Discount amount for those who did not apply or ineligible for FA

<p>@Haystack - I think you get where I am coming from.</p>

<p>@MichiganGeorgia - Yes, but only if you did not apply for FA and did not receive a competitive scholarship explicitly applied for.</p>

<p>“As an example the posts from @toledo and @emilybee are what I expected.
If they listed the colleges I would be happy as a clam.”</p>

<p>My son’s school does not give any merit awards. We applied for FA and received need based aid. I only commented because, imo, people should not assume because they make more than $100K/yr that they won’t get any FA so they shouldn’t bother to apply for it. </p>

<p>My son also received merit aid from many schools, but since we checked the FA box I don’t think that information is pertinent to this thread.</p>

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<p>The AVERAGE is 55%?! That is shocking! How did you find that information? Remember, we’re not talking about loans or grants. You’re saying most people pay less than half without loans or grants??</p>

<p>Ok here’s my son’s list of Merit aid he was offered but didn’t apply for. I am not listing other merit aid he was offered that he applied for or the Georgia Hope scholarship he will receive since he is going to Georgia Tech. We do not qualify for FA. Note everything on here is basically what is on the “what schools give good merit aid” forum. So I’m not sure what good it will do.
Auburn 15000/year + 3,500 1st year
Central Michigan University 15,520/year
Clemson 10,000/year
Colorado School of Mines 12,000/year
Indiana University 14,000/year
LSU 14,550/year
Michigan Tech 12,500/year
Mississippi State University 21,590/year
Ohio State 14,000/year
Purdue 10,000/year
UGA 1,000/year
University of Alabama - Birmingham 15,000/year
University of Alabama 22,950/year (free tuition) + 2500/year
University of South Carolina 21,156/year
University of South Florida 12,500/year</p>

<p>Chronicle of Higher Ed article from 2011. 50% at the time but from what I understand, up to about 55% now.</p>

<p>[Iowa’s</a> Small Colleges Scrap for Students and Survival - Administration - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“Iowa’s Small Colleges Scrap for Students and Survival”>Iowa’s Small Colleges Scrap for Students and Survival)</p>

<p>We researched schools, so for most had a good idea in advance of what the possibilities were for non-need based ‘discounts.’ With the exception of one school, all merit came in advance of any FAFSA/CSS, so schools had no knowledge of financial circumstances at time of awarding $. At several places she was auditioning for music, but not at most.</p>

<p>Surprises? 1)UIUC gave more than we expected given how everyone complains about their stinginess and bad financial condition of IL. We knew they had an OOS $12,000/yr award, but figured most of those went to engineers and CS. D got that + another $8K/yr music merit.
2)Couldn’t find much info about Stonybrook in advance so full tuition + 3K/yr was somewhat of surprise, I guess, though D had pretty good stats for a school like that.
3)UMiami. We had heard they were pretty generous, but still, $25K/yr initial award was surprisingly large. Then invite to their full ride competition weekend was more of a surprise since D is good statwise, but doesn’t measure up holistically for the really competitive awards. (She didn’t go as had already decided on a school by that time.)
4)Arizona State. She knew she would get the NMF full tuition/fees, but figured that the music dept would know about that, figure it was adequate and not award her any more. So the additional $5,500/yr music merit was a nice surprise.</p>

<p>Other than that, merit was about what research/experience predicted. Eg, Michigan and UNC, OOS for both, not good enough for merit there. OK, UNC just surpised her this week with a $5,000 summer abroad scholarship, but don’t think that’s the kind of thing you are asking about. Most of the NMF awards at the NMF scholarship schools are automatic, so no surprises there, etc.</p>

<p>I don’t know of any merit money that is not also open to those eligible for financial aid, or any lists that show that. Merit is for admissions to "discount’ for the students that are most wanted. If they are eligible for financial aid too, it makes no difference. That is something that the financial aid office will take up. </p>

<p>If you are looking for “enrollment management” as it is euphemistically called, where schools will throw some money towards full pay kids to sweeten the pot for them, there are no statistics for that. They will merge that in with merit. That is also done with kids that have some but not a whole lot of need too. Those subtleties are not listed. I don’t know a single school that will say that they have merit money that kids with financial need CANNOT get.</p>

