<p>I have been waitlisted at my top choice for the Tuition Exchange program. Has anyone out there had success getting off a TE waitlist?</p>
<p>My oldest never did get off the waitlist back in '11.</p>
<p>our kid is also waitlisted for TE at one of the top choices. not holding our breath there</p>
<p>What is your alternative college funding strategy if you don’t get off the TE waitlist? Is the school one that accepts <10% or more near 100% of TE applicants? Did you check on the criteria the host school has for its TE grants? Good luck to you! </p>
<p>My oldest went to the home institution. For the youngest, the college application list included safeties–schools that were affordable without TE. </p>
<p>TE simply gives you more/different options. You still need an application list that includes financial safeties. </p>
<p>alternate strategy to the TE waitlist is to go to one of the other schools that did offer TE. or to go to the home institution. child was warned that there are no guarantees and yes this is a <10% school. knew that going in.</p>
<p>I know several parents who got jobs at nearby St. Joe’s University specifically so their kids could get free tuition at one of the many Jesuit schools (except Georgetown) around the country. As this is a path I’m thinking about taking for my two youngest kids, I have closely followed the outcomes and the parents’ overall impressions with their own kids and those of their co-workers. Here’s what I’ve gathered: Unless your child is a top notch student or has a hook, forget about the tuition exchange for Boston College or Fordham. There’s a little more room with some of the others, but it does seem the better student you are, the better your chances. I can specifically remember hearing of two kids who have gotten off the wait list for Fairfield, and another one for Loyola Maryland, but never for BC or Fordham. The kids who get into BC have the most options, generally speaking, and they can probably use the exchange at Loyola Maryland or Fairfield. For a kid whose best acceptance is Loyola Maryland, odds of being able to use the Tuition Exchange there are slim, but there seems to be a decent chance to use the tuition exchange at some of the highly ranked west coast Jesuit schools. The general wisdom is that applying to schools further away from home is somewhat of a hook for the Jesuit school tuition exchange, don’t know if that’s true for all the tuition exchange programs. By far, most of the families end up sending their kids to St. Joe’s, which is not a bad deal at all. </p>
<p>The Jesuit school exchange is separate from the bigger TE that many universities use. They make it very clear that it doesn’t work on the same playing field at Georgetown or BC (and now probably Fordham) and I inferred that they were saying “You can’t go to Georgetown or BC.” There are rules as to how long you have to work there to be eligible (2+ years?).</p>
<p>But yes, you have a much better chance of going to Regis or Gonzaga or Marquette, or of course your home school.</p>
<p>^^As far as I know, Georgetown’s actually not part of the Jesuit exchange. BC and Fordham are, but actually getting the exchange for them is extremely competitive.</p>
<p>I don’t know if the requirements are the same at all the Jesuit schools but St. Joe’s is four years full time employment. I think it used to be easier to qualify - workers with less years, maybe part timers? - but that changed a few years ago, at least at St. Joe’s.</p>
<p>update…child was on waitlist at a LAC. we received an email on May 2nd, saying “you can have the tuition exchange scholarship but you have to tell us by end of day today”. child decided that if they were serious they would have offered TE earlier and so would stay with the final choice made in late April…
in all there were five TE offers, although the most selective was made after the May 1 date and another offer was made this week. too little too late. just wanted to update you all that it is possible.</p>
<p>D was told she was #8 on the waitlist at one school. That was the last communication we ever had from them. Thankfully she was offered the scholarship at all the other schools where she applied. Waiting to hear was the hardest part - her friends had all already made their deposits and she didn’t know where she would be going until a week before May 1st!</p>
<p>Congrats to those who got TE offers, even if not needed or selected! Any advice for those of us who will enter the TE sweepstakes a couple of years from now? </p>
<p>Yes, I would appreciate hearing how TE works these days. I went to a LAC on TE back in the day, and I don’t recall any waitlists–my three siblings and I <em>all</em> went to school on TE (and at three different schools). My spouse’s employer is part of the TE network, so we are hopeful…</p>
<p>There’s lots of good information on the TE site, although I have reason to question some of the accuracy - but start there to narrow down your lists, then you can contact the TE liaison at the schools directly when you know where your child is interested.</p>
<p>Realize that first of all your child needs to be accepted into the school - there are schools on the list that are extremely competitive to get into.</p>
<p>For many schools, awarding TE is very competitive, so even after getting in, they’re still competing against other TE applicants, so at the most selective schools, competition for TE can be fierce. Some schools offer only a handful of TE awards. There are other schools that award TE to pretty much everyone who applies and is accepted into the university. Percentages are on the TE web site. Wait lists come in to play now because kids are applying to so many schools, and therefore many TE offers are turned down as the student may have received several.</p>
