Are the merit % and $ stats on "College Transitions" site accurate?

Paying for College
1

We are full pay for D20 and definitely chasing merit. In looking for concrete statistics on % of student receiving merit aid and average merit award, I came upon the “Merit Aid (by Institution)” page on College Transitions. (I’m not sure if I’m allowed to paste a URL here but can certainly do so below if permitted).

Stats are reported for 2017-18 academic year and claim to come from College Board, IPEDS, and Peterson’s. Are these statistics accurate? If they are accurate, they are very helpful for us in constructing a list (would be even more helpful if they reported scores spread for merit awardees, but, hey!). But if they are junk I will ignore.

Here’s a selection of schools with the merit data reported. The 0%s look right (knew about those already), so I am hoping the non-0%s are also credible.

                               COA OOS   % receive merit Avg merit award

Bennington College $74,320 43% $21,973
St. Olaf College $60,990 40% $17,307
Mount Holyoke College $66,558 31% $19,213
Sarah Lawrence College $73,670 26% $17,758
Macalester College $69,127 18% $16,773
College of the Atlantic $54,969 17% $17,604
Bryn Mawr College $71,310 15% $16,041
Skidmore College $71,780 3% $15,000
Bard College $72,968 1% $31,033
Wesleyan University $72,639 1% $52,774
Barnard College $74,777 0% $0
Bates College $71,168 0% $0
Brown University $73,992 0% $0
Connecticut College $71,970 0% $0
Reed College $73,400 0% $0
Vassar College $73,300 0% $0
Wellesley College $72,639 0% $0

2

Even if accurate they are averages. You may get more or less or nothing.

3

The averages don’t tell you anything. If 50% of the students receive merit aid, are you going to be in that half? If the average award is $40k, are you going to get $40k or only $5k because some students received $60k?

4

More useful to know the median merit award than the average merit award. Some colleges have a handful of “chancellor award” type of deals- maybe 3 or 4 huge merit awards, and then a few dozen token awards. Their “average” will get distorted by the full rides, which really doesn’t reflect reality (which is that most of the merit money is spread very, very thin).

5

Thanks, all. Yes, I understand the limitations of the mean stats here. (Although, note: we all use “average” acceptance rates similarly as proxies for selectivity and to roughly assess our own kid’s chances of getting in). I get that these aren’t guarantees and that individual awards may differ from the average. I do think it is helpful to see that, for example, twice as many Mount Holyoke students receive merit compared to Bryn Mawr students, though the mean award is roughly comparable. Combined with information on school websites and reports on CC on the type and size of merit awards at the two schools, this is actually helpful information.

6

That data originates in the Common Data Sets, so straight from each school. If you look at the CDS for a given school, it tells you the raw number of students who got merit money, too.

7

@allyphoe I figured these data would have had to come from the CDS originally. I just checked Bryn Mawr’s 1718 CDS against the stats above in the table. Interestingly, the avg $ amount for merit award was accurate the dollar ($16,041) as reported on in Section H2A line o for first-time full-time freshman, but I couldn’t make the percent of students receiving aid match the CDS using either first years or full-time UGs. Close, but not the same. In any case, I guess the College Transitions dataset is a decent stake in the ground, to be supplemented by whatever can be gleaned elsewhere.

8

I didn’t bother pasting the schools where merit either doesnt exist or is likely targeted towards highly desirable URMs and other students who help their diversity numbers.

Bryn Mawr at 15% may be targeting students who they are attempting to poach from ivies or higher ranked sisters.

Once you get to 26% of more, it may be safe to assume that those awards are a mix of their top 10-20% of their applicant pool and some targeted for diversity.

Where do your child’s test scores fall at these 26%+ schools? Top 3-10%? Also top GPA and strong resume? If so, then may be best chances for merit.

9

She’s only done PSAT11 (1350) and a proctored practice ACT (30) so far. Those would likely put her between 50th & 75th at most of the schools on that list she’s most interested in (all of which are test optional, interestingly), so we’re probably not in the zone yet. These data were helpful for me in encouraging her to do some focused prep before spring testing. Ugh.

10

For my kid interested in BMC and MHC, I’m guessing she’d need scores of about 1500 SAT / 34 ACT to have a reasonable chance at merit. But that’s just a guess; I have no idea if I’m anywhere near close.

If yours is interested in women’s colleges, Agnes Scott has generous guaranteed-for-stats merit and a lower starting COA.

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@allyphoe - those calculations are really helpful. Do you think for a given set of scores/GPA/profile, the chances of merit are about the same at MHC and BMC? Seems like the 1500/34 kid would be a very strong merit contender at MHC but maybe only a solid shot at BMC. In any case, this discussion has helped me see that we are probably not so much chasing merit as slowly jogging after merit.

Can’t get this kid interested in Agnes Scott, Scripps, or Simmons.

12

Yes, I think merit is easier to come by at MHC than at BMC than at Smith. But like I tell my kid, competitive merit, like selective admissions, is unpredictable. Anecdotally I have heard that MHC cares very much about fit and demonstrated interest.

I hear you on getting the kid interested. My personal opinion is that Scripps is difficult and getting harder for merit, so when mine wanted to drop it, that was fine by me. Agnes Scott is so much cheaper for us that I really want to send her for a spring break visit. But the reality is that we’ve said that we wouldn’t require her to go to ASC just because it’s cheap. She loves MHC, and if she gets her scores up in an attempt to increase the odds of merit, MHC would probably be a safety.

13

Net Price Calculators indicate that you’re full pay…so, how much can you afford to pay each year?

14

I never relied on average numbers for anything. Too many factors, most mentioned above, can go into the larger awards and skew the data towards the top (IMO). I’d look at the school threads and see exactly what other kids are receiving. Another estimate I took, is that to receive what is listed as Average Merit, my hook-less kid needed to be towards the top of the stats at the school. Other, hooked kids, got the big awards.

15

@mom2collegekids Not sure if the “how much can you afford to pay each year?” question was to me, but if so, we are very fortunate that our employer (university) pays 40% of its tuition (not room & board), wherever the kid(s) go. Crazy amazing benefit. Right now for D17 that’s about $20k per year and after that we’re able to cover the rest. So while merit would be terrific, it’s not a deciding factor on where to attend.

@bigmacbeth The school threads during admit season are super helpful. The only direct experience we have is that D17 got the top merit award at a women’s college and/but had stronger stats and ECs than D20.

16

^^
Oh good. With that tuition benefit, you think you can afford the rest.