My daughter just got her merit award from Capital today and it’s $3,000 less than their NPC shows for merit (I just ran it again to make sure I hadn’t entered something wrong weeks ago). Is this because the NPC only asks for gpa/class rank/ACT scores and there’s something else they take into consideration that might have lowered the amount?
I know it might not seem like a lot of money, but they were on the edge of being one of maybe only two affordable schools (she hasn’t been accepted at the other yet, Berea), and this probably puts it out of range unless she gets the full tuition scholarship for multicultural students she’ll be competing for.
Don’t know about Capital in particular, but sometimes college recalculate GPAs, so the number they use for merit award consideration is not necessarily the same as what appears on her transcript. For example, they might remove PE, music, and/or other electives, or weight courses differently that her HS did (or not at all).
I did send her admissions officer an email but they are closed for break until Jan. 6. I was just curious as to whether this is a common occurrence and/or what factors they might have included in their calculations that the NPC could not reflect. Her GPA was unweighted, so maybe they do recalculate it without electives, as LuckyCharms913 mentioned.
This has been a difficult and frustrating process as a low income family. I did see today that the Perkins loan has been extended for another two years and the Pell maximum was slightly raised, so that’s a bit of good news though.
Yes, Capital in Columbus @kandcsmom . I know there are still many factors once we fill out the FAFSA, but it was just disappointing to see that the merit was actually lower. And I miscalculated, it was actually $4900 lower, not $3000. I was not transferring over the ones that matched the NPC. Even worse.
The NPC showed $30k in merit/grants and her actual was $25,100.
That is a level of merit that I would consider. :))
D was offered about 24500 if I’m not mistaken. Her BF has two sibs that went there and she (the BF) is looking at it for music, the consensus is that D’s package was pretty outstanding. Hope it works out.
I think it’s great too. The best we have so far. But our EFC is $840 so that shows how little we can afford, and as it stands, without including the FSEOG,/Perkins/work study that they list on the NPC, we’d owe $6700 in direct costs plus $3-5k in books/other expenses. Her saving and the possibility of FSEOG/Perkins will make a dent in that, but likely not enough. Sadly, $4900 less in merit makes a huge difference to us.
Our average merit scholarship this year was $19,000 for first year students.
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I totally understand that the smaller merit award ($25k) is not enough, but it is about a 75% merit award. Are her Math + CR SAT or ACT test scores well-within the top 25% of the school?
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She already has acceptance to Carroll University (WI) and St. Catherine's (MN) where she is average to slightly higher than average range for stats and has their NPC's about $7-10k remaining.
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She’s applied to Berea (KY) and Capital (OH) where she’s right at their averages (and would be a financial safeties if she were accepted). St.Olaf (MN) a reach but a financial safety.
The schools we are considering where she is higher stats are Alverno, Cardinal Stritch (she’s highest at these two), and Carthage and Concordia - all of which are in WI, our home state but not near where we actually live. Their NPC’s range from $5k-$13.5k.
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If she’s right at the average for Capital, then it’s amazing that the school’s NPC indicates a merit award that is that high.
Or…are you talking about total free money, including grants. If so, how much was the merit award for?
Estimates for the 2015-2016 Academic Year
Your published cost of attendance:
Tuition & Fees
$32,830
Room & Board
$9,422
Capital University Direct Cost
$42,252
Books & Supplies
$1,500
Other Expenses
$2,150
Total Cost
$45,902
Your estimated grants and scholarships:
Federal Aid
Federal Pell Grant
$4,925
FSEOG Grant
$1,137
College Grants and Scholarships
Lutheran Heritage Grant
$1,000
Merit Scholarship
$28,000
Discover Capital Grant
$1,000
Total Grants and Scholarships
$36,062
Your Estimated Net Price
(including personal expenses)
$9,840
Your estimated eligibility for other aid programs:
Loans
Direct Subsidized Loan
$3,500
Perkins Loan
$1,500
Direct Unsubsidized Loan
$2,000
Direct PLUS (Parent Loan)
$840
Estimated Remaining Cost after Financial Aid
$2,000
Work-Study
Federal Work-Study
-$2,000
Under the “college grants & scholarships” (so not including the federal aid), Merit Scholarship was $23,100 instead of the $28,000 listed here on the NPC results. I know we can’t count on FSEOG, so brings our actual estimated net price to about $15,900 before federal loans (and maybe Perkins).
Actual merit broke down like this:
$12k Presidential
$2k Rufus S. Tarrant Grant
$1k Discover Capital grant
$1k Lutheran Heritage award
$9,100 Capital Award
$12k Presidential
$2k Rufus S. Tarrant Grant
$1k Discover Capital grant
$1k Lutheran Heritage award
$9,100 Capital Award
Hmmm… Interesting that in the NPC, there was just this vague “merit scholarship” of $28k, but in the actual, THAT merit is named as 3 awards totalling $23,100
Can you try fiddling around with the NPC …slightly lower GPA and see what the results are.
I’m suspicious of their NPC because you mentioned that her test scores are average for this school, yet their NPC is claiming to award nearly full tuition in merit. Schools don’t typically give nearly fulll tuition in merit for average stats. that would mean that nearly half the school would be attending tuition free.
I’ll play around with it tonight and see what I can figure out. According to their website the Presidential ranges from $8-16k, so she’s right about where I’d expect for that. Capital Award ranges from $500-21,200, so she’s slightly under half of that possible award. The other three are fixed.
Maybe because she’s an out of state, minority student she’s slightly more attractive at a LAC? I hate to even talk negative about such a generous award, but the difference in the NPC threw me. I had specifically talked with financial aid about the amount it originally showed because it seemed high and she said it came from a combination of awards, just like we’ve now found out.
The return of Perkins is accompanied by some packaging regulations that are pretty restrictive … it’s not something that can even be explained to the average person. Let’s just say that if you don’t get a Perkins, there is bound to be some Congressionally mandated reason that it happened.
If you think your kid was shorted on merit, ask … ask … ask. I work in financial aid and have connections at the school my son attended. He did not get the automatic merit award he should have received when he transferred. It took me weeks to get them to award it to him.
D’s actual stats are 3.5 unweighted and 24 ACT. According to CollegeData, this is pretty much right on with their averages for enrolled freshmen.
Playing with the NPC, one variable at a time:
-lowering gpa to 3.0 “merit scholarship” goes to $25,457
-lowering class rank had absolutely no effect, merit stayed at $28k
-lowering ACT to 21 “merit scholarship” goes to $25,095
-lowering both gpa to 3.0 and ACT to 21 (the threshold for consideration for their Capital Scholars full tuition award) brings “merit scholarship” down to $21,933
There were no changes if I changed her major. There were also no net changes if I changed her residency to in-state! FSEOG and “merit” went down but the amount was replaced by state aid OCOG, and Capital Connect Grant.
Again, according to CollegeData, for their freshmen 2 years ago, they met 81% of need. 26.4% of aid recipients had their need fully met (what that entails isn’t clearly defined), and they gave an average overall award of $27,037.
It also lists top areas by money awarded, but not figures: Children of Faculty/Staff, Children and Siblings of Alumni, Relatives of Clergy, Ethnic Background, Siblings of Current Students, Members of Minorities, Out-of-State Students, Religious Affiliation, International Students.