Fin Aid - Page 2

mallomar · 02-24-2008, 05:33 PM

Kat,

The best merit aid I have seen at Kenyon for anyone other than their top of the top was $7,000. There are people who love wooster. My daughters went there for a summer program and I FOUND IT ok, it was a bit white bread for our tastes. I expect that they would offer good merit aid to your D, from what I know of her.

Without anything concrete guiding this, I would expect Wooster and St. Olaf to be about the same politically, as I would see Kenyon and Carleton. Granted I have NOTHING to base that upon.

Sounds like she is looking at some great schools.

Hindoo · 02-24-2008, 06:51 PM

We haven't found Wooster to be "white bread" at all--at least not in its academics. If you mean that the majority of students there are "white," that, unfortunately, seems true of most small liberal arts college--including Kenyon, Carleton, and St. Olaf. Look at the stats. Otherwise, I agree with you, mallomar. They're a great group of schools. Kenyon and Carleton (our youngest is a Carl) are both famously liberal campuses. Wooster is left-leaning, but not as politically active as the other two. St. Olaf, I don't know. It's a dry campus, with a good theater department--but that's about all I know.

MolBioAce06 · 02-24-2008, 07:00 PM

I received more than 7K/yr merit aid (academic only) and that was back in 2002, and some of my other science major friends were getting honors scholarships worth a lot more than that. I never talked with my other friends (humanities) about scholarships, so I can't speak on those majors and fin aid. Yes, Kenyon will still be insanely expensive, but you can always try if you are a strong student and see what happens $ wise.

Saint Olaf is a fine school, I was awarded a decent amount of scholarship $ from them, but passed since it was close to home and also not as good of deal as Kenyon overall/poorer in academics.

I would put Wooster and Olaf a tier lower than Kenyon and Carleton academically, based on not just guidebooks, but students I know from each college and my experiences in general. Basically your daughter will get a great education and overall experience at any of these schools.

Lastly, Olaf is quite a bit more conservative than Kenyon and Carleton, but leans towards the middle more than some ultra conservative places.

mallomar · 02-24-2008, 07:41 PM

I guess when I said white bread... we didn't see or experience anything too different or special about it that made it stand out from other schools. That may or may not be true depending on particular programs. There was just nothing about it that stood out for our kids, but I am sure that differs student to student.

Hindoo · 02-24-2008, 07:42 PM

MolBioAce06--You and your friends must have been beyond brilliant. In my daughter's high school graduating class (2006), four students applied and were accepted at Kenyon. All were absolute academic all-stars, and each received a $7,000 scholarship. Only one ended up attending, and only after aggressively petitioning for more money. ... I've often wondered what amazing things one would have had to achieve in order to win a more substantial award at Kenyon!

Hindoo · 02-24-2008, 08:24 PM

mallomar--Different strokes for different folks, I guess. We saw something quite special in both Wooster and Kenyon. One, however, was more affordable.

MolBioAce06 · 02-24-2008, 10:27 PM

We all had 3.9 something GPAs (unweighted) while taking lots of AP and IB, high test scores, honors in activities, volunteered, were varsity level athletes etc In addition we had a strong interest in certain areas, and could convey that well to admissions. One of my good friends had a passion for science and Chinese language, she is now on her Fulbright in China studying environmental policy. I realize that admissions is even more challenging now, so I'm just glad to be an alum

SWINGDOGS · 02-24-2008, 10:45 PM

I'm a Kenyon student, and from what I hear the school really is TERRIBLE about financial aid. As a tour guide, we're basically told to say that need-based and merit-based financial aid is available but that we, as students, can't answer specific questions and they should contact an admissions rep. I think we just don't have the endowment or financial comfort to do it well. I am lucky enough that I don't have to worry about tuition, but it's a shame that some really brilliant kids can't come here because of money. I am currently applying to transfer though, so if I do decide to leave maybe another kid will take my spot here!

MolBioAce06 · 02-24-2008, 11:43 PM

It is true that Kenyon is not need blind, but I don't think terrible is an accurate representation of the situation.

KCalum2003 · 02-25-2008, 01:18 PM

Kenyon is far from terrible about financial aid, in fact they are better than most other schools in their peer group because they don't leave gaps in packages for families who have great need. Where they DO struggle is with merit, I'll admit that. And yes, that is in part tied to endowment, they just have less scholarship money to give out when compared to other peer schools/LACs.

SWINGDOGS · 02-25-2008, 01:36 PM

terrible might've been a bit harsh, but i do know of a few students who i consider more cut out for kenyon than me who weren't able to attend because of finances...

politicaljunkie · 02-25-2008, 08:11 PM

Does anyone know what percentage of Kenyon Students get merit aid. According to the website, around 70 percent get some kind of aid, while 45 percent get need based aid. Does this mean that >25% get merit aid, or am I misreading this?

MolBioAce06 · 02-25-2008, 08:45 PM

Top 15-20% get merit aid as I recall. I don't remember if I saw this on the Kenyon website, in the Collegian (Kenyon's paper), or on an official document from the college. That brings about the last point I intended to make in previous posts. There is an opinion piece in the Collegian this week that talks about this a bit as well. Basically Kenyon is now competing with Yale and so on for students, so the top 15-20% of applicants ends up being a fairly small # of students that actually intend on attending Kenyon. I'm sure admissions tries to gauge interest especially when handing out the largest awards, but it might be possible that there are quite a few "lost" scholarships each year. So in essence you have to be of Ivy caliber to pull off the nice merit awards. I welcome comments, especially official ones, if I am way off base here.

momonthehill · 02-25-2008, 10:05 PM

My D is interested in Kenyon, so I've been following this sub-forum. I wonder what percentage of ED students, if any at all, receive merit aid: I'm guessing that, by applying ED, a student is most likely forfeiting any chance of being awarded merit aid.

mallomar · 02-26-2008, 08:28 AM

On a fall visit day that Kenyon sponsored this past fall, the admissions staff strongly recommended NOT going ED if the cost is an issue. They pretty much said if Kenyon is your #1 choice and you need aid, there are other ways of letting your interest be known to the admission's office than ED.

My D decided to apply EDII purely by the numbers. Last year 347 students applied ED and 185 were accepted- 53%. 27% of RD candidates were accepted. Kenyon does not have to give ED applicants any money, since they are agreeing to enroll upon acceptance.

Will the money be tight for us.. not even a question (we are also supporting a parent in assisted care.) Not 100% sure how we are going to swing it, however, it was OBVIOUS that Kenyon was the right school for our D and we did not want to risk the rejection.

Just another way to look at it.