You Get What You Pay For – Merit aid actually allows colleges to enroll larger numbers of high-ranking students? Wow! These college planners have actually figured out that if you reward something you tend to get more of it? Amazing. Even more amazing is that so many self-consciously elite colleges, ostensibly devoted to excellence, refuse to give merit aid.
You’ll have to pardon my sarcasm, but as the father of a daughter at a very expensive college that proudly if perversely refuses to give any merit aid (despite dispensing funds from the bequests of long-dead dowagers who bequeathed money for that purpose), I was painfully interested in the comments on that subject in an article by Daniel Levin, a Vice President of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, about the influence of college guides, such as the famous one by U.S. News & World Report, in Sunday’s Washington Post.
“After studying factors that influence the rankings,” according to Levin, some colleges have
accepted more students in early-decision programs or offered more financial aid on the basis of merit — usually at the expense of aid for needy students. Such decisions generally enable colleges to enroll greater numbers of higher-achieving students, which may lead to a higher ranking but also can lead to questions about who gets in, why, and with how much financial aid.
Of course many colleges, especially public ones, have various laudable goals other than attracting the best students. Nevertheless, I find it interesting that rewarding academic excellence should be so controversial in elite higher education circles.
