^ Honestly, most classes can be in the afternoon or even evening. Most colleges don’t have their classrooms and lecture halls jam packed the whole day.
A LAC my son applied to and was accepted and gave a strong merit package , just sent us a additional merit award of about 3k a year, not asked for on top of a very strong merit package as I said, so yes some schools are sweating things, a OOS flagship offered him zero dollars and the LAC would be less than half of it. Is the OOS school a better school in the rankings, but are they twice as good, doubtful. The LAC has been all over my kid with communication and the extra money was just the cherry on the top.
@“Jolynne Smyth”
This NYT article gives a resource for figuring out if your FA package matches others from the same school. (!!!)
And it basically says the same thing as the WaPo article: that colleges are seriously worried about kids returning and all of the previous algorithms are out the window. We can all negotiate – that’s the message.
Thanks for that info!
Interesting - when I posted here a few months ago about negotiating for more merit I got a number of discouraging comments (why bother, this is not a “negotiation”!, your kid’s stats aren’t all that great, you already got a scholarship, this is not a regular business transaction, etc.) ? ?
It didn’t bother me and we still asked for more money (Ha- although got a “no”).
I’m now a bit less optimistic but will give a try!! ??
The flagship of the state in which I am living now is looking at increased enrollment this year. Many students seem to prefer a good university which is closer to home this year to an OOS college, even if it is more highly ranked.
So many flagships are suffering financially, but may not bet suffering from underenrollment, so they may be less likely to offer merit aid to attract students.
This Is just tough all the way around - for kids, schools, teachers, staff…!
I actually feel a little bad asking for more money now that everything is in dire straights.
But will try…
We just asked for a merit review at son’s top choice. (otherwise the school would’ve been taken off the list). Thanks to a generous increase, he will likely attend.
@“Jolynne Smyth” The school will not give you the money unless they feel it’s in their best interests too.
Dusty- yes, that’s true. I do think it varies by school. We got a flat-out (from American) “the only adjustment would be based on gpa or standardized test scores increase.” U of Denver told D - you can let us know if there are other achievements that occurred after submitting your app (such as extra-curricular achievements) but it will probably depend mainly on things like gpa and an increase is still a long-shot.
I see parents (such as taverngirl) asking and getting responses and that’s great. I will also.
I just find it a little funny that there was so much (to me, surprising) discouragement to even asking for more merit, a few months ago. I was chastened for even comparing a merit money discussion to a regular business transaction (“this is your child’s education!”).
Back then, I saw most schools as top-heavy with admin costs, operating an inefficient financial model with somewhat arbitrary decisions about $ given to kids — looking to certain families to drop a 1/4 million while others are given a free ride - premised on some pretty narrow data.
Now I have some sympathy for them being a lot more desperate, money-wise.
@“Jolynne Smyth”
I am shocked that anyone on this forum would chastise you about asking for more money from schools – all in the name of “it’s your child’s education.”
You know, of course it is! That’s why you’re trying to get the best education for them at the lowest price. Again, it’s inconceivable to me that a college would off you a “deal” that isn’t also beneficial to them.
BTW American U is notoriously bad at giving away cash–shockingly bad in my personal experience. NYU also seems pretty bad at providing decent FA.
As with all FA and “best fit” goes, YMMV–every school and every child and every family’s pocketbook issues are different.
It’s all good.
I do think the current situation has up-ended the higher ed paradigm to great degree (and it needed a change - although of course these tragic circumstances are an unfortunate impetus).