Just announced today, UMich would be tuition free for all in-state students with family income below $65k. Before that, UMich has guaranteed need met for all in-state students already. In addition, they also announced that they will meet the need for OOS students with family income below $90k.
http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2017/06/university_of_michigan_to_offe_4.html#incart_2box_news_ann-arbor
Ok… what about the 10k+ in R&B? Free tuition isn’t helpful if you can’t afford housing.
I’m glad that they’re doing this, but the real test will be whether or not they actually reach out to low-income students. There is a reason that the vast majority of students come from very well-off families… and it’s not because UMich isn’t affordable. UMich has met full need for in-state students for several years now.
So if a student family income s $65,000 or less…does this mean they get free tuition AND their remaining need is still fully met?
The article said the remaining CoA will still be covered by other financial aid. Basically, the CoA is largely reduced.
@thumper1 It is still need met for all in-state students. Note that around 60% of CoA of in-state students is the tuition. That means the total grant amount would be much more than 60% of CoA for those students. For the remaining $11k or so R&B, it would be easily covered by additional grant, subsidized loan, workstudy, and EFC (if any).
@romanigypsyeyes Need met was basically in-line with their ~50% grant of financial need policy. The free tuition alone is already 60% of the CoA (not just the financial need). Also, they have been reaching out the low income students through the HAIL program for a couple years. This new policy basically expanded the HAIL.
Anyway, they have only ~3000 students with lower than $65k family income. Most of them already received grants around the amount of tuition already. So the additional financial aid would be around a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for these 3000 students per year. While the need met for OOS students with lower than $90k would be an even bigger thing as the CoA is near $60k.
I fail to understand how this is anything new. Do the current NPC with $64,999 and one child … the grant aid exceeds the cost of tuition and fees. Unless UM has already changed their NPC on the College Board site to reflect what was just rolled out, it looks like tuition/fees were already covered for families with AGI up to $65,000. This is free advertising, IMHO. UM uses Profile, so all bets are off if the family has a reduced AGI due to write-offs. If this changes, then maybe it’s a new thing. Otherwise, I’m not seeing the big deal here.
I don’t think it’s a big deal either @kelsmom. Just a way to market themselves as affordable.
It is not too much a deal for the in state part as they already have very good financial aids. It is still good to lower the cost even just a little bit. The interesting point is the $65k income threshold is already above the median income in Michigan. The sad thing is there are much less than half of the in state students are benefited from this. That means most of students from the low income families do not perform well enough to be admitted.
For OOS students, that new need met policy is certainly a big thing.
UMich does use CSS profile but they do not put much weight on it. My D’s EFC still match the FAFSA very much even we have a lot of retirement investment and equity. If you read the article, it mentions some of these calculations. Each school that use profile data in their own calculation. It does not necessarily mean the EFC would be higher. Also, for the $65k income threshold, they give $50k asset protection too.
I would be very interested in seeing if it makes any difference for in state. I don’t think it will, based on the fact that what they do now is pretty much the same as they say they will be doing. The OOS thing actually makes me mad as a MI taxpayer. I don’t really have any interest in subsidizing students from other states when I truly believe we have in state students who can fill those spots. We don’t exactly have too few lower-income students in Michigan … if we need to find more to balance out the income brackets represented by the student body, I think targeted recruitment within the state is a better way to do it.
@kelsmom or Michigan could set a VERY low %age of accepted OOS students like UNC-CH does.
It may make the financial aid package all grants for instate if 100% need is met in addition to free tuition? That is, because of the free tuition, Pell grant goes to room&board, leaving about 6k to cover - through work study, student /parent contribution and/or loan. I could see where it’s make it possible to have no loans or to reduce loan amount.
Also, for lower and middle income students, ‘guaranteed full tuition scholarship if you can get in’ is a powerful incentive to apply.
IF they know about it. UMich just does NOT reach out to low/middle income students. They just don’t.
If this actually increases the number of low/middle income students at U of M, I am the first one who will stand proudly and applaud them. There are few things I want more from my university than to increase socioeconomic diversity.
