<p>Here is an interesting article that was in our paper yesterday. I searched to find an online version of the article that did not require a subscription. The encouraging message of the article is that merit aid is out there, merit aid is growing and is a larger share of total financial aid.
What I found noteworthy in this article is that the numbers have actually changed significantly in recent years, for example:</p>
<p>"The effect of all the new aid is to drive down the number of students who are footing full college costs themselves. It's 37 percent now, down from 45 percent in 2000,"</p>
<p>"At private four-year colleges, the number drops to 17 percent."</p>
<p>and, " Merit aid's share of private college scholarships is 36 percent, compared with 27 percent in the early '90s."</p>
<p>Merit-based student aid growing among states</p>
<p>Today's topic: College tuition</p>
<p>By Frank Greve</p>
<p>KNIGHT RIDDER WASHINGTON BUREAU</p>
<p>WASHINGTON - Parents, take heart: College tuitions are soaring, but fewer families are paying the sticker price.</p>
<p>It's encouraging, but let's keep things in perspective. I suspect that relatively few merit scholarships cover a large% of the actual cost of tuition + room& board. </p>
<p>A college can offer 100 merit scholarships for $2000 each, and claim that '1 in x of our entering class won merit scholarships'. Sure - but those scholarship winners had to cough up the remaining ($20000<em>or</em>whatever - $2000) on their own.</p>
<p>True, optimizerdad - unless, like my kids, they also got a bunch of outside merit aid. There are some really big local/regional scholarships out there (easier to get because fewer apply) - in my area, there are a number of $12,000 and $5,000 scholarships; plus one of my kids has won a few national scholarships totally $16,000. I know the article was about school-based scholarships, but there is plenty of other money out there.</p>
<p>I was surprised to learn that, in several cases of merit awards my son qualified for, there was a range of award amounts, determined based on family assets (CSS Profile in particular). If you did not fill out the Profile, you would be given the minimum award, but it could increase significantly depending on the family's situation.</p>
<p>kirmum - can only speak from one experience. Tulane does NOT consider financial need in awarding merit aid. (Our EFC>annual tuition by quite a bit). S received DSA award - $22K/year ($19 toward tuition, $3 toward on-campus housing). One does submit the CSS, but that is used to supplement the DSA if appropriate. </p>
<p>Tulane is one of those schools that gives quite a bit of merit aid, and imho all significant size. There is a Founders award which is a bit less than the DSA ($15K??), several Louisiana resident awards, and the Holy Grail of the Deans Honor Scholarship - this is full ride, 100 are granted each year, and is the only one requiring a separate application. The projects submitted for this one are apparently awe-inspiring. My S didn't get that, but we are more than thrilled with the DSA.</p>
<p>For the DHS, student must maintain a 2.8GPA to continue each year.</p>
<p>There are a lot of really top notch schools that give really large merit scholarships. They include Wash U, Emory, Rice, Smith, Tulane (as jmmom said), U. of Rochester, Vanderbilt, Case Western Reserve, many of the public schools' honors colleges, GWU, and I'm sure a whole lot of others that I left out. Also, there are tons of schools that give out national merit awards, though those are generally smaller. </p>
<p>Although the Ivies don't give merit aid (except in the form of more shifting ratios of grants to loans in the need based package), there are a terrific number of top colleges that give merit aid.</p>