<p>I haven't posted here in a while. My son is in his senior year of HS; preparing to apply to four year schools for next fall. He has recently been getting fee waived apps from schools he hadn't considered, with an advertised 2 week turnaround. My feeling was that he should apply and see what happens, as we really don't have the means to send him to college without a truckload of aid. Has anyone had experience with using a good offer from a less desirable school to get a more generous package from a more selective college? I'm interested in hearing how the communication is handled.</p>
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Has anyone had experience with using a good offer from a less desirable school to get a more generous package from a more selective college?
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That's not usually the tactic. Usually similarly situated or peer schools will compete and schools will compete with offers from schools they desire to be like , but downstream? I don't think so. At least I haven't heard of any on CC.</p>
<p>Yes, there are fee-waived, essay-waived applications with a two week turn around. They are bona fide offers for stellar students the school otherwise wouldn't attract and they often come with very generous aid offers. More selective schools may consdier those offers but they often have a criteria for evaluating competing offers; ie Ivy to Ivy--if they have a policy for comparing offers at all.</p>
<p>Good luck. It's a high class problem, isn't it?</p>
<p>Can you please tell me how your son is receiving these offers? By e-mail or snail mail? And is a transcript/teacher rec. required? D has not received any of these to date. Do you know why your son was selected?</p>
<p>Not from Tulane, but yes from U. of Vermont. And something highly suggestive from U. of Michigan. I assume son was selected because he's a National Merit Semifinalist.</p>
<p>Tulane is rather liberal with those apps. They start by sending the offers to students with high PSAT/SATs -- I am sure my son got them for that reason. My d. didn't get them early on... but then she went to a local Tulane event and (I assume) filled out a card... and within 2 weeks she was receiving the same offer. Even after Tulane's deadline for applying, the requests kept coming -- with an extended deadline! </p>
<p>Admittedly, last year was an unusually rough one for Tulane, so some aggressive marketing was in order. But the bottom line is that "demonstrating interest" seemed be all that was necessary to get onto their preferred mailing list.</p>
<p>Tulane is an excellent school and they do give excellent merit aid to top students. A classmate of my daughter's did apply and was offered a full tuition scholarship. So it is definitely a good option for a safety early on .... for kids who might seriously consider going there.</p>
<p>My son had several of those offers including one from the school he is now attending and UVM. I thought it was an excellent marketing idea for the schools and streamlined for my son. My son did not have high SAT's. I think we got them for showing interest at National College Fair.</p>
<p>The express application seems to be a good way to get an early answer from a safety/match (assuming a kid is interested in attending). Since these application invitations and potential merit offers must be based (in part) on test scores, would the offers be revised if higher test scores are submitted after the student is accepted?</p>
<p>My daughter got this from the University of Pittsburgh, which was an acceptable safety for her at the time (it wouldn't be now, since her friends who went there have generally not been impressed).</p>
<p>If your S uses those express apps, make sure that he's applying to a place that he'd be willing to happily go to. Many places that offer those kind of express apps are trying hard to increase their ranking, and therefore will offer major merit aid to very strong students. We've seen unhappy students posting here who sent in such an app for "fun," then swiftly got a major merit aid offer that their parents made them take even though the student wanted to go to a very competitive college and had the stats to get into one.</p>
<p>Adding my voice to those who say that the highly ranked colleges won't match merit offers from much less competitive ones. That's because the highly ranked colleges know that in choosing between college admissions, students usually select the most highly ranked one.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the feedback. My son is NM commended and has PSAT, ACT, and SAT scores in the top 5%. He is not terribly happy with his scores on the ACT and new SAT, so he will be retaking the tests this fall. The schools he has received express offers from are not on his list and he has had no contact with them. They could only know about him from his test scores, as he is homeschooled and does not have a guidance counselor.</p>
<p>We cannot pay even 1/4 the tuition at the type of school my son is most interested in attending, which is small, selective, liberal arts. An offer of full tuition from a less prestigious place will indeed, be very tempting. </p>
