<p>When my daughter was doing her apps one of the schools..(I think it was UMass?) asked what my husband and I did for a living. Why would a college care what we do? Does this somehow factor into the admissions in some way?</p>
<p>My D is three months into her first year. We are paying full price for a private. We just got an email asking for donations! We were hoping it was an offer of financial aid…or at least sympathy! It addressed us by occupation.</p>
<p>Sometimes, parental occupations can put a student’s accomplishments in perspective.</p>
<p>A few years ago, my friends were comparing financial aid offers from 3 ivies for their daughter. Based on their FAFSA they were eligible for all but $5K in financial aid. However, one of the ivies refused to meet their need because the girl’s father was an ivy league graduate in Physics. The Ivy said that with his BS in Physics from the Ivy League school (and masters degree in Physics from a large public institution) he had significant earning potential. They reduced their offer because of his potential. Needless to say, the girl is not attending that school. So that is another way the school use the parent’s information.</p>
<p>Re post #4 - That would be extremely unusual for an Ivy League School to deny financial aid based on the “Ivy League Graduate in Physics” father. There are many highly educated and intelligent parents who don’t make six figure salaries because they chose to work in less lucrative fields or needed to stop work for family circumstances or maybe they’re unemployable for reasons other than lack of intelligence. Maybe the father was providing suspicious figures or was divorced and refusing to give his info?</p>
<p>I agree with ellemenope in post #3 that colleges look at the student’s opportunities in context of the level of education their parents have attained and the types of jobs they have and the communities in which they live. </p>
<p>I find the stiuation in post #4 quite unusual as colleges don’t usually look at a parent’s earning potential, but more at their current employment. Many who attended Ivies (I have a graduate degree from Harvard) are in low paying fields (I’m in education). </p>
<p>Colleges definitely look at the degrees earned by parents in terms of context of a student’s background. A child from a family where the parents never went to college or went to a junior college will be viewed differently from a child whose parents have graduate degrees. This, however, had to do with admissions, not financial aid.</p>
<p>I hope it does not have to do with financial aid. I am an attorney (a new one just a year now) and I hope they dont think we are loaded and not deserving of aid money. I am a very poor lawyer at this point since I am so new to it and I do hope the reason is to see the context of the child’s background. My daughter has great potential if she puts her mind to it. I dont want her to suffer and not get aid because I have a doctoral degree. I may have one but have my own debt which came along with it…</p>
<p>MomfromPA…financial aid is based on income and not the title of your job. My kids are on financial aid and my husband has “Dr.” in front of his name. </p>
<p>We are talking about two different things here. For admissions purposes, colleges will view your child in context of their background…the community they grew up in, their parents’ type of jobs, their parents’ education, and the high school where the student attended. For financial aid purposes, the only thing that matters is INCOME, not the type of job you have. If you are a plumber with no education and make $150K, you might not get financial aid. If you went to Harvard for graduate school and are a teacher and make 60K, you will get aid.</p>
<p>re post #2. We have also got calls fromDD’s school for donation into school’s general fund. I don’t know what is the guiding principle here. Do they just call every parents?</p>
<p>It’s very possible that they call -or at least mail fundraising solicitions to - all the parents. Many colleges seek to encourage all parents to “participate” in fundraising - even in small amounts. Colleges keep track of participation percentages (by alumni and parents). Any willingness to donate (in large or small amounts) is appreciated - it’s viewed as an indication that parents have a positive view of their child’s opportunities/experiences at the college.</p>
<p>DadII, I think they call everyone. I get calls often from my older D’s college asking for donations. Given the loans we are paying off for her to have attended that college, I cannot donate right now. But this is very common and has nothing to do with a parent’s income or job title.</p>
<p>I dont think it has anything to do with title or income either…I frequently get requests from my old school for donations, I think they hit up everyone…I am more inclined to believe as the above poster said they ask for the info to get an idea of the childs background. The more I think about it the more that makes sense in some respects. Of course what the parent does is in my opinion in no way determinative of the childs ability. You can have a superstar parent with a child who is an underachiever or vice versa.</p>
<p>I think the anecdote in Post 4 is specious. My bet is that the student wasn’t accepted to said Ivy, and this was a good story to cover up the rejection. That is just not the way financial aid works at Ivies.</p>
<p>As to why a college wants to know parents’ occupations: I think it’s a range of reasons that may vary depending on the institution. Some schools use it as a way to ensure diversity (they don’t want to accept only offspring of doctors and lawyers). Others might use it for potential development purposes. As soozie said, it helps put the kids’ accomplishments into perspective – the son of a doctor and a lawyer would probably have a higher SAT than the son of a bricklayer and cashier (which would make the second kid’s high SAT score even more impressive). Do the parents have connections that might explain the student’s extracurriculars? The information also gives colleges some idea of whether the applicant will need financial aid.</p>
<p>“Based on their FAFSA they were eligible for all but $5K in financial aid. However, one of the ivies refused to meet their need because the girl’s father was an ivy league graduate in Physics. The Ivy said that with his BS in Physics from the Ivy League school (and masters degree in Physics from a large public institution) he had significant earning potential. They reduced their offer because of his potential.”</p>
<p>I don’t believe this at all. Do you suppose that they look at non-working parents and calculate their earning potential too, so that the family with a well-educated SAHM gets penalized? And how do they know what someone’s earning potential is?</p>
<p>They also want to be sure they’re not missing that the kid is the child of someone you’d really like to make a connection with! Like maybe the mom is a US Senator or high ranking judge or the CEO of an international corporation. Or a rock star.</p>
<p>Wait, so on my son’s college applications, I should tell them that I am a rock star? I don’t like to brag about it.</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>The girl I am speaking of was a top flight athletic recruit. She was an official visit at this Ivy. Her parents were in the financial aid office discussing their circumstances with the financial aid officer. The had pre-sent their financial data to the school so that before their daughter verbally committed they would have a good idea of the amount of financial aid they would receive. They were not lying about their finances or what transpired. They are married; they are just about the most upstanding, honest, forthright people I know.</p>
<p>Honestly, the events that I wrote about occurred and are true. The girl is very happy playing her sport and thriving at another Ivy. She is on almost 100% financial need-based aid.</p>
<p>Maybe they misunderstood the financial aid person? Like he or she said, “You only earn $20,000?” Anyway, it would be extremely unusual for an Ivy financial aid office to make assumptions that an Ivy League physicist should be earning way more than he is. Most humans don’t turn down income opportunities for the purpose of getting more financial aid (or paying less taxes).</p>
<p>Soozie, they do approach parents differently in terms of seeking donations based on income. While most get the occasional phone calls and letters, others are targeted by the development office for more intense attention. I’m told they scan applications for potential big givers as one of the ways of identifying prospects and that they somehow gain knowledge of those who have given big gifts to other schools.</p>
<p>Hmmm… maybe they should “scan” college fund statements. Timing is bad, for a few reasons.</p>