Trying to understand merit aid

College Majors Music Major
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<p>Is there a magic formula that explains how much merit aid a student can expect from certain types of schools? The envelopes that arrive at our house seem to be completely random.</p>

<p>The big school that expressed a lot of interest -- zero merit aid. Disappointment!
The school that rarely gives merit aid -- a respectable sum. Surprise!
The school that never expressed any interest -- a big pile of merit aid. Amazement! </p>

<p>Etc. It has been kind of an emotional rollercoaster here lately.</p>

<p>The conservatories on our list seem to be offering the most. Do they really have more money to give away than other types of schools?</p>

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<p>I would interpret the merit aid as a reflection of how much the school wants your child rather than a reflection of how much $$ they have to spend. </p>

<p>Think about it in terms of fit rather than a more global reflection of their financial status. Your musician is a high priority where generous sums were offered. Especially if that school has a reputation of offering little merit aid.</p>

<p>Good luck weighing the various options!</p>

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<p>There is more to it than how much a school wants your child. Many public universities do not have funds, period. They are already so squeezed just to make ends meet. Some schools (Northwestern?) have decided to give out need-based money only, so no merit money on principle. </p>

<p>I agree it’s confusing. I would have liked to have known upfront which schools wouldn’t give out merit money, and my daughter would not have bothered applying.</p>

4

<p>Here in a nutshell is what I have learned about financial aid:</p>

<p>Instead of the amount of merit aid offered, focus on the total cost of attendance after subtracting out scholarships and grants, both merit and need based. Don’t subtract the loans from that number. Do include all related costs - tuition, fees, room, board, books, travel, whatever else might be unique to your situation.</p>

<p>The process has a lot of variables and can easily seem random. Sometimes you can get a school to make a better offer, Don’t assume that you are not eligible for need-based aid. Always file the correct paperwork on time and with honest answers.</p>

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<p>lastbird, I have four kids and I also found the merit aid/financial aid results to be totally unpredictable. I agree with BassDad, that there are many variables to the total COA, some of which are not reflected in the usual FA calculations. For example, say your student is admitted to schools in both Cleveland and New York and that the COA is relatively equal for freshman year (even in terms of the travel costs.) But, many students move off campus after freshman year. In my experience, a student can get an nice room in a shared off-campus apartment in Cleveland for $400/month. In NYC, not so much. </p>

<p>Another factor is that the semi-rural/small town setting, your student may need a car to travel to gigs or to school from off campus. What will the car cost to insure/maintain, etc? In an urban setting, there’s the metro card or subway pass-- that can add up, too.</p>

<p>But there’s more: musicians work more than most college students. And there is a difference from location to location in terms of the availability of work (and how well that work is compensated.) A semi-rural or small town setting is not going to yield up as much or as well-paid gigging and teaching as a big city. A well-endowed school may offer paid fellowships and self-funded, unlimited work study. These kinds of opportunities can substantially lower the cost of living in a larger urban area. </p>

<p>I never thought of most of these details when looking at the financial aid sheets. But it is interesting to reflect that actual costs of education cannot be represented accurately on those sheets of paper.</p>

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<p>What I’ve just learned from being in the same position is to be sure and read all of the pdfs the financial dept at the school is directing you to in their emails. It’s really tough reading but you have to do it and occasionally you might find something that actually makes things better. In one school I found what appears to be a COA reduction if you divert some of the loan money to a one time purchase of an instrument. Because we’ve been using a teacher’s second instrument for the last few years this was something were going to do anyway and a policy like that will help with the cost for the first or second year. It might even offset some of the expected tuition increases !</p>

<p>And the most obvious thing to check is whether the merit/need scholarship is fixed or not. We’ve been offered both tuition rate locks and a scholarship that is based on changing out of state tuition to in state and tracks tuition inflation. Of course, even with these we are still struggling and juggling to make things work.</p>

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<p>Tagging onto what BassDad has written it’s also good to calculate tuition increases for each year. I use 4% as a general guide. A school where Tuition Room and Board is 55K in Freshman year could easily have a sticker price of 62K by the senior year. AFAIK In most cases Merit aid does not increase. Good Luck everyone!</p>

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<p>Thanks to everyone for their replies. </p>

<p>Does anyone know, is it true that conservatories typically offer the most merit aid? (not need-based aid) </p>

<p>Or is that just how it turned out for my D? Originally we favored a university program for my D because she would be able to have a “typical” college experience in addition to music. But the merit money the conservatories are offering is making us reconsider.</p>

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<p>is the merit aid for all 4 years? Many schools only offer it for the first year and then nothing. What scholarships are available to the student as a Sophmore?</p>

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<p>lastbird, as we said, there does not seem to be any way to predict how these packages will turn out. Even from student to student, the results can vary widely. Occasionally a university will have an automatic formula for giving merit aid that is tied to GPA or SAT scores, but for music – “talent” – all bets are off.</p>

