I am reading my alma mater's magazine and this one excerpt irritates me:
"Recently, the fateher of an admitted student wrote to me, claiming that of the five colleges to which his daughter was admitted, three awarded aid, and two of these were 'direct competitors of [my college]'. Only [my alma mater] and another top liberal-arts college
neglected to reward aid to this $250,000 a per-year-income family whose daugheter very good butjust slightly above average in our pools.
"What to do? Say no and likely lose the student or award a small incesntive scholarship to secure the enrollment and the net revenue? In this highly competetive environment, the answer is simple. We showed her the money. "
Now I have donated money to my college's financial aid endowment for years under the assumption that it went to needy families. I am flabergasted to find out that my alma mater is giving aid to a family making $250,000 a year!
I understand that the cost of living on the East Coast, especially in the NY/NJ and DC areas, where most of my alma mater's students come from is high. I realize that even $100,000 a year families should get some aid.
But something is utterly wrong when familes making a quarter of a million dollars are getting. I donated money to my college under the assumption that my contributions would be going to low and middle income famlies, not those making a quarter of a million dollars.
This outrages me that the college is giving aid money to families making that much. I can understand the family who makes $100,000 a year with two kids in college in the suburbs of DC; but, when we are talking about someone making $250K, this is wrong.
The thrust of the article is that somehow this family had gotten aid from other schools. So to win this "slightly above average student" Dickinson showed them the money. Furthermore the statistics are even worse:
Scholarship aid to students with families making 40K or less increased by 22%. But the more striking statistic is that scholarship aid to students with families making more than 100K increased by 145%!!!!
Now tell me if this is fair. Maybe the funds are coming from a different budget, but I really am outraged that my alma mater is giving grant money to families that make a quarter of a million dollars!!!