Chances for merit aid

<p>My daughter is junior in a very large public high school in upstate New York. We visited several universities on the East Coast and so far we liked most Northeastern. She will most likely not qualify for need based aid, but probably some merit aid. Here are her accomplishments: GPA: 3.9, top 0.5% of a class of 800, SAT 2250 (3x750), very challenging curriculum with lot of AP and Honors classes, 5 years of Color Guard (3rd place at 2014 World Championship), moderate amount of volunteer work, some school clubs. What are her chances for a merit based scholarship and what else she should do in the remaining time till application deadline to improve her chances?</p>

<p>Your daughter seems like a very strong candidate, but it is getting more and more difficult to predict merit aid. Is she National Merit? Northeastern has a $30,000 scholarship for that. I definitely think she would be likely to get merit aid, but it’s hard to say how much.</p>

<p>Do you know how many prospective students are invited for the University Scholars weekend and how many such scholarships are actually awarded and how many will enroll? </p>

<p>I think it’s something like top 2% of applicants? All I can say for University Scholars is don’t get your hopes up. At all. The selection is very holistic, but not necessarily meaning they’re looking for well rounded kids but a well rounded group if that makes sense. They aren’t looking to create a group of kids who all did a varsity sport and were heavily involved in let’s say debate team. They want a kid from Arizona who is super into robotics, an immigrant from Louisiana who’s been published in some big fancy whatever, etc., etc…</p>

<p>I’m exaggerating a little, but basically they like a diversity of interests, backgrounds, geographic location, gender, etc…</p>

<p>Being in upstate NY, a lot of people will apply to Northeastern and it will be harder to stand out esp. in the Scholars pool. While your kid is qualified I’m sure, it’s definitely not something to expect. Some kid on the Northeastern page mentioned how his friend wasn’t even invited to the Honors program, and she’s going to Yale instead. So it’s a little random.</p>

<p>That being said…I would expect merit aid in the range of 10-25k/year. On the higher end if she can boost her test scores; a 2250 is incredible to me, but this year it seemed NEU was particularly numbers heavy and the higher the score more likely the aid. Good luck, I didn’t mean to be rude or scary or anything I was just trying to provide my opinion based on what I’ve seen.</p>

<p>I believe that each year the Scholars program admits about 300 students and that the yield is about 50%. So 150 actually enroll. Unlike some schools there is no separate application to this program. I would advise your daughter to “show interest”. Visit campus, try to arrange a meeting through the admissions office with a faculty member in her intended major etc. </p>

<p>The Scholars program has replaced the previous full tuition Trustee scholarship and National Merit scholarship programs and does take a holistic approach. Applicants who show an entrepreneurial bent and/or an interest in an international component to their education, regardless of major, may have an advantage. The Scholars program also includes a special grant to help cover the cost of international study and coops. </p>

<p>@TomSrOfBoston‌ Are you referring to the Presidential Global Scholarship for the international grant?</p>

<p>I believe so. I am not sure if it is automatic with Scholars or not. </p>

<p>I believe that scholarship is currently guaranteed for all students in the honors program with a GPA over 3.5 (<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/honors/advising-scholarships/northeastern-university-scholarships-grants/”>http://www.northeastern.edu/honors/advising-scholarships/northeastern-university-scholarships-grants/&lt;/a&gt;) It’s specifically for international co-ops, not general study abroad. But, after my experience, I would highly recommend an international co-op!</p>

<p>If not University Scholars or much financial aid, don’t discount the national merit scholarship. If they haven’t decreased the amount of the award again, it’s like a half ride.
I’m not sure if your daughter will be a junior in a few months or if she just finished her junior year. If it’s the latter, see what she got on the psat and look at past years’ scores in NY. It was 219 in New York last year, so if she is taking the official one in like October, ask her to prep for that.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, she just finished her junior year and when she took the PSAT she didn’t pay to it enough attention. Her score is just below the last year cutoff for NY, so very likely she will not make the NMSF list. We will find out in September. Her SAT scores are better, however there is still room for improvement, so she decided to take the SAT again in October. Too bad that we were not aware about the merit aid at NEU for the National Merit Finalists. You can’t start early enough collecting info. </p>

<p>My daughter is attending this fall and had similar stats. 2250 SAT, similar GPA, class rank not quite as high (top10%), similar classes, yearbook editor, volunteer hours, etc. like you we did not qualify for financial aid. She received a 17,000 per year merit. I had filled out the CSS profile in fall and can’t help but wonder if we would have received more had we not. We don’t have high salaries, but had received an inheritance that would pay for 4 years of school. The problem is once it goes out, it probably wouldn’t go back in and we have other kids. We were hoping for more merit but the 17k still helpful. Good luck to you</p>

<p>Merit Aid is not related to financial aid - the deans scholarship would not be different based upon your CSS or FAFSA</p>

<p>The scholarship wouldn’t be different, but the merit could affect the amount of need based aid that you receive.</p>

<p>Thanks I always wondered if we held back on the CSS if they would have offered more merit. We wouldn’t have received need based either way. Even though other schools offered her more, NEU was her favorite so we’re making it work!</p>