My daughter would like to apply for early admission for Mount Holyoke. We believe that due to her academics she would be a very good candidate for a merit scholarship award. I worry that since there is a commitment letter signed there is no incentive for Mount Holyoke to offer any type of merit aid. When I read their website it appears that it would not be a factor in their decision for the award. She does plan on applying at Smith and Bryn Mawr also but regular regular decision. Has anyone else out there applied early decision and still received merit aid in there offer?
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A family friend was accepted ED to Mount Holyoke this past year and got a very nice merit scholarship, $25,000 per year I think it was. My son was accepted ED to Whitman College and got more merit money than the was promised after their pre-read ($18,000 per year versus $14,000). So a student is not necessarily going to get less merit money when applying ED.
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@dvdgunner , what are her stats, in brief? (not that it’s that simple at mt holyoke)
Great that @Buckythedog had a specific story to tell. Still, I wonder what that girl would have got if she applied RD. There’s no way to know, so there is no conclusion that we can draw from the information.
I hope we can hear from more people and maybe get an impression. I think it would have to be on the question of ED in general at financially stable LACs rather than just MH, in order to get enough replies.
Still it would be wonderful to hear more on MH too!
Ask your area rep if they would be willing to do a financial aid /merit pre-read, as it is an important piece of information your family needs prior to an ED application. They may say no, but they also may say yes.
She had unweighted 4.0, not sure about weighted. All IB classes but did not do the full diploma. She was National Merit commended, but did not take or submit SAT scores. Her ECs were probably average I think. Excellent writer, so I’m guessing her essays were also very good. And yes, no telling what she would have gotten if RD, but I think she might have gotten the best merit scholarship they offer.
Looks like MH does have a full tuition scholarship, so she did not get the best merit possible.
Yeah I would hope 25,000 isn’t the best MH has to offer. I thought they had a rep of coming in low on COA, but -25k still leaves a whopping price.
thanks @coffeeat3
I’m new to this concept and I think this is still relevant to the OP
would a pre-read be a dependable estimate? I suppose it’s no guarantee. Would a failure to enroll be considered a breach of contract (I mean morally, there’s not going to be a lawsuit) if the offer comes in as stated in a pre-read and you refuse based on affordability?
Basically I’m wondering what kind of thing a pre read is.
A financial aid pre-read is exactly just that - you submit your documents (FAFSA and Profile, if a Profile school) and the financial aid office reviews and provides you an estimate.
I know families that used it to understand merit. I am unsure if it has been used to make sure the financial aid calculator is correct (non merit). Not all schools will do this for you. I have never heard it being done until you have completed the official financial forms - even if merit only - doesn’t mean they don’t do it this way.
At this time, you are not saying you will attend nor or you saying you will 100% be applying at all. One family I know that did it knew they would be having large out of pocket medical expenses and needed to understand in advance what the merit would look like - top choice for their child and they were hoping to feel good enough about the answer to go ED. Another family had triplets - and even though they were full pay, they had a budget and their children could only go out of state if they could get merit. Both schools were LACs. In these 2 cases, the kids were above average stats for the school in both GPA and test scores and seemed like great fits.
Both had a good reason to ask for a pre-read and it was around merit and not need.
Again, I have no idea how many schools will do this for you - but it never hurts to ask your area rep and have your child explain why for the request. Plus - not advised for shopping around, but to really understand if ED is financially reasonable.
You will hear other people talk about a pre-read for admissions. This is a review of the transcript/rigor and more common with athletic recruits prior to submitting a completed application.
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I am new to this and I know my wife and daughter probably could answer this better! She is number 1 in her class. Junior year final average 102.3. Full AP lists I would guess 7 at end of senior year with 5.0 grades. She is a member of the crew team and has held a part time job since she was 15. She has a lot of community service hours at both a children’s hospital and an adult day care facility. She has won different awards including a full 4 year scholarship to her current private all girls school. She feels that Mount Holyoke is a perfect fit for her since it is small and historic women’s college. It is similar to the situation she is in at high school and she has thrived there. She really wants to do early admission but it is a big decision since we are only middle class and it is not realistic to pay anywhere near full admission. When doing the colllege tuition estimator it is showing $32,000 per year with the financial aid benefit. We are really hoping for some merit aid because even that would be quite a stretch for our income level. According to the Mount Holyoke website it says the merit is awarded by situation not by ED or RD. Her second choice is Smith College. Her SAT was 1430. She is debating whether to take it again or not.
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I’m no expert and new to this too and only guessing, but sounds like your daughter is a very strong candidate and would get merit. By contrast, MH would be over the moon with joy if they could get a student like your daughter plus bank 32K.
My question is how would this merit award affect the COA (cost of attendance)? Would merit replace need, or would they “stack,” as they say.
My daughter asked this question of the AO at a different school and they answered right away. (yes they stack was the answer). I don’t know if that put a “needy student” mark on her.
Don’t remember if MH is need blind or not, but your need on paper is not that great with NP at 32k so I don’t think that works against you and your daughter’s great record would override that I would guess from my uninformed position.
I hear you about affording this! I just checked for you and ran MH’s npc and got 19k for cost if it were me, so a lot less than you but I still wouldn’t be able to do it.
I noticed MH’s npc did not ask for any academic info like scores, rank, gpa, so it was a needs only assessment, which is unfortunate for your situation.
So anyways, at least you should maybe consider asking that question about stacking, or maybe a pre-read would be a better way of assessing this.
If in the end the ED is positive but with a 32K COA, I think it’s within your rights to refuse, or that’s what I read.
Still that doesn’t address directly your question of whether ED is going to result in less opportunity for support for your daughter.
Tough call on how much to rely on merit aid for early decision at MH or any school. Generally, merit aid is less about rewarding good work in high school and more about inducing top students to choose its school over a competitor. An ED application says that the college already has her hooked. Every school says something different. I know that the consensus in the Smith forums is that the 60-70 merit scholarships it offers are intended to target top students who might otherwise choose Ivies or other Seven Sisters. It worked on my D21. The scholarship sent a message that Smith really wanted her and overcame her reluctance to attend college away from a big city.
On the other hand, last year’s admission season was crazy. The historic statistics for admissions standards (test scores, g.p.a. etc.) were not clear indicators of acceptances. Anecdotally, ED offered a definite advantage at LACs. My D21 didn’t apply ED anywhere because merit mattered. We had fewer choices than we anticipated. Hopefully, this year will be more “normal”. I think most schools will work with ED admits and even release them from commitments if it just isn’t affordable. Unfortunately, decisions on merit aid generally come later in the Spring.
What did you / are you deciding?
We’re not going to do ED anywhere but MH or Smith is where we thought about it
My daughter just sent in her early decision to Smith College! Cross our fingers!
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good luck. Hope our daughters meet up there! (she’s doing RD)
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I guess we will find out on Wednesday! Are fingers are crossed! I will let you know! Hopefully your daughter gets in and they can be friends!
We chickened out. I really regret it but her not so much. We might go ED2 though.
Wishing you so, so, so much luck and please let us know what happens!
Thank you I guess the date is Thursday December 16 between 4-6 PM
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So, has anyone who got an ed offer received merit scholarship from MHC ?