<p>Many of these smaller LAC’s do have private scholarships as well as their endowments, however, Central included. Many of these scholarships are available for sophomores and above though. They also don’t have the decked out buildings, aren’t funding huge research projects, smaller ones though, etc. Look at schools like Gustavus–usually ranks as one of the top for percent of students getting aid, much of it “merit”.</p>
<p>Also, “need” based aid isn’t really what is being discussed–put it’s relevant I guess. SW is one school our D applied to. They gave her automatic merit aid of $17,000. She committed to another school so we never saw final numbers there. Endowments and tuition are not the only fund raising options though too. </p>
<p>Again, point being, the discounting isn’t limited to the “lesser” schools like some suggest.</p>
<p>It’s ironic, though, that we are encouraged by some to think about education in terms of a business metaphor, with education as the product, the students as the customers, with the end goal of making sure that there is a good ‘return on investment’. </p>
<p>And we complain when we see that colleges don’t always behave like other ‘businesses’ (I saw posts on other threads throughout the years when people complain about need-based aid that in no other business is the price you pay dependent on how much you earn).</p>
<p>And yet, when colleges do start to do those sorts of things that businesses do to lure their ‘customers’ (students), such as ‘discounting’, that metaphor is immediately pulled out from under them, and these institutions are compared to ‘used car salemen’, etc, with the practice considered inappropriate for an institution of higher education.</p>
<p>I found this article from the NYT interesting in relation to this topic. Better check the bond rating on the schools offering your student a 50% discount/merit aid award. Public, private, large and small, everyone’s been hit by the economic downturn. I’m paraphrasing the article here, but some schools are still under the impression that this is a temporary downturn, while most informed schools realize this is the ‘new normal’.</p>
<p>Blueiguana–thank you for posting that article. I pulled that section out of the paper and took it with me on our six college tour Sunday, but returned home with it unread. Will pull it to the top of the pile again. Excellent article and I agree with it. My college spreadsheet includes a column for endowment but all I really do with the figure is compare enrollments and endowments on a relative basis. Completely unscientific.</p>
<p>I know that my boys will not receive need-based aid, but I am still much happier to hear that a school offers little or no merit-based aid. I am highly suspicious of this discounting off list, and do worry that the rapidly expanding acceptance of MOOCs will further undermine the future of these heavily-discounted schools. Where will these schools be when the student loan market goes the way of the mortgage market?</p>
<p>As we tour all of these schools, my younger son has asked why they are all essentially the same price. He wonders why the ‘better’ schools do not charge more, or how it can be that schools that appear so different in size, facilities and offerings can all charge the same price. I have not been able to provide him with a satisfactory response.</p>
<p>We did not apply for any FAid & submitted no FAid docs. Our S got slightly more than 50% off tuition for all 4 years at his private U for all merit awards, including a small $1K or so for being an eagle scout his last year or two of college. Our D got NOTHING and we were full-pay at same U for 4.5 years.</p>
<p>HImom–were your D’s stats similar to your S’s? Curious if the different awards were a function of different stats or a decline in merit awards by the U?</p>
<p>My kids were TOTALLY different–majors, stats, years of application. S applied as a HS SR and was accepted. He was a NMF & at the time, they gave all accepted NMFs a 50% tuition award. </p>
<p>Fast forward to now, they reject some NMFs and there is no guarantee they will provide any merit award, much less a 50% tuition merit award. We know a NMF who was rejected in 2012 and another in 2013, even tho it was their favorite school and parents likely would have been willing to be full-pay.</p>
<p>Anecdotal evidence is not as useful as checking the policies of the Us. Some Us say they keep their tuition and expenses down so such Us are more affordable for all. These Us are still around. Merit awards are much trickier to analyze IMHO. There are many intangibles and no guarantees except for those Us that publish automatic awards – if the student has XXX GPA and YYY score(s) they get $ZZZ award.</p>
<p>Himom, I, too, have seen big diffrences over the years in merit awards, NMF status. One school that used to give auto awards was UPitt. Getting into the honors college now and getting their awards is much more difficult these days. Had it confirmed when I saw the actual numbers. The % of merit awards being given has dropped significantly. </p>
<p>There used to be quite a few more schools that offered guaranteed awards at certain GPA, test score thresh holds but that has dropped drastically, and now days kids who would have gotten merit money automatically, are not even assured of acceptance. </p>
<p>Also NMF back in my day, and, I was a one, meant nearly a full tuition award at most schools, as I am quite ancient. Now the $2500 one time award isn’t even 10% of the tuition at a lot of the private schools. Also most schools would throw in the next three years worth of awards and some other goodies to boot, often a free ride. One of students at my high school who graduated a little before me got that from Duke back then. No more. It’s much more difficult these days getting substantial merit awards, though I’ve found that getting $500-5K off is common. One of my kids got a slew of those discounts. Very nice, but when the full cost is in the $60K range, it just didn’t make enough of a difference.</p>
<p>We were glad S’s targeted safety he loved confirmed that they would give him 50% tuition if they admitted him. They did admit him in late March and gave him > 50% tuition in 2006. His HS physics partner was rejected but accepted at UPenn and given substantial merit and FAid at Boston U where he matriculated.</p>
<p>The various bond rating articles are intersting. I don’t think anyone is saying that there are not some smaller colleges, or large ones for that matter, that aren’t struggling. Most, however, are doing fine. There have been articles showing that contributions have remained pretty constant too that have been posted here. Our kids’ school doesn’t have a bond rating…because they don’t borrow money…I’m not too worried if they can run the school, give deep “discounts” and still not have to borrow money :D.</p>