Thanks. That is weird although they sent me an email yesterday stating all Fellows get Pact. I will see if I can get an answer from them to why discrepancy in some accounts. Clemson is still #1 for him but I thought dollars would be higher. With engineering fees, honors fees, dorms etc we are practically just shy of his package for Wofford. Still waiting on USC numbers.
Thanks for the info, everyone. Sounds like any merit aid will be fairly small. Very disappointing since she wants to study engineering. Do you guys mind sharing the other schools where your student applied? Anyone out there intending on engineering as a major?
"Unfortunately there is no scholarship $ tied to Honors college acceptance and you actually have to pay an extra $1000 per year to participate. Added to that, the honors dorms are on the pricier side. So if we accept honors (which is part of the draw to Clemson for D20) our bill will be a few thousand more than we planned. Lots to think about!!
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Thanks for the heads up on this. 
My son applied to CS, which at most of his schools was in the engineering department. Penn State, Clemson, VT, Wisconsin, Texas, Vanderbilt, WashU, and Dartmouth. Had he wanted a different engineering specialty, I doubt we would’ve included Wisconsin or Dartmouth on the list. Hope that helps.
In state. Three years ago my older son Palmetto / ranked about 25 out of approx. 300 / 33 ACT was offered $5000 in merit aid in addition to Palmetto.
Last year my younger son Palmetto / ranked 2 out of approx. 300 / 34 ACT was offered $3000 in merit aid ($1500 Pact and $1500 Presidential) in addition to Palmetto. Both accepted to Honors College.
Younger one attends. Honors dorm is approx $2000 more than next tier dorm and Honors additional fee is currently $1000 per year which equals the $3000 additional merit this year.
He’s moving off campus next year to save $ - a tiny amount on housing because he wanted to room with friends and they wanted an expensive complex but should be more saving on food not having to pay for unlimited meal plan any more. Palmetto $ increases and he’s STEM so will get the supplement for a total of $10,000. It does annoy me that Clemson acts like they are offering the Palmetto when it’s a state thing. Older son took his Palmetto to a private in-state that offered excellent merit $ in addition.
I applied to Penn State, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Eastern Michigan, RIT, and Clemson for Mechanical Engineering (CAD concentration).
Just curious - where do you think you’ll go?
My son applied to CCU, USC, U of Fl, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Princeton, and MIT.
He didn’t get into GT. Still waiting on VT, UF, Princeton, MIT.
He will be a Computer Science major.
Clemson, Wofford and USC. Accepted into honors at Clemson, Declined in honors at USC and was selected as a Wofford Scholar through his high school which resulted in a nice financial aid offer from them. We honestly thought he would get USC honors ahead of Clemson so that was a nice surprise. His sister is currently a USC honors top scholar with a full scholarship so no college payments for past 3 year. I might be in shock come Aug now that I have to start paying out money.
He will go into Engineering at Clemson but it was a toss up between CS and that.
She applied to those three as well. We got a nice offer from Wofford as well, but she ruled it out due to having to transfer for the engineering component.
Clemson is out due to the lack of funds. She is going to Top Scholar weekend this weekend at USC. Do you mind sharing a bit about your daughter’s experience with this program? Also, what did you think of their engineering program? (I think it is a bit hard for prospective engineering students to set Clemson aside.) Is your daughter a STEM major there? Thank you for your help!
Clemson, VT, Purdue, Stanford
Well. Daughter is Number 1 in a class of 195. 1460 SAT, 4 APs, Varsity Soccer Captain.
4.0 unweighted.
Aside from work-study and loans, that earned her a measly $8.5k from Clemson. Booo!
@islander99 I assume you are OOS? Are you saying she received $8,500 in merit on top of loans and work study?
Yes. With all that non-merit aid, it totaled a whopping $14.5k
@islander99 Is that very different than your NPC calculations? The NPC shows merit for that level dropped $1k/year from last year.
For OOS top merit dropped from 20,000 to 12,000. We are OOS, it is what it is. We decided last spring if she got Calhoun Honors this is where she would go. We also got zero Financial Aid. She we will skip vacation, we are investing in her future.
@CollegeorBustNE my twins got into Calhoun honors college but I’m curious what distinguishes it from other honors colleges.
I applied rolling, so does anyone know how long it usually takes to hear back? Also, is there a way to check online or do you have to wait for a decision to come in the mail? Thanks.
@CollegeorBustNE D20 was in the $20k tier as well. The $8k drop was definitely a bigger drop than we had hoped. Based on previous years we “guestimated” it would drop to $15k/year, figuring the $20k was an outlier, so that’s what we budgeted. She was accepted to Calhoun as well. @twinmommy here is the link for the Calhoun current students page, which will give you info on classes, research and enrichment opportunities. I’m not sure how it differs from other schools your student is considering.
https://www.clemson.edu/cuhonors/current-students/
Did you visit the honors college? We were very impressed with the research grants & study abroad grants. The guest speakers for honors students, etc
For the price, the National Ranking, and the paltry merit money - Clemson is not comparable with its sometimes superior alternatives - especially for OOS.