This is my kid’s situation too. Direct admit to Leeds and awaiting in state CA schools.
However, we did get merit, but quite honestly $25K ($6250/yr isn’t gonna do much with their sticker price of $60k) (but I knew the price going into it and wasn’t expecting any merit).
In my mind $6250 is just going to offset the travel costs if she were to go to CU.
Same. Accepted CU aero with great stats/ECs/tests. Applying to a fair # of OOS flagships and privates because UCs are a complete unknown (especially in engineering and CS). Merit aid would have been nice, but it seems they may be using that as a carrot independent of acceptance into chosen major/school. CU considers student background and cap weighted GPA at 4.0 for merit aid consideration and do not consider test scores; that is why kids get merit aid into exploratory studies… 3.6/4.0/1380 v 4.0/4.7/1550 becomes 4.0 v 4.0 and other considerations for scholarships.
That is not to say there are not some highly qualified kids in exploratory studies… there are and I’m amazed at the credentials of some kids that did not get into their choice. I’m simply explaining why some did not get merit aid vs others (grades only matter to a point in merit aid, and tests not at all).
Exactly
Not my first rodeo so yes I’m not going to do a tour if no money is given. Yes I am one who will not pay full sticker price for a 60k state school for a Bachelors degree, but to each their own. Like what you said and what I’ve heard a lot is that kids fall in love with boulder so I just have to be realistic.
And if what someone said above is true, that admissions said no more merit is going to be offered then its kinda a deal breaker.
FYI-- I talked to the Admission Office, My takeaway is that they did not offer anything (merit, Honors) to kids who they think will end up committing elsewhere. Though Honors goes out until mid April-- so if they haven’t withdrawn their app by then I would guess they’re a shoe in.
Of course it’s all a self-fulfilling prophesy in that without merit and Honors of course she won’t attend. CU is her safety school. But she has two more very likely schools that are much higher ranked. Maybe its CU is worth it for Engineering/CS but not for her interests.
Hah! That makes sense giving merit/ honors to those with high chance of attending … My daughter did write a lot about snowboarding/ skiing ( most of her volunteer work centered around snow sports lol!!)
Though not sure CU Boulder good for her major …so still researching but of course she would love to go purely based on location .
What do they do with the merit awarded to kids that end up going elsewhere? Do they re-award it?
I have no idea!! I would imagine with their high acceptance rate that they get many who don’t attend.
I don’t! Coaches aren’t a factor in my son’s college choices, so it’s not really on the radar.
Interesting. Because CU isn’t a demonstrated interest school, how do they decide which kids they think will commit elsewhere? (This is a rhetorical question; I don’t expect you to know.) CU is in my son’s top 3, we visited in June, he was very specific in his supplemental essays about the research labs he was interested in working/volunteering in (psychology), etc.
Thanks, still cheaper than the $80k charged by private colleges….
Not if the private schools give more money. It always comes down to to that final number. As I mentioned above…a private school gave my daughter so much money that it’s currently her cheapest option at this point.
I wonder this too. How do they really know who will attend??
It is hard to explain how much the energy has changed at CU since Coach Prime was hired. I went to a basketball game and the question was “Will Prime be here?” People have Prime Time t-shirts on. And the answer was no, he wasn’t at the men’s game that Thursday night but was at the women’s game the next night as his daughter is going to play for the women’s team next year. His two sons will play football. Before he was hired CU ranked 68th in recruiting for football and now is ranked 18th.
Season ticket sales are through the roof for football, and this is for a team that won ONE game last year. His first home game will be against Nebraska, and we’re having trouble getting tickets. When we last played Nebraska in Boulder in 2019, my friend who has season tickets easily got 50 extra tickets for our group. This year she’s been told maybe, MAYBE she can get 10.
This is all very good for the CU economy and for the Boulder economy. For the 2019 game:
"The Buffs collected $3.5 million in revenue from the game, effectively doubling the previous school record.
Oregon’s appearance in Boulder in 2015 generated $1.8 million in game-day revenue, while Utah’s visit in 2016 — with the division title at stake — produced a tick under $1.8 million.
…
According to CU, ticket sales were responsible for $2.7 million — and that’s just from single-game sales; revenue from season tickets isn’t allocated on a per-game basis.
Additionally, the Buffaloes took in $700,000 in concessions (a typical game is $388,000) and $66,000 in merchandise sales (typical: $55,000).
Key point: Parking isn’t included in athletic department revenue; it’s handled by campus.
But if you assume a low-six figure total for parking and whatever indirect unallocated benefits the game-day experience produced (donations, season-ticket sales), then the total income for the university is pushing $4 million. "
Every hotel room is booked and all restaurants are also packed.
…probably a combination of application info (legacy, feeder school, essays, etc.) and data they have about conversion success (demographic, academic qualifications, etc.). While Boulder doesn’t practice yield protection in admissions, I could imagine they have data about how kids’ performance in H.S. corresponds with enrollment – too high could mean too many choices at higher ranked schools, but at a certain level (where CU is competing on equal footing or maybe just below) the offer of money might push an applicant to say yes.
Very interesting. Very moneyball!
I did my MA at CU, but I’m pretty sure it had zero bearing on son’s acceptance. 
(I can’t even remember if there was a place on the common app to indicate that.)
Thanks for the details. All sounds wonderful. I have a son at the University of Tennessee and a daughter at the University of Michigan, and while the academics of each school were a priority for their particular major, the student life and excitement surrounding football did play a role in their decisions.
Because you sound knowledgeable on the workings of CU athletics, let me ask you…do students have the ability to purchase season tickets for football? At Michigan, you are guaranteed tickets as long as you purchase the season package. At Tennessee, however, you request a single ticket approximately 10 days before the game, and you may or may not get a ticket, especially as a freshman.
They don’t know! But merit helps attract the ones they think would raise their stats. While many people on here won’t send their kids to CU without any merit, there will be a line of people willing to pay the full price tag, and that is just a fact.
Well yea obviously that’s true for many schools… there are people who will pay full price.