<p>It may seem self-evident, but I'll ask anyway.
Does being offered a spot on a school's wait list mean that
a student has no opportunity for merit money?</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Some people who have been offered money might not accept and it might be available.</p>
<p>What is the school? Some have deeper pockets and a reputation for generosity than others.</p>
<p>I would say that you probably are not going to get merit money.</p>
<p>This is what schools often do…they have used models to determine how many awards they can offer and how many will likely accept. So, they OVER-award their merit offers, so there really aren’t “leftover” awards later in most cases. In the cases that there are, likely those awards would be given to a student accepted in the first round since those were more highly desired.</p>
<p>The fact is (sorry for the harshnes) is that the school doesn’t highly want you, so you’re not likely ever going to be targeted for their merit awards.</p>
<p>and, frankly, those who are pulled off the waitlist, often have little need because at that point the school has given away all of its money, so full-payers often get chosen…so again, no merit, little/no aid.</p>
<p>On surface I have to agree with mom2. Some colleges, if they even move to their waitlist, fill the few slots with full pay students since by the time the college moves to it’s waitlist their financial aid dollars are already allocated. Most posters would tell you not to sit around “waiting” for a “waitlist” offer, that is is better to move on and chose a college where you already have an offer and a finaid calculation. Your best bet is to search for the past couple year’s “waitlist” threads and review them. Those threads will have greater discussion on both the concept of waitlist and the financial aspect.</p>
<p>purely anecdotal - but friends’ S got pulled off the waitlist at RPI a few years ago and was offered merit money (he didn’t even ask for it - but was thrilled to get offered 10k a year!)</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids
Not harsh at all. I have characterized being put on a wait list
even less charitably, and have counselled my son accordingly
(i.e. - move on – better to attend a school that wants you).</p>
<p>As a rule, you are highly unlikely to get merit money when you are accepted off of a waitlist. Also unlikely to get as much financial aid, if any. Even some schools that guarantee to meet need make wait list accepted students an exception to that guarantee.</p>
<p>However, it is possible. It can happen. If a scholarship is left untaken and a waitlist student qualifies, it might be offered. The same with financial aid left over. Sometimes schools come up short in student that accept them after May 1st rolls around, and it becomes a matter of urgency to get those seats filled, and they offer some sugar to the the wait listed kids, if they have any left. It’s just that those from the waitlist are last in line and get what’s left.</p>
<p>But, a situation I know about personally: Not a college, but a private highschool waitlisted a friend’s daughter. She needed fin aid to go there, and that is seriously limited at that school. SO the chances were very, very small that she would clear the waitlist since the school openly states that it is NOT need blind in admissions, and that fin aid is limited. My friend wasn’t even going to bother with keeping his DD on the waitlist and she just remained on it because he didn’t bother to take her off. To all of our suprise, she did clear the list and got sufficient aid (matching what her second choice school offered her–the one she had accepted when the offers were on the table). So it can happen, but it does not happen as often as getting a decent aid package RD. Many schools don’t even accept kids with need, especially a lot of need off the waitlist because they can’t offer them the money. As for merit, it can happen if sufficient kids offered the money decline it. </p>
<p>However, once a school accepts you and you are there, it makes no difference whether you were accepted off the WL or ED. Students rarely will have anything to do with the very people who accepted them, reviewed the apps, etc. Once you are there, it doesn’t matter. It’s not that a school wants or doesn’t want you, it’s the result of an imperfect system and inperfect people running such a system. I would not take any of these decisions personally if you can at all remove emotion from this situation.</p>
<p>Given the timing of the OP, I wonder if Canuck is making a common mistake of confusing “wait-list” with “ED deferral”. I have never heard of any schools starting to create a Wait List for their freshman class in December.</p>
<p>If OP is actually asking about merit $ for an applicant who is an ED Deferral, then I believe the chances are much better than for a Wait List applicant. The school might be impressed with the applicant but simply want to review another semester’s grades to validate an upward trend. Another possible scenario is that a specific schlolarship is earmarked for a specialization that has not been met in the ED round.</p>
