I’m sorry for your struggles with your mom. I’m glad you’ll be surrounded by your husband and kids on Thanksgiving and wish for some moments of peace and joy while you (and your mom) get through the hard part until things are more settled.
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I’ve been hearing a lot of different experts talk about merit awards somewhat disparagingly which I find interesting. Some, have talked about how it is not really based on merit, but is actually just a discount, or a recruiting tool (I think Selingo is one in this camp who I’ve heard). Ok, I guess. Today I heard a guest on a pod with a financial background talk about how the merit “scholarships” are not “real” as the college doesn’t actually give you the money like a scholarship, and again it is just discounting. Setting aside for the moment that I am not even sure I agree that merit awards writ large are not based on merit (sure, some definitely aren’t like at schools where every student admitted gets a discount -Agnes Scott and Oberlin on D26’s list come to mind), I don’t get why these experts think I should care if it is “just” a discount or not “real.” At the end of the day, if school X costs me $35k less than school Y, and now is equivalent cost to state flagship Z, why does it matter to them that I understand that the discount is not really based on my kid’s “merit”? Are they trying to protect us from making emotional decisions based on feeling our kid is special? I’ve found the negative tone around “merit” awards by folks in the field interesting.
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You make a really valid point - if the COA is good -then it doesn’t REALLY matter the why! What I would have loved – is a list of the true COA for more schools. I’ve run 100s of NPC -but a list where I could just look for schools within range would have been great. That to me is the only downside to the merit awards as discount. I basically have to run those calculators each and every time - and we probably missed schools that would have been good fit - academic, social and financial.
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THE MALL in Stranger Things!!! 
– I thought I was being beamed back in time. It’s so real-looking. I can’t wait for Wednesday.
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I do think this is why some people note it as a discount. I think they’re trying to say that you should treat schools that give you merit scholarships as a method of enticement versus your child “competing” for merit scholarships. Like Selingo’s Buyers and Sellers discussion. It’s about helping students and parents realize that this is an inducement from the college for you to enroll and not necessarily something that you “competed” for. It also gets to the names of the scholarships like “Presidential Award” and stuff like that.
I think from a parent point of view, I like remembering that these schools are competing for my child. From a student point of view, I think it makes them feel special (which is good!) So I get both sides of it.
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I agree with this. I guess what confuses me with their framing, is that if a school is competing for me or my child, by offering me money that they are not offering everyone or most people, that often (not always of course) is based on what I would view as merit (e.g., we really want a kid from CA with these stats, these types of interests they will bring to our community, and who can clearly do the work, or even we need more theater kids let’s throw some money at this one who can do the work and we think would be great for that).
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The new label that they’re putting on merit scholarships is just that - a label. They could call it a big purple people eater and I’d still be interested.
The way I look at it, EVERY college that our family has researched which offers merit scholarships offers the student more scholarship money (aka more of a discount) with a higher GPA and/or test scores.
At the end of the day, for our family, it’s a numbers game. So if School X offers a bigger scholarship/bigger discount for higher stats, I am totally fine with that.
Within the category of colleges that offer merit scholarships/tuition discounts, there’s a wide range of requirements, terms & conditions. For example:
- At UNM & NMSU, if you have a certain min UW GPA & test scores & you’re an OOS student from anywhere, you get a certain $$ scholarship amt/aka discount. But if you’re a resident of certain states (AZ, for example) and have a DIFFERENT min UW GPA & test scores, you get a BIGGER scholarship/discount.
- OR you can be a resident of a WUE state (western undergraduate exchange) and if you have yet a different min UW GPA & test scores, you get a different scholarship/discount.
- Some of the scholarships/discount requires only maintaining a 2.0 cumulative GPA by end of each year for scholarship to renew.
- Others require maintaining a 3.0.
- Yet others might require maintaining a 3.2 or 3.5.
- Yet others review scholarship renewal eligibility at the end of each semester, instead of at end of each academic year.
- Yet others will provide a full tuition scholarship/discount for really high GPA & test scores.
It’s just semantics. A label. I’m the one paying the tuition bill, so they could call it anything they want. If the free ‘thing’ that they’re awarding/giving to my kid means that the college is something we can afford and it’s a college she wants to attend, that’s great as far as I’m concerned.
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100% I see it exactly like you described, which is why the experts subtly poo pooing “merit” felt odd and interesting to me.
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They may be having more of an issue with the schools that don’t really award “merit” based on merit. Like if there are two students with equal stats, but they think one is more apt to come to the school for whatever reason, that student gets more merit. Or they offer a certain amount in merit in line with stats, but then if you call them and ask to negotiate, you can get a bunch more. That’s a little unfair to people who aren’t as well versed and therefore don’t even realize that you could negotiate. At the end of the day, I think it’s maybe just a reaction to there being one more thing in this process that has a lack of transparency (or maybe that’s just a me issue). Personally, I think if they can offer “discounts” or “merit” to a significant number of people, they should just lower the costs. There’s no reason any of these schools should be as expensive as they are.
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Yup!
(thinking out loud some more about this topic)
When D24 applied to UNM & NMSU, she was awarded merit scholarships of $x/year (I don’t remember exact amount, but it made tuition, room & board cheaper than attending in-state here in AZ). If D26 were to apply to those 2 same colleges, she’d be awarded a merit scholarship/discount of $X+Y. Because D26 has a higher UW GPA than D24 did.
