So one college(Earlham) offered me a promise scholarship for my high GPA. The scholarship is $21,000 per year and is renewable for all 4 years. I did not get merit aid since they told me that they give which one is higher, and since the scholarship was higher than the merit aid I got the scholarship instead. However, the one thing I noticed was that I got only $10,000 in grants. All of the other colleges that did not offer me any scholarship or merit offered me at least $23,000 or more in grants. Is this just some marketing ploy?
If I did not get the promise scholarship then would I still have gotten only $10,000 in grants or a lot more? I ran the net price calculator for Earlham and I should have gotten $30,000 in grants which I did not(it would be like a full ride if I did lol).
My EFC is $18,600
If you would have rec’d 30k in grants and then you get 20k merit/scholarship, then the grants are reduced yes because now you only need 10k. This has nothing to do with ‘marketing’. This is just to do with how the need formulas work. When you get a scholarship, it reduces your ‘need’.Schools don’t give more need aid than the student requires according to formula.
COA - EFC - scholarships/merit = remaining need
If your EFC was 60k, your family would be pretty happy right now. But it isn’t so that’s just how it works. Merit is awarded regardless of if you would get need aid or be a full payer. They aren’t going to give you need aid to cover your EFC. The only way to get EFC covered is to get giant merit that exceeds your need and cuts into your family portion, like if you got a 55k scholarship then you would only pay the remaining, but there aren’t often scholarships of that size, if ever. btw, scholarship and merit are pretty much the same thing.
Makes sense. Though I would have preferred to receive a larger grant than the scholarship since I’d be required to maintain a certain GPA in college. But then again, if I don’t qualify for the scholarship anymore then my grant would go up so it doesn’t really matter right lol >:D<
So from my understanding, if you are high income then getting a scholarship is good. But if you are average income then it doesn’t really matter?
Another question, if I go to a college in Florida and since I am a Florida resident I would receive a Florida resident grant. Does this grant apply to the formula as well?
Well most schools don’t ‘meet 100% of need’ so that is not the only case where it matters–if you aren’t going to get enough need aid then merit is important too. But if your school does then yes, if you lose the scholarship it does sound like they would give more need, Ask the school the policy to be sure. I really can’t tell you details about Florida but likely the same scenario
If you received a $21k scholarship for your high GPA, you did get merit aid.