I want to give an update and also clear-up any bad-press I may have accidentally given Kettering. I talked to Kettering’s financial aid office today. I learned that the State of Michigan’s method of awarding need-based state scholarships and grants based on the FAFSA IS dependent on the first school listed. Since the Michigan Tuition Grant is for private schools, the only way to qualify for that grant is if the first school listed is a private school. Michigan won’t consider that the student needs a private school grant if their first school listed on the FAFSA is a state public school (or out-of-state school). It still seems crazy, but is apparently an issue with the State of Michigan and not Kettering. Next I need to ensure that Michigan public school scholarship (Michigan Competitive Scholarship) will still be awarded if the first school listed is private. Sheesh!
Yah, time for FAFSA not to show the order of schools.
I KNOW I read somewhere, that some consultants had studied that students who list X college first, are 45% (or some high percentage) more likely to attend that college. Therefore FAFSA order is a way of managing yield rate, and financial aid truly is awarded, by some colleges, weighted toward courting students who are more likely to choose X college. (Someone got paid good money to pry out that statistic). Therefore the general advice is to list alphabetically, since that way colleges cannot “tell” which is first or last choice.
Do they even have cause and effect straight? Do students put their preferred school on the list first, or does putting a school first actually cause the student to want to go there? I suspect it’s the former, but the schools are acting as if it’s the latter – that there’s some kind of psychological compulsion effect that drives students towards attending the school that is first on their list, so as long as you compel them to put your school first it will boost yield. Not sure how well that holds up.