<p>Not get merit aid?? Wouldn't it be better served to be used to defray the cost to those who actually need the aid??? I have friends who make well over 200K+, and are going to great schools for less then 1/3 the cost of a full paying student...This should get interesting ;)</p>
<p>This is the rationale at the ivies and most top colleges but some colleges need to use merit aid to attract good students which in turn attracts less good but full pay students by improving their rankings.</p>
<p>Merit aid is useful for colleges in attracting top students. Poor students as well as affluent students can be recipients for merit-based aid.</p>
<p>For a college trying to provide a high caliber education to high achieving students, they need to make sure there are other high-achieving students at that school. Students who can work at a certain level want to know they will have academic peers to work with.</p>
<p>I understand what you’re feeling. One of my kids goes to a need-based-aid-only private college, and the other has a mix of merit and need-based aid at a public u. We are definitely in the “need” catagory. But I do think there is an important place for merit-based aid from the schools that provide it. For one thing, there are MANY families whose students are strong enough to get merit aid at a great school, but the families cannot get need-based aid, but also can’t write a check for 40-50K per year.</p>
<p>If there was one piece of the picture I could change to make education affordable to the most number of people, I would require that every student be able to get an in-state public univ. education without debt. I have much more of an issue with capable students not being able to afford ANY college than I have with schools enticing the high-achievers with merit-based aid.</p>
<p>I think there are serious flaws in the pricing model for many colleges/unis used to set the book cost of tuition/room/board/fees. I think there are serious flaws in the financial aid model. I would not be surprised if there were some major shifts in both over the next decade.</p>
<p>This is the rationale at the ivies</p>
<p>Well, not really. At ivies, if they gave merit aid, nearly everyone would qualify.</p>
<p>some colleges need to use merit aid to attract good students</p>
<p>…who help the school look good. Also, by having higher stats students on campus, it makes it easier to attract/hire better profs, who do better research/publishing, who help the school get better grants/recognition, and with it all…the school rises in the rankings.</p>
<p>*Not get merit aid?? Wouldn’t it be better served to be used to defray the cost to those who actually need the aid??? *</p>
<p>It depends- better for whom?</p>
<p>There are already many top schools, which only offer need based aid.
There are also good but not as toughly competitive schools that offer merit aid, or there are honors programs at public schools for students who can’t quite make it into ivies or other top schools with merit aid- yet are concerned about enough rigor.</p>
<p>I have friends who make well over 200K+</p>
<p>Which- if you read CC and the newspaper- is still pretty much middle class
, and are going to great schools for less then 1/3 the cost of a full paying student…</p>
<p>So they received merit awards? good for them.
The policies of the schools apparently supported what they could add to the school and also didn’t think that their income was exorbitant enough to warrant full pay.</p>
<p>It’s not true everyone would qualify for merit aid at ivies as they could set the bar anywhere theyy want it. These and other top schools choose to use their money for need based aid because it’s an institutional philosophy. </p>
<p>Schools use merit aid to ‘buy’ students that would not otherwise attend. It’s a very successful way to get upper middle class kids whose parents can’t afford their EFC–and there are many.</p>
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<p>HHAHAHAHA. No. </p>
<p>That’s not middle class. That’s lower UPPER class. People who make 200k make more than a senator does. They are not “middle class”. They may spend so much that they have to live a middle class lifestyle to pay off their housing/car/whatever debts, but they are not middle class. Not by tax-bracket, not by income, not by anyone’s standards but a millionaire’s</p>
<p>It’s not true everyone would qualify for merit aid at ivies as they could set the bar anywhere theyy want it.</p>
<p>Sure, but what would be the point of setting it at - say - 2400 SATs/36 ACTs and 4.0+ GPAs? You’d still have too many qualify…and you’re not getting “better kids” because those with 2350 SATs and 35 ACTs are just as good. You’re not gaining anything. You’re not helping the school “look good.”</p>
<p>Merit money is an investment in the school. If it’s a public u, it’s often funded by donors who want to help the school improve itself. </p>
<p>A school doesn’t improve itself if the money is just given to kids with need who may have low/moderate stats. Schools with limited scholarship money will sometimes tie need with high stats, to ensure that the money is still going to a student who will help them look good.</p>
