<p>Attend school that gives you most of the money in merit aid (3.0GPA minimum requirement) or the attend the school that gives you most of the money in financial aid (2.0GPA minimum requirement)?
Not talking about loans but outright grant money, here.</p>
<p>If you would lose the aid because in one truly bad semester your GPA drops below 3.0, then personally, I’d be happier with the place that only requires a 2.0.</p>
<p>However, one question that needs to be asked at the 2.0 place is whether the aid package changes from one year to the next. This near there are no loans in the package. Will loans be included in the future?</p>
<p>In my opinion, a good package is one that meets 100% of your demonstrated need (with need based aid and not merit money) and the EFC can be paid by the parents without a major sacrifices (or taking on exorbitant debt).</p>
<p>If your financial situation is pretty straight forward, a job or other fixed income, you do not own a business, you don’t have non custodial parents or stepparents and you know that your income is not going to fluxuate greatly year over year, I would go with the school that gives the most need based aid with the least amount of loans (outside of student stafford loans).</p>
<p>The reason that I say this is because college may end up being a challenge for even the brightest student. Some students go through adjustment issues having never been away from home for an extended period of time. Some students have roommates from hell, some kids sit in weeder courses, some student go through issues with time management, studying, a bad boyfriend/girlfriend issues. </p>
<p>What is the “fine print” connected to your merit money. </p>
<p>Is it automatically renewable for the next 4 years?</p>
<p>Is it attached to staying with a specific major?</p>
<p>Is it renewable for the same amount of money each year?</p>
<p>Is scholarship adjusted to take into consideration tuition increases (about 5% per year)</p>
<p>Is there a gpa requirement needed to keep getting the money?</p>
<p>When does the gpa requirement start (by the end of fall term or the end of spring term)?</p>
<p>Is there a phase in to the gpa requirement?</p>
<p>What happens if you do not meet gpa requirement, does money leave immediately or is there a grace period?</p>
<p>If you lose scholarship and bring your grades back up is money reinstated?</p>
<p>What percentage of students lose their scholarship?</p>
<p>Ask the financial aid office what percent of students lose their merit money in the first year.</p>
<p>And the most important question… worse case scenario if you were to lose the scholarship would you still be able to swing the cost of attending?</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. I’m going to call the Financial Aid office this morning.
The minimum GPA for the Institutional grant is pretty straightforward. 1.85 at the end of Freshman year, and 2.0 at the end of Sophomore and Junior years.</p>
<p>Our job situation has been the same for the last 8 years, and is expected to remain the same, unless one of us loses our job.</p>
<p>The fine print says the grant is ‘subject to change due to annual need-based review.’</p>
<p>This school gives both merit aid and financial aid. S did not qualify for any merit aid, but was offered a generous financial aid package which was totally unexpected. It’s caught us off guard a bit. It was his only ‘reach’ school.</p>
<p>Neither? Keeping a 3.0 in college is pretty easy provided you do what you’re supposed to do. Besides, all other things are rarely equal, so I think you should pick a school based on fit if they cost about the same.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think that also depends a lot on major and preparation. Engineering, for example, can be brutally competitive as can premed. A couple of C’s first semester in STEM courses can be rather common, (at all but the top ~20 schools where the curve is a B). At many other colleges, frosh STEM courses are curved to a C+/B-, which means that the average student does not have a 3.0 after the first semester.</p>
<p>I agree with Sybbie. I’ve seen the brightest of students stumble academically. Sometimes it’s that old ugly depression. These are the years when mental illness starts to show up and college is a trigger for it. Most get through it,but there could be some bumpy times. </p>
<p>Some years ago, a very bright young woman went to Case as an engineering major and lost that great scholarship within a year. Made for a tough second year for everyone before she ended up having to transfer. It happens more often than one would think.</p>
<p>All things being equal? Need based aid (UNLESS you have an income that fluctuates or expect a bump in your income from a promotion, etc.) I see lots of kids every single year who had very high hs GPAs and solid test scores fail to meet that 3.0. THese are not kids who are in academic trouble of any kind. They come in (like half the freshman class) as pre-med/vet med/dentistry/PT/etc and don’t realize just how much more demanding the college science curriculum can be, not matter how many 5s they earned in AP whatever. Even if more than capable, if they don’t climb the learning curve quickly enough, they can easily find themselves sitting on 2.85 freshman year. Many do step it up or switch fields of study, but the scholarship money is already gone. </p>
<p>Any yes, many kids have no problem keeping a higher GPA than 3.0. The point is, you really never do know which group your kid will be in. Need-based aid is probably the safer choice.</p>
<p>That’s always the humble opinion I had. But then another parent in another thread posted his/her thoughts that Merit money was a better choice. That made me start to doubt my basically uninformed opinion. Then when we got an excellent financial aid package, I really began to fret because it was more than we had expected (the school does not guarantee to meet full financial need), and if it disappeared the next year, there’s no way that S could hope to continue there.
You guys are the best!</p>
<p>Well, it always comes down to what the future brings as to what is the better choice. If your income goes up, your financial aid will decrease. Merit money stays the same. Also sometimes you get more merit money than financial aid. I know some folks whose need came in around $10K. So the schools that met full need came the students that amount, sometimes including workstudy and Staffords. But the students also got some nice merit awards that were $20K in amounts Clearly, that made freshman year better. Really it covered for two years. But there is that possibility of losing that award if the student slips up on gpa. My son lost his merit award, and there was no wiggle room, no excuse, nothing. You move over to financial aid if it makes the difference that you can’t afford to pay, and if they don’t have the money, you are out of luck. But sometimes that calculated risk is worth taking. If the student can just get two years of merit money when the award is double of what aid is, and with Work study and the Staffords there, it might be better to take the risk for merit in such a case. But for equal amounts, I would go with need.</p>