<p>Most of us are in the middle. Not poor enough to get financial aid. Not rich enough for merit aid. I suppose that is why so many go to the state schools. At least there, merit aid is significantly limited. Hypothetically, if my kids got into top schools, they would have qualified for neither aids and I would have been forced to pay full freight, all probably while the rich and privileged given the best growing up, were often attending on my dime and others like me. </p>
<p>Merit aid would not bother me as much if it was paid out of a school’s endowment instead of subsidized by other students.</p>
<p>@piroud321 You do realize that not all of the students who earn merit aid are the rich ones? Most schools that offer merit aid prefer to offer it to underrepresented minorities or people with economic difficulties; indeed, in many cases, that is listed on the school website.</p>
<p>Very few schools offer significant merit aid (note I said SIGNIFICANT; a thousand dollar scholarship for an NMSF isn’t that much of a drop in the bucket) to anyone based on their academic prowess without taking into account their situation. Colleges factor in for this stuff.</p>
<p>I hope that’s true topaz. I was under the impression merit aid did not take need into account at most schools. If I am wrong about that, I am happy.</p>
<p>@piroud321 That is the case at some of the lesser-ranked schools that want the more intelligent students to boost their rankings, but for most schools above a certain academic par, there are very few true merit-based scholarships (there’s a reason Stanford and the Ivies don’t give them).</p>
<p>Yes, just looked up penn. No aid for merit or athletic alone. Good to know :)</p>
<p>Yes, just looked up penn. No aid for merit or athletic alone. Good to know :)</p>
<p>but university of chicago does. </p>
<p>Just so you know, many on cc will argue that your idea of middle class is not middle class. They will say that if you do not qualify for need based aid, that you are in fact “rich”.</p>
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<p>I believe that is your mistaken assumption at least for private colleges. It cost more than ~$45k in tuition to educate a student at a top private college. That is why they dip into their endowment for basic operationing expenses; they also use endowment dollars for financial aid, whether that be need-based or merit.</p>
<p>OTOH, some public colleges, which have much larger class sizes, can educate for less than the cost of tuition, so the full pay are subsidizing the needy. The Univ of California, for example, states this policy/practice clearly.</p>
<p>@piroud321 there are less pure merit aid scholarships available from what I am told-more schools now require financial need to award merit aid which makes no sense to me.</p>
<p>I take it you are not in favor of any aid other than need based-not merit, no athletic, nothing other than need?</p>
<p>I am not sure I understand your point about poor and middle class subsidizing the rich students-first of all how do you define rich? Could you provide some examples where the rich are being subsidized by people making less or having less?</p>
<p>I have no issue with whatever aid schools give or how they define it or what they call it. I don’t even have an issue with how they determine need-my understanding is this aid comes out of endowments and there are schools that are very generous with merit aid that use separate funds specifically raised for that purpose-I believe the University of Alabama is one school that does that.</p>
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<p>While true, it ignores the issue, which is that such colleges do exist and they would just love to matriculate Ivy-level stat kids into their programs. However, perhaps the thinking in the NE is that any non-Ivy, non-Top 10 college is “substandard”, so such kids are not allowed to apply???</p>
<p>@bluebayou I was thinking more top 30 to 40-ish (also the top LACs; and except the UCs, since they’re public). Plenty of bright kids apply to those schools. Indeed, it would be strange if someone with the academic caliber didn’t seek out any schools other than Ivy Leagues.</p>
<p>ok, with the exception of BC (which does offer ~12 full rides for Ivy stats+service), NYU and the publics, that range does have several colleges that are generous with merit money. Even NYU has merit money for kids that they really want.</p>
<p>BU & NEU #41 & #42, respectively are easy safeties for Ivy applicants, and with big money. A few spots down, Miami and George Washington.</p>
<p>Don’t forget URochester! </p>
<p>@uskoolfish You nailed it. Many CCers, (and I have experienced this venom several times) will label any kid that doesn’t qualify for need based aid as “rich.” I won’t go into all the details…but suffice to say the class warfare is alive and well on the cc forums.</p>
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<p>I can confirm that BU offers generous merit aid. I know a few kids that were offered full BU scholarships.</p>
<p>BU,NYU,NEU,GWU, UMiami - rich with lower stats subsidizing the rich with high stats and the poor (probably not many of them if not athletes).
Ivies and other top colleges - most of the Institutional aid probably comes from endowments. Student on finaid may be matched with specific donors, may even have to write about their career plans, provide photo, write thank you notes, etc. Non-elite public colleges may be the closest example where the poorer students might subsidize the richer students with better stats.</p>
<p>Unless the poor are paying more than the true cost of their children’s education after considering financial aid, the poor are not subsidizing merit scholarship winners. </p>
<p>The richer parents are likely to be contributing some of the cost of merit scholarships, but in my experience most of the merit aid comes from specifically funded scholarships. </p>
<p>@ CCDD14 NYU gives out very, very few merit scholarships. Most are for talent (music and art). The MLK scholars program gives out maybe 20 large scholarships to students with or without need. They give no athletic scholarships. The numbers don’t support your theory that lower stat rich kids are supporting the rich with high stats.</p>