@mageecrew - your comment about financial aid being somewhat unpredictable is very true - we’ve seen that with many of our friends and acquaintances who have been shocked to see the cut in their FA packet in subsequent years. It’s somewhat unfair but can happen and some schools are worse than others about it (cough American University cough).
With two kids in college TE has cut our price by approximately $70k per year. While both were very good students, and D16 in the top ten of her class, the merit money we got at those schools that didn’t offer TE was at most half of the TE award. And even with the two kids in college and a combined income under $200k, we got little FA. And what we got probably would have disappeared when D14 graduates in one year.
We too did a mix of TE and non TE schools - applying to TE really didn’t entail much work other than contacting DH’s employer and giving them a list of TE schools DDs were applying to. And then we contacted the TE liaisons at each school a few times but no big deal. It also helped us narrow down the field early on so we weren’t looking all over the place at hundreds of school though we did allow each child to apply to non TE schools if they wanted, with the understanding that they’d be going to the one with the lowest COA at the end of the day (so we only applied to schools they really could happily see themselves at). Both love their schools so everyone is happy.
Lastly, I definitely saw TE becoming more difficult to obtain between D14 and D16 and assume most of it is because those particular schools became much more selective in only two years. For example, D14 got TE at American when they were accepting approximately 40% of students for admission. Two years later higher ranked D16 didn’t get TE at AU (we were told by AU that having a sister with TE wouldn’t have any impact on the second one); she was accepted with a significantly smaller merit award, but acceptance had in those two years also declined from the over 40% to approximately 25%. Crazy! I assume the statistics on TE on the TE website are based on a few years past data so may not reflect current conditions.
Good luck to everyone - hope your students all have many wonderful - and affordable - opportunities!
@psycholing If you evaluate TE on just the highest rated TE schools then maybe you can come to your conclusions but TE is used easily and happily by many people at various schools. My co-worker’s D used TE to go to a small school so she could continue playing her sport and she got her Master’s in 4 years and TE paid for all her tuition. My wife’s co-worker put 3 kids through school with TE and had no issues.
@dolemite I do understand that lots of people have been helped by TE in the past. But at this point it is very difficult to get TE without having tippy top scores. Students with 35 ACT and 4.0 GPA or close can get TE (see post above from Maandme above). I don’t think I have every disputed that.
I am also certain that students with slightly lower scored students can get TE at certain schools. My point in the very first post was that often those students would get merit at the self-same schools. For example Drexel will give merit, including free tuition to top students. At this point full tuition at Drexel I think exceeds TE scholarships.
I believe this year the competition for TE is more intense, and there are less spots than a few years ago. This belief is based on any data I could collect, including on this thread. Admittedly that tends to be anecdotal or incomplete data. Actually that was why I made this post – to get more data.
I’d love to get more data on this, including more from the average student – let’s say below 3.5 GPA or below 30 ACT – and how they have fared this year on TE. We have some data so far that those tippy top students can get TE – I am not sure I ever said otherwise. These same students can also get a full ride at places like Alabama…
So – if people are willing – it would be useful to hear stats on students and their success or lack thereof on TE this year. Stats would be ACT/SAT, GPA or class rank, TE’s applied to, TE’s offered.
@dolemite my point was that Drexel gives out full tuition scholarships. So if it gives out full merit scholarships to people with the same credentials as those who get TE – those with TE eligibility may not have an advantage. In fact, a full merit scholarship is better than TE because (1) it goes up with tuition more so than TE, and (2) one doesn’t lose it if one’s parents change jobs.
I agree @psycholing that superstars will have many options (Ivy?) and TE might not be the best. My S17 had an 88 weighted GPA, so it definitely worked out for my family. He did much better on TE for a private school than he would have with merit, but when all is said done, it will be the same cost as sending him full-pay to SUNY. I don’t know how he snagged an award at the highly regarded LAC he did, but we are grateful. Maybe I’m not giving him enough credit – he had ~1250 SATs and a great essay, but just 1 varsity sport for ECs and no National Honor Society because he has no volunteer hours. He did not receive TE for his other top 3 choices, but his is extremely happy with this school. Everyone keep in mind there is variability in the GPA requirements and Study Abroad policies, be sure to check the fine print. Also the set rate seems to rise each year by $500-$1000 so that is one advantage over merit which generally is static. @MAandMEmom – Wentworth is new to TE and was on the spaces available list in June.
