Uncovering Secrets Of Financial Aid

U.S. News & World Report Offers Strategies For Making College More Affordable

(U.S. News & World Report) 
Academics

Most schools give bigger grants to students who prove their abilities through grades, test scores, Advanced Placement classes, and other indicators. But an analysis of more than 300 award letters sent out by over 100 public and private colleges around the nation reveals a strategy likely to improve a student's chances for merit aid. No matter what the student's SAT score, those who applied to schools in which their scores put them in the top 25 percent of the school's student body tended to get more and bigger grants. On average, letters to students who were in the top 25 percent contained grants averaging $11,144, meeting 81 percent of the student's need. Award letters to students whose SAT scores were at least 200 points below the top 25 percent floor offered grants totaling only $7,800, meeting just 64 percent of need.

Typical were the awards from New York University, where 25 percent of last year's freshmen had (two-test) SAT scores above 1420 and the total annual cost of attendance this year is likely to top $48,000. Of seven awards examined, six failed to provide enough grants to allow the student to attend without borrowing. One student with a family EFC of about $16,000, a grade-point average of 4.1, and a below-average SAT score (for NYU) of 1300 received no grants. The only student to get the full amount of needed aid scored a very high 1520 and had a GPA of 3.9. Because that student came from a family with an EFC of slightly more than $39,000, the school grant of $10,000 made up the gap in the cost of attendance. Barbara Hall, head of NYU'S admissions and financial aid offices, says that NYU doesn't promise to meet the need of any student and generally caps its grants at $25,000. But while NYU does tend to offer better packages to students who have better grades, it also offers bigger grants to lower-income students, without regard to their academic record. "We are concerned about access," she says.

Students who want to increase their odds of being admitted and scoring big aid packages should apply to a couple of safety schools-in-state public colleges and perhaps one or two private schools in which their grades and scores put them at the top of the class. But they shouldn't necessarily end up attending the school that costs them the least, says Sandy Baum, an economist at Skidmore College and the College Board. "For some students, being a big fish in a little pond is a great idea," she says. But others would benefit more by opting for pricier schools with better students and more challenging courses.

Competition

Schools are more likely to give generously to students who set off bidding wars. David Lang, an economist at California State University-Sacramento, found preliminary evidence that students accepted at several schools get as much as 30 percent more in grants than similarly qualified students who get into just one college. The head of financial aid for a medium-sized private university in the Midwest, who did not want to reveal his own school's practices, said many aid officers will look at a student's FAFSA to see what other schools are listed. "It is not so much how many schools as what schools you've applied to," he says. If the student has listed schools with similar costs and rankings in the same geographic region, the officer may say: "Wow, we compete with those, and we have to up the ante," he says.

Applying to several schools also pays off for students who think their initial aid offers were too low. More schools now up awards to students who have better offers from competing schools. In April, Harvard, which gives aid only to meet need, announced that it would match more-generous awards to low-income students.

Gender

At math-heavy schools like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where females are in short supply, being a woman is one of about 100 factors that can increase a student's award. "We love women," Nondorf says. But he says other qualities can boost aid as much or even more, joking that the scholarship jackpot would be hit by "a harpist from North Dakota who is a woman and applies to nuclear engineering." Laura Wontrop, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, says she wishes that applicants were simply judged on their merits. But, she adds, "my dad told me to use what I've got." So she's getting merit and need-based grants from Rensselaer.

A growing number of universities are using aid to address the opposite problem: a shortage of males. Just 43 percent of all current college students are men. And at not-quite-elite liberal arts schools, the male shortage is becoming acute. "At just below the top tier, men are such a scarce commodity that those schools who engage in differential packaging end up putting more money toward the males," says John Maguire, a physics professor turned enrollment manager.

[kpealstrom]

The biggest surprise for this year's students is that they may be eligible for loans, but unable to have them due to changes in the Cost of Attendance [COA] rulings by this Administration. Previously a student could take out loans above the COA, in order to actually have funds for food, transportation, shelter, unexpected class expenses on top of books, tuition and class fees. It is a rude surprise that I'm real sure those collecting on tax cuts don't ever face. In today's America, it is a case of having or doing without -- and the percentage is higher doing without.

[sharncedar]

Hah - a little post-capitalist economics class for the students even before they get into college. These schools create a controlled market with an artificially low supply through government collusion and the "accreditation" system, then raise their prices. Then, in classic post-capitalist fashion, they pretend their mission is to do precisely the opposite of what they are actually doing. So they claim their mission is to make college affordable for students, when their mission is to make as much money for themselves as possible. Or Harvard claims their mission is to give equal opportunity, when their whole college exists as an old-boy network tool for denying opportunity to the excellent in favor of the mediocre with connections. The Cliff Notes are: In post-capitalism, you insist on a public mission which is the opposite of your private mission. In post-capitalism, never, never, never, allow actual free market competition for your products and services while demanding in a sanctimonius fashion free market competition from your employees and suppliers. Any questions?

The joys of education.