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<p>proudmom1313, merit aid (as opposed to need-based aid) is usually guaranteed for four years, often tied to a minimum GPA. But be sure to read the fine print. If your statement does not say that it is guaranteed, call and ask. A cautious person would ask for the guarantee in writing.</p>

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<p>Good point, proudmom – after a careful reading, I can say that the scholarships seem to be good for four years. But it was a good idea to check the fine print.</p>

<p>glassharmonica, thank you. I will accept the randomness and move on. As for getting these offers in writing, I think I will request that. Some of D’s schools have informed us that they won’t be sending any letters; instead, all information is available only through the student online portal. This is not only frustrating for the parent, who in this case isn’t the keeper of the login information (although I am the payer of the bills!), but it robs us of the experience of getting a nice, fat letter from the mailman! I guess I’m old-school.</p>

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<p>I thought all of the offers would eventually come in writing before the day of committment. Is that not true? Seems it could be risky to base all on something in an e-mail or portal…I guess I’m old-school too… So, some schools do not send out a written confirmation?</p>

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<p>Lastbird, See if the schools offer a “guest” login to see financial information. Both of my sons’ schools offer the guest login and they do send very important financial items in writing to the home address. (Also, older son’s school sent home graduation information. I think they know not everything gets shared in a timely manner.)</p>

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<p>Eastman is the school that my D has informed me won’t send us anything. But I am not sure where she got that idea. Also, she has given me her login information but I don’t see where it says that when I navigate through the pages. I will call them next week. I agree that it’s risky to base a big decision on something that is here today on a website – but possibly gone tomorrow!</p>

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<p>For financial stuff, I always do a screen grab, or a “print as pdf” and keep it in my computer on a file. Because you’re right: if it is only online it could be gone the next day.</p>

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<p>I agree with BassDad and GH that you can’t tell necessarily what is going on. What I am mentioning below might apply to some schools all of the time, might apply to some more than others, but this is what I have been able to discern, based on our own experiences and from what I have been told by admissions and other people:</p>

<p>-As a rule of thumb, the top level conservatories tend to be need based, even with merit aid (in effect, there really is no true merit based aid with them)…This is from Juilliards website:</p>

<p>“The Juilliard School does not offer scholarships based solely on merit.”. What I take this to mean is if your family income is beyond a certain point, you won’t get merit aid.</p>

<p>Before someone comes in and tells me “my S/D got a full scholarship to school X, and that is a top level conservatory, it is just as good as X,Y and Z”, when I talk about top level conservatories I am talking about schools that get a lot of applicants and can pick and choose, where because of their name or whatever they get a lot of really high level applications. In that case, it can be hard to give a merit scholarship when everyone is at a pretty high level. From what I was told in a seminar at one of the ‘top’ schools, this is standard at many of the conservatories. </p>

<p>-One of the things to consider is why schools offer ‘true’ merit aid, it is to attract students they really want. For a school building its reputation, it is a way to attract the kind of students they expect will bring up the caliber of the program and bring up its prestige. If they have hired good faculty, that is one step, along with facilities and such, but if you have a top level student who is faced with a 40k bill one place and a 10k the other, it can be attractive. A school like Juilliard, Eastman, NEC and so forth, because they already have the reputation, don’t have to offer that inducement (kind of like a competitor offering discounts to get people to consider their products). </p>

<p>-It also depends on the school’s financials. When endowments were down 50% after the 2008 meltdown, it hindered their ability to give scholarships and such, and that does impact the entire picture.</p>

<p>In the end, I think rather than try and make sens of it, you kind of have to accept it for what it is and not take too much out of it. I have heard some people of rather dubious authenticity onlin claiming that they played so well on their audition to Juilliard that the panel members told them they would be getting a full ride scholarship along with telling them they were the next heifetz, or claims with other schools doing that, and I suspect that is more bravado than truth. Knowing the caliber of more then a few kids getting into those schools, I find that, shall we say, amusing:). Seriously, don’t play the game that if you don’t get this huge merit package it means the student isn’t good enough, chances are if someone gets a large merit package it is because financially they need it to get into the school. They separate the straight FA from the Merit I would guess because they are separate pools, but if kid X whose family income is Z gets a 20k merit, and another kid, A whose family income is 2z gets no merit, it doesn’t mean X is better than A, it is the school saying that money will be better spent on a kid like X they would like to have, but can’t afford it, than giving it to A whose family can afford it…least that is my take on it <em>shrug</em>. </p>

<p>It is very much like who gets admitted to music schools, sometimes it seems like serendipity who gets in and who doesn’t:)</p>

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<p>Eastman gives plenty of merit aid, quite apart from need.</p>