Only two of the top ten universities give out merit scholarships

While all the top ten ranked universities offer generous need-based financial aid, only two – University of Chicago and Duke – award merit scholarships.

First, here are the top ten universities as ranked by US News & World Report.

#1         Harvard University
#1         Princeton University
#3         Yale University
#4         Columbia University
#5         California Institute of Technology
#5         Massachusetts Institute of Technology
#5         Stanford University
#5         University of Chicago
#5         University of Pennsylvania
#10       Duke University

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Chicago offers less aid to more students

Chicago awards merit aid to about 10% of its freshman, averaging about $8,000 per recipient.  Here is the description from their website:

Merit awards are determined by the Office of College Admissions regardless of financial need and are guaranteed for four years of undergraduate study. They include the following:

• University Scholarship: Partial scholarships ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, renewable for four years
• Chicago Public Schools Scholarship: A full-tuition scholarship to selected students who have graduated from a Chicago Public Schools high school
• Police and Fire Scholarship: A full-tuition scholarship to selected students who are sons or daughters of active-duty Chicago police officers or firefighters
• The University also honors National Merit Finalists with a renewable award of $1,000 to $2,000.

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Duke offers more aid to fewer students

Duke gives merit aid to about 3% of its freshman, averaging about $25,000 per recipient according to US News reporting.  This excludes their athletic scholarships.  More information is available at their website, but you have to wade through the details to learn that some of these “merit” scholarships actually have a need component.  (I’ll write about this messy detail in a future post.)

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Scholarship information for both schools from USNWR, based on 2010 data

University of Chicago Non-need-based Scholarships/Grants
Average non-need-based scholarship or grant award (freshmen)	$7,772
Average non-need-based athletic scholarship or grant award (freshmen)	$0
Average non-need-based scholarship or grant award (undergraduates)	$12,854
Average non-need-based athletic scholarship or grant award (undergraduates)	$0 …

Duke Non-need-based Scholarships/Grants
Average non-need-based scholarship or grant award (freshmen)	$24,985
Average non-need-based athletic scholarship or grant award (freshmen)	$39,470
Average non-need-based scholarship or grant award (undergraduates)	$21,158
Average non-need-based athletic scholarship or grant award (undergraduates)	$38,398

The importance of sports as a hook for admission to highly selective colleges

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Do not underestimate the importance of sports as a hook for acceptance to highly selective colleges.

The following quote is from a New York Times article about the Ivy League’s new policies that have substantially enhanced financial aid for all admitted students, making it easier to recruit elite athletes.

A recruited Ivy League athlete must have the academic credentials to survive the stringent and highly selective admissions process at each institution. Coaches have little sway in the admissions process, although they do provide a list of potential athletes to admissions officials. Across the league, about 13 percent of each university’s incoming class is composed of athletes chosen from coaches’ lists.

Essentially, coaches are selecting 13% of the class.  Since most athletes are admitted in the early rounds of the process, the figures from this chart serve to make the significance of this hook even more compelling — 23% admit rate for the early rounds and 9% admit rate for regular decision.

Further explanation on how this works from another elite school, the University of Chicago

But at Chicago, as at most of the nation’s elite universities, a football player has the advantage of a big pair of cleats in the door. “Admissions always tells us, ‘There are 500 kids with perfect test scores we turned away,’ ” Maloney said. “But they also want kids who bring something else to the table — sculptors and actors and, yes, football players.”

You need the other credentials, but playing football can be the hook that gets you in the door of that elite university.

University of Chicago early applications increase 25% over last year

University of Chicago’s 25% increase continues an upward trend and may be one of the largest among all colleges this year.

This continues a period of steady growth in the number of prospective College students of high ability who aspire to attend the University of Chicago….

Students who choose to apply early often view UChicago as their first choice, said James G. Nondorf, Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. Last year the College experienced similar growth in early applications, with an increase of 18.5 percent over the previous year. This year’s increase suggests that a growing number of highly accomplished students consider the College their leading option.

“This is a fresh indication of the passion that students around the world have for the distinctive academic culture at UChicago,” Nondorf said. “I am often struck by how well applicants of many backgrounds understand our traditions of open inquiry and diversity of thought. Our constant goal is to find students who would benefit from and contribute to the College’s legacy of intellectual adventure.”

Is it a “passion” for academic inquiry or is it a realization that an elite education can significantly increase their chances for future financial success?

2011 Early Application Trends:
1.  UChicago up +25%
2.  Duke up +20%
3.  Northwestern up +15.2%
4.  Brown up +4%
5.  Dartmouth up +3%
6.  Georgetown up +1.4%
7.  University of Pennsylvania down -1.3%
8.  Princeton reports 3,547 for SCEA (first year of accepting early applications since 2006)

UPDATE:  More schools listed at The Early Line on Early Applications for the Class of 2016 – NYT, 11/16/11

Net Price Calculator – a helpful first step in the college search

Starting October 29, all colleges are required to provide a Net Price Calculator (NPC) showing the ‘net price’ (defined as tuition, fees and indirect expenses minus grant and scholarship aid) for individual students based on their personal status.   For more details you can go here.

I created three fictional student profiles and ran them through the calculations of a dozen colleges.  In all three cases the student was a top scholar with high test scores who resides in New York State.  The only difference between the three profiles was the family’s financial situation.  The earned income for the three different families were $50,000 (low), $80,000 (medium), and $150,000 (high).  Here are the net Cost of Attendance (COA) results.  [UPDATE:  Harvard figures have been updated to correct a mistake.]

Some initial observations:

• A low- to middle-income student enjoys a tremendous bargain at many top-ten schools, if he is admitted.  With acceptance rates in the single digits for some of these schools, that’s a big “IF”.
• At most schools ranked below top ten, a low-income student will pay at least $20,000 a year to attend.  (Note that all these were out-of-state schools for our fictional student.  I plan to run in-state examples later.)
• Quick comparisons can be made based on NPC results.  For example, with similar COA figures, it appears that UVA offers more need-based aid for low-income students than Denison does.  The detailed report generated as part of the NPC confirms this, indicating the next step might be a request for more detailed information from the college admissions staff.
• Merit scholarships may be the biggest unknown factor.  I would be careful about relying on NPC figures for this, even for schools that explicitly state that they include merit in their calculations.  Further research will usually be required.

Bottom line:  Families should run NPC reports for all schools on a student’s initial list as a useful first step in comparing affordability among the various options.
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* CHART EXPLANATION:
….•  Rank:  USNWR ranking; NR = not ranked nationally
….•  COA:  Cost of Attendance
….•  Net COA:  Income Categories are Low = $50,000; Med = $80,000, High = $150,000
….•  Merit Aid:
……….1 – NPC does not consider merit aid.
……….2 – NPC considers at least some merit aid.
……….3 – Unclear if merit aid is considered.
……….4 – School does not offer merit aid.

** This NPC non-resident COA is at odds with the information on the college website.  According to the UNM website, it appears the NPC COA should be increased by approximately $13,000 a year.  Since it’s unknown how that change would affect the net price, I would consider all these UNM numbers to be unreliable.