Admitted to College, but Needing a Godmother

Parents Forum
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<p>A wrenching story of financial aid decisions from a Financial aid director.</p>

<p>By JACQUES STEINBERG</p>

<p>"The envelope arrives with good news. The college is pleased to announce that the student has been offered acceptance and, if he or she is fortunate, some scholarship money.</p>

<p>But in this busted economy, more parents are saying they need more money and are filing appeals. Then the waiting starts again, for a phone call.</p>

<p>The job of delivering that news — after weighing hopes and dreams against limited budgets — falls to people like Sandra J. Oliveira, the executive director of the financial aid office at Providence College.</p>

<p>Ms. Oliveira is spending this week plowing through a stack of 100 appeals from high school seniors who have been accepted for the next freshman class but who say they cannot afford to attend. Each packet contains a heartfelt plea for more aid than the college offered initially, to offset the impact of recent job losses, plunges in home values or other financial setbacks.</p>

<p>“In this economy, everyone is feeling it to some extent,” Ms. Oliveira said recently, her wood-laminate desk cluttered with medical bills, layoff notices and tax forms sent to her as supporting evidence. “Sometimes we can do a lot,” she added. “Sometimes we can’t. But we spend a lot of time listening.”</p>

<p>Ms. Oliveira’s emotional, painstaking task is playing out on hundreds of campuses, in advance of the May 1 deadline for tuition deposits from many incoming freshmen." </p>

<p>[Admitted</a> to College, but Needing a Godmother - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/education/30aid.html?hp=&pagewanted=print]Admitted”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/education/30aid.html?hp=&pagewanted=print)</p>

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<p>Well, we were a family who appealed one of my S’s top choices with no results. We were encouraged to appeal and followed their suggestions promptly for the appeal - while we did not have dire circumstances (job loss, etc.), the gap was quite large. Still, not a penny more.</p>

<p>So while I feel a little empathy for these fin aid staff, I also would encourage them not to give families false hope, AND I would like to hear more about :</p>

<p>“Sometimes we can do a lot,” she added. “Sometimes we can’t. </p>

<p>So how do they determine the lucky “a lot” people???!! And perhaps change the second part of that sentence to “most of the time we can’t”. :(</p>

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<p>My friend’s Dad lost her job and she went into the fin aid office asking for some more money. They said there was nothing they could do, but if she was black it would be a different story.</p>

<p>No, I’m not kidding. And this isn’t some rant against affirmative action lol, just keep reading.</p>

<p>Perhaps if your student meets certain criteria (comes from inner city near school, or disadvantaged county near school, etc.) there are certain emergency funds, alumni funds or special need-based scholarship funds that the fin aid office can help you secure. In the cases of elite privates that do not give scholarship money any need-based scholarships may be “separate” from the school’s actual fin aid process but closely tied due to generous alumni and whatnot. But if you do not meet certain criteria then there are less funds available to you. I know my own school does have special scholarship funds for disadvantaged minority students which are built up by alumni dollars, however many students would not qualify despite being economically disadvantaged in the strictest sense. Even just being black might not be enough in all cases…a lot of the money is very specifc, i.e. tied to a specific high school, city, or county.</p>

<p>That is the less conspiracy-based theory…looking at my friend’s Ivy admissions and fin aid packages, it seemed to me that the better students got more financial aid. I.e. the ones they wanted more, got more money. Seems quite sketchy because technically money is not merit-based at many/all of these places, yet no clear divides in income sometimes resulted in startlingly different fin aid packages. But again this is very “the mafia killed John F. Kennedy”. I suppose it’s more likely that the first explanation is true, where special funds/alumni funds can supplement fin aid packages if the student meets the right criteria.</p>

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<p>I think its the opposite of good luck that has to do with receiving more financial aid. The article cited a family who lost job. I suspect a major medical illness or some other financial blow could alter the offer.</p>

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<p>Let’s tell the truth: Providence is featured in this sob story giving an extra thousand or two to a handful of those who appealed – after Providence raised its tuition, fees, room & board (probably full COA, though the story doesn’t say this) for next year’s freshmen to $53,000 – a 19% increase! Nineteen percent! </p>

<p>So no alligator tears for the hard job of the godmother at Providence – they’re clearly funding the miserable little increases they’re funding out of what they’re gouging other families on.</p>

<p>They should be ashamed.</p>

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<p>Why ashamed? No one is entitled to financial aid–it’s a gift. And no one is entitled to attend any particular college. If you can’t afford it, or if you think the place is “gouging” families, go elsewhere. I think the point of the article was that Ms. Oliveira is in a role where she has to disappoint a lot of people and wishes she didn’t. She doesn’t set tuition and she doesn’t determine the total aid available. Frankly, I wouldn’t want her job.</p>

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<p>I would guess many of the appeals are from people in the situation they describe–sitting on paid off real estate, etc. Many just don’t want to do the kind of suffering others do to pay for their child’s college choice.</p>

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<p>“No one is entitled to financial aid–it’s a gift”</p>

<p>No. </p>

<p>Financial aid should be in place to ensure equal opportunity for all. If you want system which favors the rich and keeps the poor at a perpetual disadvantage, a time machine to to 1500s England is in order.</p>

<p>" If you can’t afford it, or if you think the place is “gouging” families, go elsewhere."</p>

<p>Oftentimes private colleges give the MOST financial aid and are the MOST affordable option. </p>

