Question about financial aid at Ivies

[Anonymous]

Hoping to get some insight from people who have BTDT...and not get flamed.

DS, a junior in high school, is a top student and is already being recruited by good D-1 schools for a sport. With his academic and athletic ability, he might be a good fit for an Ivy League school - but I don't think we could afford it. With a HHI of $250K, and 2 kids currently in private plus 1 in college, our expected family contribution is still $80K a year. The gap between what we can afford based on pay-as-you-go plus what we and grandparents have saved for college, and the cost of attending an Ivy, is about $20K/year - and likely to increase over four years. We are willing to go into some some debt for an Ivy, but not $80K+ over four years (we will still have one in college and one who will be starting college as soon as DS is finished and need to provide for them as well, while funding retirement savings etc.).

My question: since we don't meet the federal standards for financial aid, and the Ivies provide no money for merit or athletic scholarships, would we be eligible for *any* assistance from an Ivy school? I completely understand and applaud their generosity to truly needy students - and I admit we aren't truly needy, just middle class people with an affordability gap - but do they ever "find" money for athletes? We know several athletes playing at Ivies, but they come from demonstrably wealthy families so I don't think affordability was a factor for them.

I'm fine with cutting out consideration of the Ivies entirely - I'm not one of those people who thinks DS "deserves" an Ivy League education, and he will have options at other good schools where he will be eligible for merit money. However, I'd be grateful if anyone who was in a similar situation would share their experience with FA offers from Ivies.

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Ivies do not give out merit scholarships. I know several famlies in your predicament and some chose other schools that provided full rides and some sucked it up and got the loans or restructured their choices (like chose public school instead of provite for K-12).

You make enough to afford it, you have chosen to spend it elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ivies do not give out merit scholarships. I know several famlies in your predicament and some chose other schools that provided full rides and some sucked it up and got the loans or restructured their choices (like chose public school instead of provite for K-12).

You make enough to afford it, you have chosen to spend it elsewhere.

private not provite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ivies do not give out merit scholarships. I know several famlies in your predicament and some chose other schools that provided full rides and some sucked it up and got the loans or restructured their choices (like chose public school instead of provite for K-12).

You make enough to afford it, you have chosen to spend it elsewhere.

+1

[Anonymous]

There are private endowments that can be used as merit aid. It is basically a private scholarship it is given by a private person or trust or foundation. Often, they are geared toward an ivy, they are not part of the "Ivy's endowment" but they are specifically for an ivy.

If you child is a junior an not on the roster yet for the ivy he probably won't be depending on the sport... Unless it is football andhe has also been recruited by Alabama, which I suspect he has not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are private endowments that can be used as merit aid. It is basically a private scholarship it is given by a private person or trust or foundation. Often, they are geared toward an ivy, they are not part of the "Ivy's endowment" but they are specifically for an ivy.

If you child is a junior an not on the roster yet for the ivy he probably won't be depending on the sport... Unless it is football andhe has also been recruited by Alabama, which I suspect he has not.

OP here - thank you. Definitely not being recruited by Alabama for any sport!

We know a kid who plays a sport for a top SLAC that officially only meets demonstrated need (a name you see alot on this board); he was in a similar situation and they "found" $10K/year for him, and he chose to attend because the affordability gap narrowed considerably. I just wanted to know if this type of thing happens often. As I said, DS being recruited by good public and private schools - we are lucky to be in that situation.

[Anonymous]

Speaking from experience, if he is good enough in the sport and they want him bad enough, they will make it work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are private endowments that can be used as merit aid. It is basically a private scholarship it is given by a private person or trust or foundation. Often, they are geared toward an ivy, they are not part of the "Ivy's endowment" but they are specifically for an ivy.

If you child is a junior an not on the roster yet for the ivy he probably won't be depending on the sport... Unless it is football andhe has also been recruited by Alabama, which I suspect he has not.

OP here - thank you. Definitely not being recruited by Alabama for any sport!

