<p>No, you’re not. CIC schools are required to give just 3 awards a year to new students. Acceptance rates are generally in 10% range, although some schools are definitely more popular than others (and the unpopular ones have higher award rates because far fewer students apply for the benefit). </p>
<p>TE schools can award at higher rates because every import equals an export for one of the college. Additionally, on TE, you can find each schools acceptance rate for imports. There are also popular schools with acceptance rates in the 10% range, but you’ll find many more in the 40% range and some in the 90-100% acceptance range.</p>
<p>On the TE site you can also search for how much the award is for. Schools with tuition greater than the set rate ($32500) next year may require you to pay the difference. We had about a $2000 tuition gap at RIT, which we covered with an outside scholarship and the tax break for tuition. As an example, Syracuse guarantees TE to all eligible students, but their tuition is somewhere in the upper 30s and they only do set rate. It’s nice to find a school on the list that covers full tuition, gives it to everyone, and is a nice school. These are usually the regional schools. For us, that was Bellarmine in KY - the tuition exchange confirmation came with her acceptance. We really liked it, and it would have worked nicely if she had not gotten other offers. </p>
<p>D applied to 7 schools - 5 of which are TE schools, one isn’t and one is where H works. Heard back and was accepted from 4 schools so far, but already told no about TE at two of them. Two of the ones she is waiting on have acceptance rates 40-60% so hoping one comes through, but for all we know we could end up 0 for 5 at this rate. H’s school is a fall back but D really doesn’t want to go there, so the whole thing is still a big unknown for us. </p>
<p>Yikes, myjanda. Did each school’s TE liaison give you good info about the criteria they use to award the TE? Were the “no” schools in that group of schools that award to 10 percent or fewer of the TE applicants? Fingers crossed for you guys! </p>
<p>@dyiu13, make that no’s from 3 schools so far. Tulane just told us they awarded to 60% of those who applied for TE and we were in the unlucky 40%…
Pitt and UDel were in the 11 to 40% I think but I’ve heard that state U’s give them more to instate rather than OOS, whether that is true or not…<br>
Tulane was her first choice so she is bummed that we basically have to cross that one off the list.
Still waiting to hear back from American (11-40%) and George Washington (less than 10%).
D wanted a large school in a city so there weren’t many slam-dunks in that category, at least not slam dunks for her. She is a good student - got into Tulane- but not good enough to get much merit money at those schools unfortunately.
But Pitt and UDel are reasonably priced, as far as these things go, and UDel gave us some money, so all is not lost.
Thanks for the good wishes, though - sure we could all use them!</p>
<p>I remember from last year he waiting is so hard. Most of D’s friends had already paid their deposits and were all set, and she still didn’t know where she was going! And we felt bad, as the first couple of schools that did offer D TE kept asking us if she was going to take it - if she wasn’t they wanted to offer it to the next kid on the wait list. Of course her #1 school was the last we heard from! We did let one school know right away, as it was her last choice, and as soon as she was notified of the award from her #1 we let the others know. I’m hoping some happy kids got taken off waitlists… Good Luck!</p>
<p>we are also waiting…child applied to 5 TE schools and host campus school and a couple others. results on TE: admitted with no TE but big scholarship, admit with TE but it’s a set amt not full, admit with TE full tuition (offered weeks after initial lower scholarship amount), admitted but no TE or other FA notice yet, and admitted with small scholarship and no TE. so…a mixed bag. admitted to host campus but not sure about wanting to attend there. good luck everyone!
