DD said at least this year Exeter is not need blind. Admission said that during a Q&A.
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This is a misunderstanding of what need-blind means. It means that admissions does not consider ability to pay when deciding which students to admit, but the school absolutely sets an FA budget each cycle regardless of the fact they can afford to buy a class outright and not charge tuition at all.
@RobbieBoy05: If your family can afford to be FP, definitely contact the school with this update. Good luck to you!
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thank you!
Just realized that. Thanks!
I would also add that need blind does not mean need ignorant. Whether the AOs are able to see that youâve checked off the FA box or not, there are usually ample signals within the applications that let them know, at least in general.
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In such a large applicant pool, many applicants are going to be at equal level accept for the FA box.
I donât think telling them you are going to suddenly pay full load will change anything. The time to do that has passed IMHO.
From what I am aware of, and am only speaking on the international side, there are not many internationals (canadians included) who were accepted on M10 other than full payors or close to it. This makes total sense in a covid world.
Not true. It is more difficult to get off a WL from the FA pool because, in addition to matching the missing profile, matching funds need to have become available, a very tricky combo. If, for example, the school needs a male boarder and no FA funds have freed up, no one in the FA pool will be considered for that spot. All boarding schools want to know if an FA applicant can move to the FP pool. That is very relevant information and prior to A10 is the prime time to notify.
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Will the school ask this question- why did you ask for FA if you can afford it?
Actually, from the financials submitted, they know if youâre on the cusp or not. Many families apply for FA without understanding that they may actually be able to be FP. We applied for (partial) FA because we couldnât conceive of being FP, but two schools called us on M9 offering admission as FP, otherwise no FA and rejections. Both schools helped us âunderstandâ how we could afford them. We didnât figure that the schools would require us to stop all forms of retirement savings and either borrow against our home equity or take out loans, but that is what they suggested. We were OK with a four-year hole in our savings, but weâd never consider any form of borrowing. Ultimately, we did choose FP, but those four years were the tightest weâve ever lived, even in our student years. We did not allow our son to understand what FP really looked like for us.
The only question a school might ask is if you are sure you can be FP every year you attend, not just that first year because, if they accept you as FP, they are not expecting to have to account for you in their ongoing FA budget. You should not feel awkward making this switch. Itâs not uncommon.
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They will not ask, but from watching this process over a few years, I have the distinct impression that itâs a big mark against the student during the normal process when the family can clearly afford it but still applies for FA.
FA is not meant to be a free ride. The expectation is that the family is willing to do their part by tightening the belt, so to speak. Too often families feel they cannot afford tuition while driving the latest model cars and maintaining a large vacation home. On the flip side, someone may have significant income but be responsible for the care of elderly parents, which would be considered a legitimate expense.
There was an interesting article about this a few years back.
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Thank you @ChoatieMom @TonyGrace
Very helpful for me to understand the issue. We decided to go with FP but similar to many families itâs not a small amount us. I will have to pay it out of my savings and it affects my retirement plan. I joked with DD that I would have to work a couple more years. What I didnât say is I might not be able to work that long given where my industry is headingâŠ
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Schools will keep their FA in reserve and wonât allocate it fully on the M10 round. It would make not sense to do so. This would put them at higher risk of underenrollment.
Changing your FA story by a material amount after M10 raises real questions about what you originally submitted.
There are a number of families every year who applied for FA and then realize they can swing being FP. Maybe a grandparent agrees to pay. Maybe a country club membership can be given up or a car driven for another 4 years or vacations can be done more modestly⊠Itâs not uncommon for folks to apply "to see if we qualify ". And yes, it can change your WL position. Schools typically work with a fixed FA budget and the people managing it are expected to stay within it while using it to meet âinstitutional prioritiesâ.
If your situation has changed, let them know.
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It really canât hurt. They wonât look askance, and even if they did, they are accepting the kid not the parents. The FA app is a parent thing - the kid has zero control over it. If the parents change their FA status, they wonât hold it against a kid on a WL bc they clearly already like him/her.
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Any change in your financial need has to be committed to for four years; it canât be a one year, one time gift from grandma.
