Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spouse works at a top private college with a large endowment. They are just waiting to see what the next fed budget looks like to start making cuts. Expect some of the following:

--Cancellation/"Pauses" of all Phd programs
-- Getting rid entirely of less popular departments that can be deemed non-essential to the mission. I think any ethnicity or women's studies likely on the chopping block, but also some humanities departments with low enrollment
--End of anything DEI
--End of merit aid
--End of any non-essential spending on student services

Again this is a well funded school, so expect the same or worse elsewhere.

My DC is in at a mid-sized private schools with a decent merit aid package that is for 4 years assuming DC keeps up the grades. Would those be in danger?

My guess is that, unless they are on the brink of bankruptcy, schools will not rescind merit awards for current students. In addition, because schools depend on partial-pay families middle income families (i.e., those who get merit), they will not want to scare off the next few years of applicants.

The real victims will be poor kids, who depend on full or almost full FA to attend. They will be SOL, I worry.

spend some time away from here and on r/academia or r/professors or r/askacademia or r/highereducation.
so many people inside universities commenting right now.

Lots of people commenting lots of things. . . .

But the fact is, most schools are tuition dependent; they use 'merit' awards as a differential pricing mechanism. Rescinding merit would result in fewer (partial) tuition-paying students and a loss of income. Most schools outside of the T20 won't be able to afford that. They need those families who are chasing merit.

Income-based financial aid, much of which goes to students from families with very limited ability to pay, will suffer.

I think most of the T75, maybe T100 can fill their class without merit, keeping in mind that many of those schools are nit need blind.

Not without accepting large numbers of far less competitive applicants.

Which schools do you think are giving lots of merit? We aren’t talking about financial aid, but merit. I think you need to go outside T100 to fin schools that are giving everyone a discounted price.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've probably spent too much time on the politics board and need to shake it off, but there is a lot of doomsday talk involving college. I don't think people talk like that in the real world, but I don't want to bring it up and look nuts. My DC applied to all their schools in what feels like a different time. Now, I'm wondering how much impact the political climate will really have on our kids. Are you keeping them close to home or having them go to the less expensive school? Are you sticking with private schools or larger, state schools? Do you think what's going on will actually affect our kids who worked so hard to start college this fall? Does it always feel a little nervewracking or is this year worse?

Do I just need to stay off the politics board?

lol. Is this serious?

lol. Have you been living under a rock?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spouse works at a top private college with a large endowment. They are just waiting to see what the next fed budget looks like to start making cuts. Expect some of the following:

--Cancellation/"Pauses" of all Phd programs
-- Getting rid entirely of less popular departments that can be deemed non-essential to the mission. I think any ethnicity or women's studies likely on the chopping block, but also some humanities departments with low enrollment
--End of anything DEI
--End of merit aid
--End of any non-essential spending on student services

Again this is a well funded school, so expect the same or worse elsewhere.

My DC is in at a mid-sized private schools with a decent merit aid package that is for 4 years assuming DC keeps up the grades. Would those be in danger?

My guess is that, unless they are on the brink of bankruptcy, schools will not rescind merit awards for current students. In addition, because schools depend on partial-pay families middle income families (i.e., those who get merit), they will not want to scare off the next few years of applicants.

The real victims will be poor kids, who depend on full or almost full FA to attend. They will be SOL, I worry.

spend some time away from here and on r/academia or r/professors or r/askacademia or r/highereducation.
so many people inside universities commenting right now.

Lots of people commenting lots of things. . . .

But the fact is, most schools are tuition dependent; they use 'merit' awards as a differential pricing mechanism. Rescinding merit would result in fewer (partial) tuition-paying students and a loss of income. Most schools outside of the T20 won't be able to afford that. They need those families who are chasing merit.

Income-based financial aid, much of which goes to students from families with very limited ability to pay, will suffer.

I think most of the T75, maybe T100 can fill their class without merit, keeping in mind that many of those schools are nit need blind.

I disagree, but I'm not in the enrollment management industry and I don't have the data to back up my hunch. I suppose we will see! I do hope that I am right, though, as I think T50-100 schools will be less interesting and less sustainable places if they are filled only with non-competitive rich kids.

