Merit vs. Need-blind marketing

interesteddad
Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:08:49 +0000

Mini:

I agree on a macro level. However, I don’t view the personal letters D received from the President of a merit-aid college any less cynically.

On a micro level, the adcoms, especially at the smaller schools, are not acting that cynically. They do develop an atttachment to “their kids” and don’t like to lose them, especially a URM kid. The motivation may be statistically driven, but if it were just that, the Dean of Students wouldn’t be able to rattle off application essays.

Pattyk:

I understand your frustration. That’s why I view the whole process as a game of strategy, or a car buying exercise. The merit-aid versus need-aid strategy is so fundamental that it is probably best made up-front, i.e. once I decided on a price range for a car, I didn’t even look at pricier stuff.

The good news is that you have nothing but fantastic choices. You’ve already won the game big-time, no matter what decision you guys make! I mean, think about it. You have every base covered and are in the enviable position of weighing a number of great schools, each offering something of real value: a terrific merit-aid package, terrific locations, terrific campus cultures, and so and so forth. The beauty is that you guys get to decide how to prioritize the various strong points. Lots of families are not in as enviable position. Your choices are so fantastic, I can’t even recommend one over the others because personal issues would have to be the deciding factor.

I guess the only thing that could be better would be if you could mix and match, taking the merit aid package from one school and combining it with the best features of another. But, hey, what fun would that be? If all the schools offered exactly the same strong points and had all their seats on the plane sold, none of them would need too offer a merit-aid discount! As Mini would tell us, they aren’t doing it just to be nice. It’s a discount fare to get you to buy an empty seat on the plane.