<p>My daughter is from OOS (Maryland), loves W&M (as does the rest of her family), and will apply ED for fall 2011. She has excellent SATs, excellent grades in mostly honors/AP courses, good ECs, etc. We are fortunate enough to not require financial aid. However, if she wishes to be considered for any merit awards (e.g., Monroe, Murray, etc.): (a) should she indicate on the Common App that financial aid will be sought? and (b) do we still need to fill out the FAFSA? Or are one or both of these irrelevant to any merit awards? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Scholarships are separate from financial aid. Financial aid is purely need based. W&M considers all applicants for all merit-based money available so no one needs to check that they wish to be considered for it nor do they need to submit a FAFSA to be considered for it. All anyone needs to do is apply. </p>
<p>For W&M admission, whether or not you check the Common App box relating to financial aid is irrelevant. It’s not something we utilize in our admission process. Financial Aid doesn’t use the Common App to know someone is applying for aid, they only use receipt of a FAFSA.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Yes it does. Many thanks.</p>