@sunnyschool “Schools also can have a lot of flexibility with merit aid - and merit aid is given on a holistic basis in many cases”.
I presumed your response was per the threads title directed at Ivy League school’s. Ivies don’t offer merit aid.
Also as @Sue22 points out they can’t “adjust” the standards for athletes. They are scrutinized very closely to avoid exactly the gamesmanship you are suggesting. Worth noting that Ivies can review their own need based FA offers based upon offers from other Ivies. They can’t however unilaterally change the criteria or find money as you assert.
I think they have the latitude to set the specific financial aid rules any way they want as long as they apply them evenly across all their applicants, still bound by the usual NCAA rules.
Been around this a ton with 2 kids going through the recruiting process playing the usual competitive travel ball/showcase circuit. You hear these rumors all the time. If you actually get to the source and ask a few probing questions:
Parents like to brag that they got an athletic scholarship or "secret athletic money" when it really was FA. It sounds so much better. I would not be surprised if a coach helps a recruit's family navigate through the FA process, but there is no "slush" fund and it is the FA office that calculates the award, and I doubt the focus of the FA offices at Ivy League colleges is finding money for athletes.
Athletes may get cushier jobs, like working in the library or some other admin type job where they can sit and study. My FA job was working the dining halls. Many of my athlete friends were working the library, checking ID's at the gym, etc...
In the real world, things are not always black and white, there are shades of grey. I think that merit aid (and sometimes, financial aid) in general is often grey - so tweaking the shade of grey for an athlete they really want is not surprising (though I agree that technically, they can’t bend rules for an athlete more than another student; but the less clear the criteria, the more flexibility there is (hence “test score optional” colleges etc). I was talking more about private colleges in general than only Ivies. And, nothing is too surprising after Varsity Blues.
@sunnyschool "I was talking more about private colleges in general than only Ivies. "
I am not sure of your point then. Of course there are pools of money for athletes at non Ivy division one schools…it’s called athletic scholarships. That however isn’t what OP was asking about. The OP was specifically asking about “secret” funds at Ivy League schools were athletic scholarships are prohibited (recall the thread title).
You mention “tweaking” merit aid for an athlete they want. Why would a private div 1 school “technically bend the rules” when there is no rule against athletic scholarships?
Again are you referencing something specific in the real world or speculating based upon suspicion?
The Ivies and NESCACs (which also prohibit athletic scholarship) do not offer merit aid, so there’s no tweaking to be done there. They can be as generous as they want with need based aid as long as they use the same standards across the board.
I watch a documentary called QB1 where they follow 3 of the top high school quarterbacks through their recruiting and senior year of high school. This year one of the players was a guy from south Florida. He was recruited by a few Ivies but said he’d receive no financial aid at all so he went to Kentucky on a full D1 scholarship. I’m sure he could have gone to any Florida school on bright futures too if he wasn’t offered a scholarship (although I’m sure he would have been offered a football scholarship at most of the Florida schools too).
Don’t you think if the Ivies could just ‘find’ money or ‘adjust’ an offer, they would have done it for a top quarterback who was academically qualified?
If the Ivies wanted to, they could just admit everyone on 100% scholarship and then the athletes would get it too. They have plenty of money (at least most of them). They could up their 100% FA to cover those making less than $500k and most of those athletes who do need to take the D1 scholarships could pick an Ivy over Duke or ND or any flagship. They like doing it as they do it. Their money.
@sunnyschool misinterpreting perhaps but not misquoting, I cut and pasted your words.
Your initial comment in a thread asking about the existence of secret pools of money for Ivy League athletes was; “They use CSS and can work the numbers how they want.” Sorry if I thought you were talking about Ivies.
You are now saying you weren’t talking about Ivies but other privates who when it comes to merit “tweak the shade of grey for an athlete they really want”.
Why would schools need to “tweak” merit aid when athletic scholarships are permitted and where have you heard of this taking place?
Sorry I’m late to the game and missed such an interesting conversation.
Can confirm, FA package was reassessed after ‘active interest’ from HYP. My understanding is that HYP do not include your home in the asset calculation so the other Ivies will rerun the numbers with the HYP CSS algorithm. DS was NOT the top recruit, so there was no incentive to rework the FA. On the other hand, the top recruit DID try to recalculate and nothing changed. I feel certain that they are playing by the rules in that sense.
Varsity Blues is about money going into the program, or the coaches bank account, and has no relation to Ivy’s Financial Aid/Scholarships.
In terms of braggadocio, I would imagine that it’s hard for some people to admit that they are not as monetarily successful as other families and therefore the information details mysteriously change. I personally don’t give a crap. School is way too expensive and if I can get a discount, I’m going to go for it. It didn’t matter how many times I told my mother that DS was NOT on an athletic scholarship, in her mind…he was on an athletic scholarship. Whether she didn’t understand or didn’t want to understand, I stopped correcting her after awhile.
I never used the word “tweak”, so you are misquoting me, @Nocreativity1
I was talking about private schools in general…sorry forgot the thread title as this had come up in my notifications.
Parents, other relatives, and friends of the family are prone to misinterpretation. It’s natural for proud parents to want to brag, and the more people the information travels through the more likely things will get skewed, much like a game of telephone.
When I was fresh out of college my mother bragged to her friends the I was the Assistant Director of Operations for a presidential campaign. In reality I was the Assistant TO the Director of Operations. Not at all the same thing, but in her enthusiasm she didn’t appreciate the difference.
In my experience, rumors about scholarship sources and amounts for athletes almost never originate with the athletes or families involved. It is usually coming from people who aren’t close enough to know the full story but like to gossip anyway.
@sunnyschool “I was using someone else’s word”, when you said…
“They use CSS and can work the numbers how they want.”
Did this someone else provide specifics such as the school and circumstances? I am curious how “mythology” becomes fact. Obviously you found it credible given your perpetuating it so what was the context and do you believe schools can tweak their FA programs to attract athletes? Not debating (or even disagreeing) just trying to understand your experience and view for the benefit of the OP.
IMO, it’s time for some on CC to quit the paranoia about colleges abusing families. You can educate yourself on a college’s FA policies, you can go to reputable outside sources to learn about fin aid in general, you can run the Net Price Calculators for target schools. In the end, you get the offer they decide fits. Even so, you can request a review (Professional Judgment,) which has its own rules.
@lookingforward in addition to professional judgment, it’s important to mention the process through which pre reads for athletes are adjusted to match estimates or methodology from other schools showing recruiting interest. You might be viewing those as essentially the same, in the sense that they are deviations from NPC results. But in my experience they are separate procedures. As far as I can tell, Cornell is the most transparent about this with their Award Match Initiative (yes, it’s actually called that). But others are doing the same thing, which is far different than, for example, adjusting aid for a change in employment status, medical expense, etc. I think it’s important for recruits to understand the differences there, and that some of the CC dogma surrounding FA procedures isn’t accurate for athletes. I would hate for a recruit who wants to go to Brown to be doomed to attend Yale because she read on CC that she’d need an admission and financial aid offer in order to get Brown to match Yale’s FA. Anyway, I agree with your central point that speculation isn’t helpful.
Ivies most definitely will adjust their financial aid offer to take into consideration athletic scholarship offers from non Ivies. This runs counter to most conventional wisdom you hear about Ivy financial aid.
because she read on CC that she’d need an admission and financial aid offer in order to get Brown to match Yale’s FA. Anyway, I agree with your central point that speculation isn’t helpful.