<p>Hi all! So I understand that Hamilton doesn't offer merit aid, but yet they have two scholarships called Bristols Scholars program and the Schambach Scholarship (<a href="http://www.hamilton.edu/admission/tuition/scholarships">http://www.hamilton.edu/admission/tuition/scholarships</a>). Does anyone know anything about these, like how competitive they are? Has anyone received them/known someone who has received them? As for merit aid, my family is more or less upper middle class; could I hope for any financial aid, as in grants (NOT loans)? I know, for instance, that schools like Grinnell are known to give fin aid grants to students who don't even really need any money, so I'm wondering if that's the case at Hamilton. Thanks for your help :)</p>
<p>I know of no one who’s gotten those, as you can see, there are only about 20 awarded each year. I would imagine they’re basically used to attract kids who would otherwise qualify for an Ivy, though I have no firsthand knowledge of that.</p>
<p>As for other FA, run the Hamilton EFC. I don’t know what their cutoff for FA is but I know someone who chose Hamilton over Colgate because of a much more generous FA package. I happened to run an experimental set of numbers a few month ago and found that although I thought we were well beyond getting FA, a small amount would be possible if we earned just a little less, so you never know.</p>
<p>We had similar experience with Hamilton - my D got a small 8K fin aid grant (vs. $0 at Connecticut College) even though I thought we had almost no chance at need based aid. D was not accepted at the other 3 no merit aid LACs to which she applied so I don’t know if we would have qualified for need based aid at any of those (although as I recall the NPCs pretty much indicated no). The other 3 colleges she was accepted to awarded merit scholarships so they can’t really be compared. Although Hamilton was the top ranked school D was accepted to (and we all loved it), she chose to attend elsewhere as she preferred a specific program, the town and the closer distance to home.</p>