Offered TE at Point Park today. They are slowly rolling in!
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So, looks like tuition exchange is coming from the schools that were already going to offer really nice merit scholarships.
Sitting in a parent info session today where someone asked about the number of students who need to stay a 5th year, it finally hit me that merit AND tuition exchange are both only 4 years.
Is there any way to defer TE a year and just take the merit scholarship so that there’s still TE left for year 5?
Many of the colleges where S19 applied stated that TE was awarded only for incoming freshman so I’m thinking they want you in for eight semesters on TE for planning purposes, but it’s worth an ask.
I was surprised that at one of D22’s TE schools I had asked about the timing and the FA person said the straight up merit would go away but other grants would not. We haven’t heard from this school yet in terms of a TE decision, but if my DD gets it and they don’t claw back, this will mean an extra $8k/year. Maybe this is how they compensate for being set rate of $40k? I know Clarkson does this. The one school we’ve already heard from did in fact pull back the merit award as did S19’s college.
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Clarkson has a policy that you can’t stack merit & TE - EXCEPT for a separate pot of 2k-10k awards specifically to help bridge the tuition gap between the set price and full tuition. My son was awarded the upper limit, which still leaves 6k. (Plus room and board)
He has a full ride offer from UMaine, though, so as generous as the tuition exchange offers are, it’s hard to justify going that route!
On the other hand, he didn’t want to be far from home and maine is about 10 hours. And I’m not super confident in his ability to manage his time without constant nagging, or to self advocate for things he needs support with. If we don’t use TE this year and he wants to transfer somewhere else next year, is that possible?
What if he fails out and wants to start over as a freshman?
And, I realize this is probably home college specific, but has anyone used employee benefits to cover summer school classes to ensure graduating within 4 years? Is that something that would likely be either/or with the TE benefits? If we go with Maine instead of a TE school, would that keep free summer school classes at our home school on the table?
current TE parent popping in…
Yes, I agree the questions you raise are likely specific to your home institution’s policies. I will say, I looked in to my D20 taking a summer class at my home institution and it wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. First of all, as a non-matriculated student, she was low priority for getting in to the class, I don’t believe she could even waitlist - it had to be a class that open seats. Second, her school’s policy on transferring credits in a situation like that were a bit onerous, and other than the most basic gen ed requirements, they would not accept credit from another institution. Perhaps UMaine would be easier in this respect.
With respect to deferring your TE - again, you will be constrained by a) your home institution’s policies on this (will they “hold” a TE slot for you for four consecutive years if you don’t make use of it on year 1) and b) the importing institution’s policies on awarding TE to transfers. This varies significantly by school. Most that I looked into gave priority to current eligible students who didn’t get it their first year, followed by first years, then transfers.
TE has been wonderful for my D20, and has made possible for her to attend a school she really wanted to, but I do feel that we sort of lucked out in that, as more often than not, the benefit isn’t exactly the golden goose employers like to make it seem when they are luring you into a career in higher ed, LOL.
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I agree about the manner in which TE is presented to employees. These are highly competitive scholarships and if you don’t have the academics and extracurriculars to make you stand out and above the 50 other applicants vying for them as well, it is never a guarantee. When my daughter received notification of her TE award at Susquehanna University, it felt like we just won the lotto. While her merit aid was already generous at $39K a year, saving an additional $15K on top of that a year is a HUGE saving. I had been following these threads for the last few years, learning more about TE realities and what I learned is something our home schools most definitely don’t talk about. I’m glad I was able to get this post initially started for us 2022 parents, so future parents can continue to see how the process really works.
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They also don’t make it at all clear that it’s not necessarily full tuition. We started the application process looking only at the cost of room&board, fees, etc. Discovering that we would have to add another 15k on top of that for the rest of the tuition was a real shock!
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The information whether a school provides full tuition or set rate ($40k this coming AY) can be found on the TE website. You can also search for those schools providing full tuition. There’s some oddball ones out there like Villanova, which I think is set rate but provides room or something like that.
My son was offered TE at the following:
Clarkson
Western New England
Springfield
Lynn University
Campbell University
Eastern University
He has accepted Springfield offer since he will be playing soccer there. We are so relieved that all the stars aligned.
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Congratulations! We are still waiting for our two top stars. Hopefully within the next two weeks.
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congrats!
Just heard back from Rose-Hulman. My son was put on the waitlist for TE.
Don’t give up hope on the waitlist. My daughter applied for TE at 3 schools: Butler University, Valparaiso University and Depauw University. Valparaiso granted TE in November, Butler declined TE February. Depauw waitlisted TE in December and then granted just yesterday. Depauw was very clear in its offer letter asking us to decline promptly if we don’t intend to accept so that they can offer it to others. So, if your son in on Rose-Hulman’s waitlist it could come through at any moment.
We don’t know yet where she wants to go. IU and Purdue are the state school options and both have attractive offerings and scholarship packages. Good luck!
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@Mum2three If your son is really interested in Rose-Hulman make sure you let the TE rep and your son let the AO know! I found last year that depending on the school this really can make a difference and helped us get off the TE waitlist in 2 schools. I have no experience with Rose-Hulman though. Good luck!
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Ugh, I reached out today to one of my DD’s favorites, and they give ONE lone TE! I suppose we’ll learn soon if she’s the chosen one. I have to wonder if the criteria still includes a balance of imports relates to exports.
1 spot? Yikes. Please tell me its a school most know is competitive anyways. 
My son’s 3.4 GPA is not going to make him a very popular TE choice. And our export is not super sought after. Although, TE website does list our export school as accepting less than 10%.
It is not. It’s a small school in Boston (Emmanuel) so that’s what got me wondering about the import/export balance. But then again, it’s Boston:).
Received TE at DePaul today
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My daughter (4.0 GPA, SAT 1520, ACT 34, varsity athlete, employed for 15+ hours a week for 2 years) is currently waiting to hear from Berry College, Elon, Furman, and Bucknell. She’s been awarded TE at Rollins College and waitlisted at Richmond.
I reached out to a number of schools today and basically was just told to keep waiting and being patient. Richmond said she was waitlisted, but also that they haven’t awarded all their TE awards yet either. I guess they use some with each pool they move through (early vs regular decision). Really seems like schools should be more in sync with TE notices. I feel bad holding on to the Rollins one when that’s really her last choice, but can’t free up the spot until we hear back from other places.
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We also received DePaul TE notification yesterday. DS only applied to 2 schools and received TE to both. Now he has to move forward with choosing his school. I wonder what the TE selection criteria is. Is it merit? Do they award it to all who applied for it at DePaul?
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