Hi all, I was admitted to UNC early action, and was also offered an invitation to Honors Carolina. I have very high stats and unique activities: 1550 SAT, 4.5 GPA, protest-organizer, national and international creative writing awards. I was not offered merit aid and was a little surprised, but I know that it is very competitive and nearly unheard of. I understand that UNC uses merit as a tool to recruit higher-achieving in-state students.
However, I recently found out I am a Robertson semi-finalist (didn’t make it to finalist). I have received extremely large merit packages from University of South Carolina Honors College, Rutgers University Honors College, McGill University, University of Toronto, and Miami University of Ohio Honors and Scholars Programs. I’ve also won numerous local awards since then as well. Do you think I can attempt to contact the financial aid office to appeal for merit aid, mentioning the Robertson status and leveraging my other merit packages? I think that my application was a little unrefined when I applied in October, so I think I might have been overlooked for merit aid.
If so, does anyone know the process for appealing it?
I don’t think you will be successful but no one can stop you from trying. UNC-CH has more qualified applicants than they can accept. They will not really care what other (lower ranked schools) are offering you.
(1) I don’t think you were overlooked for merit aid.
(2) I don’t think that UNC-CH will be impressed with “extremely large merit packages” to you from the University of South Carolina, Rutgers University, Miami of Ohio, or the Canadian universities.
(3) From what I can tell, there does not appear to be a process for appealing the university’s discretionary choice not to award merit aid. (I’m not saying there isn’t; but I can’t find any reference to such an appeal process.)
Need based aid appeals may work. Appealing merit aid never does.
USC Honors College is ranked higher and considered better than UNC, and the Canadian universities are both in top 20 globally; no need to be snobby about my merit packages. I was 1 of approximately 100 semifinalists for one of the most competitive scholarships in the country for UNC/Duke (thousands of top-tier applicants with huge leadership spikes), which I think is a pretty good thing to use to appeal for merit money. Should I give the financial aid office a call? @gandalf78
I don’t think the response you received was snobby, but it was direct. @lesjubilants, the style of your post makes it seem as though you believe you are entitled to a merit scholarship and that somebody must have made a mistake. If you do approach UNC about reconsideration for one, I’d try to soften it up a bit.
@lesjubilants: If “USC Honors College is ranked higher and considered better than UNC,” then why are you wasting your time here? Take the money from USCe, put down your enrollment deposit with them, and save yourself a lot of time and trouble.
UNC has a the only Contemporary European Studies major in the country and the only center for European Studies @gandalf78
You previously reported having special circumstances regarding finances. You may want to ask for a FA reconsideration- I don’t think you will have much success with merit.
You can ask, but I think you are mistaken about academic rankings/views between your other options and UNC, UNC isn’t going to see them as peers. Your odds are not good of getting any more aid, but you can ask politely. Meanwhile, I’d start planning accepted student visits to your favorites among the affordable offers you have.
@lesjubilants One of my good friends who was a Robertson finalist in fact did not get any merit aid from UNC, but generous pacakages from other lower ranked colleges. To restate what a previous poster said, I don’t think you were overlooked. High stats or even high profiles don’t mean merit aid at UNC. I think you mistake UNC for a school that responds kindly to appeals of merit aid. If they could really give merit scholarships to all students truly deserving, they could. But there’s really no way they can make a merit scholarship appear from nowhere if you send an email, especially if you appear rather entitled to one due to your other offers. Now need based aid is another question, which can be altered if you have sufficient financial evidence, but I would honestly take it from Gandalf, who is very knowledgeable about UNC and its offices, that you weren’t overlooked for merit aid.
Need based changes to financial aid are appealable. But they can backfire and your award may actually decrease.For merit aid the awards are made by a scholarship committee. The RD candidates still haven’t received their packages yet. But it seems like its a done deal for EA. Lots of EA kids have significant awards, accomplishments and other offers of admission since submitting their UNC application. I don’t see how any school could handle reconsidering all those. It would just be impossible. Now if it were a private LAC, and they had already offered money and were trying to woo you from another school, maybe there would be negotiating power, but right now, its just an honor to get admitted. Congrats on your other awards. You have wonderful opportunities to choose from.
