Does anyone have a source or list of when universities notify students about merit scholarships? Not for automatic merit - thinking more about competitive or discretionary merit.
It seems like the big competitive merit scholarships (Duke, UVA, UNC, Stamps, public full-rides, etc.) are granted in the spring after in-person interviews, but spring is too late to make any adjustments to the application strategy.
I am curious if any ~T50 colleges notify early apply students about competitive or discretionary merit scholarships before the RD application deadlines in January.
GT notifies it’s in-state scholarship recipients in mid December alongside admission notifications. OOS in mid/3rd week of Jan, which is after most RD deadlines except for a few that that end Jan or mid Feb.
1 Like
The big name scholarships you mentioned should be considered a high reach for even the most accomplished applicant. IMO, your application strategy should not hinge on getting one of those big scholarships. You should have a well balanced and affordable list of schools from the get go.
6 Likes
Thanks, but it is relevant for this application strategy. I didn’t ask for advice on those scholarships but simply the timing.
Banneker Key at UMD is one of the earlier scholarships that I know about, but finalists are notified in February and know in March so still too late to adjust application strategy. Emory has a similar time horizon for their big scholarships. Purdue releases merit notifications in late January/early February, but again, too late to be helpful.
I honestly don’t know any school that releases those competitive merit scholarships early enough to make a difference, hence my previous comment.
Most schools have comments like Vanderbilt that say if you apply ED, you need to be able to accept/afford your offer without knowing if you will receive a scholarship.
3 Likes
Unless something has changed very recently, GA residents who apply to GTech EA are notified of semifinalist status for Stamps at the time of acceptance in December. Interviews are scheduled in January and February so a student would not know if they were awarded Stamps until well after RD deadlines. But maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re referring to. 
As @momofboiler1 posted, I’m not aware of any competitive merit awarded before late February/March.
2 Likes
Yes that is what what I meant - should have said “semi finalist status”, not implied that the scholarship is awarded at that time.
1 Like
Not sure Pitt counts, as it’s not Top 50, but it’ll be sending out merit notifications any day now. This first round isn’t competitive, per se, but it’s discretionary, so that might be relevant.
To clarify- Pitt starts sending out merit awards in October but they don’t finish until February. There doesn’t seem to be rhyme or reason to why some are early and some are later.