Does anyone have experience with appealing the merit decision that came with acceptance? My daughter is beyond thrilled to have been accepted however we do not qualify for any need based aid and they did not offer any merit scholarship. Tulane is her first choice however the finances will play a role in making this decision and she has merit offers from at least one other school at this point (still waiting to hear on others). I appreciate any insight.
Tulane has stated their intent is to shift merit based aid to need-based aid over some period of time, so there are relatively fewer dollars for merit this year.
I am not sure you will have much success asking for more merit aid, especially before RD decisions are out. Is the offer you currently have from a peer school of Tulane? If so, they might find that compelling, but again I don’t see more money coming until the spring. Just my two cents.
I would also look on the Tulane threads here on CC to see if students of similar stats to yours have received merit, and how much. That would give you some additional data points to inform your actions moving forward.
Good luck.
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Unlikely. I wouldn’t even ask unless there is additional data that strengthens the application or are merit offers from direct Tulane competitors that can be provided. We had the latter and took a shot which resulted in an additional $1K per year of merit.
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I agree with previous posts.
We appealed a lack of merit award with our eldest, now a college grad. Frankly, I’m embarrassed to say that. I guess we believed various stories. Needless to say, we got nada and in fact, they never even responded. I had to call and ask.
Not wishing to sound harsh, but merit is awarded to students they really, really want. They want your daughter, but not enough to dangle a carrot. Tulane is pretty selective these days, and they don’t have to offer merit awards as they used to.
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