<p>Is there anything he can do to increase his chances of getting a merit based offer from one of his choice schools? </p>
<p>J is getting these offers through snail mail. We have not contacted these particular schools and since J is homeschooled, there is no way a counselor or teacher has put him in the loop. It has to be that his tests are generating the offers. </p>
<p>He needs to check their merit aid info to see what kind of students get selected for it. Sometimes colleges list on their sites profiles of students who have gotten their merit aid. That can give one info about what to emphasize on the app. Also check the board on CC for that college because you may find info about people who have gotten their merit aid and about people who didn't get it. </p>
<p>If you name the college and give your S's stats, there may be people here who have info based on their kid's experiences. There's no reason to hide this info because without it, you'll not get the most useful advice.</p>
<p>It is an advantage being a male of any race who's applying to LACs because LACs want to maintain male:female ratios of about 50:50, but LACs have a hard time attracting males because of the lack of football. Without about a 50:50 ratio, LACs get fewer applicants because the girls who are applying to co-ed LACs usually want a co-ed college, not an overwhelmingly female one.</p>
<p>If there are similarly ranked colleges offering merit aid, your S could apply to those, try to get the merit aid so as to be in a negotiating position with his college of choice. </p>
<p>He also needs to have match and safety schools that he'd love attending and could afford. It's never a good idea to pin all of one's hopes on a dream school. Virtually all students could be equally fulfilled at a variety of colleges, so do encourage your S to expand his search and to also keep an open mind.</p>
<p>If you have demonstrated financial need, most of the top LACs promise to meet 100% of that (which may or may not be what you feel you can pay).</p>
<p>When it comes to LACs: Grinnell Kenyan and Earlham have some nice merit aid.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the helpful tips. I didn't realize that boys were in demand at LACs, that's a point in Ds's favor. </p>
<p>Ds is homeschooled and has a very nontraditional transcript. He will have accrued over 30 college credits after this semester. He will probably homeschool exclusively in the Spring, (no college courses or structured classroom learning) working as many hours as possible to sock away money for next year. He has a lot of community service hours, but few other extracurriculars. He is very introverted and is not a "joiner" by nature. His test scores are ok, but not spectacular.
ACT= 32 in English and Reading, 22 in math, 28 in science. Composite is 29. </p>
<p>SAT = 690 reading, 620 writing, 630 math </p>
<p>PSAT score earned NM commendation. Math much lower than English. </p>
<p>My son was not pleased with these scores and plans to take both SAT and SAT II tests this fall, as well as the ACT again.</p>
<p>I am not quite clear on how he has whittled his list down to these four, but these are the colleges he considers most desirable: Amherst, Bennington, Marlboro, and Hampshire. He has a strong preference for rural and small, and he is not interested in sports or frats. He would like to attend college in the Northeast. </p>
<p>If you read through both these threads, you will understand a lot about getting merit aid. Curmudgeon is the acknowledged master, and he has graciously shared his tips. </p>
<p>I know that Amherst doesn't give merit aid. It is also a very far reach for him as it's one of the very top LACs in the country.</p>
<p>If he wants small and rural or at least small town, he also should look at Grinnell, Kenyon, Earlham, Beloit, all of which, I believe, give merit aid.</p>
<p>St. Olaf's gives a small amount of merit aid ($1,500, I think) to NM Commended students.
Also check out Loren Pope's "Colleges that Change Lives" site and books, which describe some very nice LACs, most of which are in small areas and are known for excellence in teaching.</p>
<p>He also might want to look at Florida's New College. It's a small -- about 700 students-- public university for honors students. It can be a wonderful place for well organized, responsible students who love intellectual stimulation. I know a couple of NM scholars who went there as their first choice. One is now working on a doctorate at Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>Your Smay qualify for a merit scholarship. It's in Sarasota, which isn't rural, but isn't huge either. The cost is reasonable even for out of staters.</p>
<p>My D got one from Fordham by email last week. It is one of the schools we visited last spring and she actually is planning on applying there. We had already had them listed on the Common App, but will now do their own app as it waives the fee. It simply means that she will have to write one more seperate, short essay - but is willing to do so to same some $$. They did not mention anything about the chance for extra merit aid.</p>