Schools like Northeastern, Clemson, Tulane and Miami are in that tranche and don’t give a ton of merit as is. Keep in mind, the amount of financial aid is likely to stay constant, so it won’t be an entire class of rich kids, as you say.

While it will be immediately worse for our kids who are graduating college in the next 2 years - and either entering the workforce or trying to enter grad school in the US which is very dependent on grants/funding -- it will also be horrible for our kids graduating HS in the next 2 years UNLESS we can flood congress with non-Republicans to vote against Trump's continued destruction of our education and financial security. The mid-terms will still be too late, Trump should never have been elected given what we knew he would do, reversing the Republican majorities in the Senate and House ASAP will be critical.

For our kids who are still in HS and who are not entering the workforce yet, we owe it to them to get Trump & his party (that won't stand up to him no matter what he does) ASAP.

Talk to your families, coworkers and please vote against him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spouse works at a top private college with a large endowment. They are just waiting to see what the next fed budget looks like to start making cuts. Expect some of the following:

--Cancellation/"Pauses" of all Phd programs
-- Getting rid entirely of less popular departments that can be deemed non-essential to the mission. I think any ethnicity or women's studies likely on the chopping block, but also some humanities departments with low enrollment
--End of anything DEI
--End of merit aid
--End of any non-essential spending on student services

Again this is a well funded school, so expect the same or worse elsewhere.

My DC is in at a mid-sized private schools with a decent merit aid package that is for 4 years assuming DC keeps up the grades. Would those be in danger?

My guess is that, unless they are on the brink of bankruptcy, schools will not rescind merit awards for current students. In addition, because schools depend on partial-pay families middle income families (i.e., those who get merit), they will not want to scare off the next few years of applicants.

The real victims will be poor kids, who depend on full or almost full FA to attend. They will be SOL, I worry.

spend some time away from here and on r/academia or r/professors or r/askacademia or r/highereducation.
so many people inside universities commenting right now.

Lots of people commenting lots of things. . . .

But the fact is, most schools are tuition dependent; they use 'merit' awards as a differential pricing mechanism. Rescinding merit would result in fewer (partial) tuition-paying students and a loss of income. Most schools outside of the T20 won't be able to afford that. They need those families who are chasing merit.

Income-based financial aid, much of which goes to students from families with very limited ability to pay, will suffer.

I think most of the T75, maybe T100 can fill their class without merit, keeping in mind that many of those schools are nit need blind.

Not without accepting large numbers of far less competitive applicants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spouse works at a top private college with a large endowment. They are just waiting to see what the next fed budget looks like to start making cuts. Expect some of the following:

--Cancellation/"Pauses" of all Phd programs
-- Getting rid entirely of less popular departments that can be deemed non-essential to the mission. I think any ethnicity or women's studies likely on the chopping block, but also some humanities departments with low enrollment
--End of anything DEI
--End of merit aid
--End of any non-essential spending on student services

Again this is a well funded school, so expect the same or worse elsewhere.

My DC is in at a mid-sized private schools with a decent merit aid package that is for 4 years assuming DC keeps up the grades. Would those be in danger?

My guess is that, unless they are on the brink of bankruptcy, schools will not rescind merit awards for current students. In addition, because schools depend on partial-pay families middle income families (i.e., those who get merit), they will not want to scare off the next few years of applicants.

The real victims will be poor kids, who depend on full or almost full FA to attend. They will be SOL, I worry.

spend some time away from here and on r/academia or r/professors or r/askacademia or r/highereducation.
so many people inside universities commenting right now.

Lots of people commenting lots of things. . . .

But the fact is, most schools are tuition dependent; they use 'merit' awards as a differential pricing mechanism. Rescinding merit would result in fewer (partial) tuition-paying students and a loss of income. Most schools outside of the T20 won't be able to afford that. They need those families who are chasing merit.

Income-based financial aid, much of which goes to students from families with very limited ability to pay, will suffer.

I think most of the T75, maybe T100 can fill their class without merit, keeping in mind that many of those schools are nit need blind.

