@4kids4colleges-our state school is U Mich. when she was a sophomore/junior she said she wanted to go there. then a friend and a cousin went to wash u and loved it ( the friend got a lot of help from financial services though, so the cost was similar or less than our state school) so suddenly she was interested in that school. there was a chance at merit aid ,so we said ok apply there. she also applied to a couple ivy leagues that she was interested in, because her counselor felt she was qualified and we were prepared to pay full price for a harvard or stanford, -rightly or wrongly- for the advantages it might have brought in the future. she was not accepted at the ivies, just wash u and michigan, but wash u i donât think has quite the name recognition as the ivies or maybe even U of M. that is why we only applied to a few schools. luckily at least two of her siblings so far said they want to stay in state!
@conpar39 - if your daughter has almost a full ride at U Mich, I donât see why sheâd consider anything else!
So many kids would love to have that option. I didnât realize, while reading earlier, that your Honors-at-State-Flagship was U Mich, which is no ordinary state flagship. We are in MA, and I suspect that even a full ride at our Honors in Amherst, would be worth it vs. full pay at most places (I actually donât think MA gives full ride scholarships though).
WUSTL is a wonderful place - people describe it as âheavenâ a lot of the time. But U Mich is no small potatoes.
@fretfulmother- that is what i am trying to get her to understand. as many of her peers and cousins have gotten into michigan,and it is in our own backyard, and her lowly mother went there, it does not seem like that big a deal to her that she could go there. she also really liked the smaller more personal feel of wash u, but i am not certain that that justifies the extra expense. lots of discussions to be had.
The Kiplinger database says 18% of WUSTL students get merit aid and the average merit award is $7600. Thatâs a lot as compared to 0% of students at HYPSM, but not really a lot of kids or dollars.
Also, that means you have to be in the top 20% of kids accepted to WUSTL. Which is really really high. Since WUSTL has a 16% admit rate, that means you have to be in the top 3.2% of the WUSTL application pool to get merit money. So basically, WUSTL is offering deals to a few kids who got accepted to HYPSM but would have to pay full sticker price there.
But then USC (27% averaging $18k) will offer deals to poach away some kids that would be paying more at WUSTL.
And then Case (58% averaging $21k), Tulane (39% averaging $21k) and Miami (31% averaging $20k) offer deals to poach away the kids that would pay more at WUSTL or USC.
And then Bama offers free tuition to poach kids away from Case, Tulane and Miami.
And so on and so on and so on all the way down the line.
@conpar39 We are in a very similar situation and I have posted on another thread. S was accepted to WUSTL as well. Full pay. He also applied for the scholarships. We had a deal with the older kids that we would pay for an Ivy - my husband says this is not an IvyâŠright or wrong. He can go to Case with great merit or UIUC. His top 3 choices he is now considering. Complicated a bit because he is engineering and music. We are not convinced that SEAS at WUSTL will offer as much on the engineering front as the other schools. It is a $100,000 difference between his other schools and Wash U for 4 years. He loves Wash U as well - whatâs not to like? Idyllic. Working through the decision.
@northwesty When you look at the merit numbers you need to realize that some of the merit (grants vs loans) is given out in the financial aid packet - not just as a merit award when the application is submitted. It is not a transparent process.
@fretfulmother UMass does give free tuition if you qualify based on MCAS testing. However, at MA schools the fees are the bulk of the charges - not tuition.
â@northwesty When you look at the merit numbers you need to realize that some of the merit (grants vs loans) is given out in the financial aid packet - not just as a merit award when the application is submitted. It is not a transparent process.â
For planning purposes, the data says what the data says. If youâve got a 36 ACT, youâll be full pay at Harvard and you may get some merit money at WUSTL. Youâll get more merit money at USC. And even more at Case/Tulane/Miami. Which is exactly what happened with your kid at Case.
If you donât have a 36 ACT, you probably wonât get any merit money at WUSTL. Because thatâs what the data says will likely happen. 82% of WUSTL students get zero.
@northwesty You are right! And he is the zero we expected! Canât count on an acceptance either, so kudos to him. I saw a discussion on the Case forum that indicated much of the money given out in financial aid packets includes grants instead of loans. There is clearly a formula there for every kind of aid, but we are very happy with the merit award he received, and with the opportunities at Case. Ultimately he will need to figure out what is most important to him - he had other merit awards at additional schools - but for a variety of reasons these schools are the ones that resonate with him.
@almostdonemom. i wish you luck with your decision. although my D will probably be very disappointed, the more we mull this decision over the more we will likely opt for our very highly rated state school, u of mich. i just cannot justify paying 250,000 for undergrad, when she can get an excellent education for far less.
My husband and I just informed our junior
@diplomatic- did you have the same decision to make?? Are you also leaning toward the less expensive option?
I believe if you delve deeper into the data, you will find that of that 18% receiving merit aid at WUST, the vast majority are getting the National Merit money, which is relatively de minimums.
Full ride at Michigan is what OOS kids dream of receiving.
Good luck!
Just chiming in here - as someone else reported above, Wash U says they have merit money, but if you do some research/digging, you will find that they are not really generous with merit. Very few kids get it and even then, the amount is not large. Case on the other hand is very generous with merit - same goes for Tulane. When we looked at schools for D, we were interested in merit money - eliminated Wash U and had her apply to Case and Tulane.
yes, just wish they wouldnât tout themselves as a school that does- very false advertising indeed.
Have a friend currently see-sawing between full sticker for WUSTL versus $20k annual merit discount at a top 25 LAC. Sounds like the LAC deal is going to win.
WUSTL is a great school, but they have (for their high #14 ranking) a somewhat low yield of 34%. Compare that to 44% at #13 Northwestern, 52% at #15 Cornell, .
Yield is affected by a lot of factors, but it seems like WUSTLâs price/prestige proposition isnât quite as strong as its ranking and peer schools. If WUSTL doesnât offer the merit deals it used to, families will be tempted by the deals available slightly further down the fancy ladder â Rice, Vandy, Case, Tulane, etc.
@northwesty- by yield i assume you mean the percent enrolled of the those accepted correct?? I do agree with you⊠While my daughter loved the school and would have been very happy there, we are leaning heavily toward her other option- the very highly ranked university of michigan honors college which is 1/3 of the price. it is just hard to justify that price for undergrad.
@conpar39 Still in a holding pattern here. We are favoring a different choice too but have given my son until Sunday to make a decision. He just canât let it goâŠ
@almostdonemom- we sat her down tuesday evening and basically told her that u of m is far more economical. she was quite upset and told us to just âgo put the deposit on u of m alreadyâ. we did not do it yet. she is moping around and i am having second thoughts. but i still cannot wrap my head around the price.
@conpar39 Sounds like we are pretty much in the same place. We have shared our concerns and the reasons we believe his other school(s) are a better choice. I am going to let this play out until Sunday. I hope at that point he has logically thought out the pros and cons and arrived at a good decision. Iâll keep you posted but this is a long week for meâŠ
me too- a very hard week- i will keep you posted as well.