Financial aid is a scam

[Anonymous]

My oldest is a rising 10th grader, so we're just starting to think about colleges. I truly thought financial aid was based on need and/or merit. According to this article, I was wrong. https://slate.com/business/2022/07/college-financial-aid-sham.html

[Anonymous]

Need based aid actually is based on need. But many colleges consider need in admissions or don’t meet all need.

Some top colleges offer a few full tuition merit scholarships based on actual merit. But a lot of “merit aid” is used as a price discounting tool.

I don’t think anyone who has been through the process would argue with this. Although who knows. DCUM loves arguments.

Read Who Gets in and Why for good info on merit aid and price discounting.

[Anonymous]

If you’re middle of the road, you don’t get much.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you want to understand how the system works and work the system, I recommend Ron Lieber's The Price You Pay for College. It's been recommended to me by a few people in the field and is geared toward middle class/upper middle class families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re middle of the road, you don’t get much.

We are middle of the road income. Paid approximately $100,000 for an ivy degree. Of that amount, I subtract room and board. Less than half went to tuition.

[Anonymous]

You can’t compare Ursinus (private school) with Penn State (state school). Apples and oranges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t compare Ursinus (private school) with Penn State (state school). Apples and oranges.

ThT is exactly my reaction . If the girl applied to Ursinus, she would probably get significant scholarships and cost may be comparable to Penn State.

[Anonymous]

I did the net price calculator for numerous schools, and was surprised to see how much the final costs vary among schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re middle of the road, you don’t get much.

We are middle of the road income. Paid approximately $100,000 for an ivy degree. Of that amount, I subtract room and board. Less than half went to tuition.

That's not bad! $25k a year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t compare Ursinus (private school) with Penn State (state school). Apples and oranges.

ThT is exactly my reaction . If the girl applied to Ursinus, she would probably get significant scholarships and cost may be comparable to Penn State.

This is wishful thinking. Why would you give colleges the benefit of the doubt that they really price (ahem, offer aid) based on “merit” or need? Come at this more cynically and you’ll come out ahead when negotiating with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re middle of the road, you don’t get much.

We are middle of the road income. Paid approximately $100,000 for an ivy degree. Of that amount, I subtract room and board. Less than half went to tuition.

That's not bad! $25k a year?

Just about. Out of that, $15,000 was for room and board. That was an expense whether or not the kid went away to a college, so I don't really count that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t compare Ursinus (private school) with Penn State (state school). Apples and oranges.

ThT is exactly my reaction . If the girl applied to Ursinus, she would probably get significant scholarships and cost may be comparable to Penn State.

Absolutely. And then New York University as her other option? An expensive school with average merit aid of only $6k? "Ashley" needed some "sensible financial advice" and college counseling BEFORE applying to schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re middle of the road, you don’t get much.

We are middle of the road income. Paid approximately $100,000 for an ivy degree. Of that amount, I subtract room and board. Less than half went to tuition.

What do you consider middle of the road income?

[Anonymous]

This is why I tell parents to have their children apply to 20 schools that all fall in a similar category. I did this with each of my kids (pissed off our FCPS guidance department) but the results were insane.

Oldest. Applied broadly and ended up at Wellesley which ended up costing us 10K a year less than in-state at UVA. She was fine with a women's college fwiw

Second, applied broadly and landed a full ride at Wash U. Also, fine with it (wanted STEM and though hopkins and CMU were a fit. Oddly got less money at Tech or "lesser" schools fwiw). We negotiated among these schools and Wash U basically bit itself up to a full ride.

Third -- pulled a full ride at Malacaster. same story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why I tell parents to have their children apply to 20 schools that all fall in a similar category. I did this with each of my kids (pissed off our FCPS guidance department) but the results were insane.

Oldest. Applied broadly and ended up at Wellesley which ended up costing us 10K a year less than in-state at UVA. She was fine with a women's college fwiw

Second, applied broadly and landed a full ride at Wash U. Also, fine with it (wanted STEM and though hopkins and CMU were a fit. Oddly got less money at Tech or "lesser" schools fwiw). We negotiated among these schools and Wash U basically bit itself up to a full ride.

Third -- pulled a full ride at Malacaster. same story.

PP, can you say more about this? Did you negotiate price among the schools that had offered admission to your kids once they were in? Did you pick the top school and go back to them with a request for more aid based on what was offered elsewhere?