<p>As a high-school senior who has been admitted to a college EA, but has yet to receive her financial aid packet (which I will need to attend), I've been wondering about where the line between merit scholarships and financial aid based on need, lies. </p>
<p>The school I've been admitted to, and where I will most likely go, only offers financial aid, and explicitly states on its website that it does not offer merit scholarships. </p>
<p>However, in looking at threads for older years, I have noticed that some students' financial aid packages are much more disproportionally loans, as opposed to grants. That is, some students are awarded only grant money, while others are expected to take an equivalent amount out in loans. How is this determined? Does the quality of your aid-packet depend on your merit? And if so, doesn't that mean that the school effectively offers merit scholarships, even though they are only available to those who truly need them? </p>
<p>If anyone could clarify this for me, I would appreciate it ever so much :)</p>
<p>What you are describing is preferential packaging. Some schools package their need based aid differently for some students than others. Some schools give more grants to highly desirable applicants. Some schools give more grants to students from lower income families. There are probably other reasons too.</p>
<p>The only thing that matters is what you and your parents pay (unless there are strings attached to a so-called “merit” scholarship); the rest is just smoke and mirrors. Pay no attention whatsoever to what they say they are offering you: just figure out the net price, including all costs (including travel, etc.), the amount in loans, and go from there.</p>
<p>The grant vs loan aid is typically due to financial circumstances, the lower your income, the less loans you are likely to be offered, however, it is a way to attract students they really want as well.</p>
<p>You loved this school enough to apply ED. If you have to take out federal loans to attend, which max out at $27,000 over 4 years, is that really a deal breaker? It’s a car payment when you get out of college and an amount that is easily paid off in 5 years or less once you graduate.</p>
<p>What is your back up plan if you don’t attend this school?</p>
<p>OP applied EA, not ED. No strings attached there. My son was offered merit scholarships with both EA acceptances, then an additional merit grant later at one school. Don’t know if this is standard practice.</p>
<p>bethievt- depends on the school. Some schools give automatic merit aid, some give some merit aid, some give none at all. Our kids were offered merit aid at every school they applied to except 2. One gives no merit aid, the other only gives $1000 if you are a national merit finalist (state school). The rest sent their merit awards with the acceptance letters or shortly after that. They have also been invited for more merit awards on a competitive basis, won’t know about those for a few more weeks yet. We won’t qualify for any need-based aid, other than loans since everyone qualifies for loans.</p>
<p>SteveMA–6 of my son’s 10 schools give no merit aid. The 4 who could offer it to him did offer it, with his acceptances. We knew we would qualify for no need-based aid.</p>
<p>Mini is absolutely right. When you have all of the acceptances and aid offers on the table, you want to see what your net cost is for each college. Bear in mind that loans are just future cost, work study the same. So look at how much you have to pay with grants and scholarships lowering that COA figure that you should personalize. If it comes down to the nitty gritty, then look at the terms of the loans and options to pay what you have left to pay. But it doesn’t matter if it’s a financial aid grant or a merit award, and yes, most schools will simply decrease your aid awards by any merit award. When you have it narrowed down, you can then compare details.</p>
<p>mini is only partly correct. A merit scholly is usually renewable for four years, regardless of your family’s finances. Need-based financial aid WILL change every year if your financial situation changes. If your parents income goes up, need-based aid will go down. If you have sibling in college next year, who will be a senior in college, your need-based aid would drop like a rock when you become a a Soph.</p>
<p>I agree that there are differences in packages, but the first thing is to see where one pays the least that first year, and then go through things even more carefully. If you have a school that does not guarantee to meet full need and you are expecting another in college in a year or two, it is entirely possible that your school won’t give you a dime more even when your need increases. Oh, there, are a lot of smoke and mirrors involved. But the first thing is to find out the bottom costs stripped of loans and work study for each school. Then you can start picking at the terms of each grant whether from merit or fin aid. I lost my merit money as did my son, so it’s not like those are engraved in stone either. If you have need, and you have a merit award and the school is not full need guaranteed, you may be out of luck if you don’ t make the standards of the scholarship. No one expects it to happen but it does all of the time, especially in certain majors.</p>
<p>“Preferential packaging” is just merit aid masquerading as need-based aid. You’ll find tons of it among athletes at pretty much all the “need-based only” schools. We also found that so-called “need-based only” schools have lots of flexibility on loans v. grants. We also found that a school my older d. attended would adjust grants in the middle year (based on our family illnesses, which were severe) even though we couldn’t show that our income had changed.</p>
<p>You gotta start somewhere in assessing the packages so you start with the COAs the schools give, and then tweak them for yourself. You live close and transportation is hardly a cost factor, bring that down. You live on the other side of the country and air fare and transportation is going to be higher than average for you, bring that on up. But get a cost for each school.</p>
<p>Then you start whittling it down with the packages. Subtract the grants that you get and then you have a cost figure. You can then start looking at the stipulations of those grants. Are they merit with conditions? Are they renewable? What family factors do you have like a sibling in college now or one coming into college while you are there? You may have to call the schools and find out what their policies are on those things. Do you have outside scholarships and if so, how will your school treat them. Most of the time, you aren’t just going for the cheapest cost, in my experience, but you want to know where the schools are in comparison to others.</p>
<p>Sorry but figuring out what your FIRST year cost will be isn’t good enough. College is a four year plan and you need to have a plan to pay for ALL four years.</p>
<p>Most merit awards are 4 year renewable though thumper. Also, looking at all the schools we looked at, they ALL have more scholarships available for sophomores on up. In my experience it’s pretty easy to maintain your first year cost or pay less as they get older and into their majors…</p>
<p>“mini–how are merit awards “need-based” if they have no idea what your financial situation is??”</p>
<p>It’s the other way around - “need-based” awards are preferentially packaged (hence are actually “merit awards”.) And they ALWAYS know what your financial situation is - the only question is how they use it. Every college and university has a “tuition discount” budget and target set well before even a single student applies.</p>
<p>However, “merit awards” can be needs-based - we had one of those - where the so-called “needs-based award” was reduced dollar-for-dollar for every dollar of merit aid given. Didn’t make one whit of difference to us - the way we looked at it, they were bidding for her services, and what they called us was of little or no concern to us.</p>
<p>mini–ok, I see what you are saying now. I was trying to figure out how the merit awards our kids got back in October were “need based” when they didn’t have any financial information yet. You are saying that the “financial need” awards are awarded more favorably to those students they want on campus for one reason or another. For example, a student with an EFC of say $30,000 might actually end up with a net cost of $15,000 because they want their school to be that much more attractive to that student. Correct?</p>
<p>Correct. (Though, by the way, they know your address and zip code, the value of your house, and demographics of the schools your kids attend. If they sniff out a potential high-paying applicant, they might make a small “merit-based” award to make you feel “special”. Happens all the time.) Another way is to, a-hem, replace loans with small grants. Since they set the COA, they can easily make it back in raising the list price. But again, you get to feel “special” and “appreciated”, and they get to issue a press release. It’s all part of “enrollment management”.</p>