That’s something that the student earns because of their academic performance. So D26 have earned a bigger ‘scholarship’ or a bigger ‘discount.’ It still would have resulted in those 2 colleges being cheaper to attend per year than the $$ amount/year that it would have cost for D24 to attend.
And each school has certain things you have to do in order to keep the tuition discount (scholarship).
And if we want to take it one step further, why not extend those same semantics to athletic scholarships? Because, after all, those colleges which are offering students athletic scholarships…they’re basically ‘buyers,’ too, right? It’s not REALLY a scholarship. It’s a ‘discount’ on tuition. Or a ‘discount’ on tuition, room & board.
And for the athlete to retain that scholarship/discount, they have to do certain things each academic year.
Are ALL students offered athletic scholarships/discounts at all colleges? NO.
Are ALL students offered merit scholarships/discounts at all colleges? NO.
Are ALL students offered music/theater/fine arts scholarships/discounts at all colleges? NO.
Those are scholarships/discounts that the students earn. Some students earn more $$ off than others based on what the unique priorities are of each specific college.
I agree.
Hendrix College in Arkansas, for example, has tuition scholarships/discounts that vary based on what state you’re from. It basically makes the Hendrix College tuition the same as in-state tuition for your home state’s flagship university. So everybody from state X gets the same scholarship/discount.
This is what I see too. I think it’s not always purely stats-based, so it does start to feel like discounting. Small case in point, but a friend’s daughter got in off the waitlist at Syracuse last year. She got a LOT of merit. I don’t know all of her stats, but she wasn’t particularly high stats (I hate to say it like that, but I don’t know how better to explain). But the school really wanted her, so she got way more merit aid than expected. I think this is why some of the experts want to call it “discounting” versus “merit”. It’s to fill their institutional priority versus the pure reward for scholarship.
Edited to add - YES, this above!
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Case Western MSRP is $92k.
Just a quick internet search, 85-88% pay less than full tuition so theyre reciving some form of aid, mostly scholarships.
$92k is more than many T20 schools. I dont think they expect anyone to pay this other than a tiny minority.
I dont object with merit scholarships but the fact they are purposefully creating what I consider an artifical cost.
Reminds me of the department stores who offer a sale 365 days a year.
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Yes. I think it depends. A discounted tuition you still can’t afford should be viewed objectively. Last year my daughter was test optional with a great gpa and excellent ECs and she got a lot of surprising scholarships that came with scholars programs. These are different than honors programs and were not on our radar when she applied. These main two she got were at UW Madison and Fordham. Both for business and offered merit, academic advising, travel, and cohort experiences. This felt very different than other types of merit received. D26 is a NMSF and that’s a whole different ballgame with various scholarships on the table. I agree with much of what is said here. But there are some really amazing merit scholar opportunities out there too.
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It just shouldn’t require so much time and effort to track them down.
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The way I look at it, specific scholarships for certain fields, athletics, talents, etc, are the true merit scholarships, as are any amount off for GPA. However, many of the “scholarships” that are given upon admission are simply a marketing tool.
Anecdotally, I used to work for a college that had a “tuition reset”. They cut their tuition in half, from $28,000 to $14,000. The thinking was that if they gave a low price up front, more people would apply and eventually attend. Unfortunately, it backfired because families saw the “cheap” tuition as compared to other privates in the area and thought that meant the education would not be as good as a school that had a sticker price of triple that (or more). What admissions was seeing time and again when they would call a prospective student was that the colleges with higher tuition were giving these large “merit awards” and parents were saying- wow, the tuition is $50,000 and they’re giving Johnny $20,000 a year off, that must mean it’s a great school and they really want Johnny to attend. So Johnny would go to a school that costs $30,000 net, when he could have gone somewhere comperable for $14,000. Because of course, if your tuition is $14,000, you cannot give a merit award for as much.
However, sometimes you find a situation where the sticker price comes down more with the discount than what the cheaper school would cost. You especially see this in my state, where the public colleges are pretty pricey and they do not give large “merit” or discounts. S23 did not apply at any publics, but based on what D26 is being offered, his private college choice would have only been a few thousand more than a public because of the lack of discount.
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Ugh. This is really disheartening. I personally would prefer the lower tuition sticker price, but I see the psychology at work here. Makes me sad though.
I have seen that a lot as well. Privates can become much more affordable when you take gigantic merit awards into account.
You just never know. The whole system needs an overhaul – from application to admission to costs. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to be getting the kind of overhaul that’s needed.
Ok, well, I’ll just get off my soapbox now…
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I know Hartwick College in New York state is trying this low sticker price tuition idea. I’d be curious to hear how it’s going for them.
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I mostly lurk here, but I’m very excited that S26 got his first acceptance - to Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. He wants a small school in a place with seasons (we’re from Los Angeles). He’s got high stats, so Lawrence is classified as a safety for him, but he really liked the school when we visited a couple years ago, and might choose it over more prestigious colleges. Plus, with the merit they are offering, the cost will be $28k.
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The other thing you’re seeing more of now is schools offering free tuition to students from families who make less than $xxxx per year or half tuition to students from families who make less than $xxxx per year. Which seems good on paper, but I don’t quite understand why that’s good for them. Aren’t they then just going to end up with fewer full pay students? That also seems really unfair to people in HCoL locations, where $xxxx per year doesn’t go nearly as far! Ok, so I’m still on the soapbox. As you can see, I have a lot of feelings about this.
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