Recs for negotiating more merit aid: Villanova and N'eastern (accepted to BC, Wash U, Fordham, more)

Paying for College
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Bottom Line: My daughter is most interested in attending Villanova and Northeastern, but did not quite get enough merit aid to make it affordable for us. Got $5K/yr from Nova and $10K/yr from Northeastern. EFC is $53K, but can’t actually afford that. But don’t qualify for any need-based besides UNSUB Stafford, etc. No grants. Have one kid at Loyola MD on athletic/academic scholarship of $33K/yr, so that’s affordable. Have another one entering college in 2 years though.

Question is, what is best way to try to get add’l merit aid from Nova and Northeastern? I know the max she can get with the Villanova Scholarship is $15k/yr, but that would make a big diff to us. Max for Northeastern seems to be much higher than that based on posts I’ve seen on CC. She is accepted into the following (merit aid offers noted where known): BC (Honors College), Wash U, Case Western ($20.5K/yr), UVA (in-state), William & Mary (in-state), Lafayette (aid still TBD), Fordham ($15k/yr), Richmond (aid TBD), Clark U ($20K+/yr), Dickinson ($20K/yr).

Wash U, BC, Case Western are ALL higher ranked schools academically in just about every ranking, as are UVA and W&M (we live in VA, so in-state costs for us). Not getting money from BC of course, but IS accepted in to Honors College there. If Northeastern would bump up offer to $20k/yr, she would accept and go there. If Villanova would go to $15K/yr, it’s still tough financially, but would probably make it work somehow. So, should we just call up the FA ofc at Northeastern and say, “Here’s where my daughter has been accepted – BC Honors College, Wash U, getting $20K/yr from Case Western, etc., (so she’s on the higher end of the student academic profile at NU to say the least) – but she really like Northeastern and would go there over those others if it was just a little more affordable for us,” and ask if they can find more aid for her, to at least match the $20K/yr from Case Western?

Would they even care that she’s been accepted into Honors College at BC – a rival to Northeastern that I know is considered more prestigious – even though she’s not getting any money there? My argument there would be, “well, it’s worth it for us to pay the extra $40K over 4 years to go to Honors College to BC than to go to Northeastern.” But if it’s $20K/yr less, that’s a different story.

The wrinkle in this whole college decision dilemma is that my daughter plans to play soccer in college, so that’s why UVA and W&M wouldn’t be the easy choices here. Neither of those schools are interested in her for soccer. Nova and Northeastern are, but they do not have any athletic money to offer this year (Nova has a new coach and old coach has committed all the money). All the D3 schools listed would like for her to play there, but of course, none of them can offer athletic aid. And Wash U doesn’t really offer much merit at all, so they’re probably out.

Sorry for the rigamarole, but ultimately, just trying to get help with suggestions for how best to go about getting more merit aid from Nova and Northeastern. Is calling first ok? Better to do it in person? Should I just be straightforward and lay out the situation? Thanks in advance for any recs.

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What are her stats?

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So,ypunwant an additional $10,000 in merit aid from Villanova, and an additional $15,000 in merit aid from Northeastern?

You can ask, but I’m going to guess that if your daughter was in the running for a LOT more merit aid, she would have gotten some or more.

And really, she has some terrific acceptances, and your instate status in VA makes that in your budget.

Both Northeastern and Villanova are moving towards more need based than merit aid awards. The competitiveness of their merit awards has increased a LOT.

But ask…why not.

Honestly, with all,those other great acceptances…I would learn to love one of the more affordable ones. Presumably your daughter applied to these schools because, if accepted, she would be willing to attend.

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Northeastern will not negotiate merit aid.

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What are your DD’s stats?

As mentioned…NEU won’t negotiate.

Nova is notoriously bad with merit. We’ve seen a few posts over the years where frustrated parents of strong students getting tiny merit awards. I just don’t think Nova has the funds.

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Villanova has funds. BUT the students are a strong group…so merit aid is VERY competitive. VERY.

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CWRU would be in range financially, right?

You could ask WashU for merit money (heck, any of them).

Is the few thousand difference (granted, each year) between WashU and NEU/'Nova that big of a deal (if soccer is). Does it have to be NCAA? UVa and W&M may have club-level soccer, which would be a step above intramurals (and probably not that far from DivIII).

