Yes, it’s confusing me too. This thread seems to make it clear that ED makes it less likely to get the award, but I had from a good source that things have shifted a bit. It may be wrong, and I am also curious if anyone has heard things have changed.
Of course, I appreciate YMMV.
Many public colleges require you to apply EA to qualify for merit aid. I haven’t heard of a similar requirement for ED and anecdotally, ED applicants I know haven’t received merit aid.
Would you want to take that risk ?
Some people who ED claim they get merit. Would it have been as much as if they didn’t ED? WE’ll never know.
Some schools have a table and u know merit b4 applying. Of course these likely won’t offer ED. But some do.
Some have no merit at all.
I can’t see how, on the averages, ED’ing with a merit expectation can be good.
If you’re the school, why would you spend the bulk of your limited marketing budget on a student who is a done deal ? That’s what merit is for - to buy students in who might otherwise choose another.
I don’t see how last year, this year, or next would matter.
The money is to acquire students. There is no spend needed to acquire an ED. So if I needed merit to commit, I would never let my kid ED. EA if offered. Lots of demonstrated interest if counted.
But I believe and it’s all anecdotal…none of us truly know….but I wouldn’t ED.
My feeling is that schools throw a few bucks out to a few people via ED for marketing…so they post on websites like this….sure there’s merit for ED.
Because as a business decision, the concept makes little sense.
Any schools in mind ? Maybe some will have actual experiences.
Good luck.
I think it’s like Emory. We applied RD but to get their merit it had to be in weeks earlier than the deadline etc.
Yes, that’s applicable to several colleges but none that I know of require applying ED to be considered for merit.
Good point and I agree about the EA requirements for many publics.
Anecdotally I have heard of kids getting merit with ED acceptances. I’ve hypothesized it’s for kids who qualified for some need aid but rather than dip into the limited aid budget they gave a merit tuition discount. Again, my musings.
I thought someone made the comment about applying earlier but no one I’m aware of forces ED for merit. But some have ‘earlier’ deadlines than the corresponding decision timeframe you’d apply for. And some are rolling and say when it’s gone it’s gone hence an early app is basically required if u want $$
I was responding to @mynameiswhatever’s post:
Thank you all! This is REALLY helpful. We were just wanting to know as a general concept how merit aid works. We’re still grappling with the implications of applying ED or REA to one school has in relation to other schools.
If it’s a strong #1 and money is no object, then go for it. The reality is, many top schools are using ED to fill seats. An example is Penn…over half. Perhaps less pedigree schools fill less a %.
But if you decide a…just throwing out a #…a $40k school wins out over an $85k….then don’t ED.
Merit with ED suggests that the college has an idea that its normal need based FA is not sufficient to be affordable to the student, and it really wants that particular student to attend rather than backing out due to unaffordability.
Speaking of, I recently found out about this amazing full-cost-of-attendance merit scholarship from The Ohio State University. Called the Eminence Fellows Program. The application just opened and, yes, applicants need to apply early action to OSU.
We have a conversation thread for the Eminence Fellows Program going over on the Ohio State page, and there is a current student in the program taking time to answer questions.
Linking this again, as the next application cycle is now upon us: Financial Pre-reads, including merit + merit ED
2 posts were split to a new thread: 401k contributions on fafsa?
Yes! I too have learned that so much of a student’s success depends on the student’s emotional intelligence, drive, and resiliency. Very glad I saved about $200k with my son enrolling in a less elite school. He interned last summer with kids from Ivy League schools and will be doing the same this summer.
Good for you. You’ll appreciate it at retirement :). What school?
Saint Joseph’s University aka St. Joe’s.