I think the increased merit offers may happen, but it is not frequent. I also think anyone this happened to in the past, it may have been a fluke occurrence for that school in that particular year. I also noted that some of the posters mentioned an increase in financial aid after an appeal, which is a different beast than merit. With my S22 we didn’t commit until May 1. So I sat around wondering if any of the 14 accepted schools would increase his merit closer to the date. Not a one. So yes, I think it can happen, may happen, does happen to some students at some schools in some admission cycles, but never count on it.
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Agreed - didn’t happen to us - but I created the post so that families in the future who are considering these schools - may decide to wait and hope their good fortune is boosted. I decided to after reading about three or four instances in the past week.
I don’t expect it’s a lot - but there are some major names on here and I imagine there’s many more not posted.
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I agree with you. I haven’t read anything that would lead me to count on additional merit from any school. However, the anecdotes shared here about additional merit (not need-aid) might lead us to ask if additional merit is available if my student was considering one of the schools mentioned. Especially if the original merit (tuition discount) was awarded early in the application cycle… as the enrollment deadline approaches schools may release additional merit for students meeting institutional needs (affinity group, high stats, etc).
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My '22 received an unsolicited extra $1,000 per year from UMN in April (he had already committed elsewhere.)
I think that unless a student HAS to commit in order to secure housing or some other concrete reason, it is best to wait until the deadline to commit.
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