Fri 4 Apr 2008
Is Williams financial aid stingy or generous? Consider some recent claims on College Confidential:
I am disappointed with the financial aid offer I received from Williams. How have others found their financial aid offers? I thought that Williams might practice similar policies as Amherst, but comparing the two offers, my family would have to pay $8,500~$9,000 more next year for me to go to Williams over Amherst. I was a bit surprised at the difference…is this common?
…
Yeah, mine sucked too =(
$15k more per year than MIT…ah well.…
I’m disappointed with the Williams package. I have yet to receive my Amherst package but I hope it’s better because I don’t think I can afford Williams
…
i got into comparable schools (swarthmore, amherst, etc) and williams definitely has the lowest finaid offer.
Comments:
1) Those are just the complaints from this thread. Others are happy with their offers, noting that the deal from Williams is the best that they received. And College Confidential is hardly an unbiased sample.
2) Still, there is no doubt that Williams financial aid is substantially less generous compared to places like Harvard, Stanford and Princeton. We lose many students to these schools, not just because they really prefer those places to Williams but because they think it is stupid to pay $5,000 or $10,000 per year more to be an Eph. And who could blame them? Even though I think that most of the students who choose Harvard over Williams would have been better off choosing Williams all else equal, I have a had time insisting that someone should pay extra to go to Williams. Consider Daniel Olson’s plight:
Yale’s financial-aid offer made a difference for Daniel Olson, a high school senior at Cranston High School West in Rhode Island, who was accepted regular decision.
Olson, who said he is leaning toward Yale, said the financial-aid packages at Dartmouth College and Williams College “do not come close” to what Yale has offered him.
Besides, Olson said, he fell in love with the residential-college system when he came to visit.
“I was taken by the beauty of the campus, I was taken by the students, I was taken by the number of ways to get involved,” Olson said.
Instead of spending money on things like Mount Greylock Regional High School, Williams ought to ensure that its financial aid packages are comparable to those offered by its competitors. We want the Daniel Olson’s of the world to choose Williams over Yale just as Julia Sendor ‘08 chose Williams over Harvard 4 years ago.
3) I think that this leads to a situation in which virtually no “middle class” students (family incomes between $60,000 and $200,000) choose Williams over those schools, precisely because our financial aid is less generous. And, given that many/most poor families would be more likely (?) to favor a “name” school over Williams even in a case where the cost is the same (zero), this would suggest that the vast majority of students who choose Williams over one of these schools are very wealthy. True?
4) There is an amazing three-part Record series to be written about financial aid at Williams, the history, the debates and the exact workings of the current policy. Who will write it? Consider:
Every school calculates aid differently, in same cases, you will do better at Williams than its peers, in some cases (including yours, alas) worse. Considering both schools now require no loans at all, I am pretty surprised at the difference. But if you really want to attend Williams, don’t let the aid offer stop you — if you have a better offer at Amherst or MIT or anyplace else, definitely show that to the financial aid office and see if they will match — they may well do so, and it’s worth a shot. Don’t view this as a final, unmaleable offer, again, especially if you have better offers from peer institutions.
What happens when an admitted student does this? Does Williams just say, “Sorry. Our offer is fixed.” Or does it consider how much it wants the student and make decisions accordingly? Reasonable people can differ about what the policy should be, but thousands of us are curious about what the policy actually is. The Record should tell us. Start by contacting Daniel Olson.
12 Responses to “ Stingy Financial Aid? ”
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April 4th, 2008 at 11:18 pm[...] takes a good look at how financial aid makes a HUGE difference to applicants and and can hurts diversity on campus. [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I worked closely with Admissions three years ago and came into contact with a much broader and much less self-selected group of admitted prospective students. At that point in time, while there were some who were unhappy with their package, the vast majority of admitted students were thrilled with the aid they were getting from Williams. Williams appeared to be more generous than all of its peers except for Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford, and Williams was very competitive (aid-wise) with those schools.
Now, obviously, all of these colleges have gotten more generous over the past three years. There is no doubt in my mind that Williams today is more generous than Harvard was three years ago was. However, it appears possible that all of Williams’ peer schools have grown more generous at a faster rate than Williams. I’m not sure if that is actually the case; I would be extremely hesitant about basing even the most simple of assertions off of College Confidential. It is nowhere close to a representative sample of prospective students (much like ephblog is not a representative sample of Williams alumns). That said, I don’t remember encountering the volume of finaid complaints on CC three years ago that I see today.
April 4th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
First off, I don’t think Daniel Olson is necessarily the best poster child for this little exercise, because the quote indicates he was clearly leaning to Yale for reasons other than the aid package already - and that quote is from a Yale publication. If he really wanted Williams (or was more strongly considering it) he probably would have called the Aid office.
In my case, Williams was one of my top 2 choices, so my parents faxed the Financial Aid office a copy of the best offer I had (which was from a good school, but not a Williams/Harvard level). Williams matched it, and that amount was included all four years. The initial “family contribution” amount was similar at Williams and the other school, but the other one had tacked on about $2500 in some sort of scholarship (at the time, that amount was more significant than it seems now). I’m not sure how those decisions are made, but apparently someone had the flexibility to suddenly find more “need” for my need-based aid package. For what it’s worth, the speed, generosity, and respectful treatment by the Aid office staff played a role in my picking Williams and is something I still remember and often recount when I tell people about choosing to attend.
