Hello parents,
Do you want to share your experience with me about what are the expectations about ED and merit scholarships/monies. Do colleges usually offer any merit monies/scholarships/and related to students who get accepted in the ED round?
Or, do colleges mainly offer their merit scholarships/monies to students who apply RD?
***I’m referring to non-need based aid ** for this question.
Thanks in advance
You’ll occasionally read stories here of some who got but if you must have or strongly desire merit aid than ED should be a no.
Don’t think of it as merit. Think of it as marketing to get butts in seats. If you had a guaranteed person, would you blow your budget on them ?
Many colleges guarantee scholarships based on gpa and/or gpa and test score. If you want/need money, that’s where you start.
As you may know, many colleges offer no merit aid to anyone.
Do you have any in mind ?
I was thinking about the same as you expressed @tsbna44.
I wanted to double check and hear about anyone who got merit and did the ED route.
So far, we don’t know yet. My kid needs to fall in love with a college first.
It varies depending on the college. I recently posted about this as well. Some schools will do an early pre-read and some even have a written guarantee for merit money (one of the schools my 2023 is considering is guaranteeing her the maximum merit scholarship after her pre-read)
There are different theories. Some people will say applying early decision, which is binding, takes away the schools incentive to give money since they know you will attend if accepted. A school my daughter is considering won’t do any type of guarantee for merit money. But they did reassure us (and it’s stated on their website) that early decision applicants are given the exact same consideration for merit scholarships as everyone. Some schools say you have a better chance of getting merit money if you apply early decision or early action.
Bottom line, don’t apply binding early decision unless you have a guarantee for merit which makes the school affordable, OR you can afford full pay. Many schools are going to more need based aid.
SoCalDriver, thanks for the info. I didn’t know colleges state their policies about merit and ED.
They need to ‘like’ multiple schools and not fall in love with any!!
There’s no perfect school. There’s many they can be happy at.
Unless the merit is automatic for stats as announced on the web page, it seems unlikely that a college will give it to an ED admit who is already committed. Merit discounts exist to entice particularly desirable admits to matriculate, but there is no need for that with an ED admit.
They may not state them. One of my D’s top choices didn’t have any info on their website…so I called admissions. They told me over the phone (this is the one that adamantly states no different in merit aid ED vs EA, RD.) But they won’t give an estimate on amount. This is tough for a family like ours that doesn’t qualify for need based aid…we definitely can’t afford their $76K a year price tag. So no ED at that school. Funny thing, we were just told a couple weeks ago they changed the policy and will now give an estimate (not sure how much it’s guaranteed though).
Many say it. Many of us are skeptical they deliver it. You hear stories they do and will on this chain…sometimes it’s true. Sometimes seems like smaller amounts.
You’ll never know is the truth.
@socaldriver, good info, thanks. Good luck getting a good amount.
Is the college you’re waiting to hear from a highly selective college?
@ucbalumnus, that makes total sense to me.
I read in a post here about merit aid and ED. I am guessing that private colleges who are not that selective may give merit to attract high achieving students.
Lots of lesser selective colleges buy in top students and many land them.
That’s why a school, like Alabama as an example, is heavily skewed OOS and has 900+ National Merit students - they buy them in. Kids from NY and Illinois are flocking there.
There’s many other examples. But the auto merit and 2nd tier privates are buying kids in to boost their stats while not being so generous with the ‘average’ students. Some schools, private and in a case or two public, will match your public flagship’s tuition.
Which schools are you thinking about?
cmcmlm, we don’t have a set list yet. My kid is working on it and adding/deleting colleges.
What is constant is more or less the acceptance rate on the list, which goes from 6% and all the way up to not that selective.
The first thing you need is to give them a budget.
For example, if you will not earn need based aid and have a budget of $50k, a lot of those 6% schools will come off.
Once you have a budget you can then plan for an assured to meet budget safety and then other colleges that could meet budget, etc.
ED and merit aid is a commonly discussed topic on CC. Here are some prior threads…
It’s selective, it’s Macalester College.
Here’s a chain on Mac - It’s an ED chain and I see one person saying got $15K - but most are EA and seeing $22K+. But one chain doesn’t make a reality.
I would ague their ED pool is small. I don’t have raw #s. Honestly, based on what they post even EA #s would be small.
Why do I say that - see their link.
They say over 3 years ED acceptance rate is 54% but that EA/RD combined is 30%. What doesn’t make sense is the overall = 31%. You’d think -based on that 54% it’d be higher so that tells me their # of ED is likely small.
You are potentially talking substantial $$ x 4. If it were me - I wouldn’t apply ED…maybe to a no-need school but that’s it. It’s just too big a risk IF YOU WANT $$.
i think these schools often need to discount to get students - and I would put Mac in that group. It’s a wonderful name but a name most have not heard of - and they use merit to grab those that might otherwise go to a Middlebury or Colgate, etc.
| Acceptance Rates 3-Year Average | |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | 54% |
| Regular Decision and Early Action | 30% |
| Overall | 31% |
She will not be applying ED, she already told the coaches and they support her applying EA. Their acceptance rate was in the mid 20’s % last year we were told. She’s a high stats kid and we got a positive pre read already so we are confident she will be accepted EA.
I was confused - I thought you were saying the OP @Owl1 was looking at MAC. I thought they hadn’t decided yet.
OK - makes sense.
Well it’s a good chain for OP - in that it’s up their alley - a school that gave money both ways and it’s all anecdotal - none of us know - but you can see the ratios (if you believe this is representative).