<p>Sometimes, things stick in my craw so I need some advice.</p>
<p>S1 has been accepted to all 3 CA privates he applied to early and received decent merit aid from two. The third school offered zilch. He's a 4.3 student ranked 5/350 at his public HS. Many hours of community service/EC's. </p>
<p>Would a school admit students like him and not offer merit aid, knowing that cost would be a big reach, just so they can have a higher GPA admit pool? Seems odd to us but since this is our first time down this road, we're not sure what to think.</p>
<p>It crossed my mind that by applying early, some schools may offer lower/no aid figuring early apps indicate more desire to attend.</p>
<p>It really hurts. That happened to me years ago with Franklin and Marshall. I would have felt better being rejected than accepted with no financial aid. I don’t think that early applicants harm their chances for merit aid. Does the school have an automatic merit award for certain grades/scores or is it all arbitrary?</p>
<p>Congrats to your son. Sounds like a hard working and great kid. </p>
<p>Just because your son got merit aid at three schools, does not mean the fourth would necessarily give him the same. Sometimes that just happens. The admitted students at school four could have just been a more competitive lot.</p>
<p>Merit aid is not awarded to help students who have financial need. Merit aid is awarded based on what the school determines for merit awards.</p>
<p>Need based aid is given based on finances.</p>
<p>It sounds like your son has three early nice acceptances. Congratulations to him.</p>
<p>I would not worry about it. Some colleges base even merit on financial need, and only give out a small percentage of merit aid to only the very, very top of the applicant pool, if at all. You can check the school’s common data set to see how much merit aid it usually gives out. Some schools feel that 'all students who get accepted deserve merit scholarships, so we only give out financial aid."</p>
<p>It’s still early - some schools don’t work out these things until things shake out a bit more. Also, do you know if this school typically gives merit aid? Most private schools clearly spell out their merit aid policies on their websites. We were able to judge fairly accurately what S would be offered last year from the website info alone.</p>
<p>Aid packages can vary wildly from one institution to another. What you need to do is determine how much YOUR family can pay, and then sit down with all of the offers when your child has received them.</p>
<p>As I recall, not all merit aid came with the initial acceptance. Some merit aid came after the fact. Maybe it is forthcoming. Plus, have you filled out the FAFSA? I had heard that some schools require that, and perhaps even the profile before they consider for merit aid.</p>
<p>If he is really interested in that school and merit aid isn’t showing up, why not consider asking for it? Fax them a letter showing his latest grades and accomplishments, and a description of merit aid from the other schools. Or call them…or whatever people who know what they’re talking about recommend. Yes, you can negotiate, particularly with an accomplished kid like that. Some schools match/beat merit aid.</p>
<p>But if he’s not actually interested, and this is just an ego thing, forget it. Don’t waste anyones time with it. Good luck.</p>
<p>Schools don’t necessarily give merit aid to the highest-stats kids. Why would they? They have institutional goals to meet. First, many schools that promise to meet 100% of financial need don’t give any merit aid, and many of those that do give merit aid don’t meet 100% of need. Merit aid often means they have limited financial resources to give out, and they’re going to use it to meet strategic institutional needs. Some may calculate that a highly qualified applicant is financially well enough off that a merit award isn’t likely to be the deciding factor. Others may discount their prospects of getting the most qualified applicants, and target merit aid a little further down the stats scale to reel in kids who are more likely to accept with an appropriate financial sweetener, especially those who will positively influence their reportable SAT/ACT medians (and remember, any score over the 75th percentile is as good as any other score over the 75th percentile for purposes of influencing the 75th percentile median). Others may target “merit” awards to high-stats kids with demonstrated financial need, in lieu of being able to meet 100% of need for all enrolled students. Other may use merit aid to reel in high-stats URMs or other categories of students they particularly want. The policies differ from school to school, so it should be no surprise that you see high variance in the results.</p>
<p>SOMETIMES, some Us will offer similar merit awards IF the student REALLY wants to attend and approaches the school with awards received from a U that is considered an equal/competitor. We and friends have asked Us with mixed results. After all the acceptances come in & offers are one the table, your S can figure out what he is most interested in & can see whether it is affordable as is or if the school can increase merit to make it more financially competitive.</p>
<p>Some schools don’t offer merit aid - period. Franklin & Marshall (listed by a pp) does NOT give merit aid at all. My guy opted not to apply to them because of it. (We asked, in person, this year, so my info is up to date.)</p>
<p>Be certain the school you’re talking about offers merit aid before being discouraged by not receiving it.</p>
<p>Many people may SAY they got a merit based scholarship to XYZ U, but in reality, many of those are need-based. They just don’t know the difference.</p>
