DD visited Wash U and it’s her #1 college choice at this point. She’s very well qualified (GPA 4.4, nearly perfect SAT, good extracurrics, +legacy, and an overall very nice person!). She’s thinking of applying ED. My question: Is there any chance she would get a merit scholarship if she applied ED and is accepted? I’d expect most of the other schools she is applying to RD will offer merit aid.
Thanks for any advice.
WashU is not particularly generous with merit scholarships. According to the 2017-18 CDS, 175 of 1771 freshman received merit awards of $11,182 on average. Even more concerning is that the average merit award falls dramatically after freshman year, as 553/6989 total students (incl frosh) received an average of $5,305 in merit aid. If you want to compare financial aid offers, be it merit and/or need-based, applying ED to WashU may not be the optimal strategy. YMMV depending on whether DD qualifies for need-based aid.
In general, less chance. Merit Scholarships are generally used to entice top students.
Data point: My son applied ED and then he did get a very generous merit scholarship for 4 years, but I agree with the comment from f2000sa, if you are ED then it is less likely to get a merit scholarship since the merit awards are also used to lock-in targeted RD admits. Having said that, with ED1 and ED2 there will not be as many spots for RD admits as before. If you want to to attend WashU I recommend ED.