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Thanks to all for the help. She has a 4.4/4.0, multiple AP and IBs, 32 ACT. Still working with both coaches to see if they can help them bump up her merit aid. Visiting NEU this weekend. Bummed to hear they don’t negotiate, if that is indeed the case. Only chance then would be to see if the coach can help – which I know a couple of other coaches have been able to do at similar schools. Have a better chance of that at Nova with a new coach who is hamstrung by commitments of previous coach, so they might be more willing to help with merit aid, esp since AS asked to try to honor soccer scholarship offers made by prev coach. Visited CWRU last weekend and liked it OK, but didn’t come back absolutely in love with it. I know we’re lucky to have UVA and W&M as state-school options, and she has a friend playing club at UVA who says it’s a lot of fun and they still fly everywhere, etc. and play other ACC schools’ club teams and all that, but not quite the same as playing varsity for the school. At this point, all we can do is ask, and hope and pray that she somehow is able to get addl aid from one of them.

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@twoinanddone

can you assist with this question regarding what coaches can and cannot do regarding merit aid and athletics

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is it possible that Villanova may have athletic money for her in yrs 2-4?

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It’s probably the 32. It’s a great score, I’m not bashing it (I received the SAT equivalent), but at a school like Nova it probably doesn’t put you in top contention for the bigger merit.

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Northeastern’s 25-75%ile ACT range is 31-34, So your daughter’s score is average, certainly solid stats to get admitted, as she did, but not really for merit. I dont imagine they will give her any additional.

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Lafayette’s 25-75%ile range is 27-31, so a 32 ACT, puts her in the top 25% there, hopefully some chance for merit, and it is a very nice school, one of my Ds was accepted a few years back. Villanova is not known for generous merit or meeting need, either.

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<<<
is it possible that Villanova may have athletic money for her in yrs 2-4?
<<<

Probably not. If they did, they’d use to recruit some JUCO transfer stars.

She would likely need to be invited to walk-on to even be considered. And walk-ons should always assume that there will not be money later on. I’ve only seen a few exceptions to this.

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The OP probably knows as much as I do since she has a son getting athletic money, but the D3 coaches can try and get every dollar in merit aid that the student is otherwise entitled to, but if the student isn’t eligible for a merit award then the coach can’t boost them up. For example, if a non-athlete has to have a 32 ACT to get the ‘chancellor’s award’, then the athlete has to have that too. If the student is qualified to be in the honor’s program but just wasn’t chosen, the coach might have a little pull to get the student admitted to that program and any extra money associated with it. The coach could nominate the student for a leadership scholarship, but the school would be in charge of giving out that money and all students would be considered on the same basis, whether they are a leader in soccer or in robotics.

It’s always worth a try for the coach to try to help, but at some point they are really only able to help with a boost to admissions. At a D1 or D2 school, when the athletic money is given out, it is gone.

I don’t know how UVA does soccer scholarships, but the lax ones are very organized. A certain number/% are given to freshmen, and no other money comes available for 4 years for that group. They don’t do redshirting except for injuries, they don’t change their system. If someone leaves the team there might be more money for others in that class, but usually it is the same 6-8 kids in that grade sharing the same 1/4 of the scholarship money available, so the freshmen share 3 full scholarships, the juniors share 3, etc. I don’t know whether they have tryouts or walkons in soccer, or transfers. Some teams are so good and recruit at such a high level that they don’t, or they may only recruit for upper classes from their club team. Really depends on how good the club team is. I really thing there is very little movement in lax and suspect soccer is the same.

And while club teams are fun to play on, they can be expensive. At some schools it is $5000; depends on who and where they play, how much they travel, etc. Since the point is trying to get athletic money for college, playing on a club team is the wrong direction, adding more to the total cost. My daughter played on her college club hockey team and it was the cheapest we’ve every paid for hockey, about $300/yr but it was still another expense and it was a very low level team, not traveling far, not playing that often. It was just for fun. Other daughter plays on a varsity team and it is a very, very different experience.

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@twoinanddone: Well, it comes down to total cost. Being in-state at UVa, even if they splurge on club costs there, it may be cheaper than being an NCAA athlete at NEU/'Nova. I’d also look at the DivIII schools with bigger merit scholarships more closely.