<p>My D just got in off the wait list. No offer of merit aid came with her packet on Friday, we are waiting to see if she gets any need based aid, which is doubtful.
She really wants to go to GW, but it will be very tough without some aid. I have read that prospective students can appeal for merit aid, so she is going to call admissions on Monday.
Does anyone know of any students who were successful in gaining merit aid after not receiving any offer in their admissions letter? I know it is a long shot, but I am curious to know if it has ever happened.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, you can not even be considered for merit aid unless you have stats something like this: at least in top 10 per cent of graduating class (regardless of difficulty of school), 3.7 gpa, and around 1380 math and verbal sat. I don't believe any of those factors can be missing, no matter what the circumstance. She should try no matter what. We were not so successful. Missing ingredient was top 10 per cent of class (was in top 20 per cent)- high school was extremely competitive, and didn't actually rank, but they did send a "chart" with a guage.</p>
<p>im an accepted transfer student...and i have stats very far above those listed in the last post. i tried lobbying for merit aid to absolutely no avail. wasn't even considered. they wouldnt even entertain talking about the honors college or anything. it was frustrating. I told them pretty much the exact same thing you said in your post (i also wouldn't get need-based aid, but GW is still a stretch for my family) and it didnt seem to make any impact whatsoever....but i assume it was an even bigger long shot as a transfer than it will be for you. it was still frustrating that they wouldnt even acknowledge that I had a legit reason to be asking based on my stats. what can you doooo. i still might go, we'll see. good luck</p>
<p>although not to be blunt, but unless your daughter was waitlisted because she was overqualified and they didn't think she would actually come...then I'm not sure how you would make the case for merit aid, seeing as how she wasn't accepted the first time around and was taken off the waitlist. but a lot of schools do waitlist highly qualified people because they play silly games with their yield, so you still may have a case.</p>
<p>They probably wouldn't talk to you about the Honors college because, I believe, you can only be accepted into it as an incoming freshman. Even current GW sophomores and above cannot apply to the Honors college. Even if you did, you don't get any tuition/room and board breaks for it as you would at some other schools.</p>
<p>As for merit aid, I think you can only get up to 15 grand a year anyway, which is definitely helpful, but still would leave you well short of the total cost. Basically, if you're strapped for cash, GW is a tough school to fall in love with. My family is also in need of aid, and GW is the only school I actually got into, so we just have to make things work. If you really want to go there, you'll find a way.</p>
<p>yeah the part about the honors college is true...although i dont see why it has to be so stringent. but yeah, i realize that was an unrealistic thing to try to talk to them about. i was just kinda grasping at anything i could to get a little more bang for the buck if i go there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info everyone. My D is going to email her the admissions guy from our area tonight and ask him about a merit aid appeal. She interviewed with him, talked on the phone with him a few times and they have a good rapport. Well see what happens!</p>
<p>When we visited for accepted students day in April, we went to admissions and asked about merit aid. A counselor sat with us and told us exactly what other posters have mentioned. SAT's were not good enough for our son to be offered any merit aid. If you get any merit aid, it comes with the admission letter. The only suggestion she had for us was that our son could apply to be a RA in a dorm starting sophmore year, and that would be a way to get some aid, basically it would be free room and board.</p>
<p>Where my D is lacking is in her GPA. It is a 3.5, but from a school district which has a much higher standard for grading. An A is 94 and above, B is 84 and above, and so forth. She will have taken 9 AP courses by the time she graduates, with good scores on her AP exams. Her SAT's are good, a 1370 for math/verbal and 2190 including the essay. Her high school doesn't rank; there are over 3000 students, 900 alone in her graduating class.</p>
<p>I can see that she falls short of the requirements for merit, but we'll give it a try. It's good to know about the RA position for sophmore year. Are there any other ways to cut costs/increase aid after freshman year? I read something about an academic discount that is available for upperclassmen.</p>
<p>My D will be a "House Proctor" next year as a Sophomore. FYI, it gives them a free room and a $4,750 stipend (which more than covers food for the year). It is very competitive for these positions and GPA is a factor so your D should be sure to keep her grades up if she wants to apply.</p>
<p>I am also interested to learn more about tuition reductions for upperclassman that I saw mentioned on here somewhere.</p>
<p>When I went for a STAR lunch, the girl told me that she had received $12,000 off her tuition for the next year for keeping her GPA above a 3.7. Someone on this board said it was $6,000, so I'm going to email the financial aid office to get more info on this program. I wonder if you can combine it with merit scholarships,too, though.</p>
<p>COMom - Are you sure that GPA is a factor in becoming a house proctor? What kind of GPA do they require?</p>
<p>cj_svu6....what is STAR? that's not that hard a standard to meet...so i'm assuming that's some kind of special program or something?</p>
<p>oh, sorry....STAR is what they call their student representatives- I think it stands for Student Admissions Representative or something like that. In addition to an info session and tour, prospective and admitted students can have lunch in the GW dining hall with a current student, hence a STAR lunch :) I don't think it the refund is part of a special program....plus, the minimum standard required to maintain other scholarships at GW are actually a lot lower than at other schools.</p>
<p>is that GPA requirement for maintaining scholarships they already got? it sounds weird that they would just give people money for maintaining a certain GPA. does that have something to do with a boost to need-based aid offered through the finaid department? if you find out anything interesting about it from the finaid people let us know....i'm still trying to see if theres any way i could ever hope for money as a transfer :/ i think i may want to come...i just wish the money werent such a downer. why does GW have to be so expensive?!??!</p>
<p>Peejay, from the housing section on the website " All House Staff Positions must have and maintain a 3.0 GPA to apply and maintain employment". I don't know how much GPA factored in to the decisions - all I know is that my D and a couple of her friends that got positions have significantly higher GPAs than that minimum. The candidates went through a 3 step process this year. First was an application that incuded some essays, then a group project/presentation (they assigned groups after the first cut), then an interview if you made the 2nd cut. The application process started in January - so check the housing website next January for the timeline if you are interested in applying.</p>
<p>I emailed the FinAid Office about that program. Here's the response I received:</p>
<p>"Continuing GW students who have completed 30 semester hours with at least a 3.7 cumulative grade point average and who did not receive a scholarship or award at the time of their admission are eligible for a partial tuition scholarship. Students are reviewed for this scholarship once a year. The scholarship is based on the two most recent semesters, excluding the summer session. If a student qualifies for this award during our July review, the award will automatically be applied for the following academic year, and an award notification letter, which specifies the amount of the award, should be mailed to the student during the month of August, preceding the start of the Fall semester. This scholarship program will expire for all new students at the start of the Fall 2008 term."</p>
<p>ohhh thats good to know....I might have to call them up and ask for more details on that one. Thanks for the info cj!</p>
<p>As the response above noted, this scholarship program is about to be discontinued with the incoming class. It now only applies to continuing students who entered the school before the Fall 2008 term.</p>