<p>re: Dartmouth, I don't have a way to find out the current status, nor do I have a link, as the information never came over the internet. </p>
<p>Schools that I have heard or read about over the years with such practices include Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, UPenn, Yale, Dartmouth and possibly others, but the details tend to fluctuate over time, as "merit scholarships" and "preferential packaging" are hated by some administrators while others feel pressure to offer them due to the financial aid arms races of the high endowment era.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For those who are not entitled to free money via financial aid because they saved
[/quote]
This is a false premise. Savings will not keep you from receiving financial aid; it is much more likely that your salary will.</p>
<p>Run some numbers on the financial aid calculators or college websites and you will see that aid is affected much more by income than by savings. You could have a large amount of savings, but if your salary is low, you will still receive financial aid. Conversely, you could have no savings, but if your salary is high, you will probably receive no aid at all. FinAid</a> | Calculators</p>
<p>Also remember that even for schools that promise to meet full need, most give a large portion of that "aid" in the form of loans. It is only a very few of the most selective schools that have recently eliminated loans as part of their aid package.</p>
<p>Preferential packaging definitely exists in the form of more grants vs. loans as part of financial aid. And many schools call the grant portion of their financial aid "scholarships," even though they are need-based. We also noticed that the more selective the school, the less generous was the aid. (This was several years ago before the new financial aid wars among top schools.) There were huge differences (over 10k/year) in our EFC according to various selective private schools.</p>
<p>hmmmmm..... I have almost no income. Maybe I should see if my son in his 2nd year of college is eligible for some need based grants. Fortunately we have substantial savings to tide us over (which also generate almost no income due to zero interest rates) but those 529 balances are going fast so perhaps I should apply.</p>
<p>heyalb, In my opinion there are many situations where it seems people who "do the right thing" are not rewarded. College is the great equalizer: Poor people go in poor and come out poor. Semi rich people go in semi rich and come out poor. You can start a business and do everything right and invest every dime you own in your business and still end up broke. You can do everything wrong and borrow millions from the bank and screw it up and you also end up broke (unless the government bails you out). I also harbor a fair amount of resentment relative to some of these situations but what I do to calm myself down is ask myself if I would trade places with the people getting what I consider an unfair advantage. In most cases the answer is no.</p>
<p>siserune:
From experience I know that Stanford does not offer merit aid under any of the guises you suggest. They do offer need-based aid beyond the EFC computed by FAFSA and they do designate the grant money as scholarship, which is sometimes named and requires thank you letters from the student. Stanford wants all of its students and does as much as possible to lure them away from free rides at other schools. For example, for the past two years it offers no loans. In addition, Stanford has a generous grants program for which students can apply for financial support for anything from making a film to scientific research. But merit scholarships...no.
But if you have specific information supported by specific examples, I would be eager to hear it since my younger child is off to college next year.</p>
<p>Special thanks go to DadII and cptofthehouse. You've both made me feel much better. That Chinese proverb will stick in my head. I know we did the right thing all these years, but sometimes I watch the fast cars go by and wonder.....yeah, I can wonder myself to death.</p>
<p>Pointless.</p>
<p>And to NJRes: I've read two of your posts, and you're my new hero.</p>
<p>"Schools that I have heard or read about over the years with such practices include Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, UPenn, Yale, Dartmouth and possibly others,"</p>
<p>Unfortunately, far too much of the "information" on this website consists of things people remember having "heard about or read about."</p>
<p>Unfortunately, far too much of the "information" on this website consists of things people remember having "heard about or read about."
</p>
<p>In this case having "heard about it" means that the information came in writing from the financial aid offices of several of the schools listed (meaning that the award was in part merit-based and that it had favorable financial implications as indicated above).</p>
<p>Having "read about it" means recalling published information from the financial aid office, school newspapers, Chronicle of Higher Ed, books on financial aid and so on. What all such sources made clear, beyond the particulars of specific schools or scholarships (for which details are typically sparse), was that the state of affairs was variable enough that it's hard to make definitive statements about any given school without a very detailed knowledge of what to inquire about. For instance, the Harvard National Scholarship has changed in many ways over time, was possibly cancelled at some point, and appears to operate today according to the Harvard web site. Specifics used to be available but it's not clear which of them still apply and how much is still relevant in light of the cancellation of student loans.</p>
<p>I have neither the time nor the interest to conduct research school by school at the necessary level of detail to provide a comprehensive list of what awards are available where, especially when current examples (Cornell's research scholarships, etc) were given in the thread. If you wish to investigate the matter yourself, by all means do so and post the results.</p>
<p>For the poster who wanted current information on this for an applicant in their family, note that there's no way to apply for these awards, the school simply may offer one on its own as an inducement, and the net financial effect would be modest at any high-endowment university.</p>