I disagree, but I'm not in the enrollment management industry and I don't have the data to back up my hunch. I suppose we will see! I do hope that I am right, though, as I think T50-100 schools will be less interesting and less sustainable places if they are filled only with non-competitive rich kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spouse works at a top private college with a large endowment. They are just waiting to see what the next fed budget looks like to start making cuts. Expect some of the following:

--Cancellation/"Pauses" of all Phd programs
-- Getting rid entirely of less popular departments that can be deemed non-essential to the mission. I think any ethnicity or women's studies likely on the chopping block, but also some humanities departments with low enrollment
--End of anything DEI
--End of merit aid
--End of any non-essential spending on student services

Again this is a well funded school, so expect the same or worse elsewhere.

My DC is in at a mid-sized private schools with a decent merit aid package that is for 4 years assuming DC keeps up the grades. Would those be in danger?

My guess is that, unless they are on the brink of bankruptcy, schools will not rescind merit awards for current students. In addition, because schools depend on partial-pay families middle income families (i.e., those who get merit), they will not want to scare off the next few years of applicants.

The real victims will be poor kids, who depend on full or almost full FA to attend. They will be SOL, I worry.

spend some time away from here and on r/academia or r/professors or r/askacademia or r/highereducation.
so many people inside universities commenting right now.

Lots of people commenting lots of things. . . .

But the fact is, most schools are tuition dependent; they use 'merit' awards as a differential pricing mechanism. Rescinding merit would result in fewer (partial) tuition-paying students and a loss of income. Most schools outside of the T20 won't be able to afford that. They need those families who are chasing merit.

Income-based financial aid, much of which goes to students from families with very limited ability to pay, will suffer.

I think most of the T75, maybe T100 can fill their class without merit, keeping in mind that many of those schools are nit need blind.

Anonymous wrote:I think it must be a scary time to enter the job market . They are competing with all of the laid off Federal workers who were on probation.

Poor kids don’t need more stress.

Yes. My 2021 covid HS grad is now a soon to be 2025 college grad! Double whammy. He had a great job during HS (3 years) and that experience made it easy to secure internships employed Freshman year. It’s a beast right now! He’s competing with 2024 grads who are still trying to get full time employment. To OP and HS seniors, college will create strong bonds, they’ll be safe together and very busy. Don’t worry! That which makes us stronger!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as they're not hoping to engage in research while in college, should be fine.

I feel like every tour we ever took talked about research over and over. I didn't do any research in undergrad, but my DC is probably going into healthcare. I'm not sure how important undergrad research is for that path.

It's huge. Even if your kid isn't engaged in federally funded research the healthcare research grants are definitely keeping the school afloat in most cases.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least trump will be gone by the time they graduate college.

But not Vance.

I used to think he was just a catty whiner but then I saw his speech about universities - he wants to destroy education and the educated.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0FR65Cifnhw

HE IS A PROBLEM. He must go.

Agreed. Vance has a chip on his shoulder due to this upbringing and experience at Yale, where he felt like an outsider. He hung with a band of misfit kids and has never forgotten it and can't wait to stick it to all the "intellectual elites" who didn't accept him. I've rarely seen an elected politician who has as much money as he has (through Silicon Valley finance work, selling netflix rights to his wildly exaggerated book) be this bitter. He has a lot of hate in his heart. And he's taking it out on everyone else.

+1 I watched this interview with David Frum last night (Bush speechwriter, author) and he said exactly this. Trump and Vance's attacks on Zelensky are rooted in their deep insecurity, knowing that they're looking at someone who is far braver, far more honorable than they could ever be.

It's worth a watch if you have the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9aDFi536vc

Anonymous wrote:No, our poor kids already had a pandemic middle school experience, and now they're starting college during a year where Trump (emotionally damaged, angry, narcissist), Vance (emotionally abused, angry) and Elon Musk (drug addict, self-admitted to be autistic, lacks empathy) are doing dangerous, destructive experiments on our country - including education and financial future.

I'm scared for our kids.

I'm scared too. We need to vote like crazy in the next couple of years to elect people outside his party. His party refuses to operate as any kind of check on his power. I've never seen such a destructive presidency in such little time (only 1-2 months). He is breaking everything out of spite and due to alliances made with morally vacant people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spouse works at a top private college with a large endowment. They are just waiting to see what the next fed budget looks like to start making cuts. Expect some of the following:

--Cancellation/"Pauses" of all Phd programs
-- Getting rid entirely of less popular departments that can be deemed non-essential to the mission. I think any ethnicity or women's studies likely on the chopping block, but also some humanities departments with low enrollment
--End of anything DEI
--End of merit aid
--End of any non-essential spending on student services

Again this is a well funded school, so expect the same or worse elsewhere.