(edited to correct)</p>
<p>We applied to 6 TE schools. My child got one full offer from a high ranked regional university, 2 admissions, with TE denials from schools we thought were reasonable chances. The killer is that one really good school on the list, which usually offers only 10%, was planning to offer to all admitted TE applicants this year, due to an import/export imbalance. My child? Waitlisted. AGH The last two we have heard nothing from. So we are down to two full tuition offers-- high ranking regional, and home school. </p>
<p>I love sharing this information and reading others. This will only help us with future kids applying to TE! Let’s keep the information flowing. So far I have found no other resources online for sharing TE news. </p>
<p>“A friend’s child did TE last year. She got into Gettysburg but they would not give her 1 cent of FA over the TE so she had to decline them.” That is truly the rock and the hard place of TE, isn’t it? </p>
<p>I am trying to use the EFC and the Net Price Calculators and adapt the results for a possible TE (most or all tuition covered). The possible TE seems to complicate it. I guess I would just assume student loan of $5,500 and student-job income about $1000 would be required to be applied against the tuition total, minus the balance of tuition, plus room/board, books/electronics, travel & spending money = our costs to send student. Am I doing this right? </p>
<p>Correct. We didn’t use the NPCs after we knew we had TE. In our case, daughter also won a small outside scholarship. We counted that as taxable scholarship income for her and applied it to room and board, so that what is left of tuition and books is maximized for the education tax credit (up to $2500). They reduced her work study grant by the amount of that small scholarship, but her job lets her just continue as a regular student employee once she’s gone through her work study amount. Be sure to save all receipts for books, since so much of the tuition is covered. We still weren’t able to maximize the tax credit (you can’t count room and board and computers for that). If you happen to have a 529 plan, you can use that toward room and board without tax implications.</p>
<p>Oh, dear. It’s looking more and more like the DD is going to have to live at home and attend parent’s employer for undergrad, though the school is all wrong for her. We had to spend all funds we thought would have been her educational funding for unanticipated medical-related expenses. Now, we’re in that sweet spot (ha ha) of likely not being need-eligible for fall 2016 freshman year, and given the student’s disabilities, her not being merit material. Sigh. I had naively thought TE would be an accessible and real benefit to a working stiff’s kid. Now, it’s like winning the lottery. </p>
<p>@dylu13 - oh no! Tuition Exchange has been a god send to us, and I hate that it’s not working for you. I have no idea what schools your DD applied to, what her stats are, or what she’s interested in studying. Have you taken a quick look at schools that still accept TE applications? For example, Mary Baldwin in VA offers nearly everyone TE, has no deadline, AND includes room. It’s surely not a well known school outside of Virginia, and it’s a women’s college, but I know people who have gone there and loved it - Staunton is a lovely town. Sweetbriar, Ohio Wesleyan, Hendrix, and Bellarmine all have no deadline. There are many others, but I am not familiar with them.</p>
<p>My oldest is at my employer for undergrad. It’s really not a bad deal. And at my employer, tuition remission is available as long as she is my dependent. She’s thinking about a 5th year, and it’ll still be covered. There are some advantages to the home school that you don’t get when you transfer out.</p>
<p>Why does your d need to live at home? If she could live on campus at the other schools, why not the local one? </p>
<p>Oh, DD is HS class of 2016. She doesn’t really even have any stats that I’d trust, except her high IQ. So, we’re beginning to research TE now, and we’re getting our first strong whiff of EFC, unmet need, etc. I’m definitely going to try to make it work, but it’s becoming obvious my assumptions for these past many years of how TE worked were pretty pie-in-the-sky. </p>
<p>Living at home would be the most affordable for her/us. Sending her to a TE school means we have to pay room/board, books, travel, etc., out of pocket. Seemingly it’ll cost $15K/year to parents, plus the Stafford loan to her (along with income from any student job, naturally). We not sure we can do that, as we’d like to avoid parent loans, not take from our retirement, and home equity is tapped out. But, I so wanted her to have the residential college experience. We’ll still shoot for that, but our financial/academic safety would be the employer institution. </p>
<p>We’re still in early days of this process, and each day brings a new adjustment. Still, we’re hopeful — kinda. </p>
<p>We’re exploring Wheelock, Simmons, Marygrove, Dominican U (IL), U of St. Francis (IL), Carthage, Mount Saint Mary U (WI), Augsburg, St. Catherine (MN), Mills, Whittier — all TEP or CIC TE, or both. </p>
<p>20k a year for room/board/books/travel and fees? My kids pay their own books and personal expenses. So far, I haven’t come anywhere close to 15k OOP and the kids haven’t taken out loans. It’s good to overestimate costs and maybe your list of schools is one with huge fees and very high housing, but I really don,t think you’ll be paying 20k a year (we looked at Augsburg, ended up not applying, but I’m pretty sure that one wouldn’t have cost anywhere near 20 if the tuition was covered).</p>
<p>You know you can assure yourself some awards. On TEP look for schools that 90+%. Otherwise, apply where you’re kids stats put her in the top quartile of the student body in general.</p>
So, we’re beginning to research TE now, and we’re getting our first strong whiff of EFC, unmet need, etc. I’m definitely going to try to make it work, but it’s becoming obvious my assumptions for these past many years of how TE worked were pretty pie-in-the-sky. </p>