<p>MisterK – I am actually unsure whether or not mine is merit or need-based after you raised that point. It showed up on my financial aid packet, awarded as part of the admission process which I got a few days after my decision letter. They are listed as, W. Henry Hoover Memorial Scholarship and University Endowed Scholarship.</p>
Which is pretty much the definition of merit aid/scholarship. Since I never really got anything telling me about maintaining a specific GPA, you are probably right; mine was need-based. Whoops.</p>
<p>“Carnegie Mellon University awards academic scholarships as part of the freshman financial aid process.”</p>
<p>Also, reading the language carefully, the phrase “as part of the FA process” can be ambiguous. Even these “academic scholarships” may have a need component, at least as far as I can tell by groveling around their website. I do know that CMU used to have pure merit scholarships, but I can’t find any evidence that they still do. I’d love to know for sure.</p>
<p>According to the financial aid section of this year’s fat letter:</p>
<p>“At Carnegie Mellon, aid is awarded solely on the basis of financial need.”</p>
<p>That sounds like there isn’t even a merit component. But don’t they try to match merit scholarships from peer institutions? Or will they only compete with need-based financial offers? It seems like there’s a lot of people who want them to match hefty awards from RPI. Wish I’d known to apply there…</p>
<p>^ It isn’t just about applying there. RPI gives 1 RPI Medal to participating high schools (many many high schools participate) which is worth a minimum $15,000 per year and is awarded in spring of junior year- before most students put serious thought into where they are applying.</p>
<p>Right, but that’s a completely merit-based award, so why would CMU match it if they don’t offer merit-based aid? And if they’ll match that award, doesn’t that mean they’d also match the other merit-based scholarships RPI offers to applicants?</p>
<p>I was waitlisted (priority) and I was wondering if CMU will still tell me my possible financial aid package, but if not it makes it really tough to make a decision of whether to do priority waitlist or not…</p>
<p>As far as the waitlist, that begs the question…if they call and offer a spot, does the student find out if/how much financial aid they will get before they accept? Or will waitlisted students be offered nothing? If they are offered nothing, and the student knows they need aid, it sounds futile to stay on the priority waitlist because if they call you are at least indebted for the $800 deposit. Or will they know before they have to make a choice? Very confusing.</p>
<p>Im pretty sure priority waitlisted students are not offered financial aid because if you are taken off you have only 24 hours to send in the deposit but i could be wrong of course</p>