<p>I agree that some merit aid is also financial aid. I always thought of it as the reality of us middle class, upper middle class, people really not being able to (easily) afford today’s high cost colleges. We didn’t get our “final” offers until after filling out the FAFSA and profile and yes, there was usually more money after that.</p>
<p>My last child applied to many colleges and the merit (he was awarded no need based aid, but was offered work study at a couple of colleges) aid varied widely from $20,000 + a year to zip from the in-state publics.</p>
<p>Have you asked if merit aid is available, I would mention that you have merit aid from other schools. Several of my friends kids have gotten more money based on offers from other schools and telling the desired school they are the top choice but out of reach financially.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with how the schools you listed handle merit, as my experience with my first was on the east coast and mid-west. Once my D narrowed down her top 3, we considered if we could afford all 3 with the merit aid on the table at that point. 1 of the 3 (an OOS state flagship/public) gave a generous merit aid pkg and entrance to their honors program (no financial aid for us) and the other two were full pay privates but more prestigious on the east coast. In the end we told her we could afford any of them for 4 years, but some would impact what we could cover for grad school more than others. We took her to 3 different accepted student days. After the 3rd college, we discussed the pro’s and con’s of each one from a variety of angles, like academics, student body, clubs, safety, finances, etc., and the top school came out as one of the private full-pays. We knew they did offer merit to some students, and my daughter’s stats were at the low end of those stats, but they did not offer her merit on the initial accept letter. She wrote admissions explaining to them her very strong interest, but would like to be considered for merit aid. She listed several things that she had accomplished since she sent her application in, including a new music leadership role, even stronger grades in all AP classes, and other things that she would have listed on the college application had they occurred by then. The last week in April she received a 10K/year merit scholarship. At that point she really was going to go there, so it was very nice icing on the cake for the parents, and for her it make her know that the school was liking her as much as she liked it.</p>
<p>So the point is, you can always ask for merit, and you could get it, but be realistic about what that school typically does for a student like your S. If you S really likes that school over the other two, then have him advocate for himself to see if there is something more there for him, but don’t bother them if that school is not in the running.</p>
<p>Most schools report the stats of their matriculants (students who actually register), not their admitted students, I believe, so there wouldn’t be much incentive for that.</p>
<p>Did you have documented financial need (meaning your EFC > COA)? There are some schools who have merit awards available ONLY for applicants who also have financial need (Brandeis is an example), and others who have limited merit money for those w/o need and lots and lots for those with need (GWU is an example).</p>
<p>Also, if it’s a super-competitive school, it may not offer any merit money at all–everyone who gets in is considered equally meritorious. Or it may have chosen to deploy all of its resources towards students with need.</p>
<p>Without knowing the school you are talking about, it’s hard to comment on a lack of merit award, but yes, some merit awards arrive with acceptance and some arrive later…so it’s possible that it will come (as others have already said). If you are talking about any of the top U’s or LAC’s (or ivy’s-- which I certainly hope you’d know won’t be offering him merit), then don’t expect any merit award. Very few schools in this range would be offering him any merit when their avg. accepted applicants have similar stats. And although his rank GPA, and EC’s are that amazing, if his SAT scores are not higher than the schools upper range accepted avg. then that could knock him out of the running for merit.</p>
<p>Same thing happened to my daughter - she got merit aid at all the schools to which she was accepted, except one. I later found out that the school that didn’t give her aid apparently was known that either the student got one of the few full scholarships or the student got nothing. That made their “average” scholarship numbers higher, but it wasn’t helpful.</p>
<p>^^^That’s another reason the Common Data Sets are so useful (for those schools that make them public of course): merit scholarship data is clearly listed in terms of Total Dollar Amount, Average Dollar Amount, and the real number of students receiving merit aid. It’s that last number that is often the most enlightening.</p>
<p>“Would a school admit students like him and not offer merit aid, knowing that cost would be a big reach”
-Yes. My D. had applied only to schools that were known for great Merits. She got good packages at every place and ended up going to UG on full tuition Merit awards. although her state UG would not be classified as super competitive, she was accepted to super competitive program that had only 10 spots for incoming freshmen. Not paying tuition for UG freed lots of finances for her current Medical School. D. graduated #1 from private prep. HS (where she also had Merit scholarship based on her placement tests that covered significant portion of her HS tuition).</p>