<p>I agree with you, Rmidad. I think that someone deferred ED or EA can has a much better chance for Merit money than those waitlisted, and often has as good of a chance for fin aid as anyone accepted RD. The fin aid department, in most cases, will not even be aware of who was accepted RD after being deferred early on. Waitlist is a whole other situation and occurs after most all of the process is done, so it’s truly left overs at that point. THose who are going into the RD round regardless of early status, will still be considered for any goodies as they are being doled out at that time. It’s the main event.</p>
<p>In fact, at some schools, getting accepted ED can be an obstacle to getting merit money. Merit money is used to entice. No enticement needed for those locked into an ED contract.</p>
<p>ExPat…</p>
<p>Are you asking about merit because you won’t qualify for much/any FA so you need merit to reduce the amount that you have to pay?</p>
<p>If so, then apply to some of the schools that will give assured merit for stats. Do so soon because deadlines are soon.</p>
<p>@rmldad – Pretty certain it’s not an ED deferral. Not a deferral of any kind. That word isn’t mentioned (nor are any synonymous phrases).</p>
<p>expatSon applied EA. Received a note advising ‘We’re not admitting you EA.’<br>
Full stop.</p>
<p>The note continues, ‘Do you want to go on the wait list?’, and provides last year’s wait list stats.</p>
<p>And yes, mom2collegekids, we almost certainly won’t qualify for FA, and are looking for that ‘merit discount’ (which, happily, we’ve already received from 2 U.S. LACs, and tuition is a relative non-i$$ue for the 2 Canadian schools at which expatS has been accepted). </p>
<p>The fat lady hasn’t started singing yet, but as long as expatSon took my overarching direction to heart (‘Only apply to schools which you would be
happy to attend.’), he’ll be attending college despite his GPA.</p>
<p>Expat, that is interesting to me. I’ve yet to see that as an EA response and most of my many kids applied EA They were either accepted or deferred to the RD, nor have I ever read or heard of such a response going straight to waitlist. Is this a true EA program or rolling admissions ? </p>
<p>Congrats to him (and you) for having a nice handful of schools already. Makes for a nicer winter break and New Year’s, I know.</p>
<p>we almost certainly won’t qualify for FA</p>
<p>I wonder if it’s possible that being a full pay (or near it) helps a student get asked to be on the WL? If so, that may explain why he wasn’t flat out rejected. </p>
<p>It would makes sense that a school that considers aid for getting off the WL would compile a WL with no-need students.</p>
<p>he’ll be attending college despite his GPA.</p>
<p>?? Does that mean he has a GPA issue? If so, that further suggests that no merit would come if he were to come off the WL.</p>
<p>Mom2K, have you ever seen or heard of a situation where a student goes from EA to the waitlist? That’s what has my interest piqued.</p>
<p>In direct answer to the OP’s questoin, NO, it does not mean no merit when placed on a wait list but the chances diminish greatly at most schools, and are eliminated at some schools who do not give wait list kids any shot at merit.</p>
<p>^^
No, but I wonder if this school is trying to create a WL of full-payers?</p>
<p>Most schools are not so obvious about that. A student is waitlisted regardless of fin need or not But those who clear the wait list, since these lists do not have any order to them that is released to the public, are most often full pay or close to it. It makes sense to do this, as the schools may well be out of money at that point, and there is no sense in offering a wait list spot to someone needing aid when you can’t offer it. Most schools will frankly tell you if they are need blind and/or meet need for wait listed students. A number of schools that do guarantee to meet full need and/or are need blind , for REGULAR admissison are NOT for waitlisted students and other special groups (nontraditional branches of the school, certain other branches of the school, transfers, wait lists, etc). That I have seen a lot.</p>
<p>I’ve just never even heard of someone going from EA to waitlist, so I am interested.</p>
<p>Most schools are not so obvious about that. A student is waitlisted regardless of fin need or not But those who clear the wait list, since these lists do not have any order to them that is released to the public, are most often full pay or close to it.</p>
<p>Well, maybe colleges, or at least this one, have decided that the “old way” of putting kids on WL regardless of need was crazy if only the full-pay ones would clear the list later on. Why not have a WL of ED full pay students? </p>
<p>Someone who ED’d a school would be more likely to accept the offered spot if he clears the WL. The assumption would be that this is the dream school, the #1 choice.</p>