That is a nice thing at Miami…at least you know your costs won’t increase if your son enrolls.
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^More from the Miami U tuition promise link posted above.
That is a good deal! Schools can raise their costs by several percent every year. To have that guarantee would be very valuable in addition to the scholarship.
Tuition is currently $32,555, room and board runs about $12,000. With $19,000 merit and his student loan, the net cost would be about $20,000.
Actually, VA Tech is his first choice, so that’s why we were hoping for a better merit aid package there. But, he really likes Miami too. He was accepted to Univ of TN - Knoxville and can get the most merit aid there, but he would prefer VA Tech or Miami for the programs he’s interested in.
The tuition promise at Miami is helpful, although room/board is quite a bit more expensive to begin with than VA Tech (about $3,000+). Thank you for your help!
http://www.bursar.vt.edu/tuition/tuition_fees_prior.php
You can look up past years’ tuition & fee, room and board rates for VA Tech in the link above. They are by semester and you can compare them with projected 2017/18 rates from your financial aid award.
It seems there is also an undergraduate engineering course fee in addition to the regular tuition/fees.
From 2014/15 to 2015/16 the OOS tuition/fees increased by $1,081 (for the year). Engineering course fee increased by $3.50 to $39.5 per credit hour.
Cost for a suite double went up about $200 a year and major flex meal plan about $100 a year.
Miami is, actually. At one time they guaranteed merit for certain SAT/GPA levels like Bama does but they stopped that a few years ago. Still, they do give a lot of merit to instate and OOS students.
About 40% of Miami students are from out of state.
I think $19,000 in merit aid for Miami IS generous for an OOS student. That actually brings the cost in line with what in state students are paying.
I’m not sure this student will get more than that.
additionally, I don’t think VT will care at all about the merit award given by Miami…and I doubt seriously that VT will more than triple their merit offer.
I agree. I don’t think Miami will go higher and I don’t think any public schools care what other publics offer.
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Since it is pretty easy to get full tuition at Alabama, we did not think that would hold much weight with schools l
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that was naive thinking.
Several OOS students on the Miami U threads received merit aid totaling $33,500/year. This was full tution + $1K stipend for one of their scholars programs. So, some students got more merit aid than the OP. It can’t hurt to appeal the merit aid you received…
Those who got more merit aid were more meritorious.
33k is full OOS tuition, right? Not many get that.
If it not your first choice, don’t bother. You won’t get much more 2-3k. Focus on first choice.
This student got $19,000 in grant money from Miami. Tomget to $33,000…he would be asking for $13,000 more…it’s not going to happen.
I don’t think the OP is trying to get a full scholarship, just more $. Miami does provide as much as $33,500 this year so there is a gap of $14K+ between what the OP received and the max. If they can get a little additional aid maybe that’s enough to make it their first choice. I don’t think Miami will budge much, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
We plan to appeal all of the offers my D gets that are in her top 3 or 4 schools and which we know the school will listen to an appeal. For us, it’s not about what we can afford, it’s about maximizing the amount of aid we can get. And, past history shows that schools that do listen to appeals often do budge. Often only $2-3K/year but for most that is significant.
Well said and our thoughts exactly. I’m just not even sure how to go about the “appeal”. Advice?
Contact admissions since this is a merit offer. You need to be prepared to say that your kid’s first choice school is Miami, and but that he needs more aid to be able to attend. Further, you need to commit to his enrollment at the school if they increase his aid.
If you can’t commit to his enrollment if the aid is increased…I would suggest you won’t have a very strong case.
If your kiddo has ANY additional awards or honors that have been received since his acceptance , those,could be helpful to send to them as well.
I think appealing more than one offer at a time is tough. You will absolutely get the question, “If we up the offer are you prepared to accept” so are either prepared to lie (since you are working multiple schools simultaneously) OR "are you saying we are your clear cut first choice except for X (i.e. the gap).
Fatherofsam-- be prepared to negotiate one offer at a time. Even if the ethical issues don’t bother you (telling two adcom’s that they are your kids first choice… clearly they are not both the top choice), your HS GC is going to be livid if word leaks from the Adcom to the GC which it likely will if a school increases its offer to what you are asking for and then you DON’T take it.
You’re not buying a used car. At my kids HS the GC’s are very clear about the bright lines- you don’t get to throw out multiple bids and see what comes back. You get to tell exactly one college at a time that they are your first choice except for X thousand dollars. And if they come back with that number you accept. And you don’t get to negotiate with school B until school A is off the table.
This HS has an excellent (some might say disproportionately strong) relationships with a lot of college, and it didn’t get that by playing fast and loose. Kids cannot accept an ED offer and then “forget” to withdraw their other applications to see what else is coming in. Kids cannot accept admissions, take a gap year, and then spend the year applying to more colleges to see “what comes in”. Nope. The HS monitors and takes it seriously.
@blossom - It may be tough but that’s our strategy. We will politely/diplomatically communicate that this is a top school for my D, and that we are trying to understand the best financial terms with each of her top schools before we commit. With my D, she really doesn’t have a ranking. She has a group of schools that she will decide from once we know the (final) costs. Money is a significant factor, and IMO it should be.
Once we have a better read we will be prepared to commit. But that will be a 2nd discussion after we narrow it down to a single school (or two). In reality, we think we will have two schools (both privates) that we will negotiate with as the other schools (some private, some public) don’t negotiate.
I think this is just being a smart consumer.
IME if you are going into this with the mindset that you are negotiating, and see if hat you can wheel and deal there is a strong chance you will walk away with nothing.
This is not a used car, you are not at a tag sale haggling. You can appeal your financial aid offer, you can ask for a financial review. You will be in for a rude awakening as to how many schools don’t care what another school gave you; NYU, BU, Wesleyan (I can name a whole list of schools).
Some schools, Cornell is very upfront with the fact that you can present the financial aid offer from another Ivy as the basis for a financial review. Dartmouth will go as far as Ivies and Peer schools.
Keep in mind in your quest for consideration or a financial review you gotta compare apple to apples and oranges to oranges. A school that only gives need based aid does not care what you got in merit money.
If you are in state at public,an OOS public does not care about what you got from your in-state school.
Ex: UVA and UNC-CH are 2 public that both give need based aid. If you are in state for one the other does not care and will not bring your financial aid package to the equivalent of the in state package if you don’t have a financial need that warrants it
The Ivies/top LACs don’t care that you got a full ride national meet scholarship. If you come to them, they are giving you need based aid + 2k for being a NMF.
From a GC standpoint , if you are telling a school that they are your first choice, you better make sure that your GC knows that school is your first choice. If your GC has a relationship with that school, they are going to call (yes, a good GC knows FA people as well as admissions people) and the GC can be your advocate. Make sure you have their support. any GC worth their salt is not going to let you burn their relationship with that school
@sybbie719 We are aware of which schools my D applied to that will accept an appeal and how the process works with those schools. Each school is a bit different. We have no need so we will be comparing peer schools (as judged by the schools themselves) solely on merit aid. So it will be apples to apples.
I’m not concerned about my GC’s relationship with the schools. This is between us and the school. We will be courteous but still press the schools for the best offer for our D. In the end, we will commit to a school and try to get the best deal for her.
IMO, implying that this is unethical and equivalent to “buying a used car” isn’t accurate. I understand that there is a thin line here but it’s one we plan to navigate. We will see how the chips fall in the coming month or so.