Love that, @marlene! We are instate for UT, and that’s the only one that didn’t offer any of my sons any merit money. With a little research and apps submitted to the right schools, there is merit money out there for good students. But not much at UIUC or UT!
UIUC DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN MERIT… IT IS 1 of three we are currently weighing in on. Mizzou waiver of out of state tuition& Brooks… uIUC Presidential and WUSTL is still in the realm of 34,000… WUSTL is 3x the cost of Mizzou and UIUC is 2x the cost of Mizzou… Loans vs no loans… And dollas saved for Med School… Unfortunately daughter and my Ex can’t pick 1…
That is probably why UIUC have a high admission rate. Those could not afford would not even apply,
@wiseacre I would pull for Mizzou - it is in the SEC (so as a smaller school does have some social aspects with their football and other sports programs). I have two friends that both graduated from Mizzou in engineering. As you say, dollars saved for graduate education/med school. Both married engineers after their first professional job in a heavily populated engineering town (where we now live). My DD is studying civil eng at UA, and fall semester is very exciting with the football season. DD loaded down more on an extra class spring term since she is in the Million Dollar Band (and still maintained 15.5 hours including honors program STEM MBA). Now is ‘seeing someone’ that she met at a Valentine social; he is also in the band. My H is an engineer (went to an engineering school that had few women at the time; I went to an all women’s college in the same city, and the rest is ‘history’). Gals want enough girl camaraderie and also dating possibilities. Good luck with swaying the decision 
The SEC is awesome in multiple sports.
Many have hit the nail on the head with some of the college trends.
I like @mom2collegekids advice about having three safeties. A friend’s son just had one, and is sweating out on the wait list of his first choice - he snubbed his nose at UA as a ‘safety’ (environmental engineering) and mom allowed her DS to drive the decision-making (dumb dumb not to do the 15 minutes on line application before UA Dec scholarship deadline); he was disappointed to not get into Duke (as was his GF, who got accepted at Rose-Hulman). GF and he thought they were higher stat than they were, and thought their home state would be a ‘hook’. not. He has been accepted into VaTech in his second choice major, environmental science. He may have a family trust to pay tuition; who knows about GF ability to pay.
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Mizzou waiver of out of state tuition& Brooks… uIUC Presidential and WUSTL is still in the realm of 34,000… WUSTL is 3x the cost of Mizzou and UIUC is 2x the cost of Mizzou… Loans vs no loans… And dollas saved for Med School… Unfortunately daughter and my Ex can’t pick 1…
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Mizzou seems the wisest choice since you also have a younger child, who also wants to go to med school.
I actually know several people in similar positions (2nd choice school gave great aid, nothing from 1st) and they actually expressed this to their top school, saying that they would not be able to come unless their aid was matched. In all three of the cases their top school bumped their aid package. I’ve never been in this position, so maybe try to get confirmation from others that this is successful, but it’s something to think about.
We were in a similar position, and if I had it to do again (which I actually will in 4 years when my younger son applies to college!) I would start the research process very early, like at least junior year. Find out which schools have great merit aid that the student might qualify for, and apply to those schools, plus at least two safeties. (My son also wanted to apply to Ivy-reach schools, and we did that, but his chances at admission and cost of attendance are big unknowns at those schools.)
We only started researching at the beginning of my son’s senior year, so we really didn’t do the greatest job, and we ended up applying to 14 schools (yes, 14!), some of which definitely should have been left off the list. However, the strategy has actually worked, because he did receive some very nice offers, including a fantastic offer from Bama, which is really a wonderful school. We now have a narrowed down list of just three schools that my son is going to choose from (including Bama), and they are all great schools. (We still have not heard from the ivies that he applied to, but I don’t expect those results to change anything.)
To the original poster, Bama is a fantastic school, and she is fortunate to have that choice. I wouldn’t feel too bad about not getting merit aid at any one school in particular; you just have to put out a number of applications and then choose from the reasonable offers. That is what most of us are doing, at least those of us who don’t have 40k-50k extra to spend each year!
My D only applied to 7 schools last year. We did use NPC for each school and looked for merit aid possibility. UIUC was the only one on the list and yet we know it is likely not to have much if any aids but I saw that on the list of NMS. Later, CB sent me an e-mail saying it is no longer on the list. We know it would be a waste of time and money if apply to a school that is not affordable.
I agree on Mizzou. We now have acceptance from Notre dame… I sit waiting for my daughter and ex to give me an answer. This may take till may 1st.
@blossom - yup, it’s nice to be a stable middle class 2 parent family with no drama. It happens because people work hard at it.
When you take away the incentive from people, you take away from society as a whole. By accepting an essay about growing up in a homeless shelter as being more intriguing than an essay about losing the big game you send out a signal to everyone as to how the game is played. That’s why folks take the SAT umpteen times today. That’s why so many folks are into going to Africa or Central America to help build villages or feeding the poor. As the old saying goes, Dog bites man (not news), Man bites dog (news).
Admissions doesn’t really want to know who their applicants are. They just want someone whose picture and/or story they can put on their brochures.
The % and numbers of those who are accepted to Harvard from a homeless shelter make it quite the achievement, certainly not the rule. When one looks at the fact that 743 out of the 1673 students accepted at Harvard did were iikely full pays, that’s a disproportionate percentage when you consider what percent of families could afford to pay that much without aid. And this is one of the more generous if not most generous schools out there. The top 5% or less in wealth are the ones that greatly dominate select college admissions to date.