IME though, all of these efforts are really nothing more than a bunch of rich people patting themselves on the back for pretending to help the less fortunate.
Pell and FSEOG would go toward tuition, according to the plan.
I agree that outreach is needed. UM estimates 3,000 students qualify, out of a total of 30,000 undergraduates. That’s 10%. Again, I don’t think this is really a new initiative … rather, it’s a “repackaged” initiative … but if the effect is to draw more students who are lower income, that would be great (and of course, UM would have to accept those students for it to be a win-win). The problem that comes into play is how the students will afford to live on campus (or even off campus, since it is expensive to live in AA). Federal loans will not be enough to cover living expenses.
They do have an outreach program for low income community in state since last year. Search for the HAIL scholarship program.
An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education asks UM’s president why this is a big deal, when these students are already getting their tuition covered. Apparently: “For students and families who look at a prestigious university like Michigan and believe they will never be able to afford it, the Go Blue Guarantee will explicitly communicate to them that their tuition will be covered and that cost should not hinder them from applying, Mr. Schlissel said. … The university found that prospective applicants who were explicitly told they were guaranteed four years of free tuition if they were admitted applied at two and a half times the rate of those who were told only that Michigan had generous need-based aid.” Okay, I’ll buy that …
The article does ask: “And what about student fees and living expenses not covered by the plan? Would such a guarantee really make a difference?” The answer those questions are not addressed in the article, though. That part of the equation is important, as I know from my experience with a public U that covered the cost of tuition for 0 EFC students … who then couldn’t come because they couldn’t afford to live on campus.
It’s not the be-all-and-end-all, but it is a step in the right direction. I just hope they continue to work toward being able to assist low-income students with the real cost of college (not just tuition).
Use the NPC if you really want to know…
However, if they remain admissions unfriendly to those from low income families, then it may not help very many. Also, those from divorced parents may find the CS Noncustodial Profile to be a barrier.
Umich asks for NCP info. That could cause issues for some Pell qualified students if their NCPs won’t submit info or won’t pay.
Also, CSS profile captures the finances of some Pell qualified students in a way where they don’t qualify for much aid…if parents own business or have assets that weren’t counted on FAFSA.
That 10% is only showing the percent who actually enrolled. Who knows how many applied but got aid pkgs that didn’t work for them because of NCP issues or that CSS included home equity, business, etc.
Plus, there are probably some that didn’t bother to apply once they realized that CSS profile would eliminate much/all of the aid they wanted.
IF the UC schools used CSS Profile, probably many would suddenly not qualify for the aid that they’re getting.
Come on… CSS Profile is a collection system. How each school that requires Profile uses that collected data is potentially different at every school and will depend on the specific policies that every school has. Just because Profile asks for information that is not reported on FAFSA does not mean that a school uses that information to the detriment of a need-based financial aid seeking student.
@BelknapPoint
Sure it does. Otherwise why would a school bother to use CSS Profile if not to capture income/assets that are not disclosed in FAFSA???
Gee, save everyone a ton of time and money and not use CSS Profile if the goal isn’t to uncover other money sources.
Schools use Profile because they want a more comprehensive picture of a family’s financial situation. Your post #15 makes it sound like using Profile will automatically mean less need-based aid for every student as compared to a calculation using only FAFSA. This is simply not true. Just one example to prove this point: FAFSA does not require the reporting of primary home equity. Profile does. But there are Profile schools that do not consider primary home equity when determining need-based aid, even though that information is available to them through Profile.
<<<<< @BelknapPoint
Your post #15 makes it sound like using Profile will automatically mean less need-based aid for every student as compared to a calculation using only FAFSA.
<<<<
Less aid for every student???
You quoted my words “some Pell qualified students” in your post yet you say that I make it sound like every student??? Do you understand that the word “some” does not mean “all”? Ok, maybe you don’t. So, now you know…the word “some” does not mean “all.”
And we’re talking about Umich here. And I was talking about a variety of things that might hurt some (oh gosh, there’s that word “some” again. Look above for what that doesn’t mean.). Pell qualified applicants…NCP info, a family business, home equity. Have you heard that Umich doesn’t include home equity?