<p>Yeah… 200K, middle class? Not even close.</p>
<p>Not all schools that give merit aid have auto aid for given stats. Many just choose who they want to entice with it. Those they really want and those their enrollment managers tell them won’t enroll without the discount.</p>
<p>^ Knox gave me a few thousand that was basically “just because”, after I had a good interview. I submitted for a writing scholarship, and won that, but they added another scholarship to it to entice me. It was nice, but not auto aid for stats.</p>
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<p>How many times have I read where a family whose EFC is 1/4 of their income- can’t afford their EFC & they insist they are middle class- even though their EFC is $50,000.</p>
<p>I have asked and asked- and I can’t get anyone to give me a range- If you are getting a Pell, than your income is too high- but as far as a top range for middle class- haven’t seen a committment.</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s a very slippery term, expecially when it pertains to a perceived social class. Just from an income point of view, though, 200K/yr would put a household in the top 3% or so according this data. It’s from 2005, so there would be some adjustments, but those adjustments would likely lower the income distribution of the real middle class, not increase it.</p>
<p>Household income distribution:
Bottom 10% - $0 to $10,500
Bottom 20% - $0 to $18,500
Bottom 25% - $0 to $22,500
Middle 33% - $30,000 to $62,500
Middle 20% - $35,000 to $55,000
Top 25% - $77,500 and up
Top 20% - $92,000 and up
Top 5% - $167,000 and up
Top 1.5% - $250,000 and up
Top 1% - $350,000 and up </p>
<p>[American</a> middle class - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class]American”>American middle class - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>[American</a> middle class - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class]American”>American middle class - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Here you go, 200k is middle class, upper middle class but still</p>
<p>I’m not seeing that. (Although I’m not saying it’s not there, I’m just not seeing it – too much speed reading maybe.) Can you quote where in that article it says 200K is in the “middle” of any income distribution?</p>
<p>My point is families who can afford,or close to afford,great schools shouldn’t be given any $$$,it should be given to those who actually NEED the money…Can’t believe my liberal slant as a mid-life Republican :)</p>
<p>I suppose I should have added a TIC.
I am fully aware that $200K is much more than most families will make in a year, even if they have three full time working members.
However- families who are planning to send their kids to college are already an elite bunch, even before counting income.
My point seems to be missed & that was - the schools that are offering a great deal of merit money - are likely offering it to students who otherwise could be attending schools that are more competitive, but only offer need.
By attracting " higher" ranked students- they could theoretically argue that everyone benefits.
The other students who have more intellectual peers, the profs who have a higher level of of challenge in the classroom and the school who love to have those scores on their USNEWS report.</p>
<p>Merit aid is also open to all who can meet the standard- unlike need based- which depends on your parent’s lack of income.</p>
<p>from the wikipedia article</p>
<p>Upper middle class (15%)</p>
<p>Highly educated (often with graduate degrees) professionals & managers with household incomes varying from the high 5-figure range to commonly above $100,000</p>
<p>the next bracket is the Upper class (1%)</p>
<p>Top-level executives, celebrities, heirs; income of $500,000+ common. Ivy league education common</p>
<p>Since merit aid seems to go to kids who choose to go to a school that is maybe a notch down from the very best, most selective one that they could possibly get into, I would think that if there is a kid whose family can truly, comfortably afford to write out a $50+K/year tuition check, there would be very little incentive to accept merit aid. Why not just go to the more selective school? The point of the merit aid is to lure that top student to attend the not-quite-as-top school, right?</p>
<p>Those would be families with so much money coming in, and already put away, that a quarter of a million dollars per kid on college education is a drop in the bucket. There are families like this. More than the ones you see on t.v. spending $100K on a sweet 16. But there is a big gulf between that kind of money and $200K/year.</p>
<p>In many parts of the country, a combined family income of $200k/year simply does not put you in that category. It puts you in the category where you can save enough to make those payments if you HAVE to, but if someone were offering a discount, you would surely want to take it.</p>