In my area, I don’t note ANY resentment or complaints about those who are disadvantaged getting some consideration for those challenges in getting into highly selective schools and programs. The situation does not have to be as extreme as being in a homeless shelter either. Where I am seeing, hearing, feeling resentment smoldering is with those who have had the advantages and are still given extra consideration due to happening to belong to an ethnic group or race that has URM status at these selective schools. Looking at Naviance data as well as noting real time admissions right now, there is a considerable gap in academic stats and acceptance when the URM situation is in the picture. Many of those students come from well to do families who are most supportive and knowledgeable about college preparation and admissions. Until the URM pools start resembling the general pools more in the academic stats, this is going to be the situation, as long as colleges seek diversity in that area in their student body.
It is disappointing that so many schools do not give merit aid anymore. It’s all “need” based aid. I understand what @menefrega is saying. Almost as if hard work doesn’t matter so much. We saved for retirement and college, and we get penalized for it. Had we spent every penny we made instead, kid would be getting much more in aid. UT offered $2000 in merit compared to Rice and JHU at over 10x what UT offered. Duke and MIT are offering similar amounts but it is need based. WashU offered almost nothing in merit aid, and a token amount in need based. We have some tough decisions to make in the next couple of weeks. Tomorrow may change it up even more.
Also, merit scholarship amounts are not keeping up with the increase in college costs, so a 10,000/year scholarship doesn’t make the same dent in the billed expenses now compared to even a few years ago.
One thing we have witnessed at certain schools is that the merit $$ is really irrelevant bc institutional grants bring it down to a certain amt anyway. For families at full pay levels, those scholarships would matter. For most middle class families, it is just reducing COA via a different name.
By applying to schools actively recruiting strong students with great merit offers, scholarships actually impact costs dramatically. Does it change the landscape of type of schools? Yes. But, it has made attending university affordable and our kids have not personally seen any downsides.
Someone growing up in a homeless shelter isn’t “playing” a “game”.
Not everyone who grows up in a homeless shelter gets a free pass to Harvard. Not every essay about losing the big game is trite. I’d bet that every kid who writes a hackneyed big game essay will end up going to college somewhere, but that far fewer kids who grow up in the shelter will attend college.
Retirement savings in qualified accounts are reported on profile but most schools will not count that against your aid. The amount you save for college of course does reduce aid between ~5% to 25% of the savings depending on if it’s in the parents’ or child’s name, but if you don’t save you’re betting that your child will be attending a school that meets full need, and that you can pay your EFC out of your current income. And any child who’s been accepted to schools including MIT and Rice etc etc (congratulations!) has certainly been rewarded for their hard work!
Hard work gets students into schools like Rice, and Duke, and MIT, so I think it matters a lot.
I don’t agree that people who save for college and retirement are being penalized when their children actually get to go to college and they get to retire. Most poor kids don’t get to go away to college and the competition for the limited number of spots at colleges that offer enough need based aid to make a difference is incredibly fierce. Parents who think they would be so much better off if they’d spent every dime so they could qualify for the same need based aid as low income families never seem to want to make the jump to being low income. They just wish they’d spent their money so they appear low income. Most low income families won’t have schools like Rice, JHU, and MIT among their choices because they won’t be able to afford them.
spending more of your money won’t make you low income; it won’t even make you appear low income. You are free to spend all the money you make but unless you don’t actually make much, it won’t get you any more aid.
There is a category of families and students who certainly are penalized in terms of getting financial aid for college… Yes, if your family income would qualify you for financial aid, AND if your student gets accepted to a school that does meet full need or give out generous financial aid, if you’ve saved up enough money over the years in non qualified funds, own sufficient assets, if affects financial aid. About 5.6% of assets are tapped for school costs by most colleges each year, and for PROFILE schools home equity is often included. There usually is some asset protection amount but, yes, heavy savers will be expected to ante up those amounts. And, yes, that is not fair in that small wedge of circumstance because a family with the exact same income history who did not save a dime would get the financial aid
However, having saved, gives that family options that the family that did not save will not have. Few schools meet full need. Also, you can get rid of your assets very easily, if that is such a sticking point to you. Do it in time and you will be in the exact same situation as your counterpart who did not save. Bet you won’ t do that. So really, if it sticks in the craw that much, get rid of the savings that is keeping your from getting financial aid.
As for merit, when it comes to the schools where most of the kids are up there in stats, the reward for the accomplishments is an acceptance, and if your family cannot afford the school by the school’s standards, you get fin aid. It seems to be a decent deal to me.
As I’ve mentioned in another post, where it can hurt when it is due to factors that we are asked to ignore in most situations that count so much in merit and elite college acceptance. URM status has become such an issue. We can undrstand the rationale but it does boil up the resentment because it is a repugnant thing that we give something like skin color and ethnicity so much of an advantage when the student is from a perfectly well to do and supportive background. Few have qualms giving leeway to those who have had tremendous hardships and disadvantages so taht they cannot get the test scores and have the best school background, courses, have the money to pay.
Although I would never do it if we had spent most of our savings except retirement and with a $120k income yes we would’ve gotten aid . Many of my husbands military coworkers with the exact same income and not a lot of savings for whatever reason had $30k EFCs across the board! Because of our high savings (which we are saving for a home and a business after the military) made us full pay. I know if we had been more settled and bought a home for cash and lived in it, some schools would not have counted that equity against us.
RDtsmith., get rid of the money, if it galls you so much. The solution is simple. Spend it on a great vacation, a trip around the world, etc, etc, donate it to a great cause. Then your child will get the same fin aid as your husband’s coworkers. That’s an easy fix. You can send me a check, for that matter, if you don’t know what to do with that money. Heck, I wouldn’t mind paying full tuition with it.