No, it just came with her offer. It said they didn’t have any TE money but they were willing to match the amount.
Same exact schools for my 3.3 TO kid.
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That is interesting and also may be a function of types of colleges D25 preferred where they’re located. She was mostly looking at small LACs in the mid-Atlantic and New England. Tuition at each was well over the set rate. But some also offered goo need-based aid or stacked other merit, which helps shrink the gap.
I am not sure, but I’m guessing there may be a fee? The link below is a “New Member Inquiry” that can be filled out if the institution you work at is interested in getting involved in TE:
My institution charges each employee $250 per each year that their dependent is using TE. I am assuming that is to cover some fee the institution is responsible for, rather than just a random cash grab (I could be wrong).
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It does depend on the school for admissions, and actually in the Common Data Sets it’s indicated for each school whether they weigh it, and how highly. I imagine whether or not a school values it for admissions corresponds to whether or not it tracks/weighs is for TE.
Haha I’d gladly pay $250/annual for a chance at 42K per year covered in tuition benefits. Is there any restriction like if tuition costs at my home institution are only 18-20K does that factor into the ability to have higher tuition at other colleges covered?
No. Set rate ($42k this year) is the minimum amount a school can offer.
After having just finished this process with our son (see my comment above on his general stats), I will say to go into this with your eyes wide open and have a decent list of back up schools not on the TE list. Our son did get a full tuition TE offer at a great school but it’s a long, stressful process. If your goal is to get into a larger, well known institution on the list your child’s chances are minimal if they aren’t an elite, very well rounded student - that’s just the truth. I work at one of the larger, more sought out schools on the list and I can tell you, it’s beyond extremely competitive. As others have said, be prepared to cast a wide net when considering the schools on the list. With many schools facing serious budget cuts, I’ve wondered if all of the schools will continue to offer the TE scholarship in the future.
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Congrats to your son! Where will he be attending? My D25 has received some generous merit at Pitt, Syracuse, Tampa, Delaware among her top choices but also having TE would have been a gamechanger if any of those schools would have also considered her for that as well. Maybe we can apply for TE in a subsequent year or maybe my younger children may benefit if my college joins.
My home institution is the same and your assessment is spot on. I have said it before, but I think it’s worth saying again. Please look at the Colleges that Change Lives (https://ctcl.org) for schools for the 3.0-3.5 GPA, regular extracurricular kids. My son got great packages and is currently deciding. Some are still accepting applications. Look beyond the names you know and there really are hidden gems that will cover full tuition in some cases.
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I encouraged D25 to apply to schools where she would be competitive. Sure, try for the more sought after school, but don’t stop there. She was very fortunate and received 4 TE offers. Some of the colleges stacked them with other awards or aid. It’s worth figuring out which colleges give a high percentage of awards and adding those to the list.
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I appreciate this statement and wish I had seen it before we set our hopes on TE. Luckily, my kid has some very good offers, but the fantasy of full tuition TE wore us down this year.
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Same my friend. I’m going to do this much more thoughtfully for kid #2 (currently only in 7th grade)
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Same. We are fortunate to have a few offers for son #2 to choose from. (And also have son #1 at a TE school). But for my 3rd (current freshman, not going to have the stellar SAT score or grades) I am already starting a list of schools to investigate where she might have a prayer of TE.
Feel free to be looking for these types of TE schools, but don’t forget that there are schools out there that can be competitive with schools that give out TE. @2plustrio’s D did not have superlative academic stats but will be attending a school without TE for not too much more than the family would have needed to pay at some schools where she received TE, I believe. When the time comes that your third kid is ready to start brainstorming a list of schools, I’m sure there will be folks who are happy to help with suggestions of schools that will come within the budget that could be a good fit.
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This is true! My daughter is likely not attending a non-TE school, and the price came out to be roughly the same as the schools she received TE at (private institutions are SO pricy!) I also like this idea because we won’t have to worry about maintaining TE during her years of schooling. On the other hand, she got several TE offers from good schools but unfortunately they weren’t what she was looking for! If she got TE at a top choice, she would’ve attended it 110%.
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Has anyone seen the TE website added a little section showing the number of TE EZ applications, # approved, and # enrolled? At first I thought this was import info, which would address my #1 issue with this process (schools not being transparent on the import side metrics… one school we spent time on and got our hopes up on that was listed as 10-40% only awarded not even 2% this year - only found out after the fact). Maybe this is just EXPORT information? If so, then what is the number enrolled? Maybe it’s the number of exports that enrolled somewhere? This info would be extremely misleading to someone new to TE, without a detailed explanation! Hopefully they add the word “Export” to that heading, if that’s what it is.
Yes good call. This second time around with TE, I also tried to focus on schools that covered full tuition rather than set rate.
Agree. My oldest daughter is a junior at Austin College (a CTCL) and has free tuition through TE. It doesn’t have a lot of the flashy first year experiences that some of the larger schools we looked at have, but her educational experiences and opportunities for experiential learning have been amazing.
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