[norcard10]

“If you look at the band from 3.75 GPA to 4.0, there are a lot of students here that pay nothing,” he said. “We lose money on every one.”

What a dumb statement. Maybe they should stop admitting students with good grades?

Or rather stop giving generous merit scholarships to students with good academics.  When my kids were applying to college I was shocked with how much $$ some schools pay to induce academically strong students to matriculate. If you are a national merit semifinalist applying to Stanford, Admissions is like "meh, that's not going to do much to get you admitted." By contrast, Arizona residents who are national merit semi finalists pay no tuition at Arizona.  Even at USC, national merit semifinalists automatically get their tuition cut in half (with a chance at a full scholarship).

USC heavily incentivizes outstanding students with 100%, 50% and 25% packages, depending on the student. They also selectively admit substandard performers, as long as they matriculate in the spring (and don't hit the fall admission statistics) and are able to pay full fare. I know one such student, played ball with my son. Nowhere close to an academic genius, but always put forth a strong effort and was likely to end up in sales (like his father, who runs global sales for a large spirits company). He graduated from USC and did well enough to get his MBA from Michigan's Ross school, now he has a great position with one of the Big Five tech companies.

That's a better outcome than most Stanford grads so that's that.

[norcard10]

“If you look at the band from 3.75 GPA to 4.0, there are a lot of students here that pay nothing,” he said. “We lose money on every one.”

What a dumb statement. Maybe they should stop admitting students with good grades?

Or rather stop giving generous merit scholarships to students with good academics.  When my kids were applying to college I was shocked with how much $$ some schools pay to induce academically strong students to matriculate. If you are a national merit semifinalist applying to Stanford, Admissions is like "meh, that's not going to do much to get you admitted." By contrast, Arizona residents who are national merit semi finalists pay no tuition at Arizona.  Even at USC, national merit semifinalists automatically get their tuition cut in half (with a chance at a full scholarship).

USC heavily incentivizes outstanding students with 100%, 50% and 25% packages, depending on the student. They also selectively admit substandard performers, as long as they matriculate in the spring (and don't hit the fall admission statistics) and are able to pay full fare. I know one such student, played ball with my son. Nowhere close to an academic genius, but always put forth a strong effort and was likely to end up in sales (like his father, who runs global sales for a large spirits company). He graduated from USC and did well enough to get his MBA from Michigan's Ross school, now he has a great position with one of the Big Five tech companies.

That's a better outcome than most Stanford grads so that's that.