<p>@MichiganGeorgia and @celesteroberts - Thanks for the info. Exactly what I am looking for. UIUC is on our list.</p>

<p>@cptofthehouse - “If you are looking for “enrollment management” as it is euphemistically called, where schools will throw some money towards full pay kids to sweeten the pot for them, there are no statistics for that”
I guess that is the reason for this thread.</p>

<p>Older son was offered full tuition scholarship at Pitt with his acceptance. He was invited to apply for a competitive full ride scholarship based on test scores, recommendations, essays and interview and got that. We never filed FA the entire time he went to school there (still counting those blessings)</p>

<p>Both sons offered full tuition scholarships to Fordham based on NMF status, not FA, although award requires FAFSA be filed.</p>

<p>If I’m not mistaken, what you’re asking for is often referred to a ‘preferential packaging’. The more the school wants your student for whatever reason…they fill an institutional need, be that high scores, a boy at a LAC, a girl in engineering. These are the things that are not named, advertised, or spoken of because they are fungible and change each year. This is not guaranteed merit, or a competitive program given each year, it’s the money doled out to attract the kids you want that year to build the class you are looking for. Here’s the problem with that. It’s a moving target. Let’s say you get 10 responses and people give you the name of the school and the amount. How does this help you? You have no idea why that money was awarded, what ‘need’ that student was bringing to that school, if the need will exist the next year, and if that in any way will translate to your student.</p>

<p>I may be off base, but that’s my take on it.</p>

<p>@blueiguana - All good points. The college financing process is murky at best. I think having more data about who received what from where can be net positive.</p>

<p>We’re a “full pay” two-income household. DS’ “best fit” is a CTCL-type LAC, not a large public university such as found in our Midwest region. We targeted LACs where he’d fit median GPA/scores, so not a likely big merit winner profile. He’s a solid B+ student with decent but not stellar (per CC) SAT and ACT scores. We confirmed that he’d be nonetheless eligible for a “merit award” ranging from $5000 to $8000, various labelled. He applied to his best “best fit” school ED, and received a $8000 merit award at acceptance. He didn’t file FAFSA or apply for financial aid. We did confirm he’d be eligible for financial aid IF our financial profile changed (job loss, for instance).</p>

<p>Prior to ED, he applied at a rolling admission school (for practice and for safety) and received a half-tuition scholarship. This school however, is not as competitive as his ED school. He’s deposited at his ED school.</p>

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<p>I was able to read most of the article from the Chronicle of Higher Ed. The said that IA, KS, MO, and SD lead the nation in disounting. Their average was 50% in 2011. The national average was 42%. In calculating this discount rate, they took the total amount of institutional grants and divided by gross tuition and fees. Unless, I’m not understanding something, don’t grants usually include need-based $?</p>

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<p>Some of the schools in those states are fairly low cost to begin with. For example, South Dakota State is about $16,000 per year (out of state), and South Dakota Mines is about $22,000 per year (out of state). Missouri has everyone’s favorite low cost LAC, Truman State.</p>

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I think using “surprise” as a criterion is not useful. Many recipients of merit aid had a good sense that they would qualify for it before applying and many chose the schools they applied to because of that likelihood, despite the fact that no separate application for merit aid was required. “Surprise” could simply be the result of poor research or a one-off situation where the applicant had some attribute that the school particularly wanted. My D got a substantial merit award at her university, but we knew her scores were likely to qualify her and would have been “surprised” if she hadn’t gotten decent merit aid. Bottom line, I don’t think the data you are trying to collect will be in any way useful if you require “surprise” as an element. Schools don’t just drop money on students’ heads randomly. Behind each story you’ve heard of “surprise” aid was a rationale. Your need to research what the criteria are for awarding merit aid at each school and then see if your student fills the bill.</p>

<p>@MommaJ - I don’t expect to find a useful methodology of obtaining college financing. My impetus for this topic comes from personal communications with wealthy individuals who, though expecting no aid and communicating to the college no interest in aid, were given large discounts. Were they “surprised”? Hell yeah.</p>

