After being deferred by my two top schools, and as someone who needs merit aid if I’m going to be able to go to college, I was wondering if getting deferred meant I have no chance of receiving merit aid from those schools.
Thanks for the help 
@mopsenica It depends on the school you applied to and your stats (unweighted gpa and standardized test scores) and extra-curriculars. Some schools like Ohio State–which does not too much consider “demonstrated interest”, if you get deferred it likely meant your stats are not high enough to get accepted in first round, so you likely will not receive any merit aid. However, schools like Tulane, which does consider “demonstrated interest” highly, will often later give merit aid to those accepted RD (after the high stat student demonstrated interest is shown), because Tulane typically defers very high stat and well rounded applicants if they think the applicant is using the school as a “safety” or are not sure the applicant would attend (concerned about yield protection). Also a school like Michigan, which, like Tulane, considers demonstrated interest and defers a lot of tippy top applicants during EA to gauge interest level and protect yield, will provide merit aid, but unlike Tulane, Michigan is much more frugal and only provides merit aid to a minuscule number of the the tippiest top applicants who it deferred during EA but accepted during RD.
I doubt that any of us know for sure. However, being deferred would seem to imply that you can’t be sure that you will even get accepted at all. As such, I hope that you have applied to other affordable options.
There are of course a lot of very good universities in the US, and more elsewhere. If you don’t have other affordable options, the deadline may be past for some schools but folks here on CC might be able to suggest some.
It depends where you applied and whether you ranked in the top 10% for stats (especially test scores) there, and whether they’re a combination merit+ need or merit only.
If you list the two universities that deferred you and what other universities are on your list we may be able to help.
Adding a couple more matches and one more safety probably wouldn’t hurt just in case.
What are the schools?
Schools are Chapman University and Loyola Marymount UW GPA: 3.4 ACT: 30
I would say no merit based on deferment and based on GPA …
I think your instincts are right. If they wanted you enough to award merit, then they wouldn’t have deferred you.
Where else did you apply where you’d get merit.
Being from Chicago, I applied to DePaul where I received an $80k scholarship along with a $76k scholarship from Loyola… I also applied to ASU and got a $58k scholarship from them
The amount of the scholarship isn’t the key element.
Those scholarships are over 4 years so really it’s 20k off a 60k bill hence 40k your parents have to pay…can they (from income and savings, no loan)?
What matters is calculating
(Tuition, fees, room, board) - (grants, scholarships)=
Can you do that for each?
3.4/30 isn’t likely to yield merit at these colleges even if 30 IS top 25%.
Apply to Beloit, Lawrence, Gustavus Adolphus, Luther, Butler, Drake. If you want to leave the Midwest, add Agnes Scott, Eckerd, Pacific Lutheran, University of Puget Sound, Lewis and Clark, perhaps Whitman.