<p>Just checked ecampus, financial aid letter for S is now available for viewing! We were hoping for more, but between grant and $5500 in fed loans, our difference between EFC and COA was essentially met. </p>
<p>Spoke with rep in Financial Aid office, she said merit scholarships were determined at admission. Also said it was VERY competitive for merit this year, didn't give out as much as years past. (Was suprised that S didn't receive merit award.)</p>
<p>Good luck to all!</p>
<p>Hi LavaLava. Congratulations on getting what you need. However, I’m not sure what they told you is accurate. So before a lot of folks give up on Merit, my S received a Dean’s Scholarship this morning for about $6K. Based on that, I would assume that all Merit was not awarded only at admissions.</p>
<p>Interesting. Hey, thanks for putting up the notice, lavalava. My son got $5500 in unsubsidized Stafford loans…ie nothing (we knew no financial aid was coming, but expecting merit). Older son got about 10K merit/yr two years earlier, exactly the same stats. And the younger one has over 1,000 hours volunteer and tons of leadership activities too, with better essays. Just for comparisons sake from one year to the next.</p>
<p>So this makes the decision easy, we won’t even visit SCU on his accepted schools visits. We’re going to Bucknell, Lehigh, Fordham (gave him $9400 merit). NYU (wl) and Carnegie Mellon (wl). I’m disappointed, but it makes the choice clear.</p>
<p>Thanks for the hope, jamestg! When you say he received a Dean’s scholarship this morning, how were you notified?</p>
<p>My wife was checking FinAid sites for other schools at which he’s been accepted. It was on the website. Also, she didn’t note as to whether it was renewable or not.</p>