I would guess that at least some adjustment can be made in many cases, depending on the total pool of money allocated for aid. Students that the school wants more are going to have more bargaining power, and those that don’t “really” need it are going to have less.
As for
I don’t expect the basis for your proposition. On the whole, I think we are comparable to our competitors. Comments on a blog often reflect people who are annoyed or frustrated enough to post, the happy ones have better things to do. This blog is somewhat of a case in point. We don’t get that many comments simply stating “I agree,” or “Good point.”
April 4th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I agree.
Kidding! Glad to see JG back. I apologize again for my rudeness of last month.
I am ready to believe that JG is correct and that the five examples I came up with are not representative of a broader problem. But I doubt it. I think that there are 100+ students that Williams accepts and that are offered much more “need-based” aid by some other school. (Not to mention those that get merit awards.) But this is an empirical question! The Record really ought to look into it.
In fact, back-of-the-envelope, there are 500 or so students who turn Williams down and go elsewhere. Assume that 250 are rich so financial aid does not matter. That still leaves 250 where it does. Some of these, of course, will go to H/Y/P/S no matter what. But shouldn’t Williams at least offer them the same deal?
If your family income is $100,000, Harvard only charges you something like $10,000 per year. I suspect that the bill from Williams is much higher.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Clearly Williams is at a competitive disadvantage since it does not have enough money for scholarships. This is a priority to be determined by the college leadership. The class of ‘57 has traditionally favored scholarships but the class is now being encouraged to give to support summer internships that cannot find outside funding. Worthy research projects can get funding for summer interns. There is a danger that if Williams gives an internship to every kid that wants to stay in Williamstown for the summer that lots of the internships will be in make work projects. There is already too much useless academic research. Does Williams really want to be training its students to do this?
Your president has said his goal is to make Williams into a 12 month institution. From a narrow economic perspective this is convenient. But, economic convenience at what price? If the price is not enough scholarships maybe it is just too high.
April 4th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/486710-wesleyan-vs-full-scholarship-university-maryland.html
There’s an interesting discussion going on about the cost of a Wesleyan education. Given the strong financial interest of those on this blog, I thought you would find this interesting (I know this isn’t the most appropriate place to post but I didn’t know where else to post).
April 4th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I guess the problem with David conjecturing on one side, and me pecking from the other is that we don’t have the real data to back it up on either side.
Say 250 turn us down for whom financial aid does matter somehow…how many of the 250 remaining would really come to Williams anyway? Is the Aid a deciding factor or even a strong one, or is it merely incidental? I actually doubt such data could really be gathered very accurately as there are 100 different things that go into a college choice, but we could at least have something to start with. Remember that Yale/Harvard and Williams offer a vastly different college experience, despite the comparable level of academics.
Overall, I agree that we should give more financial aid, as I’m sure anyone who has read my other comments is well aware, but I don’t see the problem being that we contributed money to programs at Mt. Greylock. I could argue that the budget for the Econ department should be cut to go to Aid, but that doesn’t make any more sense. Frankly, the funds to Mt. Greylock are helpful for creating a stronger community all around which helps retain professors, hopefully could help Williamstown be a more attractive place for any student to live in, for those students who care about something other than themselves it reflects well on the school as a whole. From a marketing perspective David, you should like funding Mt. Greylock. It’s like every corporation that throws a pittance to food banks or has one annual “volunteer day” for employees.
In my opinion, we should take money from some of the obscene building projects happening lately. Or at least when budgeting for an enormous capital campaign, allocate more for student aid. Or how about we don’t spend the amount of money that likely went into the half dozen or so large, multi-colored, poorly edited capital campaign brochures that I received in the mail? That would entice some students. In keeping with some of the suggestions that have been posted on this site before, a designated fund within annual contributions would also be easy. I know the school wants general operating money they can put wherever, but I would give more to scholarships than the token amount I give now. (I’m promising it here so anyone that does fundraising is welcome to come after me about it later.)
Henry - I hope the ‘57 scholars continue to go strong. I am an alumnus of that program and it was one of my proudest achievements at Williams. As soon as I can afford it, I plan to give back to it!
April 4th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I don’t put much credence in isolated stories. The fact of the matter is that financial aid determination is often complex. If you took ten students at two similar schools, you would expect five to get better packages at one school; five at the other.
I have seen no evidence that Williams isn’t fully competitive in financial aid packagage. They may simply be “tilting” the better aid packages towards attracting different students.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Perhaps the college should cut back on silly spending like the recent TV additions to Paresky… The $90,000 squandered on TVs that quite possibly are doing a worse job than old fashioned paper bulletins would have undoubtedly made a significant influence on at least a handful of families. Right there is $10,000 a year for two families; I have a feeling that might have been a deal-maker for Mr. Olson.
April 4th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Instead of celebrating Williams’ great generosity - particularly to those in need, let’s all get together, exercise our well developed sense of entitlement and ungratefully accuse it of being parsimonious!
April 5th, 2008 at 3:25 am
Frank:
I have had an epiphany.
Truly, you are not nearly as complex as I thought.
Simply put, you are, in fact, the very definition of ‘contrary’.
April 5th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Iconoclasm is fun - especially since the majority of the human race is on the wrong side of things most of the time, and when challenged, it predictably and greedily scurries in its weakness to protect its self-interest, no matter the possible lack of any fundamental virtue in the position. Thus lawyers and other spinmeisters sleazily find employment.