So a lot of people (including myself) are confused about merit scholarships vs. financial aid. Is what I see in my financial aid package including both financial aid AND merit scholarships? Also, if we haven’t heard back about merit scholarships yet, will we get any type of notification at all? Even one to say we weren’t eligible for merit money?
@abrxlll - It is my impression that most of the students at UMD do not have any merit scholarships, but a lot have financial aid (loans, work study, etc). Loans were the only financial aid that my D was ever offered.
People who received merit scholarships should have already received a letter via snail mail informing them that they received it and how much they received. (The letters were written on Feb. 20th. I live all the way in CA and I got mine on the 24th, so I’m assuming all the mail has reached everyone). On the financial aid portal, if you go under “awards,” it should list everything you are offered or given. If you were given a scholarship, you should have something listed as “[name of scholarship] Scholarship” in the “Awards Program” column and no option on how much money you accept in “Total Accepted.” There are also financial aid loan programs, where you have the option to type in how much money you want to accept. For more information on the other various kinds of aid that might be listed, check out this link (and maybe other parts of this website): http://www.financialaid.umd.edu/aid/types_of_aid.php
I don’t think they’ll inform you if you didn’t get a merit scholarship. I hope this helped!
is this for regular or early decisions? :)]
Merit is only offered to those who applied early decision.