"For-profit colleges a terrible deal"

[$tevie]

It is because we can't afford to slash someone's tuition at the last minute like that. Our scholarship packages take time to assemble and we can't just say, Oh, okay, we'll cut $6,000 off the price. We need the $6,000 or we wouldn't be asking for it.

[Avenger]

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The student needs it more. What do you say to that?

[Mac-A-Matic]

$tevie-
Can you explain further because I've been under the impression that a university-sponsored scholarship is essentially absorbed by the institution, ostensibly covered under a school's endowment fund? Or is the school seeking actual funding from a separate source?

[$tevie]

I don't know how to explain it right, I guess.

I am a student. I say, thank you but I have chosen to attend Artsy Fartsy U instead of Dollar Sign Institute. Whereupon Dollar Sign Institute says, what if we lob $5,000 off the tuition? So the student goes back to Artsy Fartsy U and says, Dollar Sign just slashed another $5,000 off my tuition. To which Artsy Fartsy has no comeback because they do not have the means to arbitrarily lower someone's tuition.

Scholarship packages are carefully worked out based on merit and need and the college's ability to cover the student's tuition via money assigned for that purpose. Also on how many students are coming who are paying full freight which helps grease the wheels, too. There isn't any cash lying around to cover such a spontaneous and costly sales technique.

Just suddenly slashing prices as if it was a President's Day Sale is not the same thing as a financial aid package.

[RgrF]

$tevie wrote:
I don't know how to explain it right, I guess.

I am a student. I say, thank you but I have chosen to attend Artsy Fartsy U instead of Dollar Sign Institute. Whereupon Dollar Sign Institute says, what if we lob $5,000 off the tuition? So the student goes back to Artsy Fartsy U and says, Dollar Sign just slashed another $5,000 off my tuition. To which Artsy Fartsy has no comeback because they do not have the means to arbitrarily lower someone's tuition.

Scholarship packages are carefully worked out based on merit and need and the college's ability to cover the student's tuition via money assigned for that purpose. Also on how many students are coming who are paying full freight which helps grease the wheels, too. There isn't any cash lying around to cover such a spontaneous and costly sales technique.

Just suddenly slashing prices as if it was a President's Day Sale is not the same thing as a financial aid package.

So if an academically ineligible student with superior or just above average athletic skills were to appear at your doorstep, seeking admission, what would do?

[Mac-A-Matic]

$tevie wrote:
I don't know how to explain it right, I guess.

I am a student. I say, thank you but I have chosen to attend Artsy Fartsy U instead of Dollar Sign Institute. Whereupon Dollar Sign Institute says, what if we lob $5,000 off the tuition? So the student goes back to Artsy Fartsy U and says, Dollar Sign just slashed another $5,000 off my tuition. To which Artsy Fartsy has no comeback because they do not have the means to arbitrarily lower someone's tuition.

Obviously there's some sort of confusion because my question was on how an institution (non-profit) handles covering the cost of the scholarship and not how a for-profit simply "slashes" prices. Though in both cases, the cost of the discount or scholarship would have to be covered somehow.

$tevie wrote: Scholarship packages are carefully worked out based on merit and need and the college's ability to cover the student's tuition via money assigned for that purpose. Also on how many students are coming who are paying full freight which helps grease the wheels, too. There isn't any cash lying around to cover such a spontaneous and costly sales technique.

This is more along the lines of what I am asking. My understanding has been that most institutions (NP) operate via their endowment as the actual monies in the form of tuition is not enough to cover the costs of operating the institution. Which goes back to how scholarships are treated - is the cost of the university-sponsored scholarship just absorbed by the university? Or is that cost funded from some external source?

[$tevie]

Our scholarships come from donors who specify the money go to scholarships and endowments set up for scholarships and of course some stuudents get scholarships from outside sources like state senatorial scholarships or local scholarship awards. And so on.

I can't figure out what you are driving at. We have no "Exxon scholarship" or "McDonalds scholarship" if that's where you are trying to take this.

EDIT: okay here goes:

Scenario: The admission process is finished all over the country. All the colleges and universities have admitted the students of their choice, and offered financial aid packages to the students who require them. It's all over. All that is left is for the students to choose from among the colleges which have accepted them. It's over and done with.

BUT suddenly, after a student HAS decided and informed the college of their choice that they have chosen THEM, this for-profit college calls (weeks after the entire process is done and laid to rest) and says, Don't go there, go here. Here's $5,000 out of the blue to sweeten the pot.

Does that explain it better?

[$tevie]

RgrF wrote:
[quote=$tevie]
I don't know how to explain it right, I guess.

I am a student. I say, thank you but I have chosen to attend Artsy Fartsy U instead of Dollar Sign Institute. Whereupon Dollar Sign Institute says, what if we lob $5,000 off the tuition? So the student goes back to Artsy Fartsy U and says, Dollar Sign just slashed another $5,000 off my tuition. To which Artsy Fartsy has no comeback because they do not have the means to arbitrarily lower someone's tuition.

Scholarship packages are carefully worked out based on merit and need and the college's ability to cover the student's tuition via money assigned for that purpose. Also on how many students are coming who are paying full freight which helps grease the wheels, too. There isn't any cash lying around to cover such a spontaneous and costly sales technique.

Just suddenly slashing prices as if it was a President's Day Sale is not the same thing as a financial aid package.

So if an academically ineligible student with superior or just above average athletic skills were to appear at your doorstep, seeking admission, what would do?
That's why there is an application process and a financial aid application process. If they show up after the deadlines, we would tell them to apply for next year. That's an entirely different thing than seeking out eligible students who have already made their choice as to college and stealing that student out from under the college that the student has already agreed to attend.

[Mac-A-Matic]

$tevie wrote:
Our scholarships come from donors who specify the money go to scholarships and endowments set up for scholarships and of course some stuudents get scholarships from outside sources like state senatorial scholarships or local scholarship awards. And so on.

I can't figure out what you are driving at. We have no "Exxon scholarship" or "McDonalds scholarship" if that's where you are trying to take this.

I thought I was explicit in stating "university-sponsored" scholarship rather than an external source, such as Exxon or McDonald's.

As I said in my first post, this was a question and not a challenge - since you presented yourself as being part of a university system and in the position to know these things better.

Under your situation, the scholarship is an actual fund of donations that's administered by the university. Is that fund depleted as scholarships are awarded?

$tevie wrote:
Scenario: The admission process is finished all over the country. All the colleges and universities have admitted the students of their choice, and offered financial aid packages to the students who require them. It's all over. All that is left is for the students to choose from among the colleges which have accepted them. It's over and done with.

BUT suddenly, after a student HAS decided and informed the college of their choice that they have chosen THEM, this for-profit college calls (weeks after the entire process is done and laid to rest) and says, Don't go there, go here. Here's $5,000 out of the blue to sweeten the pot.

Does that explain it better?

I still don't understand why you continue on a for-profit institution offering a discount when my question has always been on the topic of non-profit institutions.

[$tevie]

We have a budget for each fiscal year and part of that budget is for financial aid. Yes, that yearly allotment can and is depleted. We have found work arounds in emergency situations such as 2008 when so many parents lost their shirts but it required raiding other parts of our budgets and was frankly painful.

Also, we are not going to start playing games like that. It is, as they say, a slippery slope and we can't start raiding other budget lines to play it.