<p>Thankfully, many public flagships are able to keep tuition low and financial aid reasonably high. Many kids can make it through, especially with 2 yrs of community college, even from very limited means. But states still exist that do not adequately fund higher education, and in that case lower-income people are shut out.</p>

<p>I do believe colleges (and some legislators) should be ashamed of themselves. There is no doubt higher education is usually a requirement for the best jobs in this society, yet at the same time they are often overpriced, elitist and classist, and are foregoing their duties to educate our nation’s youth but shutting out thousands.</p>

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<p>I would hate to work at a college that regularly gaps kids or fills their packages with loans. It is deceptive to try to get a family or student to desperately stretch their budgets to a ridiculous point to afford high college costs. </p>

<p>I wasn’t impressed with the lack of empathy this counselor had for the student whose family had a house but could not get a loan against it. If the family is not credit worthy of a PLUS and has no funds, where are they going to get the money? Around here, you can’t sell most real estate unless you have a fire sale, and even then mortgage money is scarce. I know I can’t sell my house and come up with enough to pay much tuition. The market is just not there.</p>

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<p>This is truly very sad for students who can’t afford to attend PC, which I assume assured applicants they the school meets financial need. But if these students are in-state, the U of Rhode Island costs a total of $10,661 a year with some housing options that are less than $3,000 a semester, so there are more affordable alternatives nearby. Clearly a state u is not comparable to a small, SAT-optional Catholic college, but you could make the argument that at least academically the students could receive a comparable education at way less than half the cost near-by. But the issue of whether any student who is qualified should receive sufficient support to attend any university that accepts that student continues to rankle.</p>

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<p>A 19% ($6000) increase for the year! What about the students who are already attending? That is a huge increase their parents will be paying</p>

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<p>That’s exactly my issue. That is by far the highest increase I’ve read about at any private university in the country these past two years. With 955 students in last year’s freshman class, this represents $5,700,000 in COA increases – and the “godmother” is doling out extra financial aid that seems to amount to somewhere between $100K and $150K total to families where parents lost jobs, usually just $1-2K per student even when they do increase the aid.</p>

<p>I am not at all impressed.</p>

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<p>I would not take that job.</p>

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<p>How is it deceptive?</p>

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<p>A 19% increase in a single year is ridiculous in a good or bad economic time. I think that increase is just shocking! Why wouldn’t they cut a program or something for now? What an unbelievable hardship to all families, but the wealthiest. In my opinion, this is just awful. I wonder who is thinking of the families that are expected to pay these bills when they make these decisions?</p>

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<p>“no one is entitled to attend any particular college. If you can’t afford it, or if you think the place is “gouging” families, go elsewhere.”</p>

<p>True, but if your child is already at the college, and they suddenly raise tuition 19%, you’re in a bind. You can have your child transfer but:</p>

<p>1- I wonder when they announced the tuition increase. Was there still enough time to transfer?
2- A lot of schools have limited financial aid for transfer students.
3- It is very easy to find out you have to add on college semesters when you transfer. Sometimes it’s because your credits don’t transfer. Other times, it’s because there are requirements at your new school which your previous coursework doesn’t meet.</p>

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<p>[Providence</a> College - Tuition and Fees](<a href=“http://www.providence.edu/Admission/Undergraduate+Financial+Aid/Tuition+and+Fees/]Providence”>http://www.providence.edu/Admission/Undergraduate+Financial+Aid/Tuition+and+Fees/)
^here’s the breakdown of the increase from the Providence College website. It also explains their reason for the increase.</p>

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<p>nysmile, thanks for posting. It really shows that the big increase is for incoming students. I also feel that if one does not like it, one can vote with his/her feet and go somewhere else. My own son did just that as he made his college decision. </p>

<p>I was under the impression that the increase of 19% was also for current students, but that is NOT the case.</p>

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<p>^northeastmom, After hearing about a 19% increase in one year in a previous post, my curiousity got the best of me and I had to find out if that statement was really correct.</p>

<p>The information regarding the increase is clearly stated on their website. It appears to be directed at new incoming freshmen rather than the current students.</p>

<p>The the breakdown of costs are clearly accessible to all on their website. The statement mentioning of a 19% increase to all students in one year in incorrect.</p>

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<p>Yes, all freshman get to pay $6000 a year more next year so that the business school can gain accreditation. They’re private, and of course can charge what they like, but I’d be hard pressed to see the value in paying that kind of money for Providence. YMMV.</p>

<p>I hope that there aren’t college seniors out there who applied EA to Providence under the belief that their tuition structure was likely to be slightly above this year’s. A $6000 increase would be a mighty unpleasant surprise for a lot of families.</p>

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<p>I wonder if that increase was communicated at the time the kids were applying. I know some friends who did get hit with a pretty big out of state premium at College of Charleston a few years ago. They did not just stick it to the new kids, but to those in school which was not appreciated. Hard go somewhere else when you find out the new tuition schedule at the beginning of your 2nd semester junior year. </p>

<p>I just came back from a college tour trip with my high school junior. You would think that financial aid is no big deal the way some of the school presented the subject and answered the questions.</p>

<p>Right now, I am trying to help a friends whose daughter was not only greatly gapped in financial aid but the package given is stuffed with loans and work study. That cuts out working to make up some of that gap since that time is already scheduled, and we’re talking about loans that are getting to the exhorbitant levels, especially for a music major. The financial aid office has told my friend that this is a typical package at that school and what many families do. Since the mom is not from this country, she doesn’t know how she should be looking at this. As an investment, as the fin aid officer is saying, or a true liability which is what she is thinking.</p>