<p>I applied for financial aid, but I haven't received the decision yet. I doubt I'll receive any (2 other similarly situated private schools both said nada dinero).</p>
<p>I have received a generous merit aid package from USC. NU and USC are my top 2 schools.
Is there any point to seeing if NU would match USC's merit aid package? If so, how do I go about this? I am planning to attend a Wildcat Day.</p>
<p>Please let me know if you need any other info.
Thank you!</p>
<p>NU gives merit based scholarships to National Merit Finalists.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying! I am a NMF. That’s what USC’s half-tuition scholarship is for.
Do you know if NU’s is as generous?</p>
<p>The amount given to NMF at NU is not as generous as USC’s half-tuition. BTW…my DD still matriculated to NU…a decision she made after touring both universities. A bulk of NUs scholarships is need based rather than merit based. See this link for details:
[First-Time</a> Application Procedure FAQs: Undergraduate Financial Aid - Northwestern University](<a href=“http://ug-finaid.northwestern.edu/tools/prospective/application_FAQ.html#general1]First-Time”>http://ug-finaid.northwestern.edu/tools/prospective/application_FAQ.html#general1)
I hope this helps.
~APOL-a Mum</p>
<p>NU gives a maximum of 2000/per year for 4 years to NMF. There are other merit scholarships, but they’re more specific and not much information is available. e.g. a VERY small part of some of my loans were replaced by a small named grant.</p>
<p>Generally no they won’t match USC- but what did you mean by “similarly situated”. Emory offered me almost no aid of any kind whereas NU offered me roughly 50% in need based aid.</p>
<p>To Arbiter213</p>
<p>The “similarly situated” schools (as far as cost of attending) are WUSTL and Vanderbilt. Their offers were zilch for need-based aid, so I’m guessing NU’s will be too.</p>
<p>The NMF aid is so small at NU I don’t even count it. ;-D</p>
<p>We don’t get any help under NUs system, but we like their approach of focusing aid on families with demonstrated need, and agree that all NU students would deserve merit aid as they are all extraordinary!</p>