My child applied to Pepperdine as a safety school. Got in to one Ivy, a few middle-tier schools, and Pepperdine. Most of the Ivies and even some lesser schools do not give merit aid. Instead they give grants based upon need. At HYPS the parents can have a combined income over $200k and still not have to pay list price for college.
Anyways, my child had stats that should have been well within the range to get a scholarship–perfect 4.0 uw and top SAT scores, national recognition in science competition and tons of service hours both home and abroad…only no scholarship.
I called Pepperdine to find out if there had been a mistake or if we could appeal and was told, very condescendingly, that parents always think their child is better than what they are and I should just be proud my child got accepted to Pepperdine. The person didn’t even offer to pull the file and look.
Did someone steal their endowment money? What’s the deal? Oh, and did I mention we are CoC? My child got $5,000 CoC scholarship from Pepperdine but received 6 TIMES that amount in grants from Ivy school. Guess where my child is going this fall? It won’t be Pepperdine! Its too bad too, because although it was a safety school, it probably would have been where my child would have picked had the scholarship been even reasonably competitive.