Of course moving to FP wonât guarantee getting off the WL. You canât âbuyâ your way off. Changing your status simply removes the additional hurdle of needing funds should a spot open up that your student might be a match for. Thatâs all. Some schools will not need to use
their WL, so financial aid status is moot in that event. But, when they do, the odds of being selected are greater if the school does not also have to match need. It should also be clear that if a spot opens up that your child is not a good match for being FP is irrelevant.
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If the original sincerity should be suspected, I think the kid more than paid the price of his parentsâ insincerity by being placed on a list with hundreds of names, with a 50-50 chance of visiting a few among them, especially in light of the fact the schools themselvs âencouragedâ the families to apply for FA by all means, should they ever feel they need, even providing an FA calculator.
Few parents can ascertain with certitude whether they will need the extra help or not for the next 4 years, and many genuinely fall on the gray area. After all, what ultimately determined their need for aid is not the parents but the formula. Absent factual misrepresentation (ie forgery, hiding assets etc.) asking for FA out of uncertainty does not deserve a penalty in the first place, and hence a commitment to sacrifice more from their retirement savings by the parents for their kidâs future, at any stage of the application, seems a laudable practice, if you ask me, unless there is something I am missing altogether.
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This is my first post to this forum, and I am SO incredibly grateful for all the knowledge I have gained by going back and reading all the input shared from the veterans! My athlete S has been waitlisted at his three schools and understand that the reason is our FA status. I have since spoken to the Director of FA at his first choice school and he confirmed that changing our FA status by any degree could possibly help his removal. As stated by others, a 9th grade boarding male student spot would need to open up, as well as additional FA funds, in the necessary amount becoming available from that student. My question to this forum involves what specifically is the âexpectationâ of these schools regarding parent contribution. Is there the expectation that we should stop contributing to our retirement plans, and take second mortgages on our homes? I told the director that I am willing to do whatever I can to contribute more, by taking on additional work, etc. to give my son this opportunity. Perhaps I need to ask him more specifically, but wondered if anyone had any thoughts.
This experience has certainly been eye opening for us. We were led to believe that he was âinâ by a coach who told us âdonât worry, I will make sure you get the FA you needâ. Being waitlisted was a shock. I now realize how naive we were.
Really? My kid received one offer to a very hard to get into school, with a large FA offer. The other 2 schools not even an FA waitlist. I wonder if some are on the FA waitlist because their financial information shows that they probably can find the money somewhere. IMHO If people can give up a few trips, or a fancy country club, or not by that luxury car every 2 years, to be able to afford these schools, they donât need FA. We do not have any of those luxuries to give up for a couple of years. My biggest concern with sending my kid is that they will not fit in with kids whose lifestyles are so incredibly privileged.
The answer really depends but I heard one person say âthey want a little of your past, a little of your present, and a little of your future.â Past meant some part of savings or home equity. Present meant tighten your belt or take a job, and future meant borrow. Clearly, not all apply to everyone in every situation, but itâs a good framework.
You could, I suppose, request a meeting with the FA director with everything in hand and ask if they can see anything you arenât thinking of. Itâs possible that theyâll confirm your need as is, but at least you would all be assured there is nothing else you can do.
For many families, there are really hard choices to make around things that seem like necessities. Can you take on more work, for example? What does contributing less to retirement for a few years look like for you? If you took a second mortgage for $40,000 to reduce your need by $10,000/year â or more drastically, moved to a less expensive home (doable only if you donât have other kids in your public system) to extract cash form your home (another form of retirement savings!), what plans are disrupted? These may not work for you â understandably but work through the tradeoffs. Youâd want to be prepared to answer those questions.
I DO know from talking to FA folks that often families feel they cannot sacrifice what others requesting FA would see as luxuries. So in that sense, talking with them could be helpful.
So hereâs one other question⊠Is there a big difference between day and boarding tuition and could you swing being a day student, at least for 2 years? (Not just swing financially but also in terms of commute, etc.) It sounds like the coach wants him. I know a family that did this to close the gapâŠ
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