@lesjubilants , my D had a 4.67 wGPA, 1540 SAT and 10 APs. She has got $80k scholarship from a school that UNC considers its peer. But she got deferred by UNC. In fact a lot of kids with similar stats got rejected. That’s the level of competition out there. You should consider it as an honor to get accepted. Good luck though and my best wishes.
Are you sure it’s the only one? You may want to do some research before you call. Maybe other colleges have something similar but call it by a different name.
[UF Center for European Studies](https://ces.ufl.edu/)
[Center for European Studies-Harvard](https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/)
[UMichigan Center for European Studies](Center for European Studies | U-M LSA)
From the website: “Established in 1994, CES is one of only five in the nation to be designated as both a National Resource Center by the US Department of Education and by the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence by the European Union. …The center is home to UNC’s undergraduate Contemporary European Studies Major, the only degree of its kind.”
Thank you, I have done my research, and I have long email threads with the director of the center. Not sure why people (mostly parents, nonetheless) on this thread wants to prove a seventeen year old girl wrong. Sorry if I’m desperate and can’t afford my top choice school under any circumstance, even if my FA gets reconsidered? I’m grasping at straws and really trying to make UNC an option that doesn’t involve $120,000 in student loan debt. No need to be snarky or mean, a tone I’m catching from a couple comments 
@lesjubilants I can assure you no one here intends to be mean or snarky. They are simply giving you the reality of the situation based off their experiences and information. Need I remind you that you were the one who posed a question on this college thread. UNC cannot give acceptance letters and merit aid to all of its qualified applicants and many, even most, do not receive merit aid. As someone else said, all the responses I’ve seen are direct and truthful instead of giving you bs answers. Do you really want someone to sugarcoat it for you and say “You have a good shot, go ahead and do it,” when that’s clearly not the case? This is the truth of the matter: You were not “overlooked” for merit aid at UNC and there is not a formal process for appealing it. Need based, as stated, is a different story provided you submit the documentation. Many students pay hundreds of thousands in student loan debt to attend their top choices. You are not the only one. If UNC is really the school you want to attend, look for scholarships from outside sources, look into getting a job over the summer or during school on campus to offset costs. Look into the other offers you have received, which are some fantastic programs that could very well match the education UNC offers. No one here wants to prove you wrong or one-up you. They are simply giving you helpful advice based off your situation. If you construe it as mean or snarky, that’s all on you. Best of luck.
I am a parent and I am trying to be honest. Yes… UNC is a great school, but many students can’t afford their first choice options. You can certainly go ahead and ask them to reconsider you for merit… it won’t hurt… but I would not count on it at all. It is extremely difficult to get merit as an OOS student. And… they most certainly will not give you enough merit to make up for the $130,000 in student loan debt you say you will have ( students can’t take on that much debt by the way).
You best bet will be to ask for a FA reconsideration. If you have an unemployed parent or some other unusual circumstance they should grant you one. Keep in mind that you may not qualify for FA every year… and you need to pay for all 4 years.
You listed several acceptances that appear to be affordable. Congrats!
Nobody is trying to be snarky. We’re trying to explain that UNC isn’t the only place that will take you where you want to go. The school isn’t going to go from $0 to $30k/year because they just don’t have it and you can’t borrow it. April 30th is coming soon. You have 6 weeks to find something to love about your affordable options. Yes, go ahead and call UNC if you want, but be realistic about your chances of getting the aid you want.
I don’t thin anyone was being snaky or mean, just realistic. Sorry if it is not the answer you wanted to hear but you asked for advice. UNC does not even guarantee to meet the full need of most students. Only those who are eligible for Carolina Covenant will have their full need meet with no debt. The reality is getting into a schools does not mean it is affordable to you and it does not mean that the school will make it affordable.
UNC meets full need for instate and OOS… but there may be a subsidized loan in the package ( and sometimes a small unsubsidized). There is not a universal no loans policy.