My DC is in at a mid-sized private schools with a decent merit aid package that is for 4 years assuming DC keeps up the grades. Would those be in danger?

My guess is that, unless they are on the brink of bankruptcy, schools will not rescind merit awards for current students. In addition, because schools depend on partial-pay families middle income families (i.e., those who get merit), they will not want to scare off the next few years of applicants.

The real victims will be poor kids, who depend on full or almost full FA to attend. They will be SOL, I worry.

spend some time away from here and on r/academia or r/professors or r/askacademia or r/highereducation.
so many people inside universities commenting right now.

Lots of people commenting lots of things. . . .

But the fact is, most schools are tuition dependent; they use 'merit' awards as a differential pricing mechanism. Rescinding merit would result in fewer (partial) tuition-paying students and a loss of income. Most schools outside of the T20 won't be able to afford that. They need those families who are chasing merit.

Income-based financial aid, much of which goes to students from families with very limited ability to pay, will suffer.

Why wouldn't they just accept more 100% full pay families this year though?

They likely will look for them! However, as you can imagine, there are a finite number of American families who are willing and able to pay full freight ($90K per year), especially for schools that lack the prestige and networks of the T20 or T30.

At some schools, admissions standards may slip to allow for more full-pay students, true. But I don't think there are enough non-academically-inclined children of the uber-wealthy to make the math work.

Private T20 could fill their entire freshman classes 100% with full-pay private school kids. Don't kid yourself.

Absolutely! That's why I specifically stated that I don't think merit for schools OUTSIDE the T20 will go away.

Very few T20 schools give any merit anyway (Duke, Vanderbilt, ND have a few scholarships for the top 1-2 % of their admitted students). T20 schools have never catered to the 'chasing merit' crowd bc they don't have to.

For the next tier of schools, and especially for the schools outside the T50 or T100, families that pay 50%+ tuition are absolutely needed to make the books balance. Consumers at these schools are price sensitive and often value-minded. Schools who forget that will regret it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At least trump will be gone by the time they graduate college.

Uh, he's talking about violating the Constitution and staying in office for a third term.

The current majority will let him

So glad mine got out of the DMV and is in New England.

It’s a sh@tshow in DC and they almost attended school here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spouse works at a top private college with a large endowment. They are just waiting to see what the next fed budget looks like to start making cuts. Expect some of the following:

--Cancellation/"Pauses" of all Phd programs
-- Getting rid entirely of less popular departments that can be deemed non-essential to the mission. I think any ethnicity or women's studies likely on the chopping block, but also some humanities departments with low enrollment
--End of anything DEI
--End of merit aid
--End of any non-essential spending on student services

Again this is a well funded school, so expect the same or worse elsewhere.

My DC is in at a mid-sized private schools with a decent merit aid package that is for 4 years assuming DC keeps up the grades. Would those be in danger?

My guess is that, unless they are on the brink of bankruptcy, schools will not rescind merit awards for current students. In addition, because schools depend on partial-pay families middle income families (i.e., those who get merit), they will not want to scare off the next few years of applicants.

The real victims will be poor kids, who depend on full or almost full FA to attend. They will be SOL, I worry.

spend some time away from here and on r/academia or r/professors or r/askacademia or r/highereducation.
so many people inside universities commenting right now.

Lots of people commenting lots of things. . . .

But the fact is, most schools are tuition dependent; they use 'merit' awards as a differential pricing mechanism. Rescinding merit would result in fewer (partial) tuition-paying students and a loss of income. Most schools outside of the T20 won't be able to afford that. They need those families who are chasing merit.

Income-based financial aid, much of which goes to students from families with very limited ability to pay, will suffer.

Why wouldn't they just accept more 100% full pay families this year though?

They likely will look for them! However, as you can imagine, there are a finite number of American families who are willing and able to pay full freight ($90K per year), especially for schools that lack the prestige and networks of the T20 or T30.

At some schools, admissions standards may slip to allow for more full-pay students, true. But I don't think there are enough non-academically-inclined children of the uber-wealthy to make the math work.

Private T20 could fill their entire freshman classes 100% with full-pay private school kids. Don't kid yourself.