We know a kid who plays a sport for a top SLAC that officially only meets demonstrated need (a name you see alot on this board); he was in a similar situation and they "found" $10K/year for him, and he chose to attend because the affordability gap narrowed considerably. I just wanted to know if this type of thing happens often. As I said, DS being recruited by good public and private schools - we are lucky to be in that situation.

I suspect the coach and the school knew of a private scholarship and directed him to apply to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ivies do not give out merit scholarships. I know several famlies in your predicament and some chose other schools that provided full rides and some sucked it up and got the loans or restructured their choices (like chose public school instead of provite for K-12).

You make enough to afford it, you have chosen to spend it elsewhere.

+1

I feel bad for your kid. If you make that much money, and your kid is able to get into an Ivy, you should fine a way to make it happen.

[Anonymous]

250K household income? I do not think you will qualify for very much qualified "need". Go the the individual school's (not FAFSA's) net price calculator and plug in your numbers. I hear they are pretty accurate. You can also talk to the financial aid offices for their input. This is important for you and your student to discuss. You don't want to get admitted to a school that you cannot afford.

[Anonymous]

OP, as you undoubtedly have figured out, the FAFSA gives you no credit for the private school tuition you are paying, although the FAFSA does take into account any siblings who are in college. As others have said, you would need to make some choices if you are considering the Ivy seriously.

DC is at an Ivy with a decent endowment and has several friends there who are athletic recruits from the DMV area, in several different sports. The perks seem to be limited to things like cafeteria privileges and a laundry service.

I have heard that Harvard, for one, has a few pockets of merit aid that they don't tout very much. But this money is not necessarily for athletes - a friend's kid actually got some of it for scientific achievements. The availability of this money might also depend on whether your kid plays one of the high profile sports, read the sports alumns care about. In addition, I don't think you can count on the college "finding" money for your kid - my understanding is that these pools of money are not very deep, and the Ivies really do have an agreement among themselves not to provide merit or athletic money, and this agreement would be undermined if there were too much of these secret slush fund monies being handed out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are private endowments that can be used as merit aid. It is basically a private scholarship it is given by a private person or trust or foundation. Often, they are geared toward an ivy, they are not part of the "Ivy's endowment" but they are specifically for an ivy.

If you child is a junior an not on the roster yet for the ivy he probably won't be depending on the sport... Unless it is football andhe has also been recruited by Alabama, which I suspect he has not.

OP here - thank you. Definitely not being recruited by Alabama for any sport!

We know a kid who plays a sport for a top SLAC that officially only meets demonstrated need (a name you see alot on this board); he was in a similar situation and they "found" $10K/year for him, and he chose to attend because the affordability gap narrowed considerably. I just wanted to know if this type of thing happens often. As I said, DS being recruited by good public and private schools - we are lucky to be in that situation.

It happens at SLACs, but not at Ivies who by agreement among themselves don't offer merit or athletic aid.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, everyone, for your input. It confirms what we thought. As I said in my original post, I fully support the financial aid for the truly needy, and don't count us in that group - but was just wondering if there was something we might be missing. I'm glad to know we're not, and appreciate the feedback.

Don't feel sorry for us, 12:14 - $250K after taxes, healthcare and retirement savings comes to $135K take-home...we're clearly not disadvantaged but coming up with $60K a year for one kid's college tuition would be difficult. We will pay for college for all our kids without taking on debt - we are very comfortable with that and feel fortunate, rather than sorry.

[Anonymous]

If you are paying for private high school now, wouldn't you be able to figure out a way to pay for private college tuition? It seems odd that you would gamble by paying for private HS with the expectation that college would be free but if that is the gamble you have made, you now may have to look outside of an Ivy league school, which would mean you chose to pay for a high quality high school at the expense of the best private college your child could go to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are paying for private high school now, wouldn't you be able to figure out a way to pay for private college tuition? It seems odd that you would gamble by paying for private HS with the expectation that college would be free but if that is the gamble you have made, you now may have to look outside of an Ivy league school, which would mean you chose to pay for a high quality high school at the expense of the best private college your child could go to.

Big difference between private HS (35k on the high end for the DMV area) & Ivy (60k a year).