ED and merit aid

I can’t seem to get a straight answer from anyone about this. If my child applies ED (binding), will that decrease his chances of getting merit aid? What would be the incentive for the college to give merit aid if they know you are already 100% committed if you are accepted?

In most cases they will not give merit aid to ED admits, there are some exceptions but not at Northeastern.

Below is from their merit website page - it says " all fall freshman applicants" - doesn’t exclude ED. Back before they had ED my daughter got nice merit from them applying EA. Also, any ED National Merit Finalists should get merit also.

Students who are in the top 10-15% of our applicant pool are considered for competitive merit awards, including the prestigious Dean’s Scholarship. Recipients are awarded between $10,000 and $25,000 annually. All fall freshman applicants for undergraduate admission to Northeastern are considered.

https://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/cost/scholarships/

If you are NMF, you would receive the $30,000 scholarship regardless of whether you apply ED, EA or RD.

^^ Northeastern has now added some “waffle” language about the size of the NMF award: “Students who are admitted to Northeastern and are recognized as National Merit Finalists or National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars will receive UP TO a $30,000 merit-based award . . . .” (emphasis added). See here: https://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/cost/scholarships/. I presume that this was done to give the university some flexibility in the size of the award.

The NMF award is not related to ED/EA/RD application status. The website does state, however, that Northeastern “will award our first group of [NMF] scholarships in early March to students who were admitted Early Action or Early Decision.” While this language doesn’t preclude awards to RD applicants, conceivably there may be an issue of how much money is left to award by the time that RD applicants are admitted.

@gandalf78 No, RD applicants are not at a disadvantage for NMF awards. The NMF scholarships are a discount on tuition, they do not come from an endowed pot of money.

The wording does say up to - I recall only one person on this board who was NMF who received less than the full amount.

@gandalf894 The “up to” language has been there for at least 4 years, likely more. Most receive the full award from what I have seen. Some receive FA instead of merit aid since FA will increase will tuition while merit aid will not.

“Past results are no guarantee of future performance.”

My point is that Northeastern has given itself the option of awarding less, based on the language I quoted from the website; so NMF status does not entail an automatic award of $30K – via tuition discount or otherwise.

Considering Financial affordability is an acceptable reason to not accept their ED offer, it doesn’t benefit the school to shortchange your child. The whole advantage for the school with ED, is to allow the school to pre-fill next year’s class with the type of students they’re looking for… it’s not about not giving out aid

From what I understand, NEU at least meets 100% of need-based aid, is this correct?

@maby56 Yes

This is somewhat related to my own personal situation, but would they be hesitant to give someone full need-based aid if they require tons of it, let alone accept them, if they would be in the lower-mid range of the applicant pool? I’ve always wondered if it varies based on where the applicant is within their range.

@maby56 Northeastern meets full need but is need aware. If an applicant has a zero EFC and stats above the 75th percentile of admitted students he will likely be admitted. If his stats put him below the 25th percentile he likely will be denied. While a full pay student at the 25th percentile may be admitted.

@TomSrOfBoston Interesting, so the financial aid department coordinates with the admissions department in decisions? Also if you would, please remind me what EFC is again?

Ah, also if accepted, will NEU give 100% of need-based aid, 100% of the time?

Personally I would be nervous about applying ED if finances were an issue. Between my two daughters they applied to 12 schools and got accepted to 11. After looking at the offers that came in Northeastern was the most expensive by more than $20,000 per year.

We don’t have any experience with need based aid and so I can’t comment on how that works at Northeastern or anywhere else.

EFC means estimated family contribution. It is the figure that the college comes up with when they Calculate how much a family will have to contribute AFTER financial aid, merit aid, scholarships, That the college offers. But beware that the “financial aid” package a college offers CAN include loans, which HAVE to be paid back , versus grants or scholarships which don’t need to be paid back.
EFC does NOT mean what a family may THINK it can afford. It’s the amount the college says they have to come up with.
That’s why it’s so critical for families who need financial aid to look at the net price calculator’s on each colleges website in order to get a better idea of how much they will actually have to cough up

I’m not too worried about ED even if I will need lots of aid, as I can always back out of the agreement if their offer doesn’t suffice.