hi everyone
Another university employee here. although the data are now three years old i wanted to share if it is helpful.
at Pitt, the kids must sign up with a list of five schools max by September…I think it is September 15th but really as soon as you can. You don’t even have to have applied yet. The woman described it to us as the exchanges are “sent out” in order of parent seniority. the longer you have worked at the institution the better chance your kid has. Our family has a high level of seniority for TE with respect to years of service.
There is an exchange but it’s very complicated and not necessarily one on one import/export per year…at our school they try to balance imports with exports and they also have rolling admission so it’s pretty complicated. As an employee I was not able to get any statistics (in '14) about the likelihood at other TE schools…in fact when i reported the final results back to them in May they were very glad to hear because she said they usually don’t find out what happened. Obviously the people accepting TE signups here are not the ones making the financial decisions…
For our student, there were typically scholarship offers from the college first, in a lower amount. then weeks or in some cases months later, there was a TE offer. Eventually our student was offered all five that were applied for, BUT Two of the TE offers did not arrive until May 1st and May 3rd. Those were offered in phone calls from the school…and the offer was in the form of “reply by 5 PM today”. I am guessing that their TE first choice did not enroll there and so they were going down the list. One of those two was a pretty elite school and we needed to discuss it seriously because before TE it was not a financial possibility but after TE, it was. Student decided to decline.
My opinion is that it’s a great benefit if you have multiple children and if you like the college you work for. I do not believe it’s a good reason to work somewhere by itself. Our employee benefit here is 6 years of free tuition per child so that is really very good before we even get to TE. Also, TE is stressful and really opaque-- good luck getting information from your school or from the ones that your child applies to. And you may need to wait until the 11th hour (May 1st) to make the final decision because of the last minute drama with TE recipients declining those offers and something becoming available.
@thingamajig Thanks that is very helpful – I had never heard of late TE acceptance like that. Also you make a good point about limits - at my husbands school as well, there seemed to be (unwritten) limits on how many schools we could apply to.
We are appealing one TE decision – have you ever heard of an appeal going through?
Have not heard of an appeal. To be honest, we have such love of our college by the staff that they are actually disappointed if their child doesn’t want to go to one of the five Pitt campuses. Faculty, on the other hand, will usually encourage children to try TE, but tend to be more tight lipped about where their child ends up and whether they got TE or not. Saying that, though, I feel that the process is like the rest of financial aid…so much is negotiable. One kid I know whose parent teaches at a smaller school near here got the TE for a college. Then the college decided they wanted her so much they just went ahead and offered her a full ride including R and B. Not an example of negotiating TE, but rather an example of how the financial aid changes, and can grow, over the spring with TE in the picture.
@psycholing - my post #5 pointed that out - that is why those of us who had gone through this recently wanted toshare our experience. My daughter received two last minute TE acceptances, including one at a school where she had only been waitlisted - she got a call the last week in April not only giving her a place off the waitlist but also offering her TE. Quite a shocker. That came literally three days after a school where she had been accepted but not given TE initially called her up to offer it. Yes it was because someone else had turned it down but we didn’t care. It totally opened up two new schools for consideration and she ended up picking one of those school over her previous first choice place (also a TE school).
That is why it is helpful to keep in touch with TE liaisons at the schools to let them know that TE is important and will affect your student’s decision making.
Thanks @sandstreet I noticed they were new and maybe a hidden gem for a while. Maybe not long enough though as my son is a sophomore. He took the PSAT this year and did pretty well so I’m holding out hope for options in a couple of years. He also struggles with organizational issue so worst case he’ll be attending where hubby works so we can continue be his “handler”:).
@MAandMEmom … YES trying to no longer be a handler! My son has definitely gotten a lot better, but sending him away to school hopefully will allow him to grow into his responsibilities and us to let go.
@psycholing … I’ve heard quite a few TE stories where the student receives an offer in May or later. Coach your child to be flexible/prepared. And yes, I’ve heard of TE appeals that have been successful. Hang in there!
