<p>Kid will go on four Ivy OVs in September. Initially we viewed them all equally. In the past month 2 schools have surged forward in favor (#1 and #2). This is mostly due to their very personal style of communication and the close communication they have kept. #3 and #4 are in contact but it somehow feels more distant, less personal.</p>
<p>We have asked for financial aid info for all four. The coaches at #1 and #2 sent specific info with contact and telephone number of a counselor in the FAO. They asked that completed forms and documents be sent directly to contact at Financial Aid Office and said responses would be forthcoming in about a week.</p>
<h1>3 and #4 coaches sent specific forms and info requests as well, but they both asked that all info be sent to them, not to FAO. When we reviewed the forms closely, they offered 3 options for financial reads - and a box was to be checked:</h1>
<p>1) Pre-read from the athletic department and coaches
2)'Likely' with all info to be sent to the financial aid office
3) "Review' of previously sent info</p>
<p>Are we reading into this, or are schools #1 and #2 more interested and hopeful of getting kid (hence the term likely) and therefore they are setting up the direct communication with FAO;
whereas #3 and #4 are less sure that kid would be in line for a 'likely' therefore the coaches will have a look and not bother FAO with a recruit they are not sure about?</p>
<p>For many reasons we are not comfortable with sending all our financial info to the coaches, so will probably wait on schools #3 and #4.</p>
<p>Anyone encounter these distinctions when getting a financial pre-read?</p>
<p>It could also be that the FAOs at schools #3 and #4 don’t want to be deluged with FA info from every kid coming out for an OV, so they put that on the coaches who I assume will just run the basic calculator to give you an estimate.</p>
<p>They probably save the FAO resources until they’ve pared it down to LL candidates. So I wouldn’t necessarily take it to mean 3 and 4 are less interested, it may just be the policy at those schools.</p>
<p>My two cents…You have a great opportunity to be pursued by 4 ivys with very little action on your part. Let the market play itself out, and leverage every opportunity that presents itself. I think you may be reading into the processes of #3 and #4 a little too much. Each Ivy is very different and they do things differently. We worked with two Ivys, and they couldn’t have been more different in every facet from recruiting on up. Finance is a part of the decision but there is so much more when you look at the big picture. Try to keep them equals until you have all the information after the OVs. Then begin to parse the differences when it is means something.</p>
<p>Send your financial info to coaches #3 and #4. If any of them asked you for proof that your athlete is being recruited by H or P send this as well. Some of these coaches may do magic for you. In the end of the day you just need one generous pre-read from anyone that you can afford - the rest of them will most probably match it.
No matter where you send your info initially it will go to fin-aid office. The pre-read will be an official letter signed by fin-aid office or posted on their web site. Coached do not do fin pre-read themselves (as opposed to academic pre-read).</p>
<p>thanks for sharing ideas and experiences. We will get the first two reads back shortly and then send all the info along to schools #3 and #4. We hesitated to send financial info to coaches because this year has been a tough one - loss of a job last winter that has yet to be replaced. We do not want kid to be judged by coach because if this, if that is the chosen school. I am embarrassed to be unemployed. And 2013 looks very different from our norm.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about the coach judging your kid because of the family’s financial situation. And for what it’s worth, if you’re going to have a bad year financially, the year you’re applying for Ivy FA is not a bad time to have it.</p>
<p>Got another financial pre-read instruction and the direction was to send the materials to the coach first. We are pretty sure that S is one of their top recruits. I think it might be a matter of school policy.</p>
<p>Are the financial pre-reads reliable? In people’s experiences how willing are schools to match other ivy offers? Does being a recruited athlete affect your financial aid read vs. non athlete? Thanks for any info.</p>
Yes. We found them very reliable, but it is incumbent on the student/parent to provide all data needed. The pre-read is only as good as the data provided.</p>
<p>
Our FA pre-reads were almost identical between a HYP-type school and a BCCDP-type school. However, each coach knew we were considering the other, so I’ve always wondered if that information got passed onto FA office. I’ve not heard of great differences but your mileage may vary. </p>
<p>
Athletes receive grants in the FA read and package. I’m not aware that non-athletes receive grants.</p>
<p>Thanks fenwaysouth. I did not ask that last question very well! I meant is the online calculator the best indication of what you will pay (at HYP for example) or would a financial aid package possibly be more generous if an applicant is being recruited by top ivys or the top public/private schools in his/her particular sport. It’s a shock to see what schools think a family can afford to pay.</p>
<p>The Ivies that give less generous aid offer to match the FA of more generous (HYP) schools, at least in our experience. Not sue about. Other leagues.</p>
For us, the online calculator was very close to a the financial package offered by an HYP and non-HYP (BCCDP is my preferred abbreviation). When we went through this Ivy FA exercise 4 years ago it was fairly accurate, but I think every US school’s online tool has got much better. The most accurate would be the schools actual FA read as the online tool isn’t going to accurately know the grant amount. Our experience was different from classicalmama…both FA reads were very close.</p>
<p>If you are comparing top public/private schools to an Ivy you are comparing apples to oranges and I think you’ll find the top public and private schools will have vastly more flexibility since they can offer both athletic and academic scholarships. I think we were able to use the Ivys as leverage against the other schools, but it wasn’t my sense that we were using the other schools as leverage against the Ivys.</p>
<p>In our case, my son had a 25% offer from an in-state “public” Ivy and a 55% from a private academic D1. One was significantly less and one marginally less than the need based Ivy FA we receive today, but those schools had other challenges (3+2 engineering programs) that we decided against. Bottom line for us…our decision was not a mostly financial one, nor an athletic one. It was all about the best engineering program. Everybody has to make their own decision what is most important between academic, athletic and financial. Did I answer your question?</p>
<p>I think how much the FA varies between Ivies depends on income. Those whose income qualifies them for full aid will probably not find that there’s much difference between any of the Ivies. The same, I suspect, is probably true for those whose income means they’ll be expected to bear 50% or more of college costs. We’re in the middle of those two scenarios, and found that there were significant differences–in large part because some schools included capped loans in their FA package while HYP were entirely grant based. Nontheless, the other schools were willing to adjust their packages to meet HYP. </p>
<p>Anyway, a quick run of the FA calculators will give you a sense of where you lie in the continuum.</p>