<p>I'm excited to get my EA descisoin, especially since all my friends who applied to other schools got theirs this week. If you dont mind me asking, what type of financial aid did you recieve, and was it enough to offset the 41,000 a year? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Catalina, Did you hear from NEU already? If so, congratulations! I did not think the decision would be mailed until December 31.</p>
<p>Oh no, i wish i did, i meant I am excited to get it, and to hear from my first school...</p>
<p>oh, well it is only a little while longer. Good luck!</p>
<p>When we visited NEU this summer, the admissions speaker said that you will not receive any merit aid unless you are a true star. Examples included starting a multi-million $$ business from home to support an ailing grandmother or being the national hockey champion WITH a near perfect GPA. So we figured there was no merit aid given. However, other places on this board, I've seen implications that there is merit $$ available. Can anyone illuminate me? (My son has a 2120 SAT and a 3.5 GPA (rising) and several strong ECs).</p>
<p>thx</p>
<p>apple, what you heard is very interesting.. granted, i didn't receive alot of merit money last yr (20,000 for 4 years), however, I did get some and I didn't have "stellar stats". 1210/1600 and an 89 weighted average with 5 c's mixed in. I also didn't have strong EC's.</p>
<p>aselig01, well that's more promising. I don't know that we're willing or truly capable of spending the approx. 40K / year. Yet, it sounds like when schools talk about making up the difference between EFC and total cost, it's mainly student work and loans. So unless we see some sort of scholarship, my S is headed to either a less expensive public school or a private school that will provide merit $$. </p>
<p>I wonder why the admissions rep was so anxious to let us know that scholarships were so difficult to come by. Actually, Northeastern would have been bumped off the application list based on his comments, except that our HS has a good relationship with the college and the guidance counselor strongly encouraged applying.</p>
<p>Apple,</p>
<p>Unless there has been a sea change in admissions policy, I can't imagine why the NU rep would have said that. NU has traditionally been unusually forthcoming with merit money, with many offers on the order of $5K to $12K per year for students with stats in the top one-third or so of their acceptance range.</p>
<p>Now given the school's continued improvement, and the impact that has had on the quality of students applying and accepted, possibly there has been a chance in policy. Maybe they no longer feel they need to offer merit in order to entice top students. It's bound to happen sooner or later, as the school's reputation grows. But as of last year, when my daughter was accepted, NU was quite generous.</p>
<p>Mr Mxyzptlk, thanks for the response. My S received his acceptance in the mail today. He wasn't too excited, as he has received scholarship offers from other schools and there was nothing in the acceptance about any merit offer. How quickly they get jaded. Just a few months ago we were hoping he'd get into college...</p>
<p>My S didn't get offered the honors college (not that he'd be interested) but I was even reading on their website that in order to get an honors scholarship, it was need-based.</p>
<p>When did they send the offer last year? I guess that will color his decision on where he goes to school. I think for him, it's as much that he wants to feel that they really want him. For me, it's less out-of-pocket.</p>
<p>Apple17,</p>
<p>Last year's merit offers came pretty late in the process. I wish I could be more specific, but I don't recall exactly when.</p>
<p>But things have changed this year, it being the first time theres an Early Action option. So the timing of merit offers could very well have changed as well.</p>
<p>I found NU's admissions office to be helpful when I needed info last season. I'd recommend giving them a call. One tip: Make sure you speak with an admissions rep, not a student doing work study by helping out in the Admissions Office. I got some wrong info froma student last year.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>I will call tomorrow and if I find out anything of note, I'll post for others as well. It seems to be in a school's best interest to provide merit awards early in the cycle, as a prospective student tends to start affiliating himself with particular schools. I know my S received awards from other schools already, so he'd feeling pretty good about them. A 'branding' experience perhaps, where a shift later in the process is going to be harder than early on? Oh well, just musing.</p>
<p>My S was accepted with merit $ last year. I just checked our old files and saw that the acceptance letter was dated 2/1 (it was called an express application-they didn't do EA last year) and the scholarship letter was dated 3/14. He had a 3.45 uw in all honors and AP classes and a 1400+ SAT and received 10,000/year. Ultimately he chose a different school, but we all really liked NEU and it will probably be on our younger S's list. Good luck.</p>
<p>To get an idea of other merit awards just click "text only:Northeastern University". Also, you can go into the archives. Here are a few examples that I found:</p>
<p>3.9 1150 old sat no APs- 5,000</p>
<p>NMF, graduated first in the classout of 317, 35 ACT, 3 APs-15,000</p>
<p>3.3 1280 old sat, 1 AP, 2 Honors-10,000 (college of engineering)</p>
<p>3.6 1280 (old sat)-10,000 merit scholarship, but not enough financial aid to make NEU work for him</p>
<p>3.9uw 1520 (old sat)-7,500 merit scholarship </p>
<p>As you can see, if this is accurate, stats alone do not determine the amount of merit aid. The student who was awarded 15,000 thought she should have received far more. The student with a 3.9uw and 1520 old sat score felt the same way (awarded 7,500).</p>
<p>i go to NU I got close to nothing but i begged and pleaded and they sent me 5000 more so i took out loans for the rest of the money</p>
<p>kimmibee when did you talk to a financial aid officer before or after you got your package? and when do you think it is best to speak to one</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>I talked to them after i got my package</p>
<p>kimmibee..
were you given the amount of money you asked for in your package..or was it less then what you told them you would pay?
What did you tell them when you asked for more?</p>