Word: aid
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...arts colleges and many others down the food chain. Skidmore's projected $51,196-a-year price tag makes it one of the nation's 10 most expensive schools, but its $223 million endowment--down 23% from its high about a year ago--is too small to bankroll financial aid for all who need it. Founded in 1903 as a women's college, Skidmore was long known for teaching art to well-heeled young ladies, but in its modern permutation as a coeducational college, it is a relative newcomer to national prominence and the donations that come with...
...most years, the system would leave Skidmore and colleges like it with a pretty good idea of what to expect come May 1, when deposits are due. This time, though, money troubles are continually changing the outlook. In previous cycles, Shorb estimates, he could base 95% of the aid awards on the prior year's tax returns. But this time Shorb is also trying to project many applicant families' income for 2009, which, given the volatility of the economy, is anyone's guess. He's leaving his calendar open every day in April to deal with further appeals from students...
Skidmore has boosted its financial-aid budget 8% this year by trimming travel, faculty raises, renovation plans and commencement festivities. While the cost of attending the college rose $2,000 this year, the average aid award increased $2,300. In addition to $7,000 worth of federal and state grants, work-study earnings and federal loans, the average financial-aid applicant will pocket $28,000 in Skidmore grants. Skidmore, like many of its peer schools, also allocates funding for superstars with financial need, a practice known as "preferential packaging." The most desirable students--the ones who blew...
Such financial uncertainty is stoking fears of backsliding to an era when private colleges were the ivy-covered province of the privileged. Skidmore assistant director of admissions Marisa Ferrara fielded her first ever requests this year from parents rescinding financial-aid applications at the eleventh hour for fear that they would harm their children's chances of getting in. "They're feeling this guilt," Ferrara recalls of a phone call with one such parent. "You could almost hear it in this mother's voice, saying, 'I'll do anything. I don't want my kid not to get in because...
...discussion forum College Confidential.com a February thread debating whether applying for aid will hurt a student's chances of getting admitted has been viewed nearly 25,000 times. At Skidmore, one figure suggests the answer is yes: students of color, who disproportionately applied for financial aid, made up a higher percentage of this year's applicant pool than last year's. But reflecting "the demands of financial aid," says Bates, they make up only 24% of the admitted pool this year, in contrast to 28% last year. "You've always been in an advantaged position to be rich and smart...