Chiming in late, but to answer your question, my D college freshman applied for 8 TE and was awarded 5 for AY 2017/18. She was a 25 ACT with a 3.3 weighted GPA and tons of extracurriculars and leadership. She did not receive any TE award from schools under 40% (understandably). We were thrilled with so many choices and it clearly saved us TONS of money as her merit awards ranged from $13K-$19K.
I am actually more worried about my next one (D high school freshman) who appears will very much more competitive. In looking at other employees I work with using TE, the higher scoring kids have a harder time getting TE because they are applying to such competitive schools. A coworker has a D who also started college this year, 33 ACT, well above 4.0 weighted GPA, etc. and applied for 6 TE and was awarded 1. Thankfully, it was a school she really wanted to attend.
@D17021 I thought I had updated this thread, but I guess I didn’t. DS never did get a TE offer at a school he wanted to attend. However he got a comparable (or better) merit + FA offer at CMU, and he is attending there this year. I think we spent much too much time worrying about TE and not enough perhaps looking at other merit awards out there, but it all ended up fine.
@psycholing and others, at what point in the process did you contact the school (TE officer?) to which your child applied? Our HR person notifies the school of the TE applicant so I’m not sure what my role as parent would be.
Also, I’d rather my child get a merit scholarship with all its extra benefits than a TE. Is there any negative consequence to merit if applying as TE? My thinking here is that if a school has an import spot for TE, they’d rather give TE than scholarship since they can give scholarship to a non TE student. If any possible negative consequence then I’m wondering if we should wait to alert TE that our child is a TE applicant (in one case scholarship news will come well before regular acceptance letters). FWIW, child is high stat for the TE schools on our list and would be a competitive candidate for merit (full ride). Merit has its own honor for child, of course, but would also save us room and board at these two places.
@ProfessorMom1 Most of the schools my kids applied to made decisions on merit scholarships first. TE decisions came later. In most cases they had to choose between either the merit or the TE (a few schools allow stacking up to the cost of admission). S was invited to compete for a full-ride scholarship at a school where he had already been awarded TE - if he had chosen to compete and won, he would have declined the TE in favor of the full-ride (he’d decided on a different school by then). Even though they chose TE, they still participated in Honors programs they were invited to join - they just couldn’t get additional scholarship money from Honors.
The best thing to do is contact the TE coordinators at the schools where your child is applying, since every school is allowed to set it’s own policy. In our case, we could not wait to alert TE - all that paperwork had to be in place at our home institution well before applications went out.
@ProfessorMom1 Definitely TE paperwork must go in by the various TE deadlines, which are often when the initial application is due. Each school has a different policy about this. While the advice on CC was to contact the TE officers at the various schools where we were applying, I found for our choices that was entirely unhelpful. None of the admins would tell us the criteria for selecting awardees beyond what was on the various websites, none appeared to care about our interest. I actually think the TE application may have hurt us at one school (GWU) since my son was waitlisted while he was high stats high EC and high interest for the school (using Naviance and other admissions from same grade peers as a guide). He did not agree to go on WL and so we don’t know if eventually would have gotten a spot, as he had better options. Also, he actually said in the application he would only attend with TE or comparable scholarship, so they very well may have taken us at our word.
At all three TE-eligible schools we looked at, TE did not stack with other scholarship, whereas at CMU he got merit, FA, and was allowed to stack outside scholarships. This was by far the best deal in our particular case. So, my advice to you is look in the stacking issue early on.
@psyholing and @InigoMontoya Thanks for the advice. I think I’ll alert our HR person now and get the ball rolling so as not to risk losing out on TE consideration. Scholarship deadlines are 12/1, so seems like now is a good time. I’ll leave it alone from my end unless we don’t get news of scholarship (which would mean no scholarship).
TE is a joke if you work at Univ of Florida. Though promoted as being “highly competitive”, the VERY few (less than 5 ) who are chosen for consideration are selected based on years of service. I’m sorry…that is not “competitive”…someone with 20 years of service can’t “compete” with someone who has 30. There’s no way to “catch up” to that…so it’s not a “competition”.