<p>Get to know your liaison officer. They should have information on history of earning TE awards at different schools, as well as what schools are on probation for not taking enough imports (which may mean they’ll offer more TE awards the next year). They may also know if schools are not currently taking new imports. Most importantly, make sure you know the deadlines to submit paperwork to universities to get the TE process going. We needed to do that before EA application dates, and actually ended up sending TE paperwork to one school D decided against applying to. Better to have too many on the initial list than too few.</p>
<p>Understand the policy at your school. At DH’s university, TE is not guaranteed. There are a certain number of scholarships available per year and granting of them is based on seniority, and he loses a set number of years TE seniority for child #1 using the benefit, which puts us lower on the seniority ladder for child #2. Some schools also have rules that you can’t have more than one child on TE at a time.</p>
<p>Know the total cost of attendance at the school and how much TE will cover. There are a few schools that award full rides, including room and board - that’s on the TE site and you can search for those. There is a “set amount” - last year it was $31,500. If a school’s tuition was less than $31,500, then the award was for full tuition. If the school’s tuition was more than $31,500, then it’s up to the school to determine the total amount. Some schools just give $31,500. Some give full tuition. Many give somewhere in between. The most helpful schools state this on their web site (for example, D’s school clearly states they give a maximum of 80% of tuition). That base amount does increase slightly every year to help offset tuition increases.</p>
<p>Most of the schools D was accepted at made offers of merit scholarships PRIOR to making the TE decision. At several of the schools, it was one or the other - if you accepted TE, you forfeited merit money. You could not combine. Two schools did allow her to keep enough merit money to end up covering full tuition, but she forfeited anything above that amount.</p>
<p>Study abroad may or may not be coverable by TE monies. If it is, it’s often restricted to only programs directly sponsored by the host university.</p>
<p>If you do get multiple offers, let schools know as soon as you decide which ones you WON’T be using, so they can make the TE offer available to students on the wait list.</p>
<p>Waiting is the hardest part - we did not hear from D’s first choice about TE until mid-April.</p>
<p>While D did receive many merit scholarships, TE made the difference in being able to afford her first-choice school. DH’s university still would have been cheaper, but she wanted to go out-of-state, and we’re very grateful this benefit made it possible.</p>
<p>Sorry about the length, but hopefully this helps. Let me know any further questions or you can PM me if you want specifics.</p>
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<p>I’ll put my two cents in (or should I say $32,500) as we just went through this process for the first time.
Although DH works at a small school, the process from our host school perspective was super easy - we met with our liaison last spring when DD was a jr, gave him a list of the schools she was going to apply to in late summer, and he took care of the rest.
DD applied to 5 schools with TE possibilities, plus DH’s school as a real safety. We made sure that some of the schools with TE were ones we could in theory afford without the TE, although some we couldn’t. You can find out the percentage of students who apply and get the TE scholarships, but please realize, what we didn’t, that many if not most schools look at TE as a academic scholarship and take your grades/stats into account. So while my D got into 4 out of the 5 TE schools she applied to (she was wait-listed at the 5th) she only got TE offered at one. DD got in to her reach school but didn’t get TE. Although the website says they offer TE to between 40 and 60% of those who apply, the kids who got the TE were those with betters stats than her, so consider where you/r student falls stat-wise at each school before looking solely at the percentage of awards they provide. </p>
<p>I know two other kids in our town also with TE scholarships who got more offers than my daughter, but they applied to less competitive schools. I realize we could have ended up with no TE so it isn’t a bad idea to include one sure bet, if you can.</p>
<p>We did ask the other schools, including her reach, to reconsider her if a TE became available but as of May 1 nothing changed so she went with her TE school, which she is very happy with.</p>
<p>However, one more note - the school where she will be going requires TE recipients to maintain a 3.2 GPA in order to keep their scholarship! This is pretty high (she’s a smart girl but not necessarily on par with kids getting the top academic scholarships) but this is their requirement and she has to keep that GPA or risk losing a lot of money, so make sure you know in advance what the expectations are for keeping the scholarship once you get it!</p>
<p>It is a great benefit and we plan on taking advantage of it again for our second child in a few years. </p>