Financial aid (not loans): how common??

<p>Peakay and LadyEngineer: The net price calculators are helpful, but only an estimate of what you MIGHT receive. Same for the merit scholarships: wouldn’t surprise me if some were offered to top students that had financial need too (since Scripps doesn’t have as many resources to hand out as some other schools.) Merit aid is not reserved for those who have no financial need (as you can see from LadyEngineer, only 14 of 40 went to students without other need.) I think the 14 “true” merit scholarships may have been given to entice students who might otherwise go to Stanford or Ivy League, so if your daughter isn’t quite in that tier it may not matter. You can’t just look at 40 scholarships vs 250 students and say looks like chances are good! Just saw latest stats from Scripps: 44% of students receive NOTHING while 30% receive 50-100% of aid ($30k up to full ride) So difficult to predict where you’ll fall out until you get the actual offer. Best advice to you and daughter is apply where her heart is, have a range of good options and give it her best, and wait to see how things fall out.</p>