Just got an email for the FA office at one school where D2 is applying. They were clear that aid and admissions decisions are separate and wanted to alert me that if D2 is offered admission there will not be any aid. S1 attends BS and is off to college in the Fall and I was really hoping for some aid. I really appreciate the heads up as it gives me a chance run some scenarios and consider some options. I have to admit I’m a little surprised. S1 received aid all 3 years he attended BS. I admit '14 was a good year but thought that having S1 in college would help D2 receive aid.
Hang on, its not the same school that S1 goes to though is it? I think its nice that they emailed you ahead of time, but I would be much more surprised if they aren’t giving FA to a sibling of a current student than if you are saying that a brand new school isn’t giving S2 FA. Although, OTOH I would be more surprised if a school called you ahead of the deadline without the sibling or legacy connection…
Two different schools, both in TSAO.
Sounds to me like they are fishing for information on whether to admit S2 or not, while being concerned with yield. Due to S1 being in a different BS.
@mhmm totally agree
Could be. My daughter only applied to 3 schools, one of them being the one her brother attends. The other schools my daughter applied to did ask if we had a predisposition for her brothers school and we said no. I’m still not sure she has a firm first choice.
You should reply back if your D will attend without financial aid. If you can’t afford it, do you really want you tell your D on M10 that she can’t go, even with an acceptance letter in hand?
Sometimes the schools do this so that a denial letter can be sent to the student instead of an acceptance.
I actually ended up having a pretty positive dialog on the topic. My income can very quite a bit from year to year - 2014 was good year for me. The FA director said that if my daughter enrolls and my '15 income returns to previous levels he could not promise aid but it would be highly likely. Given this I told him a lack of aid would not prevent us from accepting.
hopefully the FA is going to a family who could not send the kid without it
So I thought it would be good to close the loop on this as future forum members may encounter similar situations. After having gone through 3 admit cycles I may take the time to make a thorough post about my experiences with the FA aspect of the admissions process but that will have to wait for another time.
Choate - the school that contact me originally about no FA waitlisted my daughter. Based on my interaction I would have predicted an acceptance as a full pay. Glad this didn’t happen as the only way I could have made that work would have required either a home equity loan or a 401k loan.
Milton - accepted with FA.
Andover - accepted with FA guaranteed every year she attends.
Andover will be $13,000 less expensive than Milton due to the larger FA award and lower starting tuition.
Good for you! Congrats!