<p>I have occasionally come across cryptic references to having a merit offer "upped". How intriguing! If anyone who has experienced said phenomenon would care to share -- how did this come about? Did you specifically request an increase? Did you mention higher merit offers received from competing schools? Were merit offer increases primarily from smaller LACs, or do large public unis ever up their offers? Would hoping for an increase in merit aid be a good reason not to make a commitment early in April? (After all, its good to dream! ;))</p>
<p>There are several threads in the Financial Aid Forum that discuss ways requesting that an aid offer be reviewed. If you visit that forum, and scroll down, you will find them.</p>
<p>We had a situation at a large university where a merit offer made in February was increased periodically, without any request on our part, until we declined the offer in April. The increases were based on other offerees turning the scholarships down, and the money was reallocated to the remaining offerees in a particular pool. The initial offer made reasonably clear that the university expected the final amount to cover full tuition, or close to it, although the initial offer was only about 60% of tuition.</p>
<p>All of a sudden, more “merit” or “need” is found. Remember that the colleges are not shelling out an extra dime. It is simply a change in discount from the list price that they chose to set in the first place.</p>
<p>When my son applied to his school, he was in the top 16 % of his class. After first semester, he was in the top 15% of the class. I sent his transcript and the merit offer increased. The school was very formula based and “top 15%” got more money than “top 15-20%.” In the process of reviewing the updated transcript, they noticed one math class they hadn’t noticed before and one AP class they hadn’t noticed before. So more money was added. I don’t remember how much anymore, but the increased aid was between $4000 and $6000 a year.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard of schools that will increase the merit offer if the SAT or ACT score goes up. When my D took the ACT in April of her junior year, there were seniors taking it to try to up their merit offers.</p>
<p>We did a financial aid appeal at two colleges. One came up with more aid, and one did not. We were expecting it to happen the other way around. There’s nothing to lose by trying. The college where we expected more aid from had an official form and process, the other college was just sending an e-mail.</p>
<p>D had been offered a merit scholarship at one school which offers these primarily based on ACT/SAT scores and GPA. She took the ACT again last Oct and bumped up her score -looking through the school’s forum, we knew she should have then been offered their highest scholarship. We sent the new scores and D emailed the counselor. No response.</p>
<p>We met the counselor at an admitted student’s day - mentioned this again. She said she would look into it - she did and now, D has the higher scholarship there! Unfortunately, it looks like that school just dropped off her list :(</p>