xferring between GLADCHEMS & Financial Aid

ExieMITAlum
Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:23:24 +0000

No problems. This is a hard process to negotiate - especially excited new parents looking to provide an opportunity.

For the record, there are parents who DO actually enter the process with the intent of securing a spot for their child in the hopes that it will put their child in a favorable position for aid the next year. In a sense they drain their resources to come up with funds the first year so they don’t have to be in a competitive FA pool. It often backfires (I’ve overheard some angry phone calls between parents and the FA department at two local private schools).

Schools state that FA is a year to year event because it is adjusted annually based on family financial circumstances. But that is primarily for FA candidates. Despite what the schools tell you it is not meant to be an automatic allocation for full pay kids. Let me give you an exaggerated scenario:

The school allocates funds to 35% of it’s students. 65% are full pays. But if half of the latter turn around and ask for funding, the next incoming class will have to be comprised almost totally of full pays because the funds available for FA in a given year are limited. That then derails the efforts of the school to have an economically diverse incoming class.

Which is why the small print (and the annual enrollment letters) will explicitly spell out that full pay families must meet an earlier deadline for applying for FA and must have some significant change in circumstances to qualify. To get aid in the next year you have to meet a HIGHER standard than if you just applied for it outright. Because the school knows (and you know) that a higher percentage of full pay kids are given spots than FA candidates - which is why those who can scrape up the funds, don’t risk asking for it.

Which is why we suggested that parents call the school now and tell them that they misunderstood the process. Better now, then next year when it becomes clear the school may or may not deem a child as eligible for aid when weighing the same factors used to evaluate other students. Trust me - the allocation of aid is about more than just grades, scores and whether they like a student. A lot of very good students that school wanted were left on the outside, or on a waiting list, in favor of a child who it was assumed would pay the money every year.

Need blind is not the same as totally blind. The budget for the school assumes - “once a full pay, always a full pay” and the school is under no obligation to provide funds in subsequent years for a child that didn’t request it from the start. Hence your child could be readmitted for the second year without funds. Why risk that?

Which begs the question - I just looked at the Exeter calculator and the Taft grid - both schools make awards (in some cases significant) to students in the above $160,000 category (in Exeter’s case it’s above $200,000). Why would a parent not apply unless it was to skirt the competitive pool and give their child an early edge in admissions? Again - I can only see this backfiring in a major way.