job info combined with zip code gave a lot information, yet not the entire financial picture. Bottom line is if the financial picture were in the applicant's favor for aid, they would have submitted the FA forms. By not submitting, they revealed a lot too, IMO.</p>

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<p>"...... asking scholarship recipients to stand was tacky, but I think it's worse to put dollar figures next to names. Many of the private schools in our area are that blatant....."</p>

<p>My kids school lists scholarships in a newsletter. My D's BFF listed "$7.00 application fee waiver"!</p>

<p>With regard to schools Knowing your financial needs; On the commonapp, couldn't it be as simple as checking yes or no about whether your applying for financial aid? I believe schools that say they are need blind are, but that's not most of them.</p>

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<p>exactly, hmom5!</p>

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<p>Most merit aid, esp at private institutions is tied directly to financial need. And, being a private institution, you have to play by their rules. Maybe those rules will be changing along with our changing economy.</p>

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<p>"Most merit aid, esp at private institutions is tied directly to financial need."</p>

<p>What? I thought the whole point of merit aid is that it's not tied to need.</p>

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<p>I strongly disagree with the statement "Most merit aid, esp at private institutions is tied directly to financial need." It all depends on the school. The following highly rated universities have three types of aid - merit only, need only and a combo of need and merit. The merit only is just what the name implies - it is awarded without any consideration to need. The schools that immediately come to mind are; Duke, Emory, WashU, Rice, Chicago, Vanderbilt.</p>

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<p>In general, the question is not if "Nobody pay a sticker price" but how to position yourself to pay as little as possible or pay as much as you can afford. That is very doable goal but it reguires strategic planning. It might be too late to start this type of plannig during your senior year.</p>

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<p>The question of filing or not filing finaid forms is what is on my mind. On the one hand, I believe from all the calculators I have used that we will not qualify for need-based aid, and so why apply, since it might dampen D's chances for admission, especially now, when they must be looking for full-pay students at many schools.</p>

<p>If D does get into one of these highly competitive schools, we figure we will have the choice of whether we want to empty our already diminished savings accounts further and/or borrow to make it happen, or accept a merit offer from a lower-ranked school. I think we CAN make it happen if we choose to. It just may not be the wisest thing to do. The money we had earmarked for college has shrunk a lot and we would be spending a large amount of our financial cushion.</p>

<p>But I am told that one should always file the forms in case one suffers a sudden financial setback (the forms set your financial baseline) and also should you want to get a Stafford loan, you have to file the forms. Also, some people say, you never know, even if the calculators say you won't get anything, if they really want your kid, you might. But since by definition these are "reach" schools, that is unlikely to be the case. D is in range but not at the top of the range for these schools. She is one of very many qualified applicants but not a star applicant for these schools.</p>

<p>So now we did not check "applying for aid" with the reach schools, but I am thinking I should send in the forms anyway. However, according to one poster, you can send in forms later if you want a Stafford loan...so...should I send them in or not? Will it matter?</p>

<p>They will see our salaries (pretty good but we are not lawyers/doctors/corporate chieftans), and the fact that we still have money in non-retirement savings. Not a huge amount, but a little nest egg. We live in a very expensive city, and we are in our late fifties, so we don't have a lot of time to recoup the money lost in the stock market.</p>

<p>I am rambling now, I know...but I don't know whether to file CSS/FAFSA at the reach schools or not. I did file at one school that requested it for merit aid. They gave D a small merit award and a Stafford loan. I am not going to file forms at several schools that have already offered nice merit scholarships. There wouldn't be a point, since the price at those places has already been nicely reduced.</p>

<p>Anyone care to offer an opinion?</p>

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<p>We were in the same position, and did file Fafsa and CSS for all schools but did not qualify for any fin aid based on need. D did get merit aid to 2 schools, but not to her top choice schools. In retrospect, think filing forms was probably a waste of time. If we had bought a McMansion and upscale cars several yrs ago, we'd now qualify for lots of aid. Living in a very modest home, driving old cars, and saving for retiremt seemed like the responsible thing to do at the time, but savings now prevent D from qualifying for any fin aid. So, we'll probably be paying sticker price. Glad to see some others here are in the same boat!!</p>

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<p>If you feel like you can afford the first year, then you probably wouldn't get aid at need-only-aid schools. Not needing aid will increase her chances of admission at need-aware schools. Ask the schools if she can apply for aid starting in the second year (at our two Ds' schools they can); if yes, problem solved?</p>

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<p>Yes that was the point of not applying for aid. We will not get it, very likely, so why dampen her chances by being in the "applying for need" category. I am told that it's the savings that make you ineligible for aid. Supposedly they do take parental age into account, but I don't see that reflected in the institutional EFC. I should actually run the calculators again, since things got worse last month and the balances are even lower than they were when I first did it. But this is a good suggestion. I will call the schools and check into it.</p>