<p>My D2 received merit awards ranging from $15,000/year to $25,000/year from Oberlin, Grinnell, Bryn Mawr, and Mount Holyoke. We never bothered to apply for need-based FA, based on recognition that our household income and assets would disqualify us, nor did D2 apply for any of these merit scholarships. The schools apparently found her a highly desirable candidate and included the merit awards with her admission letters.</p>

<p>If you want information on a particular school, go to its Common Data Set, available on-line (Google “[school name] common data set”, though a few schools don’t publish them). Section H of the CDS gives fairly detailed financial and merit aid data. Line H1 will tell you how much the school gave out in total in need-based grants and merit awards. In 2012-13, for example, Bryn Mawr gave out just under $24 million in institutional need-based aid, and about $3.5 million in merit aid–some of which no doubt went to students with financial need.</p>

<p>Line H2A will tell you how many freshmen without financial need got merit grants or scholarships (at Bryn Mawr in 2012-13, that figure was 89), and the same for full-time undergrads without financial need (205). It will also tell you the average size of such awards ($11,970 for Bryn Mawr freshmen, $15,794 for Bryn Mawr undergrads). Since Bryn Mawr had 365 freshmen (line H2.a) and 186 of them got need-based aid (line H2.d), we can calculate that 179 freshmen had no need, according to the college’s calculations. So the 89 freshmen without need who received merit awards represent just ever so slightly less than half of the incoming freshmen without need (49.7%, to be exact). </p>

<p>Notice that Bryn Mawr meets 100% of need for those with need. It also gives merit awards to about half of those without need. Most colleges are not so generous. Some meet need only. Some skimp on need-based aid and provide merit awards to students without need, even as the need of lower-income students goes unmet or only partially met. </p>

<p>I think most of the Iowa colleges Haystack refers to are in this latter category. They’re in a nasty, competitive fight for students, especially for the better students, and giving discounts (merit awards) to students without need, even as they skimp on need-based aid, is probably an effective way to maximize their tuition revenue while simultaneously attracting the strongest student body they can. The discounted full-pays still probably pay more than many of the students with need, and if skimping on need-based FA keeps some students with need from attending–well, tough luck, but that probably strengthens their financial bottom line as well.</p>

<p>As an example from these Iowa schools…</p>

<p>A 16 ACT and 2.5 GPA gets you a $10,000 scholarship at Buena Vista.
A 20 ACT and a 3.0 GPA gets you a $11,000 scholarship to Central College. (Central is actually a pretty nice school).</p>

<p>Basically, no one pays full price for these schools. Both of those schools are saying, if you want to come here, the most you will have to pay is 66% of list price tuition. Most pay less after need based aid and/or additional scholarship money. It is indeed a nasty fight for survival for these schools and many privates throughout the country. Most are not as well off as people think. They primarily survive on tuition revenue and their ultimate goal is to maximize that through strategic discounting(merit and need).</p>

<p>I think “preferential packaging” refers to the mix of loans, grants, and work-study money that is used to meet student “need.” More grants, fewer loans for the candidates they “prefer.”</p>

<p>A merit scholarship isn’t really part of a package for folks who don’t apply for need-based aid. It’s kind of a stand-alone thing.</p>

<p>I will say that I can imagine a family for whom money is truly no object might not bother to determine whether a given school, say, Bryn Mawr or Wellesley, offers merit scholarships to well-qualified students. They would then be pleasantly surprised if their applicant was awarded one.</p>

<p>I actually do know someone who was surprised when her daughter got a nice merit scholarship from Indiana. They didn’t apply for financial aid–they could easily afford to pay for out-of-state tuition so it was just not an issue. And since the price wasn’t a concern, I suppose they didn’t look into whether merit scholarships were available and whether their daughter might qualify.</p>

<p>I agree with deskpotato. Wealthy people probably don’t look to see what merit money is available, if paying full price is not a problem for them. So they do not realize that the merit money is automatic until it shows up as a discount on the bill.</p>

<p>The school my daughter attends automatically discounts tuiton by 80% for students with her high school stats - a huge surprise for those who don’t read the FA info or apply for FA. In addition, there is an 10% discount for anyone who attended a Catholic high school - again, since it doesn’t need to be applied for, it would be a surprise perhaps to Protestants who sent their kids to Catholic high schools.</p>